Chunky Chicken Korma

My husband brought home a book from England called "Simple Curries", so I thought I'd give a few recipes a whirl. There are some things I do not like about the book, which is the use of jarred sauces. I know these curry recipes are supposed to be simple and quick, but I am a simply a from scratch kind of gal. I'm am sure there I can figure out how to make the sauces on my own, and that's what I will do. Or I'll search for a similar recipe online and put my own spin on the dish.

So Sunday night I made, Chunky Chicken Korma. It was delicious and not too spicy. My husband and I loooove spicy, but the kids do not.

Recipe:
2 chicken thighs
2 drumsticks
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 red chili, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of fresh grated ginger, peeled
1 teaspoon of garam masala
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1- 14oz or 400g can of coconut milk
2 tablespoons of greek yogurt
a handful of coriander/cilantro

Preheat oven to 200C/400F, Rub chicken with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Heat a large oven-proof skillet w/cover on the hob and fry the chicken until skin becomes golden on all sides. Remove from pan, and set aside.

Clean the skillet out with paper towel and return to heat. Add remaining oil, and sauté until onion becomes translucent. Add garlic, ginger, chili and spices and cook for 2 more minutes. Pour over the coconut milk and bring to a simmer, the return chicken to pan.

Cover and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes until chicken is cooked through. Top up with a little hot water if pan becomes too dry. About 5 minutes before cooking ends, add yogurt and coriander/cilantro.


Add more chicken to your liking! Hope you enjoy as much as my family did.

MWF

The "Never Take for Granted" List

Everyone's heard this. No matter what language you speak, wherever you're from, whether you live in a hut or a mansion. You know, mama always said, "Never take anything for granted!" Boy I did not realize the how true this statement was until I became a mother! So, while trying to, well, take a poop- in the teeny half bathroom at that!- surrounded by a crying 1 year-old and and whiny 2 year-old, I decided this subject would be the perfect blog entry.


Top 5 list of things you should never take for granted. I'm a mother of 3- TRUST ME!

1. Taking a poop in peace- When you become a parent, you will have little people surrounding you throughout the day. And they especially feel keen to follow you in the bathroom. Everything in the world of baby seems to come a halt or go out of wack when mommy or daddy needs to take a poop. They'll scream, draw on you, mess up the toilet paper rolls, turn on the water, cry and cry for mommy, just do everything they can cause they know you are temporarily stuck on the toilet.

1a) Taking a shower in peace. See 1

2) Cleaning the house and it staying clean. I do not know how many times a day I clean the same thing over and over and over and over. It leaves some rooms neglected for days and or years! I vacuum so much downstairs that I maybe vacuum the upstairs 2 times a month! And after you clean, some kid comes over and destroys whatever you did. My baby angrily re-clutters a room. Angrily, too. Like he's saying,"Bitch I put these toys and DVDs all over the floor for a reason!" So yeah, cleaning becomes an all day, seemingly meaningless task.

3) SEX! Kids are cock-blockers and the more they destroy your home and nerves the least likely you'll want to have sex in fear of making another one.Well, unless you're trying to have another one..

4) Peacefully shopping. Whether it's clothes shopping or grocery shopping. One child is climbing in the meat case, another is stuffing a cucumber in their mouth, the other stuffing their face with candy they "found". Don't get me started on shopping for shoes. Shopping online comes in handy, but it takes you the better part of the day with all the interruptions from the little ones!

5) Blogging. It took me almost 5 hours to make this simple post! Cooking, cleaning, 'discussions' with hubby, children, etc.

If there is anymore anyone would like to add, feel free.

I am a very, very proud mother of 3 and I love it. They're hilarious and smart children who just happens to make mommy and daddy's life a tad crazy sometimes. But we still love the little devils. They're utterly and truly amazing and I will most certainly not take for granted the fact that I have my little people in my life!

I'm actually interested in things!

So for years I've been trying to find my niche.

Until I discovered cooking. Yes, folks, it's another blog entry about my love of all things culinary, with a slight twist.

I've been browsing through Flickr and the more I browse the more I want to challenge myself and buy a DSLR camera so my photos will look even better.

I've been searching and searching for the best way to show off my food on camera and it seems like the solution is DSLR as you can better textures and it capture natural light than the point and shoot camera that I have. So after a few days of searching and searching I found a nice DSLR for an ok price. I will most certainly have to purchase a new lens, but I'll wait and see how my and my husband's budding photography career goes.

Here's the baby I want: http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B001TDG8PI/ref=oss_product

I hear it's user friendly for beginners like me! So let's see how it goes!

Why I take photos of my food

Taking photos of food. What's the point unless it's for an article or cookbook?

Well the reason I started was thanks to my lovely husband. About 2 years ago when I really started getting into cooking and try new things and techniques, he thought it'd be an excellent idea for me to start taking photos of my food; especially as I tend to cook new things all the time. So we started taking pictures, then he was like, "Hey, why don't you post the picture on Myspace?" I was reluctant to do it because I am very, very shy about showing off my culinary "triumphs". Besides, what may seem like a culinary triumph to one may seem like a plateful of slop to another person. I didn't want my food ridiculed by the mean people of the world. Haha. But I did anyway, and I got some pretty nice reponses.

So I moved on from Myspace to Facebook and thought about once again posting pictures. I did, however I never click Publish, I just posted them almost 'secretly'. People found the photos on their own, and then again I got some nice response. Every now and again I'd click Publish, then maybe 10 minutes later I'd delete the photo from the News Feed. Why? Because I am very protective about my passion. I know it's silly, but I'm a silly gal.

So recently I found that I can add certain people to view photo albums, so I added a few people here and there and keep my posted pictures on the News Feed. Weird, but it's how I can ease my food into everyone's world (feed). Soon all my friends will be able to see.

Also after we purchase our new dining table, I will host dinner parties at my place to help with my culinary confidence. I've had people over who were amazed by my cooking and it always makes me happy. It's almost better than an orgasm, really. This something I am truly passionate about and am happy to share with others.