Experimental Cookery Tuesday #23: Chicken Korma

There was a Plan, and it was good. I would finish work, head home, make lunch for today, make dinner, eat dinner, and then head out to the band's committee meeting. I might even fit in watching an episode of "The Blackadder" in while eating dinner. That was the Plan.

Unfortunately, there was a small flaw in the Plan: "Simmer for 30 minutes". It turned out that I'm now past the 'quick' meals, and into some that are a tad more lengthy to prepare. I may need to rethink the whole notion of "Experimental Cookery Tuesday", perhaps moving it to a Friday or even the weekend.

Anyway, fortunately I spotted the fact that I wouldn't have time to complete the job before I reached the point of no return, and so was able to pause, head out to the meeting, and then return to finish the job. This meant that I didn't eat until 9, which was somewhat unfortunate, but couldn't really be helped.

So, anyway, how was the korma itself? Well, the truth is, korma isn't really my curry of choice. There's nothing wrong with it, as such, but it's all a bit bland. Fortunately, though, Jamie had thought of that, and added the inspired ingredient of a green chilli to proceedings.

In the end, the meal tasted exactly as I expected. This was at once very reassuring but also a little disappointing: what is the point of going to all that trouble if it tastes exactly the same as I would get with a jar of sauce and a 10-minute cooking job? (The answer to that is actually quite simple: there are significant health benefits of avoiding fried chicken, and using actual vegetables in the recipe in place of the stuff in the jar. Also, this made up five servings rather than the jar's 2, and having a freezer full of ready-made food is definately a good thing. Still...)

Anyway, all in all it was a winner. So, that would be 1-0 in "Easy Curries". Next up is "Vegetable Jalfrezi", which should be interesting. I'm particularly looking forward to the 45-minute simmer step.

(One other note: in addition to eight actual curries, this chapter includes instructions for five different rice variants and for vegetable bhajis. I won't be doing these separately, but will try them each at various times. Before I can tackle the rice, though, I'm going to have to get a finer collander, as uncooked rice just washes straight through the one I have!)