A Cooking Experiment

In a conversation with a client over drinks, we discussed our favorite cuisine.  Sushi is still currently my favorite here, but I also like Indian Food.  Not the best choice for a date unless you like spicy breath later, we decided. But it planted a seed, began as a craving and it slowly grew over a few days.  I decided not only was I going to have some Indian food, but I was going to make it myself.

I really love to cook, and it's even more fun trying new recipes. Until now, I had only attempted indian food through jars of sauce and pre-made food.  The complex mix of spices and flavors in their sauces seem to require a lot of cooking and simmering.

I decided on a mushroom curry.  I had found a recipe online that brought the steps down simply enough.  Cook the spice mixture in oil. Add onions, cook until golden brown. Add ginger and garlic paste and cook more.  Add tomatoes and cook until the oil separates from the rest. Add mushrooms and simmer until done.  Unfortunately, the recipe didn't get much more detailed than that. I truly had no idea how long this was gonna take, or just how long to take each step! I dive in head-first anyway.  After all, I had just bought these wonderful spices from a fragrant spice shop, had fresh ingredients. Surely, it would all just come together.

Powdered spice cooking in oil. A hard thing if you've never done it, and I never had.  I didn't want to burn the spices, just toast them. I wasn't sure just what it would smell like either, when toasted so I took my best guess.  The onions too, probably could have browned a little bit more. And in retrospect, the tomato probably needed more time to cook down into a sauce.  The result was edible, but the textures all off, the flavors not developed enough.

That's probably why they never do indian food on Iron Chef.

I see also, that I could benefit from a healthy dose of patience in my life.  I've been so concerned with immediacy and fast results that I pushed myself too fast.  This business too, is a little like a curry.  Now that I've got all the ingredients together and I'm comfortably put together, it's time to let it simmer and brew for a while. Adding a bit here and there to improve on the main ingredients requires careful tending, but mostly I need to let it brew.



I've been working on the pages for my provider section at the top, and you should expect to see some developments there soon. More details, refreshed information and hopefully more attention-getting.