This is the next in our line of submissions from the denizens of KarmaFleet on Discord. Today, Dave Stark brings us his experience of making chicken curry and rice with a side of vegetable samosa.
During the most recent lockdown I became a regular on the Push To Talk show. Fortunately for you all, I got a better offer, so you do not have to put up with me every Saturday night. Unfortunately, I gloated about this, showing them all the nice things me and my friend were cooking. This is my punishment.
The Recipes
My friend has a cookbook, and we sat down and decided to pick a few recipes, oneof which made a curry with some samosas. The cookbook in question is the Pinch of Nom cookbook below.
The recipe that caught our eye was this curry recipe, which looked simple enough that even I could not mess it up!
We also decided to try the samosas suggested in the recipe description:
It was 1630 on Saturday evening, and we had just watched a celebrity episode of The Great British Bake Off. Our bacon sandwich from breakfast time was wearing off, so we decided to try out our chosen recipes. Here is a rough outline of how it went..
The Process!
1635: We peeled the potatoes and put them in a pan to boil, as well as putting a second pan on to boil with our peas. The recipe needed 75g of peas – I have no idea how much that is. I gingerly added small handfuls of peas until my friend’s frown turned in to a resigned smile of “I’m not waiting any longer, so that many will have to do”.
1640: I really do not like regular onions that much, so almost every recipe I cook that has onions I swap out for spring onions – this was no exception. So, our chopped spring onions and chicken went into a large pan that went on the heat, to let the chicken seal. Naturally, I was not allowed anywhere near this process because I can’t be trusted.
1646: Once the chicken had sealed we threw in some garlic and drained our peas which were now cooked. Below is the state of the kitchen at this point:
1648: After we had drained the peas we returned to the chicken and added our tomato puree, water, curry powder, turmeric, and while I was not watching a liberal amount of chilli flakes were also added. Then we left this to simmer for 20 mins.
1653: Using the pan that used to contain our peas we put our remaining onions and garlic into the pan, along with garam masala, ground cumin, turmeric, and coriander then placed it back on the heat. This is the beginning of our samosa filling.
1655: We drained the potatoes and added them to onion, garlic, and spice mix. Then splashed some lemon juice over it all, before mashing the potatoes. We boiled them, mashed them, but we did not stick them in a stew. Samwise would be disappointed.
1700: Once I had given the potatoes a good going over, we added the spinach and our peas into the mix.
1702: It was finally time to make the cases for our samosas. We cut our tortilla wraps in half, then folded the resulting semi-circle into thirds and seal with egg-wash to make a dunce cap.
1705: Once our dunce caps were created, we filled our tortilla wraps with mashed potato mix, and seal with more egg wash. Do not forget to only fill your own samosas, then have an argument about whose will split open instead of staying sealed, and then put them on opposite sides of the tray before putting them in the oven. Ten minutes later, you have the potential of some humble pie as a side dish to your meal!
1713: Next is to place the samosas in the oven before the argument escalates to the point where you’re eating dinner outside in the cold.
1715: Remember that your curry is still simmering and take it off the heat before you burn your friend’s house down.
1715: Finally, put a packet of rice in the microwave because you’re a lazy shit. (Then, don’t eat it, because you’re too polite to tell each other you don’t really like rice, despite one of you suggesting that naan breads might be nice instead.)
1720: Take your samosas out of the oven once they are a nice golden brown colour and serve.
Once you get over the initial unexpected hit of chilli flakes, this is a simple and enjoyable curry. Trust me, if I can do this, so can you. You can even do it without your best friend holding your hand!
Finally, once you’ve enjoyed eating the fine dining cuisine you hacked together from an old cookbook, sit around like the fat lazy slob you are while the cat sits on you and purrs.
Enjoy!
