Nothing to Write Home About

Dinners have felt less than inspired lately. There are often good intentions but we've just been so busy that it's hard to prepare ahead sometimes. I had wanted to make samosas since a week ago. I had the ingredients, found a recipe online for the dough, filling, and was planning on baking them. Then, that idea was sort of pushed down and instead, I thought that I would make pizza dough for curry filled calzones instead. We would grill them on the BBQ. Today, I dug out my mom's recipe for roti and called her for a verbal description of how she makes her curried chickpeas.

C took on the roti. There's not much to the ingredients but getting the right texture can be tricky. The dough didn't rise as per the recipe so the texture wasn't quite right. It could have been the amount of shortening, or the weather in the house, or any number of things. The dough got rolled out, then cooked on a hot pan.

C working on the roti bread

 While C was working on the roti, I was making the curry filling. My mom usually makes a stew (beef chunks, carrots, potatoes) then uses the leftovers as the base for her curry. I wasn't about to make a stew first so I made a roux instead. A roux is basically browning flour in a pan, then whisking in butter/margarine. It's the base of making a white-sauce. Next, I slowly added in chicken stock, stirring the whole time with a whisk, making sure the mixture was smooth but still thick. I also added in curry powder, cumin, coriander, garlic salt, and chili powder. I added in already cooked and chopped potato and a drained can of chickpeas.

Curry and roti

Now, most of you don't know this, but I have a bit of a drinking problem. The problem being, according to many, that I barely drink. I figure, I'd rather eat my calories than drink them. C made himself a drink while cooking and I took a sit. Ugh! So boozy! Keep in mind, I hardly ever drink so most drinks taste strong to me. He made me a much weaker version and we sipped as we cooked.

Drinky-poos

As each roti was cooked, each was stacked under a towel to prevent them from drying out.

Stack of roti

Dinner is served. Warm roti bread with chickpea and potato curry and some steamed peas for a vegetable. After tasting the curry, I would definitely add more spice to it. Perhaps some fresh ginger, some more curry powder, pepper...I'm not sure what it needed, but it needed something. Still, a tasty dinner with only enough leftovers for C to take to work for tomorrow's lunch.

It is now 11:00pm though. C has bathed, B has been out for her pee and is in her kennel for bed. Yawn, time for me to wash off my makeup and slip under the covers.

Goodnight, dear readers, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite.

Curry and roti dinner