My second attempt at a curry dish.

My first attempt at a curry dish was not a disaster, it was worse than that...totally unpalatable, unless you enjoy eating paste. I had the ingredients, but did not have the information on just how to build the dish. The only reason I am trying again is because I love curry and wish to make it myself.

My good friend Roxanne knew I had really screwed up a curry dish months ago and invited me to watch how it is done. I readily accepted because my wife would have been the first person to chirp in about my ability to "following written instruction". I guess I pretty much suck at instructions, which is why Donna always assembled toy gifts or new appliances.

Here are some of the ingredients that Roxanne was so gracious to allow me to capture in my head, and the sequence in which they were added. 

My new sauce pan just waiting for me to start a new adventure.  I sautéed with butter (she used bacon fat, but I can't capture that because those damn microwave bacon trays are so hard to clean) with onion, celery, apple, jalapeno and some bell pepper.

Red onion is chopped up in the background and some ginger root, in my hand, is also chopped up. Ginger was just something that Roxanne said you could add, along with the celery, I just wasn't sure about how much, so I erred on the side of, just a pinch.

Besides the apple, I was to add a whole jalapeno and some  bell pepper. 

I sautéed the onion, celery, apple bell pepper and jalapeno for a bit before adding some chicken stock.

Now comes the chicken stock, salt, pepper, turmeric, curry (spicy) and ground red peppers. One problem here was that there were no exact amounts that I was to add (because I was just watching and not writing down the instruction like I should have) so it was a guessing game on how much to put of each ingredient. Later I remembered that Roxanne kept tasting mixture with a spoon...but by the time I did remember this, it was too late.

Oh shit! I forgot that I needed to strip the chicken of some meat for my chicken curry to work. Roxanne boiled her turkey for a couple of days before stripping it, I had only minutes to do the same.

Like Roxanne, I wisely used a saved container to put my thickener in, unlike the expert...my used coffee jug was so tall it made it very difficult to stir. Ok, so Roxanne said to put some flour in her smaller mixing jar...me, not wanting to screw it up says how much? (I'm used to cooks that work with definitive weights and measures) and she yells "just put a couple of spoonfuls in...doesn't matter exactly how much!" Ok, Ok, now I see why it didn't matter, you just put in some water in and kept mixing until the desired thickness of the thickener was produced.

The thickener was slowly added to my sautée but in my haste, I put too much in, and had to then again add more chicken stock to compensate. In the meantime, I was microwaving some "real" brown rice, which I won't do next time...too long to cook!

How I do? Fantastic!!!! Was it as good as Roxanne's..."Hell no"! Was it better than the first time? "Hell yes"! It was very hot (which is why the sliced bananas are present) but also very good, which is great because I have enough for the next three nights.

Donna loved to cook and I loved to eat so I never...ever, got in the way of the kitchen while she was busy...the downside is I never learned anything about food, combinations, measurements or just plain cooking!

A special shout out to my friend Roxanne for allowing me to watch an expert in motion.

As strange as it seems, my favorite part of cooking is the cleaning... I can't wait to scrub, wipe down or just put away items that had been in use...it's either I can't wait to do it, or I'm just a bit OCD about it...doesn't matter, I love to eat and clean.