Thursday, April 01, 2010

Misadventures in Cooking

Last night, I was craving something sweet yet spicy all at once. Then I started thinking, "How would a curry with peaches in it taste?" So I set to experimentin'. I modified another recipe for curry I found, sauteing some garlic cloves and half a sweet onion, then adding sausage links, curry powder and dried mustard powder. Then I added some chicken broth, put a lid on it and let it simmer for 15 minutes. Then I added a can of sliced peaches, recovered it and let it simmer for 8 more minutes. I didn't think it tasted too bad, but still wasn't quite what I was looking for. Also, Jamie apparently didn't like it at. all. I had forgotten one all important thing: Jamie hates peaches (unless it's my peach cobbler). If I experiment again with this, I'm going to try it with orange slices or mangoes instead of peaches and I'll add some red bell pepper strips and/or tomatoes, as well as a green vegetable of some sort (asparagus maybe?) to add some color and extra nutrients. I'm also going to use chicken instead of sausage. I'm also going to use more spices. I want my mouth to feel hot from the spices but cool from the fruit all at the same time. Any suggestions from my cooking friends on how to accomplish that?

5 comments:

Suze said...

Ann Aluru should have some good suggestions!

Aren't raisins a pretty common ingredient in curry?

Also, chutney is usually a good mix of sweet and spicy -mango chutney, other fruit chutneys. I am sure there is such a thing as peach chutney, so you could always have that on the side.

ann said...

The only indian food answer to hot and cool at the same time that I know of is eating raita with your curry. The way I make it is just mixing plain yogurt with some salt, water, cilantro, and onions, and then you serve that with your curry and rice. We make it with chicken curry and we also make it with chicken byriani. But I guess it'd be good with any spicy curry.

I think cucumber raita is really good, but I've never tried to make it.

Suze said...

Is cucumber raita just diced or shredded cucumber with yogurt and salt (and maybe a little dried herb)? I make that a lot with curry and it's pretty good. I forgot about that!

ann said...

Suze, i guess. I haven't made it. But I bet there are tons of recipes on the web.

But I forgot to say add water. I like mine runny.

ann said...

I thought of an indian food that is sweet and spicy. I'll post it on ROUS.