Camping, Princess Style

[C. sapidus]

On 11/11/2023 at 10:11 AM, Smithy said:

. . . Still, it reminded me of this topic on Indian food becoming common at truck stops.

 

 

 

Thank you for posting about this. We pulled over for gas somewhere in New Mexico. No gas, but we did find an Indian restaurant doing a thriving business. 

 

Mrs. C had excellent butter chicken, and I had a very spicy chicken tikka masala. Unfortunately they were out of saag paneer and samosas.

 

[Smithy]

Thanks for that update on finding excellent Indian road food, @C. sapidus. I wish we could find some around here. If I want it, I have to cook it myself. I'm not familiar enough with the cookery method to be able to throw something together without thinking, and therein lies a tale. Your post is timed perfectly!

 

I've been trying for several days to make some sort of Indianish curry, but Life Has Been Getting In The Way.  3 days ago, it was going to be shrimp from the freezer. We got home too late to thaw them. 2 days ago I bought chicken thighs so nothing had to be thawed, then we still got home too tired and hungry to think about new (to me) cuisine. Yesterday I skinned and deboned those thighs, then chopped them into bite-sized pieces and stuck them in the freezer. Tonight, maybe, I'll get around to cooking it all.

 

At least now I have the right spices. We seem to have entirely run out of cumin in the Princessmobile. This was a minor disaster, given that one of my "too tired to cook" dinners was our "Bedouin style" tuna noodle hot dish with creamy Egyptian feta cheese, good tuna, cooked elbow macaroni and a little chopped onion. This is all to be topped with freshly ground cumin. I couldn't find any seeds! We toughed it out anyway. 2 days ago when we were in town, we went to the grocery store specifically to get cumin, along with a few other supplies. Somehow, the cumin never got out of the shopping cart and onto the checkout line. I've no idea what happened to those packages. Today when we were in town for the 3rd day in a row, we finally got some. It's sitting on our counter now; this time, there's no getting away!

 

With all the busy-ness I haven't had much time or interest in photos, either. Today, however, we got home in time for me to enjoy an experimental sandwich: the last of some sliced pepperoni we brought from home; provolone that must be used up; spicy kimchi; lettuce. Sourdough bread with mayonnaise. I debated adding pickles as well, but decided to let the kimchi speak for itself. It did, and was a very nice addition to that sandwich.

 

 

Maybe I'll be hungry in time to cook dinner. 🙂

 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

 Somehow, the cumin never got out of the shopping cart and onto the checkout line.

Amen, Sister.    In our house, it's "Where are the eggs?"   or "...the bread?"     The fragile things you pull out of the cart and set in the area before the belt...and which you leave, essentially abandoned, in that limbo area while the rest of your order proceeds through checkout.   

[Smithy]

Well, this is embarrassing: I just remembered that I keep the ground cumin in the freezer. We weren't out after all, although we were out of the whole seeds.

 

 

The bottle's getting pretty low, so it's good that I got ground as well as seeds. Still...how many times have I looked past that bottle, right there in the freezer door?

 

 

Goes to state of mind, Your Honor.

[DesertTinker]

Ooh, Morton & Basset my favorite! Their spices, especially the ground cumin, lasts longer than any other I’ve tried, even not kept in the freezer.
My expiration date. Eek! 

Edited December 21, 2023 by DesertTinker
Added image. (log)

[Shelby]

1 hour ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Amen, Sister.    In our house, it's "Where are the eggs?"   or "...the bread?"     The fragile things you pull out of the cart and set in the area before the belt...and which you leave, essentially abandoned, in that limbo area while the rest of your order proceeds through checkout.   

SAME!!! I still can't find the green olives I bought a month ago.

[Shelby]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

Well, this is embarrassing: I just remembered that I keep the ground cumin in the freezer. We weren't out after all, although we were out of the whole seeds.

 

 

The bottle's getting pretty low, so it's good that I got ground as well as seeds. Still...how many times have I looked past that bottle, right there in the freezer door?

 

 

Goes to state of mind, Your Honor.

I promise you I do this every damn day.  AND it's before my wine.  

[Smithy]

38 minutes ago, Shelby said:

I promise you I do this every damn day.  AND it's before my wine.  

Couldn't decide whether to respond "thanks" or laugh on this one. 🙂

 

[Smithy]

So. I finally managed to cook the chicken in a curry-style sauce. Here's the book and recipe, with their photo of the finished dish:

 

 

It's a pity that I can't convert a video to a .gif so I can show my electric can opener in action. That was actually one reason for wanting to do a recipe like this, rather than buying a simmering sauce. Can't do it. Oh, well.

 

I had to do some minor substitutions, but nothing major. I accidentally made twice as much sauce as the recipe called for: it only wanted 1 cup of coconut milk, and I dumped the whole can in! No matter, I added the same amount of water. Leaves more for later. I used a microwaveable bag of Uncle Ben's Jasmine Rice and it was quite acceptable. I'll get more, to use with the leftovers, when we next go to town. (That will be tomorrow.  )

 

 

In case you're wondering: it was delicious, and I'm glad there's more.

[ElsieD]

Any chance you could post a clearer picture of the recipe?  It sounds delicious and I'd like to make it.

[blue_dolphin]

7 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

Any chance you could post a clearer picture of the recipe?  It sounds delicious and I'd like to make it.

@ElsieD, try clicking on the photo to bring up a higher res version, then save that one and crop it down.

This one may not be super sharp in the feed but if you click on it, you should get something readable. 

 

[Smithy]

Thanks, @blue_dolphin!

 

Incidentally, the book is Recipes from an Indian Kitchen, by Sunil Vijayakar (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). Here's the overleaf from the dust cover. 

 

 

Note the instructions to "prepare your ingredients, set out your equipment..." and Bob's your uncle, you'll have tasty Indian food. This is of course what one always does: mise en place. I don't know why the mise always fuddles me with Indian food. Maybe this will be the year I get over that? (Nah, probably not. 🙄 )

 

Happy Solstice, everybody!

 

[blue_dolphin]

8 minutes ago, Smithy said:

Thanks, @blue_dolphin!

I just jumped in because I know you are sometimes bandwidth-limited! 

 

9 minutes ago, Smithy said:

I don't know why the mise always fuddles me with Indian food.

What I love the most about Indian food is also what often deters me from cooking it - I love the contrasting flavors and textures of warm dals or veg dishes, cool raita, spicy/tangy chutneys or pickles and an interesting flatbread of some sort.  Works best when when I can get a "planned-over" roll going and add one or two items per day.  Getting that whole ball rolling takes more activation energy than I can often muster, but once it's going, it's great!

[Smithy]

18 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

I just jumped in because I know you are sometimes bandwidth-limited! 

 

What I love the most about Indian food is also what often deters me from cooking it - I love the contrasting flavors and textures of warm dals or veg dishes, cool raita, spicy/tangy chutneys or pickles and an interesting flatbread of some sort.  Works best when when I can get a "planned-over" roll going and add one or two items per day.  Getting that whole ball rolling takes more activation energy than I can often muster, but once it's going, it's great!

 

So far I'm still at the stage of trying to get ONE dish together! The planned-over idea is a good one. I think @sartoric may have reported the same process when she was posting about Indian food. Her schemes often looked quite elaborate and literally marvelous.

[blue_dolphin]

15 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

So far I'm still at the stage of trying to get ONE dish together! The planned-over idea is a good one. I think @sartoric may have reported the same process when she was posting about Indian food. Her schemes often looked quite elaborate and literally marvelous.

 

Yes, @sartoric's Indian cuisine is another whole level!  The nice thing about the planned over scheme is that, once you get going, you don't need to make more than that one dish at a time.  Just don't use up all your planned overs in an exact duplicate meal - always add a little something to make it different from the last one!  Maybe mix up a raita or pickle early in the day.  Or a simple dal.  Very nice to have an Indian lunch buffet right in the fridge!

[FauxPas]

14 hours ago, Smithy said:

It's a pity that I can't convert a video to a .gif so I can show my electric can opener in action. That was actually one reason for wanting to do a recipe like this, rather than buying a simmering sauce. Can't do it. Oh, well.

 

You could save a video to YouTube and then share the link to that. I'd like to see if your can opener is very different from mine!  🙂

 

[lindag]

I made this recipe that I copied down from The Chew tv show.

It was excellent.

 

Indian Style Vegetable Curry

2 tablespoons curry powder (sweet or mild)
1 ½ teaspoons garam masala
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 medium onions, chopped fine (about 2 cups)
12 ounces Red Bliss potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 2 cups)
3 medium cloves garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 1 tablespoon)
1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
1 - 1 ½ serrano chiles, ribs, seeds, and flesh minced (see note above)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
½ medium head cauliflower, trimmed, cored, and cut into 1-inch florets (about 4 cups)
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes,
pulsed in food processor until nearly smooth with 1/4-inch pieces visible
1 ¼ cups water 
1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Table salt
8 ounces frozen peas (about 1 1/2 cups)
¼ cup heavy cream or coconut milk

 

I plan to make it again one day next week.

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by lindag
typ (log)

[C. sapidus]

On 12/20/2023 at 8:05 PM, Smithy said:

So. I finally managed to cook the chicken in a curry-style sauce. Here's the book and recipe, with their photo of the finished dish:

 

 

 

Sounds like something I would enjoy! And particularly impressive in a princessmobile. 
 

Curry leaves are wonderful but if you cannot find them the usual substitute is bay leaves. Not the same but it rhymes. 😉

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, C. sapidus said:

Sounds like something I would enjoy! And particularly impressive in a princessmobile. 
 

Curry leaves are wonderful but if you cannot find them the usual substitute is bay leaves. Not the same but it rhymes. 😉

 

Too bad I didn't know that last night! I found a bunch of leaf shards, frozen in a bag in the freezer, and decided they had to be bay leaves instead of the curry leaves I sought. They would have been at least 10 years old, harvested from a state park in Texas. There were too broken and I didn't want to mess with all those bitty sharp pieces. They're gone now. But I'll remember that substitution the future, against the time I once again have fresh bay but not curry leaves.

 

BTW I need to know how you pronounce "curry" and "bay". 😉

 

It was another long, long day. Before we left for town I'd taken the trouble to rinse the green beans I'd bought nearly 2 weeks ago. Would I trim and cut them when we got home, or ignore them again? With great fortitude I rinsed, trimmed and cut them after we got home. The Cookie & Kate recipe for Green Bean Salad with Toasted Almonds and Feta (in this case, pecans rather than almonds) is one I can do in my sleep. (This is what I aspire to with Indian cookery, but I've a long way to go.) 

 

 

I even have live basil for garnish!

 

It was dinner. It was enough. There's more for tomorrow. Now, I'm off to bed.

[Kim Shook]

On 12/20/2023 at 8:43 PM, Shelby said:

SAME!!! I still can't find the green olives I bought a month ago.

Mr. Kim just left to go to the store to pick up a jar of sweet relish that I know is somewhere in this damn house.  Jessica needs it to make deviled eggs to take to a gathering in a couple of hours.  😜

[rotuts]

@Kim Shook

 

Mr. Kim is a brave fellow..

 

going to the supermarket on a Sat. two days before Christmas .

[Kim Shook]

6 minutes ago, rotuts said:

@Kim Shook

 

Mr. Kim is a brave fellow..

 

going to the supermarket on a Sat. two days before Christmas .

He IS.  And he went to Costco yesterday.  Poor thing. 

[Smithy]

11 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

He IS.  And he went to Costco yesterday.  Poor thing. 

 

I had to go to town yesterday for prescription drugs, and nothing would do but that I had to visit the grocery store. Two of them, in fact, to get everything I wanted. Sheesh. What a zoo! Our plan is not to go anywhere by car until after Christmas. Maybe I'll be able to do something more satisfying than the last few days have provided.

[Smithy]

When I went to town yesterday, the clouds were lowering and it was clearly already raining in Yuma. I needed to go anyway, and decided not to let the storm get any worse. It's a good thing I did it that way: by the time all the errands were run and I was on my way home, roads were beginning to flood. After I got home and unpacked most of the groceries, flash flood warnings started up on our cell phones: don't travel unless absolutely necessary. We hoped to get a flood in the nearby stream bed -- it's a beautiful sight -- and that never happened. However, we did get a spectacular double rainbow just before sunset.

 

 

It glowed almost neon-bright. Truly gorgeous. This morning, I checked on the artificial watering hole about a half mile away. The water level had been as low as I've ever seen it: at least 4' below grade. Now it's full. The folks who situated it did an excellent hydrologic study when deciding where to put it.

 

 

So far today I've made whomp sweet rolls for my darling. Last night I did NOT make the enchiladas I'd been planning. I'd been so hungry at the second grocery stop (Albertsons) that I bought a bucket of fried chicken and ate 2 wings before leaving the parking lot. We ate more last night. Now what we have left is most of the breast meat. I swear these chickens must have been built like sumo wrestlers! i'm going to make chicken salad from it. 

 

 

Have you ever made chicken salad including the skin from fried chicken? I think I'm going to try it.

 

And maybe I'll get to those enchiladas today.

[blue_dolphin]

6 minutes ago, Smithy said:

Have you ever made chicken salad including the skin from fried chicken? I think I'm going to try it.

 

I've never done it but I'd totally be up for removing the skin, crisping it up in the toaster oven or even a skillet and using it as a decadent salad topper!