Indian moments between life updated

I've been messing about with settings and what not on here, having technical and clerical difficulties. Nothing too blown out of the water, though enough for me to pass some unnessesarily bad vibes onto Glenn, who has been sitting here next to me at times, an innocent bystander, in our adopted basement apartment. Although it's not at all handy to miraculously loose the spell check option on your blog settings, it's also not very handy to create a war with your husband. A war that could start over something that is meant to be fun and challenging for the soul is not my pick-a-path way today. Saying that, I, at times, have been known to allow my body heat to reach boiling point and spill haphazadly over the edges and into the great abyss. So right after my last post we decided to head  over to the water where I could drink tea and think about my childish ways. Which of course past when I realized that it was probably the madness in the high winds that was sending me a little sideways.

While living in and out of order at times, having the majority of pots and pans, recipe books and general inspiration all packed away and living in Columbia City, one must choose to cook one pot dishes. For a number of obvious reasons. One pot; dutch oven. Left overs; tastes better as the days go by. Mix it up; add extra ingredients later on. Last but not least, energy. You can disguise your effortless ways of preparing your usually perfectly sliced garlic and your geometically cubed onions with chucky vegi's and aromatic stocks and herbs.Who has the energy left to be so precise when you're working and packing and trying to be a sane wife? It does kill me to admit that I don't. O well. Comfort just takes me along for the ride and i'm more than happy to follow.

Only a week ago we were living across from an Indian grocery, one I would walk past if I didn't drive to work. Everyday there would be boxes of vegi's and signs that would display sales on baby goats. When you walked inside, down the back to the meat display cabinet, with the shiny clean windows, would be stuck photos of those very baby goats you are looking at skinned and portioned. I still chuckle everytime I go in there. These baby goats in the photo's look like some serious petting zoo babies. Especially the way they're looking up at the camera baaaring with there little pink tongues poking out.

I know for a moment there I might sound slightly sadistic, not very vegetarian of me. Though I did try once. I told and old chef friend ten years ago that I was stepping over to the other side, giving up the taste of flesh. He stopped speaking to me for three days. He was passionate about food, spreading my way what was the beginning of a food sensation in my life. He was the first person to teach me to treat food with respect. I guess that's why my local Indian market insists on displaying glossy photo's of edible adorables. Respect is all.

My one pot dish was to become an Indian feast. A peas and potato feast. I cooked it up the day before we ate than decided that we needed papadums. I've only seen these delicious, paper thin, crunchy morsals once over here and it was an embarassing display to say the least. So I was looking forward to frying up my own plastic looking discs at home. After I went on a voyage with the shop keeper in search of papadums, throughout the pasta aisle and than of course the rice aisle, with every other kind of pasta becoming what he was convinced was a papadum, we made it back to the counter where he took pleasure in giving me samples of Indian snacks that his fellow countryman alike come to eat. My favorite one's were the golden brown somosa that I never got to try and my least favorite were the tomato looking sweet and deep fried treats that I got to try too many times.

This recipe is nothing more than a bit of fun throughout the week when you just can't storm it up in the kitchen. I like to add any kind of Indian spices. Lots of chili and cardomon, cumin and cloves. Oh yes. They are the dream team. Cook that up with onions and garlic and they will have you coughing with joyous watery eyes. I like to pour in some homemade chicken stock and get the pot all excited. Once it you've got it simmering away and theres a good amount of liquid i'll throw in the sturdy veg. Potatoes it is. In they go with more stock if needed. Salt and pepper of course. Stir occasionally. If i'm adding peas and not going to eat until the next day than i'll just wait until about half an hour before serving.

This silly little recipe isn't anything to gee wiz about. It's merely an offering of inspiration. I'm about to go board a plane to Australia and for the past month or more i've been preparing for the trip. My first trip back there since moving to Seattle. So a nice silly little one pot dish is what one needs every so often. Enjoy the likes of whatever you create in your kitchen.

I'll be seeing you in a few days from that other hemisphere.