CHICKEN CURRY

Good Morning to you,

If I were to say to you,

"Stoffy Ticky Puns"

What would be your response?

Would you understand what I was saying to you or would you look at me with a blank expression on your face?

Well, the latter, the blank look, appeared on George's face the other day, when I uttered the words, "Stoffy Ticky Puns".

To be honest, I cannot believe those words had actually come out of my mouth, but I have to tell you, they did.

I'll put the words into context for you.  I was wondering what cake I should make for Easter.  I thought maybe a Simnel Cake as I do love marzipan and then I thought well as it will be Easter time, what a lovely excuse, as if I needed an excuse, to bake a chocolate cake, but then I thought, maybe I would make George some "Stoffy Ticky Puns"...... any ideas yet?

Well, when I said "Stoffy Ticky Puns" I burst out laughing, honestly, I know I said it before, but I really could not believe the words had come out of my mouth.  I was laughing so much that George couldn't have had much of a clue as to what I was saying, but even when I calmed down and stopped laughing, he still did not know.  So when I told him, he said "Really, that is what you meant, I didn't have a clue".

So, as my husband of 44 years did not know what I had meant, I thought I would test out my daughters. Danielle was busy at work, so I could not ask her, so I checked the time difference and it was early evening for Natasha, so I asked Natasha.  She responded straight away and said,

"I know what you meant to say, it was Sticky Toffee Buns".

I asked how she knew so quickly and she said she speaks the "language of mum".  I said that was a relief because when I get older, if I muddled my words, her dad wouldn't have a clue as to what I was talking about.  

George responded with, "Oh you don't need to worry about that, because what I will do, is, I'll set up Skype, you can speak to Natasha and she can translate. Problem solved!" To that we all burst out laughing. Trust George to have an answer..... and a funny one at that.

So I think after all that laughter, I should make George some  Sticky Toffee  Buns  or should I say 'Stoffy Ticky Puns' as I feel sure, that is how they will be known, within the family, from now on..... what do you think?

..... there are no buns today, as today I am making,

Chicken curry.  If I am busy and I need to make a quick meal, often I will make the sauce the day before, and then all I have to do is heat it through the following day and add the chicken. It does make it a speedy meal.

So it's on with the pinnie and the music I am listening to was prompted by a song on the radio.

Do you remember the song 'Love is All Around' from the film 'Love Actually'? Well I also remember the original sung by The Troggs.... all those years ago. Listening to 'Love is All Around' by Wet, Wet, Wet, reminded me that one of the girls had left this album behind when they left home, so I searched through the drawer and found it.

Listen to, of course,

'Love is All Around'

which is not on this album,

but you can listen to it on Utube

and then,

'Sweet Little Mystery'

'Sweet Surrender'

and

'This Time'

So while I am singing along to 'With a Little Help From My Friends', well you can't listen to this song and not want to sing along with it can you, I will organise my ingredients.

INGREDIENTS

YOU 

WILL NEED

TO MAKE

CHICKEN CURRY

750g chicken breast

1 large onion

2 cloves of garlic

1 red pepper

1 yellow pepper

2 tablespoons of Red Thai curry paste

400ml coconut milk

8fl oz chicken stock

1 tablespoon of olive oil

sea salt

HOW 

TO MAKE

CHICKEN  CURRY

Firstly, poach the chicken in the chicken stock

until the chicken is thoroughly cooked. If you 

use large chicken breasts you might find

you need more chicken stock as the

stock has to cover the chicken.

I cannot give you timings as it depends

on the size of the chicken breasts which you use.

Whilst the chicken is poaching,

 slice the onion

and

place 1 tablespoon of olive oil

in a wide pan.

Add the onions.

Using a medium heat,

cook until the onions are golden in colour.

Crush the garlic

and

when the onions are golden in colour

add to the pan.

Cook for a minute or so.

Add the Red Thai curry paste

and cook for a couple of minutes.

Moving the onions and paste around

the pan.

Cut the peppers in half and remove

the seeds.

Slice into strips.

Add to the pan.

Stir.

Chop the tomatoes

and 

add to the pan,

along with,

the coconut milk.

Add the chicken stock

and stir everything together.

Bring to the boil

and then reduce the heat

and allow the curry to simmer

for 30 minutes.

Check for seasoning

and if needs be, add a little salt.

When the chicken has cooked,

slice 

and

you can either,

add the chicken to the pan,

or as I do,

place some chicken in the bottom

of a dish and

ladle the sauce over,

making sure you add enough peppers.

and there you have it,

a really easy curry

for a quick meal during the week.

All you need is to serve it with

cauliflower rice

or

brown basmati rice.

Now, I decided not to call it a Red Thai Curry, because although I used Red Thai Curry paste, a true Thai curry is not made this way.

Yes of course, if time permitted, I could have,

peeled and crushed the garlic

peeled and chopped shallots

deseeded and finely chop the red chillies

cut the lemon grass into pieces

finely chopped the Kaffir lime leaves,

then placed all the ingredients into a pestle and mortar and then added lemon juice and pounded the ingredients to form a paste..... but do you know, today I did not have the time, so as this is a home cooked meal and the only person I need to impress is George, he is very happy with my version of chicken curry.

Try it, I don't think you will be disappointed either.

Take care and I will see you next Thursday.

This week I will be joining, 

Miz Helen's Country Cottage for Full Plate Thursday

and

Natasha in Oz for Say G'Day Saturday