A Meal That Went So Very Wrong!!!

Curried Shrimp, Biryani, and Spinach with Fresh Cheese and Yogurt!

I had a ton of errands to run yesterday so I spent most of the morning doing that. When I got home I started to panic because I couldn't for the life of me remember what I had planned to make for dinner. I am not the most organized person around so I can't do an actual food plan but I usually have a pretty good idea of what I was going to make. Yesterday though I was baffled and it made me so mad because I had already planned it all out. The only thing that I could remember was a dish with spinach and yogurt from Mark Bittman's-How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.

Spinach with Fresh Cheese and Yogurt

6 ounces mozzarella (shredded)
1 pound of spinach
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup wheat flour
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp garam masala
2 cups plain yogurt

• Boil and shock the spinach. Drain well and roughly chop.
• Put the oil and flour in a heavy bottomed, large pot. SPrinkle with salt and pepper and cook on medium-low heat until the flour darkens a bit and becomes fragrant, about 5 mintues.
• Stir in the garam masala, whisk in the yogurt and raise the heat a bit. Cook with frequent stirring until the yogurt is hot and has thickened a bit. Fold in the spinach and cheese and stir until hot again. At this point you can serve it or place it in the fridge for use later.

I placed this in a tart pan and dabbed goat cheese on it so that T. could pull it out and heat it up later for dinner.

Then I left to pick up the girls, still thinking about what to make with the spinach, yogurt thing. Got home with the girls and decided to make some Indian rice to go with this dish. Here is where it gets ugly...I don't like Indian food. I have never liked Indian food but everyone around me loves it so I thought that maybe it was just a residual kid thing like "eww it smells I don't want to try it"!!! I grew up in Toronto. We have one of the largest Indian and Pakistani populations outside if India and Pakistan! I am very familiar with the food and the smells. I don;t like it!!!! So I have no idea what would possess me to think that I should make it???????

I decided to make Biryani from the same book as above:

Biryani

3 saffron threads
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock or water (warmed)
2 Tbsp butter
6 cardamon pods
Pinch of ground cloves
3 inch cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
2 cups onion (chopped)
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp ground ginger
salt and pepper
1 1/2 cups long grain rice
1 1/2 cups yogurt

• Place the saffron in the warm water or stock.
• Put the butter in a large, deep pot with a lid over medium heat. When the butter melts add the cardamon, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves. Cook stirring frequently for about 2 minutes
• Add the onion, garlic and ginger along with a lorge pinch of salt and some pepper and cook until the onion softens about 5 minutes.
• Add the rice all at once and stir until it is coated with the butter.
  
• Lower the heat and add the yogurt and stock or water. Lower the heat to barely bubbling and cover and cook for about 15 - 20 minutes.
• When the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed it's done. If not cook it linger.
• Remove the cinnamon stick and the bay leaves.

I also stuck this in the fridge for T. to heat up later.

This is where it got so bad I wanted to throw it in the trash. My whole house stunk. Now I know to most people this is a nice smell. I don't like it. I tried but the smell was making me not feel well. When T. got home I was almost in tears! I had spent the majority of the afternoon making a meal that I did not want to look at let alone eat. He walked in and immediately loved the smells. I guess we had decided to eat the shrimp from the Farmer's Market the day before. So now he wanted them to be curried.

I left to go to Karate with my oldest daughter and loved the smell of the fresh air, my car, the fresh cut lawn down the street, dog poop right beside my car, anything but my house!!! And now he was making curried shrimp to go with it. I wanted Mexican Food, I wanted a hamburger, I wanted anything but what I had made!!!! How sad is that. So I decided that I would just grin and bear and maybe it didn't taste as bad as it smelt.

We made it through dinner. T. was in heaven he thought it was the best meal I had made in forever???!!! He said it was the best Indian Food he had had???!!! I ate a bit of it but really did not like it. The shrimp was good but the rest of it I never want to see again! I jumped up to clean up but then I realized that I hated the lingering smell even more than the original cooked ones. T. very kindly cleaned up for me and I lit candles, turned on fans, burnt incense, anything to make it go away.

I hope I haven't offended anyone with this but all of our tastes are different. I love bright, fresh tasting things - pesto, cilantro, garlic. Indian food is not about that. It has heavy, warm, deep smells and tastes. I am the same way about Moroccan food so please God, can he never ask me for Moroccan food???!!!

I guess if you like Indian Food it was great!!!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com