Sometimes a perfect dish of prawns in coconut curry can snatch you from the depths of Minnesota Mordor and give meaning, importance and pleasure to life.
Uuum been a long time since I shared any thoughts with my blog droogs. I spindled many of my posts when I applied for a job in Minneapolis.
Had the posts been left up and had I kept writing; it would have been possible to pinpoint the exact moments when my life came off the tracks and dissolved into a melty combo of raising a lovely yet often angry Mongolian teen and watching Twins baseball in the basement.
My second wife left us in the lurch in such a horrific manner that after 2 years; I still have my doubts about ever hooking up again, and the very concept of romantic love seems as flimsy and illusory as a cosmic Potemkin village.
This return to blogging is my attempt to crawl out of the debris, dust myself off and to survey the wreckage. A sort of triage of my life, if you will. Well that's the idea as this starts anyway.
When it is not snowing and frozen outside, life in the Mini-apple is not without certain pleasures--usually involving cooking, eating and drinking. I share my culinary masterpieces with my little Mongolian, who has risen to the task repeatedly, calmly stuffing these unknown wonders into her face with nearly beatific gusto.
So you see it's not all bad. In fact I've been quite lucky in a way. In the end no one gets out alive anyway; so might as well enjoy the scenery along the way--n'est-ce pas?
Kerala prawn curry
1can coconut milk
2 onions diced
Tablespoon of minced garlic
Tablespoon of fresh grated ginger
½ teaspoon black mustard seed
½ tsp black pepper
1tsp indian chili powder or cayenne (to taste)
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp fenegreek seeds
¼ tsp of cardamom seeds
Good pinch of black cumin seeds (optional)
1tsp of turmeric
A pound of peeled deveined shrimp
2 tomatoes
A little tamarind water 2-3 tablespoons optional or 1 tbsp
of apple vinegar.
method
Grind all the spices except mustard
Brown onions garlic and ginger in oil, add mustard seed
Add diced tomato and cook until it melts
Add heaping tbls of spice mixture saute for a minute or two
Add little tamarind water or vinegar for balance
Stir in coconut milk bring to a boil
Add prawns and simmer until done and the sauce is thickened
Season with kosher salt
Serve over thai rice or basmati rice
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