Cooking as Therapy, Especially When Cooking for Friends

Rei has been sick and I had some events both in and out of town last week so we haven’t been able to cook and blog together. And now Rei has play rehearsal which really cramps our cooking style. While I miss cooking, I also enjoy acting on stage, so I am not as regretful about this change in our schedules. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My friend and investor gal pal Alicia is a vegetarian and was coming to dinner so I had to get creative to come up with a menu that we could all enjoy. I opted for an Indian inspired menu which kept me off balance the entire time I was cooking. I don’t know the flavor profiles nor do I really have any experience with it but it’s always fun to try something totally new and different when you have guests coming to dinner. Ha! Yeah, that was interesting because we were both out of our comfort zone, which was new and interesting.

I searched for some recipes, put together the shopping list and sent Zeke to the store. He went to work, Rei was still at rehearsal, but I had to get dinner going. I started with making the garam masala which was required for all three of the recipes. I’ve made it before so I wasn’t too intimidated but I still had no clue how long to heat up the spices before I ground them by hand.

Next up was cutting the paneer (I can’t believe Zeke was able to find it in a package at the grocery store) and then frying it. I’d done some prep to establish some level of control over an uncomfortable cooking situation and had the next few items ready and waiting.

The paneer needed to be fried and didn’t really turn out that well. Did I overcook it? Let it sit too long before putting into the spinach mixture? Who knows! I will try another recipe another time. It’s interesting, not knowing what you did wrong because you’re unfamiliar with the style of cooking (for example, I know when I fuck up a cake because I overmixed it or undercooked it, and can tell what messed up).

Once the paneer was fried and removed from the pan, I added a little more oil and sauteed the finely chopped onions, added garlic paste and ginger paste, and then a tomato/cilantro/spice mixture and then the spinach. I chose a really bad night to cook with oil…the house cleaners had left everything spic and span earlier in the day. Oy! Oy?? lmao what is even going on anymore

Anyways the spinach part was actually really good, and seemed pretty easy (I got there at the “just let it cook for forever and a half” stage).

My son Adam is home from college for a few days and got the rice started after he picked Rei up from school. Then it was time to put Rei to work. It was getting close to 6 PM and there was a lot left to do. We managed just fine, though, don’t worry :)

Fortunately the table was set and the cauliflower for the chickpea and cauliflower tikka masala was already in the oven and ready to go.

Rei took over the stove and I continued to chop, grate, and prep the ingredients as Rei sautéed, mixed, and assembled the concoctions. Note to self: don’t print out a recipe with a gray background…it was so tough to read.

The third dish was a quick green curry which started with potatoes and carrots. It was simple and ended up pretty spicy. Rei is not a fan of lots of spice and couldn’t really eat it. When we tasted it, we all thought it needed more complexity and so we added some ground turmeric and some paprika (Alicia’s idea). I think it will be great today. Update: not great the second day. Not sure what happened to the liquid. And it was even spicier.

Rei was also working on the vegetarian tikka masala which was our favorite dish. We did make a little mistake and added a whole can of coconut milk instead of 2 tablespoons. I’ve updated to recipe to do it again next time we make it. I liked how creamy the coconut milk made it. Me too.~Terri

Alicia brought a few goodies from her travels including some khakhra from India. Rei and Alicia quickly heated a few up before we sat down for a family style dinner. They were delicious.

The curry looked pretty boring and not much different from a deconstructed chicken pot pie recipe we have done in the past. The flavor profile was very different. Oh and we had some yummy Tattinger champagne as we cooked and with dinner. Tattinger is one of my all-time favorites.

The only pic of the saag paneer that I have is when it was being cooked. We just continued to cook the spinach until it got super mushy. I was going to puree it but then got lazy and just added back the fried paneer and heated it back up. As I said earlier, this one needs work. The paneer needs work, but I liked the spinach all on its own. Maybe we could just skip the paneer altogether and just eat the spinach? Works for me~Terri

This was really good…the vegetarian tikka masala.

I was reviewing the running grocery list with Zeke this morning and saw that butter was on the list. I realized we didn’t use any butter in our meal prep last night. We used coconut oil and some canola oil and that was it. Adam may have added some olive oil to the rice. He did.

I think that’s it for me. Rei? A penny for your thoughts?

Sure. Gimme the penny first, though. Greedy child~Terri

ANYways, we are currently making dinner and FILMING it! Whoa we’re actually doing it??? Who would have thunk??? Not us??? And I am in a bulky sweatshirt with no makeup.~Terri

Anyways (part 2), the veggie tikka masala was really good (my fav part definitely), but maybe next time we should grind the garam masala a bit finer, because I got some crunchy bits I’d rather avoid. I don’t know if the crunchy bits were from the garam masala but sure we can do that.~Terri

It was nice to eat Indian food that wasn’t super spicy (I have had a history with Indian restaurants where food is spicy even when it’s not supposed to be D: ).

Okayeroonie! I’m gonna go now (because dinner is happening and I want to actually cook rather than just write about it oof) so yay! That was an interesting experience! I enjoyed it :D

Until next time, ciao, and have a wictangulific day!

Rei and Terri :)