Lockdown curry and the alchemy of becoming a better human being
Two things I have learned in 2020, including a paradox of chili proportions
Lockdown curry
“The lockdown curry” became infamous, when, after months of home cooking I announced we were splashing out on a takeaway. Our mouths watered as we studied the online menu and grappled with our desire for chicken, avoiding the eye of the hens staring back at us from the garden. These handsome characters arrived at the beginning of lockdown and spent their first nights sleeping in an empty compost bin while their home was built from the ground up.
By June, we knew it was Ruth (Fisher) with the reddest of necks who jumped on the goji berry tree and bent the branches down for the others to nibble off every single leaf. Mamma Meadbh was the biggest and fastest: her matronly charm switched to a full-on charge with the sight of a grape flying towards her through the air. She could wrestle any titbit from the others with ferocious might. Alice (Walker) was the smallest and fastest and a thorough pain in the ass to catch and coax back in the coop, while Gertrude (Stein) would sit and survey her empire from the hatch window, well into the dark if we let her.
So chicken was out. But still we could not get the curry home fast enough. The plates sat overheating in the oven…
