Curry mishap

Cooking with me is an adventure. Sure, I have my cookbooks and I try to follow them. But, I don't always measure and, when all else fails, I follow my dad's lead--throw things in a pot, turn on the heat, then eat. It never fails.

Last night was Part Two of Jon's Cooking With Susan saga. He stopped by the house and I had planned for us to make a chicken and potato curry with a basmati rice pilaf. It might sound fancy, but it's not. I've done it before a number of times and it always turned out well. But that wasn't exactly the case yesterday.

All was going well enough. Jon was chopping like a pro, I was dumping spices and chilis into a pot, and we were blending up a storm. When I reached for the blender to pour the tomato puree into the pot of chicken and potatoes, there was a huge plop-squish noise. Tomato puree was all over the counter and the empty blender was in my hand. My heart filled with sadness and disappointment, which was quickly overcome with the question, "How can we save this so that we can eat soon?" Jon picked up a spoon, I picked up a spatula, and we started scooping. We managed to salvage enough to continue on with our curry.

Thirty minutes later, we had a decent curry ladled on top of cumin-scented basmati. Jon said the food was delicious but I knew it could have been better. I squeezed in too much lemon juice and lost a seed or two in the process, so there was way too much tang. The curry wasn't as thick as it should be and tasted watered-down. My impatience and hunger overwhelmed my good cooking habits and I didn't blend as well as I should have, which left us with chunks of ginger and onions. And, the potatoes weren't as soft as I like. But Jon was polite, complimented our efforts, and let me pressure him in to taking a tupperware container for the next day's lunch.

We ended our meal with rocky road ice cream topped with a butterscotch sauce. That made the earlier mishap all okay.