Dinner tonight - or last night.

Dinner tonight: Chicken with thyme & lemon, the slow cooker way, along with some steamed potatoes & French beans.

I sure like the idea of quick and tasty. And if you insist on healthy, well I can live with that.

Okay. I have a package of chicken drumsticks in the freezer that I look at dubiously each time I hunt for something interesting to make for dinner. All I know to do with these--that anybody will eat here--is southern fry them or bar-b-que them and I'm bored with that. Is there a good quick, easy curry recipe for these?

Curries are wonderfully easy for a couple of reasons. The first is that curry, by definition, simply means a combination of two or more spices. If you've put salt and pepper into your scrambled eggs, you've made curried eggs.

A nice butter chicken could be a good way to start.

http://www.quickindiancooking.com/2007/10/25/butter-chicken-pretty-damn-good/

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-butter-chicken

http://quickhealthyrecipesforyou.com/quick-and-easy-butter-chicken-recipe

once you've got your ingredients organized, it's quite quick and tasty - flavourful, not hot

Chicken Korma's also very nice. Not too errr pungent.

http://www.antelmann.com/soyeba/cookbook/main/chicken_korma_curry.htm

Aha - I liked that first recipe for the butter chicken tikka masala better than the second. I've got most of the spices, so I'm going to try this next time I have some chicken and some yogurt.

I suppose if one wasn't used to curries, you could use a premade curry powder. I have a couple from World Market that I use all the time - in scrambled eggs, for example. One could try that first instead of investing in all the spices which one's family might end up not liking.

I suspect we're pretty lucky here. At the Bulk Barn here, I can buy as much or as little of a spice as I like. I can get all of the spices for one of those recipes for under a dollar.

Thanks ehBeth, all look good, especially the butter chicken though that is not what I would define as 'quick and easy'

But I'm curious. Mind you I'm an old-fashioned girl trained in southern cooking which is usually a combination of soul food, improvisation, and a few mandatory basics..

Do the rest of you really have:
1.3 kg passata (the best you can get)
8 green cardamoms
16 whole black peppers
2 tsp kassori methi (dried fenugreek)

just lying around the kitchen waiting for a recipe to put it in? I don't even know what some of that is. The cloves, cinnamon, ginger, garlic etc. okay, though 16 cloves of garlic in any recipe seems like a lot. And it does seem designed for chicken breasts. Would work with legs do you think?

I have copied and saved all the recommended recipes though.

passata is basically good canned tomatoes - and yes I've got it around

black peppercorns - always

cardamoms and fenugreek I'll buy if I need them - the day I need them - in the quantity for that recipe, it'd cost somewhere around 15 or 25 cents

wow...that's some stinky breath. I bet you could brush your teeth at least ten times and still wake up tasting that!

DANG! I'm hungry.

I have a reunion this weekend...not going to tell which one...and I have a little black dress that needs to be a big looser in the booty...baby got back - probably from sitting on my arse too much. Anyway - diet. Sheesh.

Made chicken and rice for the boys. Green beans...sweet tea. Simple - and I don't have to stand over all of it to cook it...which just makes it easier on me. I have got to quit looking at this thread...

I'M STARVING. going to eat some cantalope. maybe that will help.

Maybe it would help if I posted some really yucky stuff Mismi.

posting a pic of my bahind on the fridge would probably work better!

But of course - every time I come and read this thread I get hungry. So many great things! And I love food! But if I keep eating like I have been this summer - then I have to start working out more...the whole metabolism thing is slowing down I'm afraid. Please post about rutabega's and fried chicken liver....unfortunately there's not too much else I dislike...maybe hogshead cheese or something like that. ew.

oh yeah...I'm good now!

Time to drag out the roast chicken with forty cloves of garlic recipe.. (can't remember who started that).


Tonight -
Medium pasta shells with a sauce of ginger and smoked salmon (lox) sauteed lightly in butter/olive oil, basil leaves added, the whole thing tossed and then squirted with the juice of one lime.

First, i grilled some onions (chopped) and some Eye-talian sausage. Then i grilled some mushrooms. I set those aside, and started some water for pasta, and then made an Alfredo sauce (i had already grated the Parmesan), to which i added the grilled onions, sausage and mushrooms, and then, just before the end, some cherry tomatoes cut in half. Put that over the pasta and i was just as happy as a hog in deep mud . . .

Foxfyre, I'd try that butter chicken recipe with just what you have at hand - I happen to have some white cardomon 'peppercorns' in my cupboard, having used them for baking at some point. They're probably dead as doornails by now. I am not going to drive all the way to Talin market - which probably has fenugreek, but I'm not sure. I'd just skip it. I wouldn't worry about drumsticks or breasts, I'd just let the drumsticks bubble away happily. You could cut down the garlic cloves, but garlic is said to be least potent when it simmers in liquid. (I can't remember how much liquid is in that recipe - some anyway.) And for black pepper, add your usual amount, whether or not it is in peppercorn form. I happen to like pepper, it distracts me from noticing when I cut down on salt, but pepper it to your taste.

All right, that sounds great, Set.

Did you say garlic?

OK, Foxfyre, I'll search around & find some of the simplest curry recipes I can find. I shall return!

I'm in the process of cooking a new dish (dishes?) tonight - as I A2K!

Sri Lankan spicy beef ribs with coconut pilaf ... from a cookbook, of course!

So the pilaf (with flaked coconut, fresh coriander & raisins) is ready to go ... but the beef ribs - in the oven - still need more time. They need more time.

I'll report back later!

Hmmmm ....
Well the coconut pilaf was great! I'll certainly do that again.
But the beef ribs were a bit tough-ish. I gave them longer in the oven that the recommended time, because they obviously needed that ... but I'm a bit disappointed with the end result. I think if I roast something like this again I'd use pork ribs instead.