Hello hello, sorry for being a bit late recently with these, been real tired hahah. Alas, I am still keeping the tradition and making these once a week, every Friday ! It's my little escape time, anyways :P Since I missed the writeup for last week, I'll be putting both on the same post for extra goodies for the fellow readers of this !

June 5th:

this week for my curry dish I have prepared a green indian curry ! Which, frankly, I didn't know existed in this form before.... If you know me, you know there are two foods that I really hate the most when raw, those being cilantro and yoghurt. So, when my dad sent me a green curry based on cilantro and yoghurt, I was a bit skeptical at first. I mean, surely combining both of my least hated ingredients together would make for a sensory disaster ! But, to my surprise, eating this was not as much of a pain as I thought it was going to be. No no, instead of being an awful pile of green mush, it ended up being quite nice chicken with a rich and tasty green sauce on top. Honestly, one of the most confusing and fun times of my life ! Cooking it was a bit of a hassle tho, since it did smell awful for me. But it was well worth it ! :P

Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/LNV3nAl
Recipe: https://www.scrambledchefs.com/classic-indian-green-curry/

June 12th:

Hello hello, sorry for being a bit late recently with these, been real tired hahah. Alas, I am still keeping the tradition and making these once a week, every Friday ! It's my little escape time, anyways :P

This week, I have prepared a dish I found on the channel Get Curried: Chicken Handi! It's a dish traditionally made in a special pan called a Handi, which I do not own! So I just used my trusty dutch oven pot. The recipe was a pretty simple curry, consisting of a mostly cream/yoghurt based sauce with a little tomato, varied spices, onion, and of course, chicken ! I think by it's own it was a pretty good recipe, but for me, what made it stand out was the fact that I used ghee for the first time in one of these. Took me 6 months to finally do it, but I bought a tub of ghee for this just to try it out. And...
Oh My God.

Ghee was an absolute game changer !!! The nutty, creamy flavour really propelled this dish into fantastic territories I didn't even know were possible ! I haven't been this ecstatic for a single ingredient in a while, but god damn. I truly believe ghee to be irreplaceable after this experience, I'll have to see if it impacts other dishes I've made a lot or not. But safe to say, this was such a great addition to my cooking ingredients. Will have to use again.

On another note, here's a little anecdote about the whole cooking process from that day. Dad and I went to buy some yoghurt to make naan (which turned out quite amazing in the end), and he saw a tub of yoghurt that was on sale. Quite cheap, too. So without hesitation, he bought it. Once we got back home, he realized it was skim yoghurt, which wouldn't make for the best naan, but it's alright anyways. Once he started kneading the dough, he soon quickly realized that he had gotten... Vanilla yoghurt. So now, we had a whole batch of sugary naan dough which would definitely not work well with our curry and no yoghurt left for anything. In retrospect that was quite funny, lol.
He did end up going for some yoghurt, though. We ended up making some pretty great naan, as I said before :P

Anyhoo, great recipe that I'd REALLY recommend doing, especially if you're using ghee! But maybe don't use too much, we made the mistake of adding a bit much, which made a really big grease pool on top, which could be unappetising. But hey, you ain't hearing me complain about it :P

Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/uEi00Q9
Recipe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO0issT0Rmc
Question of the day: what foods have had a "click" in your lifetime? Perhaps something you have once hated, but then suddenly just finally understood. It's happened to me a few times, curious to see if anyone else has gotten that feeling hahahah.

Have a great day and STAY SAFE ! <3
Tomi, your friendly neighbourhood marshmallow~

hello hello dear friends !

I am here once again a little late on my curry posting this week... the whole world is just so in shambles right now! It's a bit of a heavy subject so I'll refrain from talking too much about it, but it's certainly affected me personally if I am honest. Might be a factor in why I decided for something so simple this week hahaha.

Anyways, we've got another Chana Masala this week ! Yes yes, the third week I do this recipe, and it's still quite a kicker ! This time, I used a recipe from the trusty ol' Bon Appetit, which was honestly probably the easiest one of all the ones I have made. Just put some tomatoes on some onions and add curry powder and chickpeas and BLAMO ! a delicious, hearty meal ! It's still crazy to me that such things like this exist... It took me like, what, a few minutes to dice and brown an onion ? then wait 20 minutes ? and then I get to have such a nice and happy time with my parents eating at the table together and cherishing moments together... all from something as simple as this! it really is a marvel, I tell ya.

Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/MORtjiv
Recipe: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/chana-masala
Question of the day: What is a food that you absolutely adore that is also quite healthy ?

Have a great day and STAY SAFE ! <3
Tomi, your friendly neighbourhood marshmallow~

Hello hello people ! Hope you are all doing well today :) This week, I have prepared possibly the most complex dish I have in this whole curry thing I started at the beginning of the year ! (side note, it really has been 5 months I've been making a curry dish every friday huh? that's insane hahahah) A Katsu Curry completely by scratch ! The process started on Wednesday, where I had to make a broth with a few spices, beef stock and mushrooms ! It took me a while to find some shiitake mushrooms... they always come in huuuge portions and I only needed a little bit lol. Now I have a bunch of shiitake mushrooms lyin around and I dunno what to do with them ! I guess I'll see :P After making the broth I chilled it for 2 days until friday where I started the curry prep. Curry was quite a simple dish to make, but the fun part was making katsu to go with it. Definitely a combination of flavours that go real well together ! As for the curry, it's a weird tasting thing. It definitely tastes like curry, but almost tastes like it in a branded way, you know? It's like the taste of a generic "Curry" dish. From my understanding that was kind of the point, but still, find it rather odd.. not that it's any bad though ! You can't really go wrong with curry powder :P I found that curry with calrose rice is actually quite phenomenal... calrose has such a distinct texture that it's barely even replaceable with any type of rice. Delish ! Overall, I think everything melded in together quite well and made for a real good sensory experience. I do think I could've salted the curry a little more, but my parents said it was fine so I left it as is hahahah. Definitely recommend this one if you have the patience to make a broth a few days early !

Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/EwrKmqR
Recipe: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/katsu-curry
Question of the day: What do you think is the best accompanying dish (i.e. crunchy bread, naan, rice...) ever? What do you usually have alongside your dishes?

Have a great day and STAY SAFE ! <3
Tomi, your friendly neighbourhood marshmallow~

this week's curry was a simple chicken korma recipe I made that I found on tesco foods' website, last place I'd expect to get a recipe for a curry hah. I'm quite happy with this experience because it's the first time in a while I've had significant leftovers after eating one of these, which means I totally ate less than I usually do. In fact, we had leftovers for over 2 more breakfasts left ! It makes me happy because I'm trying to lose a bit of weight out here... means I'm doing the good first step :P Anyhow, as it comes for the recipe, it was a quite simple recipe with not a lot of complexity to the spice mix. I do believe the added 'extra spices' it tells you to add at the bottom are real crucial for it to be extra delicious comparatively to what it would've been with just the main spices. One thing I did have to change tho was the usage of Chicken drumsticks instead of breasts as the recipe calls for, which ended up being alright as well. Honestly chicken dishes can pretty easily interchange the cut of chicken without it affecting the quality of the dish much, which is pretty great ! Another touch I found quite appealing was the use of toasted flaked almonds as a garnish, the crunchiness of the almonds made for a real nice textural contrast. Overall a simple dish and pretty by the books I think, but that doesn't mean it's any bad ! Def recommend if you're in the mood for something simple.

Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/L7Ix8T9
Recipe: https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/chicken-korma-curry.html

Question of the day: Any recent culinary discoveries you'd think people should know more about?

Have a great day and STAY SAFE ! <3
Tomi, your friendly neighbourhood marshmallow~

So this week I made another serious eats curry (which I actually think comes from another cook book but whatever I found it on serious eats hahahah) and it was a pretty simple chicken curry with a tomato and cream based sauce. It tastes a lot like a pseudo butter chicken made at home that I found to be quite great! Also, I might've accidentally made it a little more spicy than I imagined it would've been.. which to me is such a lovely accident! I've been liking spiciness in my food a lot more lately and I always feel underwhelmed by low hotness levels in my food.... So whenever I get to eat something super spicy it feels really great ! So, if you follow this recipe properly and make it a teeny bit spicier, I think you'll have a nice night :P overall quite the stellar recipe. I do believe it would go quite amazing with some naan which I didn't make ... So I'd recommend that too !!

Picture of the dish: http://imgur.com/gallery/3rZxujG
Recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/08/raghavan-iyer-ultimate-chicken-curry-from-indian-cooking-unfolded.html

Question of the day: do you prefer your food spicy or not spicy?

Have a great day and STAY SAFE ! <3
Tomi, your friendly neighbourhood marshmallow~

good day Tildees ! sorry for not posting according to schedule recently... been having a hard time doing most things in my life so it's a bit easier to leave this to a side for a bit. But alas, here I am with another weekly post! I like this community a lot, so I'll try and keep posting to at least keep in touch with the people here, it's great fun :)

Anyways, today I will present two dishes I made last week: Rogan Josh and Shakshuka !

The Rogan Josh recipe had so so many spices in it! I know that's basically the whole curry gimmick lol, but it's still quite shocking. Lotsa powders n whole spices I had to put here... Which ended up making for a quite nice flavour profile ! Not sure if it's quite authentic enough or whatever, but I found it nice !

Then the shakshuka came along which honestly blew my mind. I've been eyeing shakshuka for a while, kept seeing it on a really funny advertisement I used to get often and it looked quite tasty. Obviously, seeing as there was a Kenji recipe available for it, I had to try that one out ! Very delicious end product... nice contrast between the pepper and tomato flavours ! though I like my food a little spicier usually :P I've been discovering that red chili flakes are probably my new favourite condiment hahahah.... red chili flakes and black pepper go on basically everything for me nowadays !! they're such a great flavour boost, I love em to bits.

Anyways, good recipes! I recommend them; quite simple and delicious for any meal of the week :)

Picture of Rogan Josh: https://imgur.com/a/YZ3DeX8
Rogan Josh Recipe: https://imgur.com/a/zA87PnR
Picture of Shakshuka: https://imgur.com/a/nxPa2ad
Shakshuka Recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/09/shakshuka-north-african-shirred-eggs-tomato-pepper-recipe.html

Question of the day: Who is your favourite chef and why?

Have a great day and STAY SAFE ! <3
Tomi, your friendly neighbourhood marshmallow~

Hello, sorry for no posting Friday, got distracted with animal crossing hahahahah. I've had quite the rough week honestly, haven't felt this tired in a really long time. But I'm always happy to have a Curry dish waiting for me on Friday to make!

This week, I decided to tackle chana masala again, but with a more complex and intricate recipe! Chickpeas have always been one of my favourite ingredients, so I'm always glad to eat a dish based on them. It was quite a delicious dish, but what I was most proud of was the naan bread! It was the second time I tried making this (and this time I managed to do it all by myself). The recipe calls for grilling but I used a pan + blowtorch instead, which works quite well to be honest. It ended up being super delicious and very very similar to the taste of actual restaurant naan, which, again, makes me super happy. I think I was eating with too much happiness yesterday, my dad said I was eating a bit gross hahahah. A cool thing I found with this and last week's dish was how serious eats asks to put baking soda in the onions for them to completely disolve. Really strange technique but it's actually white genius, I should experiment with that in other dishes !

Chana masala remains one of my favourite and most comforting dishes, so I'd definitely recommend you give it a shot!

Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/5dsBSl1
Chana masala recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/04/channa-masala-recipe.html
Naan recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/08/grilled-naan-recipe.html

Question of the day: what is your comfort food?

Have a great day <3
Tomi, your friendly neighbourhood marshmallow~

Well, it was gonna happen eventually. I was gonna take another go on butter chicken! This time, I made the "better stovetop butter chicken" recipe from serious Eats! A world renowned food blog, I definitely expected something good to come out of it. And boy, I gotta tell ya, this recipe delivered in every way possible and THEN some !! This is what I love about cooking, being able to make something so delicious out of time and love. I wouldn't change much about it, other than I did salt it a little too much, and I think some jalapeños would give such a nice and beautiful contrast to the flavours ! The last butter chicken I did had them, and I feel like they're kind of missing here as a result. Honestly a flavour combo this good shouldn't even exist, it's insane. I am still shocked at it a few hours after hahahahah. Amazing recipe, definitely worth trying out !!!!

By the way, that flatbread there isn't naan, it's a sourdough pizza dough thing my dad made that we decided to make into flatbread with garlic butter. Very non traditional, but hey, it tastes great !

Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/cG6wMfq
Recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2020/03/stovetop-butter-chicken.html

Question of the day: Have any of you tried dabbling in fermented foods lately? My dad and I have been trying to get a sourdough starter up and running and it’s been pretty tough, but a very fun process nonetheless hahahahah.

Have a great day <3
Tomi, your friendly neighbourhood marshmallow~

Sorry for the delay, had some personal complications recently and couldn't find the time to post this here this morning hahahahh.

I was gonna make butter chicken today, but since it's good Friday we just haaad go eat a fish dish hahah. The fish we bought ended up being very expensive, but gosh it was worth it. Probably the nicest tasting fish I've ever personally had ! Very buttery and flaky, superb taste...

The curry was pretty good too, but it was similar to a lot of the other mustard seed based curries I've eaten. My dad, however, made this thing after we finished the dish with the leftover sauce. He put a bit more tamarind water in it and let it reduce for a while, which ended up making a richer and more complex sauce that I think beats the one I ate with the fish. If you're going to make this recipe, id suggest giving that a go, maybe you'll end up liking it more !

Overall a fun dish to make, simple, and great tasting. Would've been better if a) I didn't take a nap beforehand which made me completely and utterly tired and b) the fish wasn't so expensive ahahahah.

Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/0j7utl6
Recipe: https://imgur.com/a/ffHqbpP

Question of the day: are there any food traditions that you follow?

Have a great day <3
Tomi, your friendly neighbourhood marshmallow~

sorry for being a little late this late week, we started online school and I've been trying to get organized hahahahah. If you know me well you'd know I have no idea how to organize myself, so I'm trying to take the opportunity to learn a little !

Anyhow, this week's curry was Massaman curry! This marks the first time that I've decided to remake a curry, using a different recipe this time ! I got recommended the website thaifoodmaster.com by fellow reader of my curry escapades, @arghdos, and decided to give it a shot. Massaman curry was something that really shook me the first time I made it, and this was no different! It's funny how different the techniques we used in this one ended up being from the last one, but they still managed to taste very similar. Which isn't a bad thing, mind you! Still a very decadent, rich, and delicious dish that I think everyone should try. (Though a bit spicy, be careful with that. My mom was not too pleased !)

Little story time: the recipe called for charring the dried red chillies a bit before adding them to a paste, so we did that. I kid you not, for about 20 minutes after doing this, we were coughing at how spicy everything was in the room. I almost puked because of it hahahah. Fun times. (Funny how both times I made massaman I got really really spiced....). This time my dad and I decided to finally buy a decent food processor to make the paste, so it actually came out pretty smooth! I can't wait to use this processor for different recipes in the future, it's such a good feeling to finally have something that's good enough for pureeing hahah.

Overall, a great Recipe once again, that I found easier than the original one because of the techniques used being a lot less complicated. Great dish !

Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/QW5k0Th
Recipe: https://thaifoodmaster.com/preparation/curry_preparation/6679#.XojiDIhKguV

Question of the day: What Culture do you think has the best food?

Have a great day <3
Tomi, your friendly neighbourhood marshmallow~

I went today to the store to buy some chicken and coconut for this recipe and, man, does it feel unreal to have to wait in line to even get into something like a Maxi! it makes perfect sense, but it just feels so unreal still hahahah. Today I have cooked up a little Chicken Pepper Fry, which is, among other things, another very simple dish that could be made in any weeknight, though it isn't as easy as something like last week's chana masala. Ended up tasting a lot like Curry leaves and less like coconut, which I am not complaining about! Curry leaves are awesome. I do think this was missing some sort of punch, though. Felt a bit same-y to a lot of the other recipes I had made previously. But still, very hearty and delish nonetheless :P

Also, I'm thinking of using other sources for Curry recipes in the future, so be on the look out for that!

Picture of the Dish: https://imgur.com/a/dlbOIwA
Recipe: https://imgur.com/a/ENWAnGE

Question of the day: How has the recent COVID-19 pandemic, if at all, modified the way you eat on a daily basis?

Have a great day <3
Tomi, your friendly neighbourhood marshmallow~

I hadn't realized that every single recipe I had made so far has included some sort of meat in it, which, coming from indian cuisine, I didn't really expect at all...

Anyhow, this week I decided on making a Chana Masala! A recipe I've been eyeing out for some time, it doesn't actually come from the curry cookbook I had been using so far ! It came from a Binging With Babish video, which he uploaded not long ago. Honestly, I've always been such a big fan of chickpeas, which makes me wonder why I didn't make this recipe any sooner :P. The recipe is real simple; crushed tomatoes, spices, onion, and chickpeas! A very simple dish to make, it resembles a lot of the other 'weeknight curries' I've made, which might be a big reason why I love it so much ahahhaha. It feels so rewarding to make a really nice dish out of practically entirely canned ingredients, it's incredible really ! In times where it seems like everyone is stockpiling food, it's nice to have something relatively shelf stable and reliable to have in one's pantry, and something like garbanzo beans really are something of a hearty meal that I'd love to enjoy more of :)

Side note, this is the first time I try making Basmati rice with the starches sifted, which ended up making for some real tasty rice :P definitely recommend, it makes for a better side dish !!!

Picture of the Dish: https://imgur.com/a/2ZrPQea
Recipe: https://youtu.be/LfzKfD_WuDM

Question of the day: What is your favourite Vegan meal?

Have a great day <3
Tomi, your friendly neighbourhood marshmallow~

hello Tildes! (again hahahahah). As I explained on my first post here, I had already started blogging my curry cookings elsewhere before finally deciding to post them here. I was asked by user @cfabbro to post the others on this website, so here I am, making a big post for the first 7 of 9 curries I have made so far ! hope you enjoy :P (sorry for the low quality on some of these pictures hahahah, I try my best !)

Curry #1: Rendang daging / Beef Rendang

The first dish I decided to cook up was this dish from Malasya, it was beef rendang. A dish consisting of weird unknown ingredients to me, like galangal, a nice cut of braised beef and a metric fuckton of coconut. Like, it mostly tasted like coconut with a bit of galangal and lemongrass. And I am definitely not complaining. Ive never really tasted anything like it, and it really felt like a great experience to make it. Hadn't had this much fun in a while ahahahah. This definitely left a good mark on me, starting this whole stupid ass idea pretty well.

Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/4QfLDyS
Recipe: https://imgur.com/a/Fdbll1E

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Curry #2: Kerala Lamb

This was a dish consisting of, yet again, a fuckton of coconut. This had also a lot of mustard seeds and whatnot. Ended up tasting interesting too, although it was very similar to the rendang I made the week before. Which is surprising because theyre from two completely different parts of the world (first one is from South East Asia, this one was from India.) A good, well rounded dish that I would've probably enjoyed more if I didn't make it a week after the rendang.

Also, something that ended up being a mistake was making this with bone in storebought lamb cut into cubes, it ended up being too boney and didn't have enough meat. Kind of a letdown, but that's my own incompetence shining through.

Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/LnoRoEN
Recipe: https://imgur.com/a/AxVBkKm

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Curry #3: Murgh makhani / Old Delhi Style Chicken Curry

For the third week I decided to make a more classic dish, butter chicken! Which had less butter than I thought it did, but that's besides the point. This was the first dish where the meat wasn't entirely braised, which made it have a different texture to the last two ones. We used chicken breast, which might've not been the best idea, it came out a bit dry. This recipe calls for garam masala, which is a pretty classic spice mix used for a lot of different recipes. I can tell ya, it's pretty amazing. The whole recipe was a joy to make, and ended up being the best recipe I had eaten so far honestly. I'd highly recommend doing this !

Also, shoutout to my homemade naan bread that ended up being p sucky. Will have to keep experimenting until I perfect the recipe.

Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/QrxP9T0
Recipe: https://imgur.com/a/6Kcbpc9

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Curry #4: Kozhy kuruma / South Indian Chicken Korma

A month into this curry business, and also the third time I try to make naan and the only time it has come out well, very happy with the bread ! The recipe calls for mostly a water and spice based "broth", no sort of milk product like the other ones I made. Also called for some cachews which was surprising. It's genuinely surprising how much you can do with water and some spices, I'm genuinely really surprised. By far the easiest recipe I've made so far and honestly well worth it. Can see this as a recipe you could make as a weeknight dish. With the naan bread coming out so well, I think this was my favourite experience making one of these !

Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/4Hp8Yxk
Recipe: https://imgur.com/a/2PKt7II

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Curry #5: Jamaican Goat Curry

So I had been eyeing this recipe for maybe a month or so now, and I'm very happy to finally make it. Funnily enough, I didn't get the opportunity to use goat for this recipe. My dad and I went through the entire city, butcher by butcher, trying to find some god damn goat, but to no avail. That's alright, though, we just used lamb instead. The recipe called for "Caribbean curry powder" which was very vague in in of itself, so we found this real nice spice mix from the spice market near our house that kind of made this dish what it ended up being. I don't think this ended up tasting anything like what it was supposed to taste like, but who's to say that's a bad thing ? I loved this as a curry, even though the experience making it ended up being a bit tedious (going around the city trying to find something you ultimately don't find really gets you a bit cranky hahah) but well worth it after all. I think my mom is starting to get tired of this silly tradition I've cooked up, but I don't really think I'll be stopping anytime soon.

The curry ended up being very coconut-y like every other coconut milk based recipes I've made so far, but so far I think it's been the best of it's kind. Definitely does not taste like anything from India, which makes sense since, it's, y'know, carribean. This being pretty different but similar to things I've eaten before made it a fun and enjoyable experience in the end. Definitely recommend you make something like this someday, maybe with some real goat instead of lamb.

Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/2K6Yw5H
Recipe: https://imgur.com/a/Bh72GGt

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Curry #6: Gang keo goung / Green shrimp curry with fresh dill

Sixth curry in, this one was surprisingly incredibly simple. It had like three steps to it. Really cost efficient, too. This recipe called for some lime leaves, which give a sort of orange peel flavour to the whole dish. I'm not the biggest fan of this, like I think it's good but it's not something I seek. I do think it worked well with this specific recipe, though. Other than that, the potatoes were really nice and tender inside and the curry paste we used had nice flavours. We also added some peanuts alongside the dill for garnish, which wasn't part of the recipe but it really brought the thing up to a new level. Overall, I am very satisfied with it, but it might still be something that I need to indulge a little bit more in to find its truest colours.

Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/Vq7Wxlv
Recipe: https://imgur.com/a/8OpcWRd

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Curry #7: Geng Massaman / Muslim-style curry of duck with potatoes and onions

Genuinely one of the strangest cooking experienced I've lived through, I learned what people meant by "don't touch your Weiner after cooking with jalapeños" maybe in too much of a hard way... Sheesh... And just, in general,

What the fuck is this dish?

It calls for tamarind water, pineapple juice, cumin, lemongrass, sugar !!!!, coconut milk and cream, cinnamon, cloves, garlic, shallots, and so much more. I didn't even cut the lemongrass well so the paste I ended up making was really fiberous and it wasn't that great of a paste but God damn those flavour combos are off the charts ! I've never eaten anything like this before, it tastes like a sweet soup that also managed to be spicy and taste like god damn onions !!! You had to DEEP FRY the god damn duck, potatoes, and even peanuts!!!! DEEP FRIED PEANUTS !!!! that means some idiot like me who picked up this book and decided to make this recipe had possibly deep fried peanuts in God damn peanut oil !!! (Which is honestly pretty hilarious to think of)

I genuinely don't know what to say other than I had a blast making it. My dick basically caught on fire and we made a huge mess. One of the best cooking experiences I've ever had and the result doesn't even look like the recipe we tried to make !!!!

The flavours were so complex it just blew my fucking mind, I love this so much. If you're looking to expand your palette and wanna try something real different from any other Western culture I fucking recommend this. Solid solid dish, and would be better if the execution wasn't so disoriented and disorganized.

Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/GzT7sjF
Recipe: https://imgur.com/a/UbAAJ8n

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Today's question: what makes you personally enjoy home cooking? What makes it something you desire to do?

Have a great day <3
Tomi, your friendly neighbourhood marshmallow~

Hello my dear Tildees! Today seemed to be quite a turbulent day for us all as we settle in a lot of different prevention methods for this so called COVID-19 outbreak, which is truly shocking for me and probably a lot of other people. But alas, the planet's is still spinning, time is still going, and we still have our own personal things to do and to enjoy. I hope that whoever is feeling anxious and discomforted by this entire COVID-19 outbreak can feel relieved by posts such as these and I hope it can make you realize that things are gonna be alright after all :)

Today we decided to make Chicken Tikka Masala! A curry staple, it is probably THE english curry dish to top them all. I've heard a lot of people say it is best left to the restaurants to make, and that it isn't very suited for the home cook, so I decided to try it out because I have no self control ! The finished result ended up being very good, but with a lot of flaws (probably mostly because of me though hahahaha). It ended up tasting very lemony and, comparatively to something like the butter chicken that I made (which, I know doesn't really have much to do with Tikka Masala but I was expecting them to be very similar), had a bigger emphasis on bringing out the sauce ingredients, like the tomatoes and peppers, over bringing out the spices, which I don't find as interesting. I think this might just be because it's not really an 'Indian' dish, and more of a British dish. I am fine with it, but, honestly, I do prefer me a spicy and aromatic dish compared to one that just tastes of tomato hahahah. I also put wayyyy too much lime in this, so it just tasted very limey....

I am talking badly of this a lot but I do think it was a real nice meal in the end. I just do believe, comparing it to something like the butter chicken I made a few weeks back, it could've came out a lot more interesting and unique comparatively. Still would recommend giving it a shot if you personally love Tikka Masala, though!

Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/csvu2uQ
recipe: https://imgur.com/5pynwkb

Today's question: What makes you like Indian cuisine? And if you do not personally enjoy it, what makes you dislike it?

Have a great day <3
Tomi, your friendly neighbourhood marshmallow~

Greetings fellow Tildes users! It has been quite a long time since I have found myself on this website. I hope everyone is doing just fine today :). For a while now, I have been getting increasingly more interested in food and everything that has to do with the cooking process. I have put it into my hands to try to learn as much as I can about this beautiful art, starting with a special type of dish that really speaks to me: Curries!

My uncle gave me this odd little book once called "Curry Cuisine: Fragrant Dishes from India, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia" by David A. Thompson and Vivek Singh. (here's a link if you're interested to buy it: https://www.amazon.com/Curry-Fragrant-Thailand-Vietnam-Indonesia-ebook/dp/B07HXVWFCJ) I hadn't really thought of it that much until one day I had a mind blowing night at an Indian restaurant, which, I cannot remember the name of right now :/.

During that time, as well, I hadn't really been feeling that great mentally and I didn't really know what to do with my spare time without just getting bored all the time. So, combining that exquisite culinary experience plus the fact that I needed new activities to get me out of the boredom I was feeling, I decided to start up cooking for my parents and myself, and what better place to start than the cookbook my uncle gave me as a gift ! So now, every Friday, I make a curry from this little cute green cookbook I own, and it brings me a lot of joy to make it!

for the two months I have been doing this so far, I have posted little blog posts on various discord servers about the dishes I make, and due to some people enjoying what I write and do on the discord servers and due to some demand, I have decided that I will post those blogs up here in Tildes for you people to enjoy and share! I will also be putting a question at the end, just to not make it too dry in the comment section :P If asked, I will post the previous posts from the 7 first weeks in a separate post, if you would like to read :)

But enough of that, here's what I made today! (I usually make these on fridays, but I am doing this one day early because I got stuff to do tomorrow hahah. You do with what you've got !) Today I made a pretty simple dish that I ended up fucking up somewhat. The potatoes ended up being a bit overcooked and not crispy at all, which was disappointed. But at least that was just the side dish! Main dish was a very simple "hogao" like sauce on some pork chops. Man, it's impressive what you can do with water, onions, tomatoes and a few spices! It's tasty and very simple, I'd do it just for any day weeknight meal ! Highly recommend this kind of curry for anyone trying to spice up their weeknights, it'll give ya a nice kick :)

Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/fAZyj7F
[EDIT: will put a picture of the recipe from now on due to demand !] recipe: https://imgur.com/GUN52uz

Today's question: what is your favourite recipe containing pork chops?

Have a great day <3
Tomi, your friendly neighbourhood marshmallow~

With my sister arriving from another continent along with my nephew/godson and brother-in-law, and my mother also coming from abroad to stay with us, I had the first reunion from this side of the family in more than 2 years. It was awesome for obvious reasons, and one of them was the fact that women in my family usually love food and cook very well. I'm not a bad cook myself, but they're tough competition.

So I had the idea to take a few pictures and share them with Tildes, along with some commentary.

Theses dishes are typical of our region of Bahia, Brazil. They may have versions in other states, usually with significant differences.

All foods are savory.

With one exception, all photos were taken in my kitchen.

1. Shrimp Stew

Just shrimp with some spices and farofa de mandioca^[1]. The quality and freshness of the shrimp are one of the most important factors, and living in front of the ocean certainly helps.

Images:

• Shrimp in the pan
• Farofa de mandioca
• Shrimp and farofa on the plate

2. Lambreta

A kind of clam that's only available in Bahia (or at least mainly appreciated here). Like many things from our coast, it's naturally tasty and doesn't require much preparation. Salt, onions, tomatoes and lemon juice are more than enough. They're quick to cook — lambretas are ready when they naturally open.

Image: Lambretas on the plate (source).

3. Mangrove Crab

Our crabs are very different from what most people are used to eat elsewhere. They do not come from the sea, but from manguezais^[2] (mangrove vegetation), an ecosystem that grows in brackish water (salt-water and fresh-water mixed together).

These crabs are smaller and carry less meat, but are way more succulent, with a unique taste that is hard to explain and easy to love. We use a variety of ingredients and spices to enhance their flavor, but it's overall a simple preparation, mainly consisting of water, salt, onions, and cilantro.

Many people, including my mother, used to cook them alive for a better taste. I convinced her to stop doing that and they're still delicious.

Image: crabs cooking in the pot.

4. Abará

This one is neither simple nor easy.

First there's a dough made of mashed black-eyed peas. When fried on palm oil, it becomes the acarajé. When you add palm oil to the dough and cook it in banana tree leaves, it is called abará. They're both highly sought treats across the country, and I happen to live in the most African city of Brazil, which has the best acarajés and abarás in the country :). It's really hard to digest, though, and it's not rare for tourists to feel sick after the first time they eat those. But they always come back for more! Acarajé and abará are actually "comida de santo" ("holy foods"), meaning they have ceremonial significance in the African-Brazilian religion called Canbomblé.

It's usually eaten with vatapá, an Afro-Brazilian dish made from bread (my mother uses black-eyed-beans for that), shrimp, coconut milk, finely ground peanuts and palm oil mashed into a creamy paste.

Abará is a popular street food in our region of Brazil, sold mostly by women from humble origins. Along with acarajé, it's a point of contention with neo-charismatic "baianas de acarajé" who sell the same product using the name calling them "Jesus cakes". They do so because, for them, religions of African origin are literally "the Devil".

Ingredients

• Cilantro
• Onion
• Tomato
• Peanut
• Dry Shrimp
• Black-Eyed Peas

Image: the ingredients together (minus the black-eyed peas).

Preparation

The vatapá must be constantly stirred. It is quite thick, so that's a labor-intensive job. Everyone must help.

Image: stirring the vatapá.

Images of the end result:

• Image 1
• Image 2

Footnotes

^[1] A gift from our Native heritage, it's the toasted version of "farinha de mandioca", a kind of rough flour that enhances the flavor and texture of the dish.

^[2] The equivalent page on Wikipedia only address the mangrove trees, and doesn't really convey that manguezais are unique ecosystems in which includes those trees.