Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Boud's excellent Three Part Day

Not exactly planned that way, but here goes.

Part One was the rice part of the Dinner.

This took most of the morning, just as well I divided the cooking over a couple of days. It's not just about time, when a person gets older, it's about energy too. I need enough left to enjoy the meal and the company tomorrow.

Anyway, started with a debate. The recipe says firmly to leave the rice soaking in water for two hours. The rice people say never do that, never, you'll drain off flavor and nutrition. So  I  did soak and drain, but saved the rice water for soup, see below.

Then the assembly of the doings and the discovery that I didn't, after all, have ground coriander which I was sure I did. Much searching, and I concluded I must have used it up in a spice mix, reused the container and forgotten to get more. I also didn't have green chilies, no idea about them, but nevermind.

Well, considering all the flavors in this dish, one or two instruments missing from the orchestra isn't a problem.

Here's the draining of the rice to save the water.
























Here's the onions and various other items, tomatoes, spices, garlic, ginger, cardamom frying together





Then the addition of the stock and several processes later, here's the cooked rice.

Now in the fridge to warm up tomorrow and it smells good enough to warrant the labor.

Tomorrow is about the fish, now thawing in the fridge, marinating, cubing the halibut, frying in another selection of spices, before heaping on top of the hot rice to serve.  There will be a lot. 

Then I thought, after a lunch of Red Chowder(!) I thought I'd start on the blogpost.

Then the power and wifi went out. This triggered a visit from next door and a call from down the street, was it just them? No, it was out all over.

So part two of the day was walking then dozing over  a Sayers book on my Kindle, and generally keeping warm in a cooling and darkening house.  It was very quiet with no systems running. I could hear geese flying over.

Power came back in time to catch Textiles and Tea, about which more tomorrow. I'm a bit spent, low in spoons right now. 

But so far so good with the Bahreini dinner.


12 comments:

  1. It looks like delicious rice and worth the effort.

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  2. I hope it's worth it. I really like additions to rice such as sliced almonds and golden raisins. I decided against them this time, so much already in there.

    Debra, as Churchill said on weightier issues: this is not the end. It's not the beginning of the end. It's only the end of the beginning!

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  3. I could smell that rice simmering from out here...!

    Chris from Boise

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  4. Ooh- that rice does look good! You know, I'd bet almost anything that one of your neighbors might have had a bit of ground coriander you could have borrowed! But you're right- it will be lovely even without it.

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  5. It does look tasty. By coincidence I tried to buy some ground coriander at the store yesterday but they didn't have any. I'm going to ask my neighbor if she has any, I only need a small amount, before I look elsewhere.

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  6. Glad you got your power back. That rice looks delicious.

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  7. Sounds like the best way to spend a powerless day and thank goodness it came back before the inside was as cold as the outside!

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  8. Mary, here's the thing: my Indian neighbors often have a wide range of spices. And they don't often know the English names. So it could be a bit time consuming. Also I already had the food rapidly cooking, when I realized.
    Girija and I used to sniff together in my kitchen,so I could provide English names for her!

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  9. Ellen, no good asking me at the moment!

    I was a bit concerned about the cold, but I didn't need to break out the aluminum blanket in the end.

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  10. So glad you weren't in the cold for too long. Sounds worrisome, though. That rice looks amazing. You're getting me in the mood to cook more than just quickie things I've been doing lately.

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