Week 6, Cooking Day 1: Spinach Curry

Today I watched non-football television for the first time in 2008. It was kind of glorious. I also cooked a meal for some friends, though we didn't eat until about 11:40 p.m., which obviously feels kind of weird--going to sleep with a full stomach of dinner is generally inadvisable when possibly avoidable. Read below for details.


Tiny stove+limited space+inadequate cookingware=dish split in two

Because I was cooking for eight (hah! a silly start), I felt a little reticent about really "preparing a meal", because of the cost financially and timewise, but also because the thought of spending an hour preparing a meal for eight people and have it turn out terribly, leading me to receive forced smiles or false compliments (or open criticism) seemed depressing. So i hedged a bit and made the chicken with a handy Trader Joe's simmer sauce, the generally great Punjab Spinach Simmer. I felt a little guilty about this, but there were after all eight people, and anyway I still had to prepare the chicken breasts and cook them, as well as the rice and broccoli/carrots. And, as I explained to a friend, this exercise isn't about an awesome cook who's just lazy/tired but is once again donning the robes to spread blessing upon the community; I'm a guy who never cooks, knows little about cooking, and frequently makes shitty dishes when he does "cook."

Still, as hard as it may be to imagine, even with this silly little dish I was still nervous about it coming out terribly--under/overcooking the chicken (not a problem), rice (all good), or vegetables (not terrible but beginning to approach the Dot Koeppel land of nutrient-removed mushtables). Luckily, because British people are either nice or too used to eating shitty food, they seemed satisfied enough, which was nice. I will attempt to prepare more complicated dishes as the week goes on, but I felt good about at least getting started here.

More documentation:


Praying I have cooked the chicken enough to avoid poisoning my guests with salmonella


Chickens bathing in currylicious juices.


Squeezing it all in there, sloppily.


Even men in aprons are dangerous with knives.


Harry takes the first bite.


Chicken, relatively juicy and ok. Rice, just about right. Vegetables... nutrient-free 1940s wartime style.


I wish I could say I made this but this is absolutely a gift addition of comestible wizardry from E-bad. She wins.