Found Poetry and Food - Chicken Tikka Masala and Flat Bread
Today's Poem
Today's Found Poetry: Pandemic Edition Poem's theme is "It takes two to tango". Here's today's poem.
tropical sunshine lay like warm honey on naked bodies
tumbling promiscuously among hibiscus blossoms
conception was the work of ancestral ghosts
Extremes were made to meet
mothers and fathers
brothers and sisters
husbands, wives, lovers
monogamy and romance
exclusiveness - a narrow channelling of impulse and energy
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World ; and, Brave New World Revisited. Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2004.
Reflections
A little first on the poem. There is plenty of discussion of sex and reproduction in Brave New World so going to that place was an easy decision with this prompt. As a single woman with no kids, this idea of not being allowed/encouraged to have children is part of what intrigues me about this book - and always has. I learned at a rather young age it would be unlikely I'd have children and it was right around that time in my life that I first read this book. I've always believed that the experience at that time formed my enjoyment of the book.
Today's Chicken Tikka Masala with Homemade Flatbread
Today was a lazy, slow Sunday - my favorite kind of day in any time. I've really enjoyed cooking while I've been in quarantine. I have always loved food and trying things out in the kitchen. It's one of the ultimate forms of creativity for me. Sundays are one of those rare times that I can usually embrace the creativity of spending some of the day in the kitchen.
Two weeks ago I made Chicken Tikka Masala using Wellmade by Erin's Instant Pot recipe. I opted to do it stovetop rather than in the Instant Pot. My mom - who is an amazing cook - taught me that a recipe is just a starting point so using Erin's recipe, I did a few tweaks last week - and wanted to experiment a bit more today.
Here is how I modified Erin's recipe:
I cut up the chicken last night and marinated it in about 1/3 cup of greek yogurt mixed with all the spices except the cayenne. (I still added all the spices in their exact same quantities when I cooked fresh so you're essentially doubling all spices except the cayenne.)
I added the zest of a lemon with the aromatics. I added the juice of the lemon just before the tomato sauce.
I added a teaspoon of smoked paprika to my spice line-up because I adore paprika.
I added about 2T of tomato paste just after the spices were incorporated - stirring until it opened up (about 1 - 2 minutes). I did this last week because I didn't have any tomato sauce and was using canned diced tomatoes. I still added the tomato paste today, even though I do now have tomato sauce and used that. The diced tomatoes worked really well last week so feel free to make that sub in a pinch.
Sadly, I forgot to add the cayenne today when I was cooking. Even though I don't love spice and I'm really light with it when I do use it, the dish didn't have the depth that the cayenne gave it last time. I won't make that mistake again.
I also made this flatbread recipe. I didn't change much about it except for using whole wheat flour and almond milk simply because it's what I had on hand. I also wasn't paying attention and added baking soda instead of baking powder (#bigoops). Since it was fully mixed in before I realized my mistake I just added the baking powder and went on. No big deal in the end. I cooked these in my favorite cast iron skillet which worked perfectly - except that I left it turned up a little too high so things got a tiny bit smokey. I'm happy to report that all of the smoke detectors in my house work just fine.
We had a lovely family visit today by video. Lauren was excited to tell us all about the very cool butterflies that her Nana got her. Two of them emerged from their chrysalis right after we ended the call.
Our family video chat today