Personal Dork Assistant

Fire burn, and cauldron bubble

Bought a box of Japanese curry paste long ago at 99 Ranch and it's been languishing in the pantry ever since. Well, I wasn't inspired to cook much of anything right now, after being fed by vastly more competent cooks during my time away, so a simple dish like curry sounded like a good idea. After all, it can be made in a big batch, goes well over rice, and gives me a chance to use up my frozen boneless chicken thighs before they're freezer-burned to oblivion. Didn't quite have as much meat as the box recommended, but I tossed in some potatoes and other veggies to compensate. Still didn't quite know what I'd got myself into until I put in all six cups of water as directed. The liquid plus the stuff was filling up my biggest pot almost to the brim, and that was before I put in the curry paste. I guess mom must've only used half a box's worth of paste at a time. The curry turned out fine. The box's worth of curry goop thickened and flavored all that liquid in nothing flat. But it looks like I'll be eating curry-and-rice for a long time. I hope curry freezes well.

On a smaller culinary scale, I managed to replicate the orange-dissection technique of uncle's Japanese restaurant in Taiwan. Trim the rinds off the top and bottom of the orange to create flat surfaces, then halve the orange parallel to the flat ends. Run a paring knife at an angle against the skin on the inside to remove the fruit, leaving an annulus of orange peel. The fruit is cut into bite-sized pieces. The trimmed top piece of rind is put back into the peel ring to form a base, making a little bowl for the fruit. Alternatively, I think the a couple scoops of ice cream in the orange-peel bowl, with the sectioned fruit on top, would make a lovely dessert presentation.