The Fall Colors of Chicken Curry

I'd like to imagine that Giada de Laurentis absolutely ADORES my curry leaf vermicelli. I'd like to go so far as the fact that the Iron Chef people begged me to join them, but I refused because I'm not that fond of the pale blue color of the chef's jacket. Like I said, those are conversations I really shouldn't share with you on my first blog, should I? Oh, well. You knew it was a lie, come on, didn’t you? I’m not a chef, my chopping skills are rudimentary, and every recipe is a scientific experiment. The only fact that's a fact is that I'm a foodie, and I love everything about it--the cooking, eating, talking (about it) and eating again. I appreciate organic foods, fresh, local produce, new recipes that can be simplified. I love food, whether you cook it or I do.


All of us have our secret recipes. Some of us share them, some are sneaky. If you're a spy, you can figure out family secrets (and recipes) easily. I'm not a spy, and if I were, I'd be very bad at it. So I have a motto. Which is, to share what I know, recipes, that is, and hopefully you'll do the same. My second motto is (who says you can have only one motto?) is: take that recipe, and make it simple. If something takes longer than an hour to make, prepare, monitor, turn, baste etc., you need to question, why? After all, life’s so short and there’s that hang-gliding lesson or that zip-lining trip you’d always wanted to take but never could make the time for? Okay, rule of thumb—if something takes more than an hour to make, as in, stand in front of the dish, stare at it or stir it (you know what I mean), then please, please question why you’re even trying to do this. Now if you like staring at bubbles, or splattering liquids, I’d suggest a spa or a volcano trip, but if you absolutely want to stand in front of your stove with a ladle and simmering liquid, be my guest. You can stir my soups too if you want (that didn’t come out right, did it?).


First of all, why Desi Twist? Desi, being that I’m Indian, desi meaning ‘from the country’, the country being India, and that’s cuisine most familiar. So if I present an Indianized apple pie recipe sometime later, please don’t be mad. I already said I love food, so bear with me, will you? Anyway, twisted, because I think every recipe can be modified, every recipe needs a shortcut and sometimes those twists in the original recipes can be great and good surprises. It’s what I look for when I eat out or steal my friends’ recipes. That’s what Desi Twist’s about—food made easy. Not food made inedible, in case you were wondering.


I live in California and still consider Delhi home. It adds a twist to my culinary thinking, especially an Indo-California one. The folks on the east coast tch, tch at our weather—oh, those poor Californians, no weather change, no fall colors, no color, only sunshine and beaches, oh, those poor people. Ah, but you see my fellow foodies, you enjoy your oranges, rusts and reds on trees, I’ll have that in my food, thank you very much. The good part of living in southern California is that you have tons of year-round farmers’ markets, organic food and fruit stands and fresh leafy greens to choose from. And nothing wrong if you want non-organic food, but to tell you the truth, the flavor in organically grown produce is something that cannot be reproduced in a factory setting. Eating local gets you food grown near you, supports the local community, and you end up eating food filled with sunshine, color and health.


Today, being the day of twists, I'm sharing a simplified version of a dish I've grown up with. This'll be one of the few recipes very Indian, more Indian than twisted. It's very Bengali actually—a typical chicken curry with potatoes. Not because I wanted to start with an authentic Indian dish, but because the dish exhibits all the fall colors—the yellows, ochres and rusts. This is comfort food, reminds me of home (as in Delhi), the weekend, and Ma cooking chicken for lunch while my sister and I tried our best on getting on each other's nerves. Yes, those days, when the biggest issue in my life was how to make my sister's (life) more miserable than mine. Oh, well. Chicken curry—my version, next post. You can share yours when you have the chance and feel the need to.

Till then, enjoy!