Cooking Roti with my Husband (a live story pt5)
Why chicken thigh matters when cooking curry chicken for roti.
But first we must let the curry simmer for a long time, while starving from the tease of fresh roti skins sitting out on the stove tempting we.
Curry can not be rushed. I don’t know what the magic is but it never tastes quite right when it’s thrown together. It needs time to simmer and marinate. The onions must caramelize. The potatoes must cook and soak up all the spices. The beans must have the proper tenderness. Curry has to melt in your mouth, between your fingers and run down yah hand so.
Eating curry with roti is a tactile experience. There is no fork or spoon or napkin. You don’t wear white and eat curry. The roti is the spoon and the napkin. It is used to grab the curry contents, soak up the juices and keep your hands relatively dry enough not to drop your food before it hits your mouth.
Kevin workshopped a new curry method today. I love to watch him take my feedback and innovate his way through my problems. Am I, like, his personal project? Do I provide challenges that stimulate him? I wonder.
In the past, I’ve complained about same day curry tasting bland. I’ve complained about the bones in traditional (or at least not-home-made) curry for roti they cut the roti skin and make a horrible eating experience. You either have to pick out the bones if the roti is on the side or suffer through your mouth being poked when it is rolled up like a burrito. I’ve complained about the texture or dry chicken. I’ve complained about excessive salt.
Somewhere, some-when, my husband took all those concerns of mine and his own pet peeves with fast casual roti joints, processed them and found solutions to problems long ignored by our elders. His curry is now made with coconut mylk not just water. The coconut mylk gives the curry a creamy texture that holds the contents together long enough to catch the food in your roti skin without it slipping out too soon or dribbling down quickly. He tackled the time it takes to allow the flavor of curry to soak into the food by pre-seasoning the meat the night before giving it nearly 12 hours to marinate. That added time facilitates the flavor of the spices popping throughout the entire chewing experience rather than a watered down taste only at first bite.
“Oh shit the food was so good I didn’t think to add pepper sauce.”
So why chicken thigh? It’s juicier than any other part of the chicken. It doesn’t dry out when cooked and it absorbs the flavor completely. Also the texture of thighs doesn’t leave me wanting for the texture of goat or shrimp which offer a softer chew and less dry mouth in the end. All in all my husband made a flavor rich, tender curry to wrap up in fresh made roti that doesn’t upset my gluten intolerant system.
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