Route 79

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November 08, 2003

Purple haze

Another week of back-to-back meetings and deadlines that involved working late and being so tired that I didn't get a chance to even think about updating here. It's amazing how you can do so much - and so many things happen - in seven long days - and yet when I put my mind to it - I *still* can't seem to account for what I've done. I simply cannot remember! The "haze" stil hangs in there I suppose. And now it's dark when you get up - and dark when you get home - which means that focussing on anything in the distance is hard - which means that daydreaming on the bus whilst staring out the window is difficult. As I try to gather together my thoughts here, I seem to recall that last week I talked about "no lunch" days. This week I had two of them. I remember that much. So what did I have for lunch on the other three? (Long pause) I remember now: a tried a take-away food shop that looks like a rundown shack - staffed by old ladies that appear to have been there for the last 40 years - and frequented by Black Cab drivers and London Bus drivers who seem to gather in their hordes at the end of Hammersmith Grove at lunch times. It seems that this is a "big all-day breakfast bap" sort of place. And I mean BIG. Real "drivers" food. Sausages, bacons and dripping-yellow-yolk fried egg - prepared right in front of your eyes, laid out onto a large white-bread bap - smothered in your choice of brown sauce or tomato ketchup and then cut into two and wrapped up in grease-proof paper and popped into a brown paper bag. As I waited in the queue I couldn't make up my mind - so when one of the ladies shouted "Who's next!", I just couldn't decide. Much as the breakfast baps were tempting - i just couldn't bring myself around to ordering one - so I asked after the "homemade" soup. "Spicy lentil" she shouted. "I'll have one of those please" I returned - not knowing whether I really wanted one. I've never had "lentil" soup before. And I would never have ordered something like that from a place like this. Oh well - she went to the back of the shop and poured a couple of ladle-fulls of thick orangey stuff into a polystyrene cup and popped it into a brown paper bag with a plastic spoon and napkin. I took it back to my desk - tried a couple of spoons - put the lid back on and threw it into the bin. So - that lunch actually turned out to be no-lunch really. The other two lunches were, I remember now, Macdonalds fish-burger and large fries - again eaten at my desk. And on Friday I treated myself to a take-away spicy-pasta (with extra Tabasco) from the Italian take-away in the back-corner of the Broadway Shopping centre. That was the only really enjoyable lunch that I had - even if it was eaten at my desk whilst being interrupted by colleagues stopping by the get an update on this, or an opinion on that, or the whereabouts of whomever. Woke up one morning and found that one of the outside walls to the front of my house (which is an end-of-terrace "town" house which means that there is no barrier between my front door and the pavement of the road) had been "tagged". Yes - it's finally happened to me. Bright purple, spray-can, graffiti scrawl of someone's alter-ego. I was furious. Subsquently found out that Brent Council offers a graffiti-removal service - which is free the first time you become a "victim" - and subsidised thereafter. What I also found out is that if anybody (and I mean *anybody*) reports visible graffiti on your property - the council "StreetCare" team send you an awfully official letter reminding you of byelaws that make the removal of the graffiti within 14 days mandatory - otherwise they will remove it themselves and charge you. I was beyond caring at this point. And I am too embarrassed to take a picture of it an put it up right here too. In a funny sort of way - I like graffiti - but what the stupid fucker put up on my wall was a simple, unreadbale, unaesthetic tag. If it has been a colourful work of complex art then I wouldn't have minded. And if that were the case and the council sent me a nasty letter - then I would have written back to state that it was my own decoration. But alas ... Went to get my hair cut this morning. Barber shop on the high street. It's really great that institutions like this still exist - unwritten rules - you take a random seat on one side of the shop as your waiting for one of the three barbers to become free - and even though you don't sit in any particular order - everybody knows who's next! I waited around 20 minutes before I got my seat at he swivel high-chair. 20 minutes of immersion into a random newspaper that I wouldn't normally read. It was the Express I think - can't actually remember - but the entire 20 minutes was taken up by me reading every word of a 4 page feature of the Soham girls murder trial. Popped in to a few of the many Indian grocers on the high street on the way back - looking out keenly for the best fruits - at the best prices - and gathered up the week's supply of fruit and veg. I declared myself a 21st century hunter-gatherer as I carried my bags home. Please forgive me - but I'm going to post the details of this-afternoon's cook-out. I know I posted one last week - so please don't think that this journal is turning into a cookbook - it's just that I'm feeling that I really ought to show something for all the endless work during the week, and the hunter-gathering on the weekend. After all - it seems that existence is all about working to keep a kitchen (who's mortgage interest rate has just gone up this week) and cook food. This is what 21st-century survival is all about ... This time it's "Chicken-a-la-Route79". Get some chicken: skinless, boneless, chicken thighs from your high-street butcher shop. Wash and chop up into bite-size pieces. I used around 750g today. This will cook enough for 4 hungry adults. Do not use chicken breast - as chicken breast is so dry and bland - and the end-result will be really crap. Goodness knows why chicken breast is so expensive here in UK - it's the worst, most tasteless, pointless part of the chicken. The thigh or leg actually has the tastie and is a better texture when cooked - and yet it's a lot cheaper than breast! Bizzare hey? Not sure I understand this logic - but I'm not complaining! Also peel around 4 small/medium onions - and wash and de-seed around 4 peppers - two large green, 2 small/medium red. You will also need a couple of tins of peeled plum tomato - and the usual spices: haldi (turmeric), salt, ground-dhania (coriander) and garam masala - as well as some pulped garlic, ginger and chillie. Plenty of garlic and ginger for this much chicken. Also - not shown in the picture is a bunch of fresh coriander. I used some frozen, chopped coriander - which was prepared weeks ago by moi from several bunches of fresh coriander from the grocer shop. OK - so chop all the onions into coarse-ish strips. Also chop all the peppers into bite-sized chunks. And get an electric blender ready. Open up the tins of plum tomato - and pour the contents of one of them into the blender. Then add some pieces of the chopped green pepper - about 1 peppers worth. Give it a good 15 second zap. Then add a bunch of fresh coriander leaf - stalks and all. Zap for another 15 seconds or so. Then add the pre-pulped garlic, ginger and chillie - add the second tin of tomato - and zap it for another 10 seconds. What you should have is a thick dark green-ish sauce - which you should then pour into a large bowl. Then add the powdered spices to the sauce bowl: about 3 heaped teaspoons of haldi, 3 or 4 heaped teaspoons of garam masala - 2 teaspoons of salt, and 2 heaps of ground coriander. Don't be put off by the colour of the sauce at this point - a dark dirty-green swamp type sauce - when it cooks it will go a wonderfully aromatic rich reddish-brown! Stir in the ground spices thoroughly. It was at this point that little MissRoute79 came running into kitchen and pleaded with me if she could help me. So - I let her stir it around. (She had to stand on a foot-stool to reach!) You also need to get the onions cooking out now. Put plenty of oil into a large cooking pan - and stir fry the onions until they start to become translucentish. This might take around 10 mins. Then add the remaining chunks of red and green pepper - and stir fry until the onions have started to go goldenish brown. At this point - pour in the chopped chicken thighs - and stir fry carefully. Stir-fry the chicken until the chicken has turned from slimy-pink to rubbery-white. At this point you should pour the spicy sauce mixture over the chicken. Give the pot a good, thorough stir - ensuring all the chicken is covered in the sauce. Do this whilst the flame is on really high - so that eventually the whole pot starts to boil nearly fiercely! Now lower the flame to the lowest you can go - and place a lid on the pot - leaving a little gap for steam to escape - and the sauce to reduce. Leave it slow-simmering like this for about 1 hour - coming back to stir it around every 15 minutes or so. Then take a taste of the sauce with a spoon - to test if there's enough salt or spices. If not - add some more salt and garam masala - and keep tasting until it tastes perfect. Voila! It's done. Put lid back on - and you can reheat it later when you wish to serve. You can call it a "chicken curry" if you like - but because it's got green and red peppers in it - you might want to call it "chicken jalfrezi" - call it whatever you like. This way of cooking it was taught to me by my mum when I was a college kid. Serve it on a bed of freshly-cooked basmati rice - with a salad accompaniment - and a side-plate of a couple of fresh green chillies (if you can cope with biting into fresh green chillie) or achaar (pickle). Because that's exactly how I'm going to have it tonight! Cheers! (And I promise - no more step-by-step cooking guides for while)

Posted by jag at November 8, 2003 05:53 PM

Comments

Posted by: Annie Mole at November 10, 2003 12:23 AM

Posted by: Ritu at November 10, 2003 08:33 AM

Posted by: Ritu at November 10, 2003 08:43 AM

Posted by: Jag at November 10, 2003 08:53 AM

Posted by: Amrita at November 10, 2003 08:56 AM

Posted by: Amrita at November 10, 2003 08:58 AM

Posted by: Jag at November 10, 2003 09:04 AM

Posted by: David at November 10, 2003 04:32 PM

Posted by: Jag at November 10, 2003 09:17 PM

Posted by: aryan at November 12, 2003 11:36 AM

Posted by: Jag at November 12, 2003 11:38 AM

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Posted by: Jag at November 12, 2003 10:26 PM

Posted by: Annie Mole at November 13, 2003 02:05 AM

Posted by: Jag at November 13, 2003 07:49 AM

Posted by: Joe at November 14, 2003 03:59 PM

Posted by: Jag at November 14, 2003 09:25 PM

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Posted by: Jag at April 22, 2004 08:23 PM

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