curry chicken thigh, coconut milk rice

I just now realized coconut milk is what the stuff that guy at Whole Foods instructed me to make. I asked him what he intended doing with the coconut shavings he was scooping from economy bins. 

He was a thin and slight odd old man dressed in tight fitting bold colored cycling lycra, Contrasting light blue and mustard yellow zip zappy pattern and bicycle helmet and serious cycling shoes. He must have been seventy or eighty years old. 

"What are you going to do with that?"

He was kneeling and looked up at me standing there nearby and regarded me top to bottom for an uncomfortably long time, appraising what sort of punk asks questions like that.  I stood there with blank expression, yes, it is a real question.

I passed his inspection and he powered into sincere description of healthy benefits of blending coconut flakes with water for a long time, how to do that precisely, simple enough,  then strain it with cheesecloth. Seemed like a bother and a mess. So I did. I bought some and tried it. 

Now you may be thinking, Whole Foods, ick, don't like them, too expensive, that place is for hipsters, not me. I wish you could change your attitude because you can find things in there that you cannot find elsewhere and the people there are not as described, no, on the contrary, the people who shop there and especially the people who work there are friendly, usually young, truly interested in their product, their brand, and their work, they are interesting people and engaging. The opposite of everything that I read about them online. They love, and I mean love talking about food. Such was the case this day too. 

His story was very long. He kindly answered all other questions best he could. I still do wonder though, if the coconut in those bins can be used for cakes. It looks like it can. I still have some. 

He did not tell me when chilled that it forms a very thick layer of coconut fat on top. And that shows you how much coconut fat you are consuming.  It must be processed again if chilled. And that fat is the same fat marketed in jars. And the liquid produced by blending with water is the same as this liquid in these tins. I'm saying, you can easily make coconut milk yourself, this same stuff, by processing a scoop of coconut flakes with water through a blender. And you can get those coconut flakes in the economy bins at places like Whole Foods. And if you do, then you join the class of eccentric oldster grandpa cyclists who are health oriented. 

Curry chicken thighs, potato and onion.

Weird how it changes color on the plate, but it does.

It occurred to me the inexpensive grocery store chicken thighs might give as much or more flavor as these deli chicken thighs do. These bones are strong. To make broth I break them. The pressure pot method might work better at forcing out marrow from relatively weaker bones. Less wholesome broth but more of it. I don't know. I'll know when it cools and see how much turns to aspic. I'm imagining the whole thing will. So the remaining thighs will be stored as chicken confit. 

I almost had a guest tonight when I told the deli guy my plan and got to the part about pressure releasing the marrow inside the bones he asked, as they do, "When should I come over?" 

I was actually up for it. Why not?

This is how I like chicken, overcooked.

Cooked with skin because I want the fat. I actually want chicken fat. I could have bought boneless skinless chicken, but it looked so naked and hopeless. 

Curry chicken

This is about making vegetables taste fantastic with spices. The chicken is wonderful and I love it but it can be left out and this same thing done and enjoyed just fine entirely vegetarian.

Spices are started in oil, then sweet chutney, then chicken parts or chicken chunks, then vegetables to coat. The pan is a fairly serious mess due to caramelizing sugar and all that is lifted off with dry sherry. The alcohol is an amazing flavor transporter and blender especially with butter. Then chicken stock is added to cover the bottom with a little extra so it always stays wet, the pan is covered and the mixture is braised on low for 40 minutes or so until everything is tender. 

The color of the vegetables is lost to the color of the spicy sauce so it ends up not nearly as bright and attractive as it starts out, but it is extremely flavorful without being confusing with conflicting or overpowering flavors so the tradeoff is worth it. I suppose the color can be improved by topping with something bright to finish, chopped fresh red tomato, bright green herbs, chopped olives for black dots, crumbled feta for white dots.  

There is cinnamon and five spice and clove and all that is used but in very conservative amounts. The chipotle is in powder form, very different from the chipotle in adobo sauce, so three types of chile there and they are all hot but the amounts of each used is moderate so the total heat is not overwhelming or even surprising. Overall the dish is sweet.