I can’t not think of Amma right now when I cook Sri Lankan (which I do most weeks, once or twice).
- she’d be pleased that the new Pete’s grocery store, that’s on the way home from work for me, has big boxes of fresh curry leaves for $4.99
- I was distracted making chicken curry recently, and you can see that it browned a bit on the bottom — not badly, and I scraped it up, and I think this is more in line with ‘fond’ rather than ‘burned,’ but I never asked Amma her opinion on fond (she was very anti-burned), and now I can’t. I think it actually makes it taste a little better, but I don’t know if she’d agree.
- I was out of frozen coconut when I made cabbage last night (and I am way too lazy to grate fresh, even though I have a coconut grater in a cupboard somewhere), so I rehydrated desiccated cabbage in the microwave with a bit of milk, and that’s normally fine, but the cabbage itself was kind of flavorless (just not a great batch), and so the whole dish ended up kind of ‘eh,’ and I can just imagine Amma being disappointed that I didn’t at least make sure I had plenty of frozen coconut on hand. Yes, yes, you’re right, Amma. I’ll stock up next time I get the chance. (I didn’t have enough chilies, or the right kind, either.)
I did manage to salvage the dish with a little extra salt and lime, so it’s flavorful now, but it doesn’t taste right, which bugs me. Sigh.
