When you do the ‘grave-yard’ shift, the last thing on your mind is to cook a meal from scratch. It’s no wonder many of us head for the fast food eateries in order to satisfy the hunger within. After all, these eating joints are conveniently located at every nook and cranny within neighborhoods. And, let’s face it, when the hunger pangs call, you can’t help but to surrender with a big mac and fries.
But, yours truly didn’t cede. I had a perfect plan. I couldn’t wait to get to my abode. You see, sometime last week (oh, can’t say when with this foggy head), I made a dish of curried chicken. Had a couple servings from the batch and stored another for a ‘rainy’ day as this. When it comes to forecasting in the kitchen, you got to be on top of things; otherwise you find yourself exceeding your food budget.
The previous day, I had removed the left-over curried wonder from the freezer. I knew my chicken was little deficient in spice. So, like a true Jamaican gal, I headed for the freezer and retrieved scotch bonnet pepper. Love to store excess in the freezer in ziplock baggie. I finely diced a portion and tossed it with chicken in a small stock pot. Under low heat, in a I allowed my dear poultry pieces to heat throughout. By the way, they were bone-in…..love to suck on my bones!
I served my curried chicken with a fluffy steamed Jasmine rice along with spears of garlic-flavored broccoli. No curried dish goes without a few pieces of fried plantain. Plantain provides such beautiful medium to a curried dish. Thus, I sliced my golden ‘guys’ and pan-fried them in a little canola oil.
My curried chicken dish was even tastier than the day I made same. All the flavors came together superbly. The curry, all spice(pimento), cumin, scotch bonnet pepper and other spices and flavors united in such a cohesive and balanced way. Moreover, the other ingredients gave the dish a perfect finish to my palate. Hmmm, I was a happy camper.