Fifty Weeks, Fifty Curries: Week Eleven: Seyal Gosht

[dorchadas]

I had some misgivings about this from the moment I looked at it. I know that's incredibly shallow, but it really didn't look very appetizing. Nonetheless, I recognize that the senses can deceive you, as last week's smell vs. taste discrepancy showed, so I sat down and dug in. Unfortunately, it turned out that my initial impression was the correct one.

Four onions! They all got used.

It smelled okay, so I took the first bite and it was just...off. Not off in the way that'd make me think some of the ingredients had gone bad--we either got them out of our CSA or bought them the day before. It was odd. It tasted kind of sour, which isn't a taste I have much to do with if I can help it. It might have been the yogurt that we used, but the odd thing is that it came and went. The first few bites I took had a very strong sour taste, to the point where I took a couple bites and then said to schoolpsychnerd, "I don't think I like this." But after I had eaten half of it, the other half didn't taste nearly so off. Either I was developing tastebud Stockholm Syndrome, or I just got a bad combination of ingredients at the beginning.

Not-so-secret herbs and spices.

Words from the Chef

This looked so much like the photo! I had such high hopes! Maybe I burned the spices or had too much ginger (is there such a thing?) It's hard to place what was off about this curry. Nothing was obviously burned or anything. It might be that it just didn't cook long enough for all of the flavors to blend in a way I'd like. This had led me to consider moving curry nights to Sundays given that I feel like I'm short changing the recipes because I'm limited in how long I can really wait for dinner on a weeknight. Some bites of this were great and others were not. I wanted to like this but I just didn't, which is sad because it's a dryer curry which tend to be favorites of mine. Ah well, the whole point of experimenting is to see what works and what doesn't right?

Blended cilantro, yogurt, and onions. I'm glad that schoolpsychnerd isn't trying to make these in the traditional way. It'd take forever.

schoolpsychnerd cooked the curry for an hour, which is less than half of the time that the recipe suggested and part of why she is considering moving the curry night to Sundays, or at least doing so for those curries that could use a longer cooking time. That's why I asked her to put the leftovers away instead of throwing them away. Having leftovers sit for a few days isn't the same as cooking them for longer, but it should allow everything to marinate and mix better, and I'll try the leftovers on Friday night or so and see if they're any better.

On the other hand, schoolpsychnerd made chapatis again tonight, and while she's a little disappointed that she can't get them as round as she wants, they tasted really great. These disappointing curries are giving her a chance to perfect her chapati technique, so that's something!

Now you can see what I mean about shallowly judging it based on looks.

I just noticed that the recipe uses 2/3rds of a cup of oil, and I asked schoolpsychnerd and she said she didn't include it. I don't know if not including it would give the curry a sour taste, but that does change things. She says that most of the other recipes only used a little oil and this time she missed it, so it's possible that I'm not giving the seyal gosht a fair shot. Maybe I'll try reheating the leftovers on the stove and mixing in some more oil? It's obviously not going to be the same as cooking it originally, but it might help.

Would I Eat It Again?: No, but with the caveat that I'll try the leftovers.
Do I Prefer It to the Usual Thai Curry?: Ew.
What Would I Change?: Maybe use different yogurt, or add more oil? That's the main thing I could think of that would give it a sour taste.