Fifty Weeks, Fifty Curries: Week Forty-Six: Kath Katha
2015-Sep-21, Monday 20:02![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dorchadas
Non-standard curry day! On Sunday I was out with schoolpsychnerd and ![[tumblr.com profile]](https://www.tumblr.com/favicon.ico)
chronicluscious and on Saturday schoolpsychnerd and I went to a friend's going-away party, so neither day was conductive to making, eating, and writing about a curry. And truth be told, today isn't that great either since last week was so busy that I have an enormous amount of stuff to catch up on. Fortunately nothing that I can't put off for as long as it takes me to write this entry, though, because tomorrow is Erev Yom Kippur and I'm hardly going to want to be writing about curry then either. Wednesday is Yom Kippur and then schoolpsychnerd is gone in the evening, Thursday we're having a friend over for dinner, Friday we're meeting a friend for dinner, Saturday we're going to a performance of "The Tempest" with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
drydem and his wife, and there's another week gone!
I apologize for the busy humblebrag, but the whole "fifty weeks" part is becoming increasingly inaccurate the longer this series goes on. Unless you read it as "fifty weeks in which I have fifty kinds of curry," and not necessarily that they're a contiguous series. Which you should, because that's the way that puts me in the best light.
Welcome to kath katha, also known as "vegetables in spicy sauce." "Butdorchadas," I hear you say, "' $FOO in spicy sauce' is the very definition of a curry! How can you hold that against it?" Let me remind you, gentle reader, how often I've whined in this series about how *hiss, spit, sneer* dry curries aren't real curries at all, so I will engage in as much faulting as I like! This is my blog and I'll split ridiculous hairs if I want to. 
In all seriousness, the problem this curry had is much the same problem that matira curry had, but without any of the remedies we were able to apply to that. The flavors never mixed. There were vegetables, and there was sauce, and they happened to be in the same place, but it was like a middle school dance where they were too embarrassed to actually interact with each other. Maybe if we had set the vegetables to soaking, or used fresh vegetables instead of frozen (hey, it's Monday!), or otherwise allowed more time for the flavors to combine beforehand I would have liked it better, but as it is we could have thrown in literally anything and it would have tasted the same. $FOO in spicy sauce.
Words from the Chef
Sillyschoolpsychnerd, I write about how I'd change these recipes all the time!
But other than the ideas above, I don't really have any other suggestions about the best way to fix this curry into something that I'd be happy to eat instead of being a giant mound of vegetables that we have to work through at...some point.
Huh. Looking again at our schedule, when are we going to eat these? Tomorrow, I guess? Wednesday after sundown? I mean, it's pretty easy to just use veggies in spicy sauce as a side dish, so I suppose we can skip the making of side dishes for much of this week and eat the kath katha instead. Yay. I'm looking forward to that.
Would I Eat It Again?: I guess? It's not objectionable, just bland.
Do I Prefer It to the Usual Thai Curry?: It's not even in the same league.
What Would I Change?: Other than the changes I suggested above, I can't think of anything else that wouldn't fundamentally transform this curry entirely.
schoolpsychnerd and schoolpsychnerd and I went to a friend's going-away party, so neither day was conductive to making, eating, and writing about a curry. And truth be told, today isn't that great either since last week was so busy that I have an enormous amount of stuff to catch up on. Fortunately nothing that I can't put off for as long as it takes me to write this entry, though, because tomorrow is Erev Yom Kippur and I'm hardly going to want to be writing about curry then either. Wednesday is Yom Kippur and then schoolpsychnerd is gone in the evening, Thursday we're having a friend over for dinner, Friday we're meeting a friend for dinner, Saturday we're going to a performance of "The Tempest" with drydem and his wife, and there's another week gone!I apologize for the busy humblebrag, but the whole "fifty weeks" part is becoming increasingly inaccurate the longer this series goes on. Unless you read it as "fifty weeks in which I have fifty kinds of curry," and not necessarily that they're a contiguous series. Which you should, because that's the way that puts me in the best light.
Check out those high-quality vegetables!
Welcome to kath katha, also known as "vegetables in spicy sauce." "But
dorchadas," I hear you say, "' $FOO in spicy sauce' is the very definition of a curry! How can you hold that against it?" Let me remind you, gentle reader, how often I've whined in this series about how *hiss, spit, sneer* dry curries aren't real curries at all, so I will engage in as much faulting as I like! This is my blog and I'll split ridiculous hairs if I want to. In all seriousness, the problem this curry had is much the same problem that matira curry had, but without any of the remedies we were able to apply to that. The flavors never mixed. There were vegetables, and there was sauce, and they happened to be in the same place, but it was like a middle school dance where they were too embarrassed to actually interact with each other. Maybe if we had set the vegetables to soaking, or used fresh vegetables instead of frozen (hey, it's Monday!), or otherwise allowed more time for the flavors to combine beforehand I would have liked it better, but as it is we could have thrown in literally anything and it would have tasted the same. $FOO in spicy sauce.
Behold thou the field from which this curry draws its flavor and see that it is barren!
Words from the Chef
I wish I had something to write here but really, as much as I was thinking "yay, vegetable curry!" even cooking this wasn't super exciting. I knew the moment I added the veggies that this wasn't going to be a curry to write home about for me. I've thought about how I'd change it but being as I have no place to speak about changing culturally tried and true recipes, I'm just gonna leave it that I'm not wild about it.
Okay, I lied, there were a few more spices...
Silly
schoolpsychnerd, I write about how I'd change these recipes all the time!But other than the ideas above, I don't really have any other suggestions about the best way to fix this curry into something that I'd be happy to eat instead of being a giant mound of vegetables that we have to work through at...some point.
Huh. Looking again at our schedule, when are we going to eat these? Tomorrow, I guess? Wednesday after sundown? I mean, it's pretty easy to just use veggies in spicy sauce as a side dish, so I suppose we can skip the making of side dishes for much of this week and eat the kath katha instead. Yay. I'm looking forward to that.
At least it's colorful?
Would I Eat It Again?: I guess? It's not objectionable, just bland.
Do I Prefer It to the Usual Thai Curry?: It's not even in the same league.
What Would I Change?: Other than the changes I suggested above, I can't think of anything else that wouldn't fundamentally transform this curry entirely.
