July 10, 2023 Lunch - Padilla’s Dinner - Chicken Curry, Rice, and Riata

 July 10, 2023 Lunch - Padilla’s   Dinner - Chicken Curry, Rice, and Riata

Today I got up ready to work. I ate a bowl of granola, milk, yogurt, and tropical fruit salad and then reviewed some pleadings and drafted a letter and then went to the County Clerk’s Office to obtain copies of documents. I came home and sent a request for information and then Suzette came home at 12:30 and we decided to eat New Mexican food for lunch at Padilla’s on Girard.

When we were seated we noticed that They served carne adovado on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesday, so we ordered two No. 9’s, which is a chili Relleno and an enchilada with carne adovado and sour cream, rice, and beans, and two Dos Equis.

What we did not know was that there was a $3.75 charge for substitution of carne adovado for ground beef on the enchilada and $1.75 for a small bowl of sour cream.  So the total for each plate was $16.75 instead of $11.50, which was a surprise.

Of course the food was delicious and the piping hot sopapillas served after the meal were excellent. But, next time I will stick with ground beef and no sour cream.

We drove home and worked until 3:00 and then rested until 4:00. Our room is the coolest room in the house, so on these hot days we take a siesta.

Suzette she has been craving chicken curry, so at 6:00 I started making my version of Madras Chicken curry.  We tried to reduce the volume but it was hard.  I cored and diced two Fuji apples and one medium onion, and two small sweet potatoes, and a roasted Herbs de Valencia chicken breast.

We sautéed the onion and apple in butter and I added two minced cloves of garlic to the large French copper pan and about 1 1/2 T. of Madras curry powder.  

                                         The sautéing onion and apple

                               The diced chicken and sweet potato

Then after about 1/2 hour we added 8 cups of water seasoned with two tsp.s of Knorr dehydrated chicken stock and added the diced sweet potatoes and chicken and simmered the curry for another hour.

We then cooked 1 cup of jasmine rice in 2 cups of water seasoned with Knorr dehydrated chicken stock on low heat for 30 minutes, which produced a flavorful flakey, slightly sticky perfect rice.

Riata - 

I then made riata. I peeled, seeded, and diced 1/2 cucumber. I went to the garden and picked six or seven stalks of mint and de-stemmed the leaves and added the leaves from about the same number of stalks of cilantro and minced those leaves and added them to the bowl.  I added about 1/2 tsp. of salt. Then I toasted about 1/2 T. each of cumin seeds and mustard seeds in a dry frying pan until they turned deep brown and I crushed them in a mortar and pestle and added them.  I then added about 1 cup of yogurt, a diced tomato, about 1 T. of minced red onion, and a dash of cayenne and mixed everything together.

I fetched the sweet lime pickle, the Swad mixed pickle, and a bottle of our newly made mango and raisin chutney from the fridge.

Suzette fetched the grated coconut and a bag of cashews from the freezer. I crushed and sautéed a handful of cashews until they began to turn golden brown and exude some oil.

We then served ourselves rice and curry and garnished the bowl with riata, pickles, and mango chutney.

Suzette drank her cocktail and I made chai.

The meal was delicious.  Suzette said it was exactly what she had been wanting, which is a big complement.

I love it when a great meal comes together with all the correct ingredients without any plan other than trying to maintain an adequately stocked larder, a good kitchen garden, and some exceptional home made ingredients, such as the mango chutney we made 2 weeks ago.

Meals like this seem miraculous when they come together so seamlessly.

Bon Appetit