That Curry

By popular request, ( and you know who you are) I'm posting the recipe for another chicken curry. This one's an old favourite which I never tire of. I called it Elaichi Moorgh ( which means Cardamom chicken ). I just made it up and its always been well received. Apart from once when i made no concessions to the anglo-saxon palate and nearly killed a friend by way of chilly-induced internal combustion...

You will need
8 pieces of chicken (with bones and skin) I like to use thighs and drumsticks.
3 med onions
a little heavy cream ( optional)

The spices
Garam Masala
Ground Cumin
Ground Coriander
Tumeric
Cayenne pepper
Cinnamon Sticks
Green Cardamom pods
Fresh Red  or Green Chillies ( Indian or Thai)

Chop the onions fine and fry in oil until golden and soft.
Add the chicken pieces and fry to seal off a little ( medium heat)
Then add the spices.

The principal spice is garam masala , generously sprinkle it over the chicken till you more or less cover whats in the pot.
If you use two heaped teaspoons , then use one each of ground cumin and coriander
Half a teaspoon of tumeric and the same of cayenne pepper.
Fry and keep turning the chicken, onions and spices till everything is nicely coated in an aromatic brown paste.
Lastly add the chilly ( to taste) suggest maybe three fresh ones of med strength, sliced lengthwise ( strength is all very subjective)
A couple of cinnamon sticks (or about 5-6 pieces of cinnamon bark if you can get it from an indian grocer)\
About 6-8 cardamom pods.
Cover fully with water, add salt, bring to boil and then simmer for about 1and a half to 2 hours till the chicken falls easily off the bone. For the last twenty-30 mins take the lid off the pot to reduce the liquid down to a thicker gravy.
You will add salt as you go as the stock gets richer and reduces down.
For a final touch and if you want to a splash of heavy cream will turn it really smooth.( don't overdo the cream though or you'll drown the flavour and make it too bland). Sometimes I add it and sometimes I don't.

Rice, naan, chapaati or chuky, crusty white bread to accompany. This keeps really well in the fridge and can often improve by the next day.

Good Eating. And once again Happy Birthday Kaya and Rafael.

On Vegetarianism

In India, where I was born, vegetarianism is a cultural reality. I couldn't give you statistics, but a very large number of hindus (and jains and buddhists) practice vegetarianism.

The predominant reason is philosophical; essentially the karmic problem of killing sentient lives willingly. Doubtless there are people who just don't like eating meat, those who do it for apparent health reasons and  many who simply cant afford it.

Preferences and poverty aside, I'd like to take a look at the philosophical dimension of things. It is also noteworthy that in our time the ecological implications and costs of meat rearing has also become a reason for vegetarianism, particularly in the western world.

Someone I know  posed a question recently "are we dying or are we living?", well in truth aren't they both the same thing ? The life process or event is one in which death is built in. This endless recycling of beings; this creation, consumption and elimination of beings is a cycle with no beginning or end. We define the death event because of its apparent finality with regard to our waking consciousness, and our sense of loss, grief and finality in relation to everything we love.

Are we living or dying or are we a sacrificial process.? Am I aware of this sacrifice that is my life ? Can I yield to it, surrender to it as it occurs or will I ignore it and resist it especially at its most challenging, when death takes my body and my egoic consciousness. ?

The accidental as well as deliberate slaughter of organisms is inevitable and part of this process of appearances and disappearances, but death is the inevitable passage for each and everyone.

No consciousness wills its own end (typically), each one demonstrates the desire to grow, protect itself, propagate itself, resist pain and partake in pleasure.

So is it possible to live in a way free of the chronic anxiety and fear of death, to surrender to death when it is appropriate ( rather than rage against the dying of the light)? .

To focus on simply how we die is to miss the point about how we live. How we live IS how we die.

When I consider the sentient beings who sacrifice their lives for my sustenance, the elk, buffalo, pigs, chicken, fish and lamb I'm truly grateful. I'm also conscious not to eat meat from sources where that being may have been treated cruelly in life AND death. How they lived and died is crucial (not that they died)

That my buying power supports life affirming, conscious animal husbandry. That their life was honored by my appreciation and my cooking.

I believe in the dignity of all sentient beings,  so just  as I care about a human beings rights to live free of fear, cruelty and mistreatment I feel the same way about non-humans.

I hope the bacteria whom i feed with my body approve of the way I was reared.