Curry and the Soap

 

I am fully over lockdown today, I was awake at 5am and had made dinner by about 7am I decided on curry for my chicken but had run out of garlic and ginger, so I strained the worchestershire sauce and used the remnants, I have amended the recipe a bit so it is sensible and you don’t need a round of sauce to make it. Tedious amusing myself all day with bugger all to do waiting for updated requirements around level 3 so I could make a plan for the staff GRRRRRRRR.

 

 Chicken and Carrot Curry

 1/3 of a leek, sliced

1 onion, sliced

2 T Oil

Thumb sized piece of ginger, diced

4 garlic cloves, diced

½ a wildfire chilli, sliced

½ t turmeric

½ t cumin seeds

1 t ground coriander

2 small black cardamom pods

1 t ground clove

½ t cayenne pepper

1 bay leaf

½ t salt

2 tomatoes, diced

A small handful of coriander stalks

1 t worchestershire sauce

100ml greek yogurt

2 carrots thinly sliced

2 large chicken breast cut into large chunks

1 C boiling water

 Fry the onion and leek in half the oil, once soft blast to a pulp with the stick blender. Push to the side of the pan and add the rest of the oil, once hot add the garlic, chilli and ginger, and give a bit of a sizzle. Then add all the spices, salt and incorporate the onion and leek mixture. Add the tomatoes, coriander, worchestershire and the yoghurt. It will be quite thick so place over a low heat for a further 10 minutes, taking care not to burn it.  Spoon some mixture into an oven proof dish with a lid of some description then layer the chicken and carrots on top followed buy the rest of the sauce. Heat on the stove, then put the lid on and then put it in a hot oven for an hour. I had it with a flatbread, but plain rice would be the best.

 The Soap

 295ml cold water

126g sodium hydroxide (AKA Lye or drain cleaner)

1 litre of olive oil

30 ml of essential oil of your choice, I used lavender

2 medium sized pans

A thermometer

Stick blender

Cake tin or similar lined with baking paper

 Carefully add the sodium hydroxide to the water in one pan, it will tell you to wear gloves, glasses blah blah bloody nanny state blah, I got it on my face it didn’t burn too bad. The temperature once stirred will be in excess of 60 degrees, so now you wait…………………………… the alchemy comes at 38 degrees. So once it reduces to 40 get the oil in the other pan and gently heat it to 38 degrees, gently is the key word here as it goes up quite fast, you don’t want to bugger up your alchemy. Once they are both 38 degrees pour the sodium hydroxide into the oil and add your preferred flavour. Now you need to blast it with the stick blender until it thickens, this can be anywhere from a few to 10 minutes, you need to give the old stick blender a bit of a holiday every minute or so in order that you don’t blow the thing up. Once thick, fire it in the tin and either smooth the top and lay another piece of baking paper on it, or leave it lumpy for an effect, like I did, not quite sure what sort of effect, budget probably, it looks like fudge in the photo. Leave it overnight to set and in the morning lift it out with your cunningly placed baking paper, cut into desired sizes with a hot knife. I normally store in a cardboard box slipped between more baking paper for a few weeks until it’s a bit harder. Bingo, oil 12 buck, sodium hydroxide 98 cents, the expensive bit is normally the essential oil but you can make it without it, or use natural ingredients. I have seeped the oil in kawakawa leaves before and now have a lemon one on the go, zest of 4 lemons in a litre of oil, I will leave it for a month or so then make a batch and see how it goes.