Last night I achieved an incredible feat: I managed to make a curry that didn’t actually taste of anything.
This was amazing considering the ingredients: 4 cloves of garlic, 3 onions, fresh ginger, copious spices (coriander, cumin, chilli, star anise, garam masala), fresh coriander, tomatoes, cauliflower and chickpeas.
But no, it tasted of cauliflower boiled in swamp water.
I tried to save it in the usual time-honoured tradition (i.e. smother it in yogurt and mango chutney) but nothing could disguise the fact that it was inedible to all but a mountain goat (we used to keep goats when we were younger – their breath smelt of cauliflowers).
In the end I left it – see Exhibit A above – and resorted to a liquid diet.
3 glasses of white wine later, I was in a thoughtful mood and couldn’t help pondering that this was a rather fitting metaphor for my life – the ingredients are there, but the end result is seriously underwhelming.
You know that feeling – when you can feel all this potential and possibility inside you but it’s not quite translating into real life?
Well I’m gonna walk away from my swamp water curry days (I can feel a hit song lyric coming on).
I do actually mean this quite literally – today I am heading to the Lake District for 10 days of hiking. I love it up there. The fresh air. The mountains. The silence. It never fails to give me a fresh perspective on life.
I think walking in the Lakes should be on medical prescription.
See you in 10 days! x
Katherine Bassford 