Silly girl

This is probably one of the more complicated dishes I've attempted just in terms of different components, so I probably shouldn't have started in at 7 p.m. on a Wednesday night - and after an emergency trip to get a mortar and pestle. Sometimes I shake my head at my own silliness. Long story short, I had to find something else to eat for dinner because this homestyle chicken curry took way longer to make than I thought. Partly that may have been due to my tedious grinding of fennel seed in the newly purchased mortar ($7.99, if you're wondering like I was how much such an item might cost).

The fennel did smell amazing as I was grinding away. The dish was good (when I finally got to eat it the next day), but tasted more smokey than curry to me. I wonder if that's because I had ho-hum chili powder and that's a big part of the spice concoction. I also had to substitute the fennel seed for aniseed powder.

Verdict: A tasty dish - with hard-boiled eggs as a neat addition - but I'm not sure it's worth all the work. Both the potato and rice pots overflowed making two sticky messes. The house did smell wonderful. To say this dish is fragrant is an understatement. Although I think now I'm gonna have to check my spice supplies after using so much.

(Apologies for the terrible photo since I ran out of natural light as my cooking dragged long into the evening.)