Underestimating the amount of time aka the Chicken Tikka Masala thread

tell me about your experiences and also about indian cooking.

My first lard rendering and tomato paste adventures took days longer than I thought it would. Also, you can not leave the house with a giant vat of hot oil on the stove, due to bursting-into-flames potential. And, chopping 35 lbs of tomatoes takes a bloody long time. Pioneer ladies have my utmost respect for their long patient stirring.

I've been making small forays into indian cooking - whole wheat chapatis (success), paneer (failure), keema mutter (success, but made with preground spice mix from shop). I fear I will never reach the wonderfulness of this one terrific Indian restaurant we frequent (Roti on lower Queen Anne).

I've had mostly good luck with Indian cooking.

But as far as time goes, with bread, sometimes things do not go quite according the the schedule you expected. I have been known to scrounge around for extra warm spots to get things to go a little faster. And the times I've tried to start a sourdough starter, they always seem to have failed miserably after weeks of careful attention. Bah.

i always have to add about 20-30 minutes on to the estimated time for savory recipes. this is usually due to the fact that i'm so slow with prep (my knife skills are terrible), but i've noticed that every so often the actual cooking time will be longer as well. i assume that's down to the difference in capability between a professional test kitchen and what i've got.

Oh, lord, homemade enchilada sauce, an all day affair. And the last time I made some, it turned out very bitter because I lazily used the chili-soaking water instead of fresh water.

Another all-day affair was beef stock. I turned 10 lbs. of neckbones and a peck of aromatics into a dozen concentrated flavor bombs. But I did the math and it cost about $25. Worth it?

Stock is always worth it, imo. I get depressed when the stock runs low.

All day long while the stock was reducing, I was remembering the old Steve Martin line -- "How I Turned a Million in Real Estate into 25 Dollars in Cash."

Maybe I should take some pics but I ph34r the quantity doesn't justify the amount of time I spent on preparing this dish. Is it normal that you only have about a quarter liter tikka masala sauce? It seems a bit low. This is my stomach speaking of course. And that I'm used to getting a huge amount at the local curry restaurant. The latter probably puts a HUGE amount of food coloring in it, something I found dubious. :-) Anyway, today will be EATING chicken tikka masala day, not preparation of it. HURRAH. :-)

That said, it's great fun preparing food. I missed it so. It's been a long time I actually took some effort and prepared a new dish. :-)

We ate it. My husband said he hadn't eaten so good in the last six months. Oops, guess I'll need to focus a bit more on my cooking abilities ey? :-D

Lesson for today: Do not start making the pizza dough when you are already hungry, because by the time it is all done, one pizza is not going to be enough.

Make three at a time, let one ferment until tomorrow.

See, that would have been smart, which, today, I am not. This was from your "1 hour makeout session" pizza post, btw, which I printed out ages ago and never tried. Sun-dried tomatoes, arugula, chopped up garlics, and parmesan. No making out, due to continuing illness :(

My only experience with homemade Indian food was watching an episode of Julia Childs. The curry recipe (which took up the entire show) looked ridiculously complicated. I had no idea.

Today, it's all about beef stock, which I need for the beef barley soup I'm making for Friday's Seattle fap/dance/basement dryout.