Bleargh
I'm probably still losing weight. And it's still not good. Food still tastes right -- I'm glad that's not the issue -- but I can't eat much at a time. I don't have the energy to eat more than once or twice a day. I'm spending a lot time coughing, feeling like I'm going to throw up, actually throwing up. It's all as glamorous and exciting as you might imagine.
But I still enjoy eating the little I do eat. I found a place I could order Old Dutch Dill Pickle Chips in the US and ordered some. Yesterday I made chicken paprikash and it turned out wonderfully. I use recipes as guidelines but don't follow them very closely. Here's about how it went.
- 2-3 lbs | 1-1.5 kg chicken parts (the recipe I started with calls for bone-in, skin-on parts but I used boneless skinless thighs since that's what came from the store and it worked fine)
- salt and pepper
- 1 tablespoon | 30 mL vegetable oil
- 2 yellow onions, finely chopped
- 2 red bell peppers/capsicums, stemmed and seeded and cut into thin strips about 1.5in/4cm long
- 1 clove garlic, run through a garlic press (a clove, pfeh -- we bumped this to the whole head)
- 2 tablespoons | 60 mL tomato paste
- 1/4 cup | 60 mL paprika -- I used a half-and-half mix of sweet and half-sharp from Penzey's
- 2 tablespoons | 60 mL all-purpose flour sifted into the paprika
- 1 cup | 240 mL low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 bay leaves (the original recipe did not call for these but I love bay leaf so mnyeah)
- 3/4 cup | 240 mL sour cream
What the fuck is it with USian measurements anyway? Gah. Now that I'm converting them for export I note that 1/4 cup is the same as 2 tablespoons 4 tablespoons which I got wrong yesterday. I used more than twice as much paprika as the recipe called for, oops. Oh well it's still damn tasty.
Let the chicken come to room temperature, pat dry with paper towels, season with salt and pepper. Use the rock salt as an excuse to break out the mortar and pestle because it's just that cool. Tell your wife, who knows you have sensory issues about touching raw chicken, that in case she wondered if you loved her you're touching chicken to make her dinner. Kiss. Heat the oil in a big pot over medium-high heat until shimmery and start browning the chicken in batches.
When the chicken is done tip out most of the fat. Note that there wasn't much fat to tip out and there are a lot of vegetables and add more olive oil to the pot. Add the vegetables. Feel dizzy and hot and ill and have to go lay down right then. Realize that right then means yelling for cats to get out of the way and asking the wife to watch the vegetables. The wife will move on to the next step, adding the tomato paste and garlic before you're ready. Asking her for help holding the pot still while you stir in paprika, flour, chicken broth, and bay leaf will be somewhat frustrating since she'll want you to do it her way and not yours. Put the chicken back in including any juices that have run off it. Bring the stuff to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover the pot, and simmer, stirring occasionally to scrape up all the good stuff off the bottom for twenty-five minutes or so.
Remove the pot from the heat, fish out the bay leaf, stir in the sour cream. Serve over rice.