The Connecticut Gulag

We’re back from the Connecticut parental gulag.  Our CT daughter always has a list of stuff she’d like done when we come.  She calls it The Gulag.  Over the years and in several cities The Man and I have pulled out masses of unwanted plant material, built fences, constructed and installed cabinets that come in literally hundreds of boxes, planted bulbs and pots, painted and scrubbed.

 The good part about a gulag is – there is a definite list of tasks.  Once you’ve checked off an item, it is DONE.  Unlike at our 50-year-old manse in Brookfield, where the list is unending and where many of the items should have been accomplished years ago.  Like removing the overgrown lilacs bushes.  Or weeding out the contents of the file cabinets.  Or repairing and painting the cracked ceiling.  Etc, etc..

One item on the parental gulag list for this trip was to meet daughter Sandy’s New Guy (SG for short).  What a nice guy!  Not only is Sandy's Guy a photographer, as is Sandy, and does he play the guitar, as does Sandy, but he also cooks!  Did you catch that?  HE cooks!  A male in the kitchen. 

  SG cooked an amazing meal for us.  The Meal featured some of his favorite dishes from his childhood home in India.  SG loves to cook.  He assured us he was having a great time at the stove, while we guests sat around the kitchen island cart, drinking wine and inhaling spicey aromas. 

Here’s what SG served and how he prepared it:

Vegetable Fried Rice – SG starts by sauteing a bunch of spices in oil, things like whole cloves and cardamom pods and dried chili peppers and bay leaves.  When the house smells perfectly spectacular, he adds the rice, sautes that, then boils it and adds vegetables.

  Garlic Chicken – First SG mixes chopped onions, garlic and yogurt and marinates the chicken pieces in it.  I think he was using thighs cut in half.  SG doesn’t eat a ton of meat, like The Other Man I My Life does.  The staple on SG's plate is a mountain of rice.  Okay, then SG fries spices again, peppers, cinnamon, cloves and more garlic, and then cooks the chicken in these spices.  Tasty, tasty, tasty is all I can say.

Dal Fry – Dal are yellow lentils.  In butter, SG fried onions, cumin, garlic, tumeric, chopped tomatoes and red hot chilies.  He adds the lentils and some liquid that I forgot to write down and cooks it all until this yummy soup is done.

 Cabbage and Potatoes – The chopped cabbage and the cubed potatoes are cooked with tomatoes, fresh ginger,  bay leaves, cardamom and cloves.  My Man Who Normally Eats Nothing In The Cabbage Family Unless It Is Cole Slaw had several helpings of this dish.

Potatoes and Pumpkin – SG calls it pumpkin, but I peeled a hunk of this squash-like vegetable for him, and I can tell you that the outside is green.  But who cares?  It was delicious.  This was The Best Dish because it was made with special spices mixed by SG’s mother and sent from India.  This 5-spice mix is called Panch Phoran and is a combination of bay leaves, fennel, cumin, mustard and something that looks like it starts with a “z” in my notes that I wrote after sipping several glasses of wine from Sandy’s wine “cellar”. 

What a meal! 

Now if I could just bring Sandy’s Guy to Brookfield to cook for The Man and I, which would free me up to nag The Man about taking out those ugly lilac bushes.

Stirring the Pot