Life Goes On.

On the soundtrack today
Peel Me a Grape by the wonderful Nancy Wilson with the great Ramsey Lewis on piano

Cooking today.
Thai (ish) fish curry with steamed rice.
(Recipe at bottom of the blog)

Life goes on, and I'm so happy that it does. I'm really happy with my lot!
Apart from starting on the 3rd edit of SMALL FREEDOMS, I have totally focused my mind on where I want to be 1 year from today. Where do I want to be?
I want to be at a place where I have 4, maybe 5 books out there!
Sounds like a lot to ask of myself, but it's not!
SMALL FREEDOMS is almost set to go. ALWAYS, NOT FOREVER, my 2nd novel, at 52,709 is halfway there. AND, I plan to turn 2 or 3 Filmscripts I have co-written with my son, into books. The ones where the original ideas were mine of course!
They are, THE COUNTING HOUSE, a psychological thriller; POLITICAL SCIENCE, the extreme politics of racism and ALMOST CRIMINAL, a comedy caper about some 1960's gangsters in London, but with a very dark side to it.
I'll be posting short synopses of of the 3 film scripts and ALWAYS, NOT FOREVER in my next blog.
Nearly forgot to mention that a few months ago I wrote 2 short poems. Not for any real reason, just felt like it. A few days ago I entered them both into a poetry competition! I don't think I stand an icecube's chance in hell of winning any of the prizes, because it is an International competition, and anyone can enter, which means published poets!  But, I've done it! Pleased with myself about it, too.
Unfortunately, I can't put them up here, because it is for unpublised poems, and even putting them on a blog is considered as 'published'.
For anybody interested in entering, you can find information about the competition on the Poetry Society website.
I'm going to post the full synopsis of SMALL FREEDOMS as a seperate blog, later today. It is quite lengthy, and would make this particular blog prohibitively long. Plus, I need to make a few amendments/changes. For example, should I give the game away and blog it as it actually is? Or leave everybody in suspense, as to 'who dunnit'?  Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Recipe for my Thai (ish) fish curry follows. This is a firm family favourite, and my son's girlfriend's favourite food of all time! (Up 'til now, anyway!)
I have tried to put in quantities of ingriedients. I say 'tried' because I cook EVERYTHING by taste or judgement. A bit of this, and a bit more of that. And it works! I know what taste I am aiming at, and adjust accordingly.
It is actually a mixture of a Thai Green Curry and a Thai Yellow Curry.

Recipe


4 fillets of any white fish.
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 4 pieces each.
1 medium onion chopped.
2 cloves garlic chopped.
2 tbs Indian curry powder.
Up to ½ pint coconut milk (made from powdered coconut milk)
1 tspn cornstarch, slaked in a little water.
Handful chopped corriander (cilantro) roots.
Handful chopped corriander leaves.

2 Kaffir lime leaves or 2 teaspoons grated lime zest.
1 stalk lemon grass (tied into a knot and removed when food is cooked)
2 tbs chopped/grated ginger.
4 tbs Nampla (fish sauce). This is what adds the saltiness. Add more if you need to.
1 tbs palm sugar (any sugar if you don't have it!)
1 tbs oil.

Method

Fry the onion in the oil until translucent, fry the curry powder for a few minutes, stirring all the time. Add the garlic. Add the coconut milk and everything else, except the fish and potatoes. Simmer for 5 minutes.
The cornstarch will stabelize the coconut milk and stop it from 'splitting'.
Add the potatoes. When they are almost done, add the fish. Simmer for a few minutes, until fish is cooked.
Serve with rice. I prefer Basmati, but it's up to you what you use.
Please adjust this to your taste. You want more palm sugar/ corriander/curry powder? Add them at the appropriate time. You want it with a bit of a kick? Use Madras curry powder, or add a few chopped green chillies! You can add a few prawns or any other seafood as well. Add more cocnut milk if you feel like having lots of lovely soupy gravy for the rice to soak up.
This is a very flexible, forgiving recipe!
I have made this with pieces of mixed fish on more than one occasion. Salmon goes quite well in this curry.
Hope I haven't left anything out.
If any of you try this recipe, please get back to me and let me know how it went!