Victorian women spent a lot of time waiting: waiting for the post man to arrive, waiting for invitations to country/city dances, waiting to be called upon by a visitor, waiting to be introduced to a suitable man, waiting to see him again, waiting for him to propose…always waiting. Jane Austen’s heroines do all of these things aplenty. Women could not simply seek out what it was they wanted or needed, at least not quite in as unproblematic a fashion as we can. Events had to come to them, they couldn’t go and seek out events. So they waited.
These Victorian women were a hell of a lot better at waiting than us 21st century women, I would think. For all the wrong reasons, obviously, but still.
I am in a liminal stage between leaving and arriving myself at the moment and I don’t really know what to do with myself, so I’ve decided to use this time to do something that is shamefully overdue and that others have (apparently) been waiting for for quite some time: I am going to give you my banana curry recipe. It’s really simple and not a real curry at all but that doesn’t matter as long as it tastes good, right?
Banana Curry
Ingredients (for 2)
- 500g chicken breast fillet
- 1 red onion
- 3 bananas (mango and peach are good variations but I wouldn’t cook all three together)
- 1 tub of cream
- up to 1 glass of white wine
- curry spice mix: I prefer a red curry mix for this dish but any curry mix would do as long as it isn’t too spicy. Green or yellow curry mixes don’t work with this dish.
- 3 cloves of garlic
- basmati rice
Dice the chicken, salt and pepper it and sauté it in olive oil. Add some of the curry mix to it. Take the chicken out and put it to the side. Dice the onion, slice the bananas into chunks (other fruit also in rather largish chunks). Heat up the pan with some olive oil again, sauté onion and bananas until golden. Add cream. Add salt and pepper and curry mix; it should be spicy and flavourful but not super hot. Bring to the boil. Add white wine (to taste) and the chicken, season some more. Simmer for about 10-15 minutes until the wine has evaporated and the dish has become creamy. Serve with rice and some coriander.
I hope you enjoy this!
