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Grouchy Woman's Brother's Recipe for Jamaican Curry Chicken

Dear Grouchy Woman,

I just got home from working all day catering to those stupid doofus fishheads, so I am really angry and would like to make some really good tuna casserole to cheer me up. How should I do it?

Yours in Grouchiness,

So Pissed Off 'n' Grouchy Everybody's Being Obama's Oafish Boob

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Dear SPONGE BOOB:

You shouldn't. 

Grouchy Woman has never made tuna casserole, and she doesn't intend to start now.  However, you have inadvertently provided her with the perfect opportunity to showcase her Grouchy Brother's recipe for Jamaican Curry Chicken.

Sometime since the long ago halcyon days when Grouchy Brother used to cut all the hair off Grouchy Woman's dolls and super-glue her art supplies to her bedroom lamp for no apparent reason (possibly the origin of Grouchy Woman's legendary grouchiness), Grouchy Brother evolved into a very good cook, so Grouchy Woman recommends that you try his recipe instead of some freaking mess involving canned tuna, condensed cream of celery soup, and french-fried artificial onion bits. 

By the way, Grouchy Brother now has three little daughters. Grouchy Woman sincerely hopes that Grouchy Brother will never cut their dolls' hair off and super-glue their crayons to their furniture.

Sincerely,

Grouchy Woman

* * * * *

Jamaican Curry Chicken (serves 4 to 6)

1 whole chicken, about 4 pounds, cut into 1 1/2 to 2 inch chunks

Juice of 2 fresh limes

3 large garlic cloves, finely minced

2 green onions, finely chopped

1/4 inch fresh ginger, peeled and finely minced

1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1 teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoons salt

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 cups water

3 medium potatoes, cubed

(1)  Squeeze lime juice into a large bowl of water.  Wash the chicken pieces in the lime juice/water mixture and drain.

(2)  In small bowl mix the garlic, green onions and ginger; allow flavors to blend for 30 minutes, then mix in the curry powder, allspice, sugar and salt. Rub mixture onto the chicken. Place chicken in a glass bowl; cover and allow to sit for 1 hour.

(3)  In large heavy skillet, brown chicken in hot oil over medium-high heat. Add the water and potatoes. As soon as liquid starts to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until chicken is cooked, approximately 30 minutes. Chicken should be tender and juices run clear.

(4)  Garnish with shredded coconut, mango chutney, cucumber and/or pineapple, if desired.  Serve over basmati rice.

They needed a study for this?

I love this article.  Raising prices enhances wine sales   In this landmark study by Antonio Rangel and colleagues at California Institute of Technology,

They asked 20 people to sample wine while undergoing functional MRIs of their brain activity.  . . .  A $90 wine was provided marked with its real price and again marked $10, while another was presented at its real price of $5 and also marked $45.  The testers' brains showed more pleasure at the higher price than the lower one, even for the same wine, Rangel reports in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  In other words, changes in the price of the wine changed the actual pleasure experienced by the drinkers, the researchers reported.  On the other hand, when tasters didn't know any price comparisons, they rated the $5 wine as better than any of the others sampled.  "We were shocked," Rangel said in a telephone interview. "I think it was because the flavor was stronger and our subjects were not very experienced."

Well, yes, that might have something to do with it.   Let's get this straight--they pulled 20 random people out of a mall somewhere whose drink of choice is more likely a Bud Light or a Blue Woo-hoo Vanilla Slurpee, and Rangel and his colleagues were shocked--shocked!--to discover that these people's impression of the quality of something they know absolutely nothing about is influenced by the price! 

This study is a bit like asking me to judge the quality of those paintings on which paint is splattered and dribbled in what looks to me like a random pattern.  I freely admit that artwork of that genre generally doesn't appeal to me, and in fact looks very much like something my four-and-a-half-year-old niece might produce.  The most favorable reaction you'll get out of me is that the painting "looks cool."  But I also freely admit that I know nothing about it.  A couple of years ago, I was at a cocktail party at a magnificent townhouse on the Upper East side.  The owner had an incredible collection of art and photography, including an original Andy Warhol painting.  I was walking through the house marveling at the art, when I came upon a wall on which there was only a large--maybe 12 x 8--square of solid white.  I asked my host, "Do you screen movies here too?"  Turned out it was the most expensive painting in the place. 

Anyway, there are people who can look at one of those splatter-shot deals or giant squares of solid color and identify the artist.   I'm not one of them.  If I put some time into studying them, I might be able to do it; I'd probably develop a preference for one painting over the other.  In the meantime, though, if you put me in front of a series of them and gave me various price tags for them--well, I'd be likely to say "Someone paid $10 million for THIS?" But I'm sure plenty of less rude (and maybe less confident) people would think the more expensive paintings were "better."

The price switching might have been interesting if they'd tried it with wine experts, or 500 people who drink wine regularly.  As it is, the most shocking thing to me is that it was news to anyone that inexperienced wine drinkers preferred the cheaper wine, and were swayed by price in judging how good something was.  Inexperienced wine drinkers tend to like sweet stuff like white zinfandel.  Children tend to prefer hot dogs to foie gras.  Would you ask a team of ten-year-olds to assess the quality of various types of caviar?  Also, people assume more expensive is better if they have no other standard on which to judge.  If you have nothing else to go on, it's inherently more pleasurable to be drinking a $200 cabernet and wearing a $5000 dress, even if you personally can't tell the difference between them and a $20 cabernet and a $50 dress.  That's just human.  It's not news.  Yet for some reason, I just wasted half an hour blogging about it.