Last week in the Dale

My apartment is looking fairly sad now – Steph’s mum came and picked up the couch and the TV table, so the living room pretty much consists of packing boxes, empty bookshelves and the scattered odds and ends you never know where to put when packing. For example, a miniature Christmas tree given to me by mum in 2009; photo frames with the original stock photos intact, as I’ve never put my own in there (Mum: “Who is this boy and this girl? What do you mean, you don’t know them? Why do you have their photos?”); a rubix cube that has never been unjumbled for fear of not being able to restore it to perfection and an unused lint roller overwhelmed by dust (why is that in the living room instead of in the bathroom with the rest of the ironing supplies? I don’t know, it just is.)

So I’m sitting on the floor with a cup of tea, inviting creative genius to visit me, waiting for Steph to come back, and cooking another cupboard meal.

One jar of korma curry paste (wedged behind tinned tomatoes)

Half a bag of dried chickpeas

Half a bag of yellow split peas (leftovers from my virtuous and short-lived period of eating wholegrains)

One packet of dodgy-looking chicken (note: I really am not trying to give myself food poisoning in my last week here, but I felt guilty throwing it out. Also, cooking destroys germs, so the theory goes – right?)

Half a bag of brown rice

Frozen peas, because the freezer needs to be emptied

One tin soy cooking milk, in place of the required cream

Having learnt the hard way, I shut my bedroom door (because there are clothes to consider, after all), and threw the lot in a wok. I confess this is a little inauthentic – risotto-ish, instead of the instructed serve-with-rice method, but the irresistible simplicity of a one-pot meal beckoned. I love the fiery red of korma paste, and the way it mellows to a rich orange when you add the milk. The aromas of Indian cooking – scents of cumin, coriander, chilli, garlic and onion – pervade my little home, calming my nerves and easing the sense of loss that packing brings.

Not the most photogenic of meals, unfortunately, but in this case tastebuds trump eyes. Served with pappadums (wedged behind the noodles and probably seconds from their use-by date).