Went to a gay couple’s house, friends of my sister, for Boxing day. They had their parents there. I was told they were doing curry. I assumed it would be turkey curry (yuk). So I took other ingredients.
Brinjal Bhaji recipe:
Small aubergines – split lengthways in quarters for quick cooking.
Mustard Seeds- a handful
Can coconut milk
Creamed coconut block- about 2 or 3 inches of it.
Tin of organic tomatoes
Tomato purée- a squirt
Tamarind paste – 1 teaspoon
Coriander and cumin, ground.
Salt.
I fried the aubergines in olive oil, then added the mustard seeds, and heated them till they popped.
Then gradually I added everything else. It turned out pretty good.
Things were fairly jolly during the meal. We did have a Liza with a Z singalong (I know the whole album off by heart). Then conversation became a little strained. So sister-woman started a game of charades. One set of parents refused point-blank to play. They sat in the corner.
Later, when they left, in vino veritas, having had too many caipirinha’s to drink, (which is when my accidental rimming joke occurred as in ‘this drink needs rimming, er, I mean the glass, with sugar’, the parents did not look amused, the gay guys looked uncomfortable) I said to their son:
“Your parents are peculiar aren’t they? Not joining in and everything”.
He got angry and said “You are out of order. You don’t even know them. How dare you!”
Note to self: never be with anybody else’s family at Christmas. If you can’t handle your own, you almost certainly can’t handle theirs.
Oh my God, unbelievable!!
What, my behaviour or theirs?
I mean, when the charades started I thought Christmas is finally happening…they were such party poopers.
Apparently that set of parents have retired to Germany. I mean, that in itself is weird. Not Spain, France, Italy or Greece but….Germany? WTF?