Curry

When growing up I never ate curry because my parents would always make it SO spicy. When I was about probably 15 or so I was at my friends cottage and someone made curry that wasn't unbearably spicy and I LOVED it. Ever since then when my dad would make curry I'd make him tone down the spiciness so I could eat it. I e-mailed my dad asking for his recipe and what I got back was "My curry is rather slap dash - no recipe". He gave me the ingredients he used and some "general" instructions on how to make it and left me with closing words of "Whatever you notice is missing in terms of steps or ingredients, feel free to add and improvise". Basically what you do: marinate chicken in Curry Paste (Patak's brand - I used mild heat), garlic and a little oil. Let sit in the fridge for at least 10 minutes. Fry up chicken in a wok. Since the paste is dark, I had a hard time figuring out if the chicken was cooked so just cut up the bigger pieces to check. Remove the chicken and set a side. In the same wok, toss in onions and begin to soften. Add bell peppers (or hot peppers if you like the spice). I used green and red bell peppers. Then add in other vegetables of your choice (I used cauliflower, broccoli and carrots). Remove all the vegetables and set aside. In the wok add enough chicken stock to cover the ingredients you'll be putting back in (I used about two cups - maybe two and a half cups).  Bring it to a boil and let it reduce a bit. Once reduced enough add in the chicken and the vegetable mixture. Let this cook for another 10 minutes. At this point I also added cut up potatoes (which I had nuked in the microwave a bit before so they were partially cooked). To finish it off add your desired amount of coconut milk to your preferred taste. If the curry isn't thick enough (which mine was not at this point), add in some cornstarch-water mixture. I served it with some basmati rice for me and my housemate. It was tasty!