“Ooooh,” Pa said over my shoulder. “Curry!”
Appearances deceive. The color was from achuete — half a pod’s worth of seeds. I had intended to make mussels in saffron cream, but from the initial substitution of annatto for saffron followed plain water for dry white wine, then coconut cream for heavy cream. At that point I should really have just added curry powder into the pot and justified my father’s excitement.
He did not complain, BTW, or even seemed to notice. Everybody was too busy talking about the weather — it has been raining for well over a week, and now the wind’s joining in, too. “Is there a typhoon?” people ask. Not according to the weather service, but there might as well be. My FB feed is filled with images of flooding, felled trees, landslides.
The dish at least looks sunny. In that sense the annatto seeds have done their job. But given how much the color reminds one of curry, it kinda toys with expectations, and that can often lead to disappointment, so if you ask me, you would be better off using curry powder instead.
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