Month: March 2020

A Malaysian curry for Bonnie

( This is part of a new project – virtual cooking for friends during #COVID19

This current coronavirus pandemic means that for many of us, disabled people with social isolation, are restricted to virtual meetings.

As it means no eating together – here’s a new project in that we would cook a dish with the friend in mind and share it here. The recipes here are not expert cooking but shared with love.)

My friend, Bonnie Chiu, is from Hong Kong. We have worked on co production projects. We ‘ve also been to different events together and most importantly, I was invited to her wedding!

I was telling her about this project and she told me she’d like a Malaysian curry chicken! Now I think I can manage that. Not sure if Malaysian friends agree with me, but here goes.

Ingredients

cut up chicken portions (from 1 small chicken, I prefer free range corn fed chicken)
Malaysian curry powder (found in Asian supermarkets and on Amazon)
Coconut milk /cream
– 10 cloves of garlic (depends on how garlicky you want it ot be)
– stick of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped finely
– at least 5/6 shallots
5 star anise
1 stick of cinnamon
5 pieces of tamarind soaked (or juice or paste)
4/5 tablespoons neutral oil

ingredients on a round plate: chicken pieces. chopped shallots, chopped garlic, chopped ginger, curry poweder in a packet (kari ayam, adabi brand), tin of coconut milk, with spices - cinnamon, tamarind, cloves, snar anise.
ingredients on a round plate: chicken pieces. chopped shallots, chopped garlic, chopped ginger, curry poweder in a packet (kari ayam, adabi brand), tin of coconut milk, with spices – cinnamon, tamarind, cloves, snar anise.

cooking method

First step

Prepare all the ingredients. James used a few kitchen utensils here – apart from a spatula, he easo used tongs and a spoon.

Heat up the wok or pan with vegetable oil. Best not to use olive oil which will be too strong tasting. fry the ginger, garlic and shallots gently. This is best ground together but I stepped away at the moment and forgot to tell the PA that step. Add the curry powder making sure it doesn’t get burnt by adding more oil if necessary.

second step

Add the chicken at this point. Keep stirring – this is where you need someone with a strongish wrist! Add more oil if it looks dry and also the water used to soaked the tamarind. After a few minutes, add the rest of the spices and the coconut milk. Give it a good stir.

third step

Leave the curry to simmer for at least 20 minutes. In the meantime, you can prepare whatever you want to accompany the dish. I had some rice prepared and some tomatoes and crispy fried onion flakes. Season to taste. When I have more fresh vegetables, I like it with a fresh salad and /or with cucumber.

Malaysian chicken curry with onion flakes and cherry tomatoes on a blue plate
Malaysian chicken curry with onion flakes and cherry tomatoes

Hope you like it, Bonnie.

By Eleanor, assisted by James.

photo of East Asian woman on wheelchair holding a spatula awkwardly frying lardons in a wok. Behind her is a loaded sink and a microwave.
Eleanor Lisney

Eleanor ‘s love for all types of cuisine comes from being Malaysian born and bred. She started to cook at university at Canterbury and learn about French cuisine when she was a stay at home mum for more than 10 years in Strasbourg, France.

She finds cooking on her own more problematic and gets her PAs / friends to help her do the heavy work so she can do some cooking from her wheelchair.

.

photo of cooked spinach leaves on a white plate and a fork with the word cuisine

Leave a Reply

Logged in as elle. Log out?

Comment

Search

Search for:

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Meta

New virtual cooking project for friends project #Covid19

This current coronavirus pandemic means that for many of us, disabled people with social isolation, are restricted to virtual meetings.

As it means no eating together – so here’s a new project in that we would cook a dish with the friend in mind and share it here.

We will update this blog as we go along

Virtual meals to share

For Liz – My favourite Mum’s fried rice

for the other meals see Cooking with help page

Egg fried rice for Liz

( This is part of a new project – virtual cooking for friends during #COVID19

This current coronavirus pandemic means that for many of us, disabled people with social isolation, are restricted to virtual meetings.

As it means no eating together – here’s a new project in that we would cook a dish with the friend in mind and share it here. The recipes here are not expert cooking but shared with love.)

I asked Liz Carr what she fancied, she said something with rice (she saw an episode of Ready, Steady Cook and it was a rice dish and made her hungry) so rice it is to be.

See the full recipe at Egg Fried rice for Liz page

Disabled & Proud Festival: A celebration of our culture, community and solidarity

As a disabled performance artist, it was a privilege to have participated in the second half of the festival in Greenwich Library. The festival was a great platform to showcase my art to the disabled community and for me to be exposed to other disabled artists, of whom I may not have met and experienced their work had it not been for the festival.

– Sorena, performing artist

This festival was partly to celebrate Disability History Month ( Disability History Month runs from 22 November to 22 December every year ) and also the UN International Day of Disabled People (3rd December. The theme for this 2019 IDPD is ‘Promoting the participation of persons with disabilities and their leadership: taking action on the 2030 Development Agenda’ ).

  • seated audience in a semi circle, 3 in wheelchairs
    the audience performance in the evening
  • Man with hoover in front of the audience
    Norman Mine with hoover
  • Black woman with red cap with a sign 'I ama strong black women'
    ‘I am a strong black woman’
  • East Asian woman seated, hands up in air
    Lucy Sheen at workshop
  • 2 wheelchair users, one white with long green hair, the other a black woman. they are both smiling.
    Dennis and Jacqui
  • part of the evening performers, 2 wheelchair users with guitars
    evening performers
  • audience with camera man
    The evening performances were filmed
  • black woman, wheelchair user, with microphonewith
    Miss Jacqui belting out a number
  • white woman, wheelchair user, with a microphone
    Naomi telling her story

The day started at the library with the exhibitions and information stalls, there is much footfall at Woolwich Centre Library on a Saturday afternoon with disabled and non disabled visitors.

The information stalls and exhibitions
  • library lobby in the morning as stalls were set up
    setting up stall
  • 2 women of colour sitting at a stall smiling
    from the Her Centre
  • wheelchair woman at an information stall
    Sue at an information stall
  • Flipboard with sign 'Disabled Women's Digital Quilt'
    Exhibition ‘Disabled Women’s Digital Quilt’
  • wheelchair user watching presentation
    Presentation : ‘Disabled Women’s Digital Quilt’
  • discussion and 2 people watching a presentation
    Exhibition: *Neurodiversions*

In *Neurodiversions* ​Annabel Crowley and Shura Joseph-Gruner present their creative responses to their day-to-day neurodiversions.

Exhibition : Digital Quiltof Disabled Women (pilot by Eleanor Lisney and Natasha Hirst and others) will be presented. This project was one of those joint shortlisted in the Royal Borough of Greenwich bid to be the borough of culture.

This pilot series of photos and videos was organised and co produced with the disabled women featured, by Natasha Hirst and Eleanor Lisney. They were all taken on the same one day at the Jetty cafe, Greenwich Peninsula. The photos were taken to highlight the lives, work and diversity of some disabled women in London, to be a pilot of a Digital Quilt of Disabled women.
Workshops

Workshops lead by Lucy Sheen and Annabel Crowley (drama ), Mx Dennis Queen and Miss Jacqui(music) and Richard Hering and Eleanor Lisney(smartphone video).

Some of the videos are here (captions to follow)

Short abstract of Lucy Sheen’s with Annabel Crowley’s workshop on drama making
Short abstract of Richard Herring’s and Eleanor Lisney’s workshop on smartphone videoing
Performance with workshop participants in the evening
see for the workshop video/version https://youtu.be/9hPfhHeUvzA

More to come soon!