Mango Curry - Sorta, Kinda, Maybe

I've been trying to figure out what to do with some leftover curry powder and when I spotted some ripe mangoes for cheap, I thought I'd attempt to make a mango curry. How hard could it be? I've made curry before by just mixing curry paste with some coconut milk, so I didn't see why I couldn't do the same with the yellow curry powder. I sauteed some chicken, onions, and red bell peppers to go in the curry while I made some brown rice (what is curry without rice?). I poured out about half the can of coconut milk into a small bowl and whisked in some curry powder. I just kept adding it until I could taste it as strongly as I wanted. I poured it into the pan with the idea of simmering the meat and vegetables in the sauce for a little while, and added the mango in then. But when I put it all together, the curry sauce lost a lot of it's creaminess. I didn't want to put too much more coconut milk into it because the taste would be diluted, so I thought maybe it would thicken with some more simmering. It did but it just didn't look the way I wanted it to. It tasted, well, fine, I guess. It just lacked what chefs always refer to as "layers of flavor." I needed some ginger, some garlic maybe. It was good enough to eat, particularly with the very ripe mangoes, but it didn't come out how I planned. I need to figure out how to maintain the texture of the sauce. I'm interested to see what it tastes like tomorrow when I eat the leftovers for lunch. I think that if it has some time to meld and thicken a bit, it might taste better. I tasted a nibble of what I'd left sitting in the pan while I ate and it was already better. But basically, I tried to take a major shortcut and it didn't quite work. Oh well, we learn.

It sure looked pretty

Another thing I learned is that I am completely inept at making real rice. I have a huge bag of brown rice left over from my lentil debacle and I figured tonight I had enough time to cook it. Half of it was stuck to the bottom of the pot, and I can't explain why. I'll stick with microwave rice for now.