clay + cook: obsidian plates & a red curry

Every other week I’m at a school where I get to do clay the last period on a Friday, and yesterday was that day. Finally my slab plate of obsidian clay had dried and pulled away from the edges, so that I could place it in the kiln along with all the white clay ornaments I had formed in clay club.                              

I so love the simplicity of this round shape. Three plates are already bisque-fired, and so next week will be devoted to glazing them in Colonial White.                  

I wish the three I threw away because of cracking hadn’t, but live and learn. I need to remember to bring the two porcelain vases that are also in the bisque cupboard to the clay studio in Central Park, where I’ve a wider array of Cone 5/6 glazes. And I had time to prep two speckled buff mugs with tape resist, which will also be dipped into Colonial White.                            

I’ll spend my prep period on Tuesday applying white underglaze to the undersides and wax resist to all the undersides of these plates, mugs, and vases and colored underglaze to the tree ornaments. When I got home from the gym last night, I grated the zest and a bit of the pith of the makrut limes.           

My gosh are these citrus fruits so fragrant! In my hurry, I forgot to add the miniature corn to my curry. I thought the red curry sauce I bought was a paste that you had to add coconut milk, so the meal came together faster than I’d expected. I added chopped red bell pepper, green snap peas, leftover turkey, a little more fish sauce and tamarind paste and palm sugar as well as the zest and pith of the makrut limes.

The leaves have the same flavor as the lime zest but its scent and flavor is more subtle. I made the mistake of putting a julienned sliced leaf atop my finished dish. Oh was that bitter! Okay next time just throw the leaf into the beginning of the curry to discard later. But honestly it’s the zest and pit that is more flavorful than the leaves, and I’m glad I didn’t make the mistake of squeezing the juice and putting that into my dish.