Chicken Curry

My uncle was in a surfing accident when he was 20. No joke. He's been in a wheelchair for over half his life now, longer than I've been alive. I don't know whether he's quadraplegic or paraplegic, because he's retained some use of his arms (enough to make quite a respectable living as a programmer for the city of Jacksonville, FL, albeit with a heavily modified keyboard and mouse). I don't claim any sort of expertise on what happens when you dive off a surfboard into shallow water. You break your neck. If you're my uncle, you remain one of the coolest people I have ever been blessed to meet. I've been trying to assimilate him. He resists admirably. Resistance is futile.

Anyway, the point of all this is to segue into the recipe. He requires attended care-read: live-in nurse. The latest in a long line of these tweaks, freaks, and just all around weirdos hails from Barbados. Nice lady. A little too attached to Jesus for my tastes, but nice. So, she makes this wonderful meal for me, whenever I'm visiting. I love it. I honestly can say that I feel emotion for this food stronger than like. I demanded it on my graduation night. I plan to do so again on my next milestone birthday. And, in my infinite generosity, I have decided to share it with you all. Look grateful.

---

Chicken Curry

---

Ingredients:
2 chicken boullion cubes, dissolved into 1/2 cup boiling water.
2 Tablespoons Cross and Blackwell steak sauce (can usually be found in the gourmet section at the supermarket).
4-6 chicken breasts, cubed. (NOT to the 3rd degree. Cut into cubes.)
2 Tablespoons Lea and Perrins worchestershire sauce.
1 teaspoon minced ]garlic.
1 teaspoon minced ginger.
dash Spike. (buggered if I know what a 'dash' is. I'm just typing what's in the cookbook).
dash cayenne or 1 teaspoon for H-O-T.
dash onion powder, or fresh grated onion.

Mix above ingredients, marinate chicken at least one hour in refrigerator, covered.

Then add:
1 teaspoon Patak's curry paste into the marinade.
(Again. Out of Nashville, I have no idea where you'd buy this. Here in town, there's a little market on Church Street, this side of the bridge, that carrries it. Probably you could find it at any Indian food store.)

Cube 3-4 Yukon Gold potatoes. Saute meat in 2 Tablespoons oil. When chicken is pretty thoroughly done (use your own judgement. Salmonella is neither fun nor for the whole family.), add remainder of marinade and 1 1/2 cups of water, and the potatoes. You may want to put in more curry paste to suit yourself. Simmer for at least an hour, more if you can wait. It would take a stronger lass than I to do so with that smell wafting through your kitchen, but the longer you leave it be, the better the return.

Serve with or without rice, makes no difference to me.

---

BAR and I stole tupperware containers full of this and took them back to Chez Wonko to play chess and watch bad movies. impishlaugh and I cooked in my dimly lit kitchen and retired with our spoils of war to watch Hamlet. I caused NightShadow to bleed internally after eating this, while aphexious was forced into watching Buffy.

I've refined this curry over a couple of years and it has its roots in a sort of Bengali Masala
I make no claim as to authenticity, but if you give it a go, I sincerely believe you will not be disappointed. The ingredient list seems large, but all spices should be available from any Asian shop (or even decent supermarket - I've given the Asian names where I know them). All quantities are approximate and are expressed UK style (tsp = teaspoon etc), however in practice quantities aren't critical (I just measure stuff out onto the palm of my hand).

Serves 2 (proper portions:-)
Preperation time ~ 45 mins

Ingredients
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
1/2 tsp black onion seeds (Kalonji)
4 Cardamom pods
4 Cloves
1 tsp Fennel seeds
4-10 dried birds eye chillies (pick your heat:-)
1 tsp Coriander seeds (Dhaniya)
1 tsp Cumin seeds (Jeera)
1 1" piece Cassia bark (or Cinnamon)
1/2 tsp Turmeric
1/2 tsp Ginger powder
1 medium onion chopped fine
2 cloves garlic chopped fine
1 sweet red pepper, cut into chunks
2 tablespoons full fat natural yoghurt (low fat will probably split)
2 tsp tomato paste
2 chicken breasts cut into chunks (or other meat / veg if preferred - works well with most stuff)
Vegetable oil

Method
Heat about 2 tablespoons oil in a large heavy frying pan over a moderate heat. When hot, place the mustard seeds and onion seeds into the hot oil. As soon as the seeds start to pop and spit add the onion and stir fry for a couple of minutes.
Add the cardamom chillies and fennel seeds and stir fry for a couple of minutes more, then drop the heat to low and add the garlic. Leave this mixture to fry gently for at least 10 minutes - the longer, the better, although keep an eye on it, as you don't want the onion to colour appreciably.
Meanwhile place a small heavy saucepan over a high heat and dry roast the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, cassia bark (or cinnamon if using) and cloves, however don't burn them or it will taste foul. Then take these roasted seeds and grind them (either with a mortar and pestle, or an electric coffee grinder).

Add this spice mixture to the pan, together with the ginger powder and turmeric powder and stir fry gently for a couple of minutes.
Following this, add the yoghurt to the mixture and fry gently until the most of the liquid has gone.
Then, add a 1/2 pint or so of boiling water and the tomato paste - the idea is to have the mixture pretty liquid at this stage. Finally, add the red pepper and meat (if using) and simmer for at least 1/2 hour until most of the liquid has gone and there is a thick, hot sauce (it may be necessary to add a little water if it dries out too much).

Serve with rice / Indian breads.

If you try it, I hope you like it :-)

My mother's chicken curry

This may not seem to be a very spicy dish, or particularly Indian (the use of curry powder gives it away) but considering the level of seasoning in the typical Newfoundlander kitchen, this is phenomenal. (See flipper pie if you don't believe me.)It's also pretty easy to do, even though it takes a long time. Freezes well, and I'm sure you'll be making a double batch the next time you try it.

Stuff:

• 2 lbs chicken legs (Can use chicken parts, but it will be harder ro pick out all the bones. Boneless skinless chicken breasts could also be used, but they're very dry and the curry will be more expensive and not taste as good. Skin the legs if you must.)
• 4 medium onions, cut in thin rings
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 whole cloves (use ground cloves if you must... won't taste as good.)
• 1 cinnamon stick

Spices:

• 2 bay leaves
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or more, up to a teaspoon)
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp curry powder (Or more. Or use paste instead of powder)
• 1/2 little can tomato paste (Mom always makes a double batch of this, it freezes well..So dont ask me what to do with a 1/2 a can of tomato paste.)

Put some oil in a big saucepan or dutch oven over medium heat. Add cinnamon and cloves, and heat until you can smell them, then add garlic and onions. Saute the onions until golden and soft.

Here's the easy part: Add everything else on top of the onions, and pour in enough water to cover. Simmer for at least 4 hours, covered, until the meat is in shreds. Stir it every once in a while.

Remove the bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cloves, and chicken bones. let simmer a little while longer with the top off if it's too watery. Serve over steamed long grain or basmati rice. Oh, and it makes a good sandwich the next day with some chutney, hot or cold.

Why is this here in this node competing with all these other respectable dishes? Because it's simple to make, and it doesn't taste that way. And because it's dirt easy.