Curry Night a la NobbyFollow

Nobby's Lachedar Chicken tm

Main Ingredients

• 6 Chicken Thighs
(Can replace with other meats or make a veggie option - see later)
• 2 Large Onions (or 4 small ones)
• 5 - 6 Mushrooms
• 1 Can Chopped tomatoes (or 4 tomatoes concassée if you can be *********** [li]1 Can Coconut Cream (or make 1/2 pint from concentrated dried Coconut Paste with boiling water)

Seasoning

• 1 Clove of Garlic (Finely chopped)
• 1 small Red Chilli (Finely chopped) - Bird-eye or Habanero if you like it hot)
• 4 Cardamom Pods
• 2 Tablespoons Tomato Purée
• A handful of freshly chopped Coriander

1/4 Teaspoon of the following:

• Mustard Seeds
• Coriander Seeds
• Finely chopped fresh Root Ginger
• Freshly Ground Black Peppercorns*
• Cumin*
• Garam Massala*
• Turmeric*
• Fenugreekl*

* You can replace all of those spices with a 1 Teaspoon of decent Madras Curry powder


Method

Use a Food processor to whizz down the onions & mushrooms (or chop them extremely finely)

Get a Wok (or large heavy saucepan) extremely hot.
No, Hotter than that! Really Hot!

Add a little vegetable oil (2 Tablespoons is enough) and let it start to smoke.
Throw in the Chopped Garlic, Chilli and Ginger. Before they burn (so almost straight away) add the Mustard Seeds & Coriander Seeds.

Your oil is now very hot and flavoUred. As soon as the Mustard & Coriander Seeds pop, throw in the onions and stir on a high heat for 10 minutes. They'll become translucent and start to turn golden, but don't let them brown.

While that's happening, brown off the Chicken Thighs (or whatever else you've decided to use) in a skillet.

Now add the tomatoes to the onions, then stir in the mixed spices (or curry powder if you couldn't be *******

The Chicken should now be browned.

Stir the Coconut Cream into the onions, wait 5 minutes, then place the Chicken on or in the main sauce.

Put a lid on it and let it simmer for 15 minutes.

It's ready!
Just throw a handful of the fresh Coriander in before serving.

Serving
Whatever you like really.

Boiled Rice or Pilau Rice (cook the rice in chicken stock)
Naan Bread and/or Poppadums/Chapatis
Mint Yoghurt
Lime Pickle
Ice Cold Beer (Essential - preferably an Indian beer like Cobra or Lal Toofan)

There you go!


You can adapt the recipe by replacing the chicken with any other meat or seafood leave it later to add to the sauce or it'll over-cook). For Vegetables, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Carrots, Zucchini, Bell Peppers and baby Sweet-Corn work well)
Adding Flaked Almonds when you serve can be nice too.

Handy Hint

Occasionally I get short notice that someone's coming to dinner, so I have this as a stand-by:
You can make the sauce in advance (just miss out the chicken stage) and freeze it.
For a quick meal, just cook the sauce out and add cooked chicken, lamb, seafood or vegetables long enough to reheat them.


Any Questions?

How do you get the smell out of your clothes?

I assumed he cooks naked. I also assumed that's how the Cardamom Pods, Coriander,Garam Massala, and Fenugreek got in there.

Cooked down with that onion and tomato sauce - Trust me

For that dish, any old garlic will do the job. For roasting I use the large French bulbs (or even the Smoked Garlic. Mmmm) and for stews and casseroles the small Spanish or Italian garlic bulbs.

Shallots would be wasted on this as the onions are mushed to pulp and cooked down to a sauce.

I use those whole in casseroles and sliced in sauces for Steak
(Shallot Marmalade = 4 thinly sliced shallots slowly cooked in 1/2 bottle of red wine for an hour until the texture of a chutney or jam. Amazing on a fillet steak)

Jasmine Rice would be awesome with that.

Or rice and peas, or better yet, Peshwari Rice (add peas, dried apricots and sliced almonds just before serving).

My favourite is Pilau Rice (Boil Basmati or Long Grain Rice in Chicken Stock and add Saffron at the end)

Make a big pan of the sauce and freeze it. Seriously; it's an amazing stand-by.

(Dracoid uses the sauce and sits a steamer above it with Cod or other white fish to lightly cook and then stir in when the sauce is fully reheated).

Oh and if you're into funky food textures, try adding things like toasted cashews or raw sliced banana, pineappe or tomato just before serving.

I should not have read this hung over.

I burned the Shit out of myself once when I slipped and spilled a bowl of fresh from the microwave Chef Boy R'Dee raviolis on my chest. Moral of the story: eat that stuff with a shirt on.

Yep, he's taken, ladies, sorry.

One of my favorite things in the whole world to eat:

4 pounds whole chickens, cut into pieces (boneless breasts will suffice)
3 cups onion, chopped
2 tablespoons ginger, minced
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons -white- poppy seeds, ground (use a food mill)(I have also used almonds for this, it works in a pinch)
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons red chile powder
½ teaspoon tumeric
5 whole cloves
5 whole cardamom
½ stick cinnamon
2 ½ tablespoons olive oil

Garam Masala (use a food mill)
1 ½ tablespoons coriander
20 cloves
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
½ stick cinnamon
(optional 1 star anise and 1 black cardamom)

Heat oil in a large sauce pan. Add whole cloves, cardamom, stick cinnamon. When they start to sizzle, add onion. Saute onion until until transparent. Add ginger and garlic, stir for one minute. Add chicken to the mixture, stirring to coat with oil. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Add salt, cover, and cook for 5 more minutes. Uncover and fry until all of the water evaporates. Add chile powder. Stir for a minute and add the ground poppy seeds mixed with 1 tbs water. Stir and pour water to cover the pieces. Cover and cook until chicken is done and desired consistency of gravy is reached. Add garam masala. Cook further for 1 or 2 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes and serve over rice.

This makes a fair amount of chicken curry, so I freeze alot of it. Or, I cut the recipe. It is the best with rice and homemade yogurt. Storebought non-flavored with do in a massive pinch, but it just isn't the same. I also love to make bread with it (usually poori, but I have done nan), but I have found that frozen flatbread you can find at indian food stores is yummy. I like to pick up some rice, some chicken, and some yogurt with the bread and......yuuummmmmmmm.

Next time, I'll trade my paneer with tomato sauce recipe. Beyond yum.

Hurry up woman!! I'm starvin'

(Looks niiiiice)