Currying Flavor

I swear I could eat Indian food every meal.  This particular curry began its life as a recipe for Chicken in Cashew Nut Sauce in Best Ever Indian Cookbook. Naturally, I'm unable to leave well-enough alone and tweaked (okay, okay substantially altered) the recipe until it became the curry that I wanted.  The result is a spicy, tomatoey chicken curry that pairs really well with homemade naan and mint chutney (someday I'll have a garden filled with herbs and mint leaves just so I can make this more). Unfortunately, because this is my own creation, the spices in the dish are added by a whole lot of instinct, but I'll do my best to condense them into tangible measurements. So, without further ado (well, maybe a little...), I give you my recipe for Curry Chicken with Almond Sauce.

What You'll Need

Supplies

Measuring spoons                                                    Blender or Food Processor

Small bowl                                                               1 seriously large, deep skillet with lid

Cutting board                                                           Measuring cups

Knife for chopping

Ingredients

1 Tbsp cinnamon                                                     2 sweet yellow onions

2 tsp cardamom                                                       1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

1 tsp ground coriander                                             5 chicken breasts

1 tsp cumin                                                               3/4 cup slivered almonds

1 tsp salt                                                                   2 tsp minced garlic

1/2 tsp curry powder                                               1 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes                                         2 Tbsp fat-free plain yogurt

1/2 tsp turmeric                                                       1 6 oz can tomato paste

1/4 tsp chili powder                                                 1 15 oz can tomato sauce

Dash black pepper                                                   1 15 oz can diced tomatoes, drained

Dash cloves                                                              1 cup golden raisins, packed

Now Let's Make Curry Chicken with Almond Sauce!

Yes, I forgot to take a different pic.

Whew. Deep breath.  Soooo... I hope you have a well-stocked spice cabinet (heh heh). First things first, let's do a little prep work.  Aren't you excited? (No?) See all those spices listed above on the left. Yeah those; measure them out into your small bowl. Don't be too careful about it; this is more kitchen witchery than chemistry, and a heaping spoon every now and again never hurt anyone.  For the cloves, I do about two shakes through the perforated lid. You don't want too much; keep in mind that cloves are a natural numbing agent. Using a measuring spoon, mix all the spices together in the bowl, then set them aside.

Sniff, snivel, sniff

Using your cutting board and knife, peel and dice the yellow onions.  Go ahead and scrape them into your blender or food processor when you're done.  If you're working with a food processor (you lucky thing) you can simply quarter the onions before putting them in. However, since a blender is more of a pain in the rear, dice the onions finely (guess which one I get to work with *twitch, twitch*).  When you're done with the onions, begin chopping the cilantro leaves until you've got about 1/4 cup.  Avoid the stems as much as possible. It should go without saying, but wash the cilantro first (my latest grocery store bunch was filthy!). Set the cilantro aside, and begin trimming any fat off the 5 chicken breasts.  Cut the chicken into 1 inch pieces. Set aside.

Don't forget the lid!

Okay, so that was a whole lot of prep work.  Cover your blender and blend the onions until they are very small and there's a lot of juice. You don't want to liquify them, but you want them fairly mushy. Turn off the blender once your onions are done. Add your spice mix, 3/4 cup slivered almonds, 2 tsp minced garlic, 1 Tbsp lemon juice, 2 Tbsp fat-free yogurt, and 6 oz tomato paste to the blender.  Blend well until you have a very thick liquid/paste with few discernible parts.  Make especially sure that all the almonds are well blended; you don't want any chunks (nothing says tasty quite like chunks. Say it with me... chunks).

Mmmm... you saucy thing, you

Pour your spicy sauce into your large pan.  Saute over medium heat (just above your stove's middle setting) for about 2 minutes.  By cooking the spices before you add anything else, you better release their flavors.  You don't need to stir it constantly, but make sure to do so regularly or the sauce will scorch (and burnt is not a flavor we're going for).

After two minutes, add the chicken and cilantro and saute along with the spices until the chicken has cooked on the outside.  You'll know it's time to move on when all the chicken has turned white and no pink is showing on the outsides.  Now open the cans of tomato sauce and diced tomatoes.  Drain the diced tomatoes over the sink (don't drain the tomato sauce, as that is self-defeating).  Add both cans to the curry and mix everything together well. Saute for a little longer at medium heat until the chicken is cooked through.

Measure out 1 heaping cup of golden raisins, packing them into the measuring cup by squishing them into the cup before adding more. The original recipe only called for 1 Tbsp of raisins, but they really make the dish (and, I clearly like raisins). Make sure to use golden raisins or sultanas, because regular raisins just aren't the same. (Please note that raisins cause kidney failure in pets!) Mix the raisins in well.  Cover the curry and reduce heat to low.

How does one say Voila! in Hindi?

Allow the curry to simmer while you finish the rest of the meal. Serve with fresh made naan, rice, and your choice of sides. Pictured here, you see mint chutney, aloo with cauliflower and mushrooms, ad brown rice. Now, try not to stuff yourself to bursting (it's only a thin mint).

    Pin It

Sugar and Spice

And yes, both items are ingredients in today's recipe post on Spiced Sausage and Rice. (You can just stop "eeewww"ing about the sugar in a sausage dish).  This is one of those dishes you make when you realize that you're going to have to make do with what's on hand because you were to busy (read, lazy) to go grocery shopping.  This particular dish came out of a throw-something-together night with friends; it turned out so well that I have since taken it and tweaked it until it was an actual recipe.  The recipe below serves 2 - 3 people without side dishes and can be easily doubled if needed.

What You'll Need

Supplies

1 medium pan                                                                 1 cutting board

1 small pot                                                                      1 knife for slicing

1 cooking spoon                                                              1 knife for chopping

Measuring cups

Ingredients

1 cup jasmine rice                                                          1/2 Tbsp ground cardamom

5 chicken sausages                                                         1/2 Tbsp cinnamon

1 small yellow onion*                                                     Dash ground coriander

1/2 red or green bell pepper*                                         Small dash ground cloves

1 small handful light brown sugar                                 Olive oil

Now Let's Make Spiced Sausage and Rice

Double, double, toil and trouble

Measure out 1 cup of rice and set it to the side of the stove to be on hand later (or, you know, run around like a chicken with its head cut off like I do when I forget to measure out the rice, either way). Measure out 1 3/4 cup water and pour it into your small pot.  You can also follow the instructions on the back of the rice bag, but I find you get a dryer rice if you reduce the water by 1/4 to 1/3 cup.  Set the pot on the stove and turn heat to high to bring water to a boil.  Once water is boiling add rice and stir once.

Uncovered rice is indecent

Cover the rice and reduce heat to 2 or 3.  Now you can ignore the rice for a little while, fluffing it with a fork occasionally until done.  Meanwhile, get out your cutting board and peel and dice the small onion.  Put a smidge of olive oil into the medium pan and set the heat to medium.  Add the onions and saute.  While the onions are cooking, cut the bell pepper in half, saving one half for a later date.  Remove the core and seeds from the remaining half and dice it.  Add to medium pan to saute. ("why are there no pictures of this step?" you ask.  Because I needed to go to the store so badly that I didn't have them on hand. Fortunately onions and bell peppers are optional ingredients).

Chicken sausage sounds a little wrong

While the onions and peppers are sauteing, slice the chicken sausage into small dials about 1/3 of an inch thick.  I like to use an off-brand italian chicken sausage, since the "italian" part of that seems to mostly consist of peppers. Also, I find that the seasoning is light enough to compliment the dish. When you're done slicing the sausage, add it to the sauteing vegetables (they should be pretty tender by now).  Use your cooking spoon to move the ingredients around the pan occasionally as you saute to ensure even cooking and prevent scorching.

Just ignore the lack of onions/peppers

Add the 1/2 Tbsp cardamom, 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon, dash of coriander, and small dash of cloves. (And I do mean a small dash, unless you want your tongue to go numb).  You can also add a sprinkle of salt to taste if you'd like.  Stir in the spices until the meat and vegetables are fairly evenly coated.  Now add a small handful of brown sugar to the mixture.  In terms of my hands, this equals about 1/4 cup, maybe a little less. Mix this into the sausage and vegetables until they are evenly coated.  By now you should have a thick, slightly goopy (from the sugar) sauce in the pan. Once the sausage is cooked through, reduce heat to low.

Back, foul demon!

Don't forget to fend off any hungry gatos that might be stalking you during the cooking process.  The black ones are especially dangerous, due to their ninja-like camouflage.  I caught this one deviously eyeing my back as I sauteed the sausage, attracted by the scent of raw meat and licking his chops.  But I'm on to their wily ways. (It also helped that he was perched on a white washer and dryer, but still).

I've nothing funny to say about rice

Now, check your rice. Hopefully it's nice and dry and fluffy (see the pretty picture to the right).  If, however, it is not dry and fluffy and there is instead water in the pot still, then your rice is not done yet. The key is to cook the rice until the water has been completely absorbed by the grains.  If your rice does not seem to be doing this, try slightly increasing the heat (I said SLIGHTLY!).  Keep the rice covered as it cooks, and be careful to watch it closely, since you don't want to burn the rice in the bottom of the pot.

To serve, dish rice onto the center of a plate or into a bowl.  Top with the sausage, and nom.

    Follow @TheBookPantry