Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Quick three chicken curry.

I'm finally getting down to talking about what I really love to do best. Cooking. Nothing has ever beaten the sense of satisfaction that comes from creating a meal from available ingredients for people I care about. Except perhaps making and giving food to those who have never had enough. But this blog here will focus on the positive aspect of food and all the goodness it signifies.

So without further ado, I'd like to start by sharing an easy recipe for chicken curry with rice for those nights when you're tired after work but still want to have something a little special.

I call it the quick three because it basically uses three main ingredients:

1. Brown onion paste (slice, deep fry and grind to a paste 2 medium size onions for about a kilo of chicken).
2. Tomato paste. Not the store bought variety as that is too tangy for this recipe. Bring a pot of water to the boil and immerse 3 ripe tomatoes in it for 30 seconds. Make a criss cross on the skin before that so they peel off easily. Grind to a puree and you will get a mild orange paste like this:




3. Cashew paste. Soak a handful of the nuts in a milk and once you've made the above 2 pastes, grind them and keep aside.
This entire process will take less than 10 minutes with two gas burners. And you will have this:




List of ingredients:
1. One medium size chicken dressed and curry cut.
2. Two onions for the paste (explained above)
3. Three ripe tomatoes for puree (explained above)
4. Approximately 50 gms of cashews for nut paste.
5. 1 tsp each of turmeric powder, jeera powder and chillie powder
6. Salt to taste.
7. Two tbsp of your regular oil for frying (I use half and half of Olive oil and trans fat free sunflower oil).

Method:
1. Once the pastes are ready, heat oil in a pan.
2. When hot, add the onion paste along with the dry masalas (Ing no. 5) and fry for a few seconds or till oil separates.

3. Now add the tomato puree and bring to a rolling boil.
4. Simmer and add the washed and cleaned chicken pieces with salt and cook till tender.
5. Top off with cashew paste and cook for 3 - 5 minutes till thoroughly blended.

6. Serve over basmati rice.





This took me 30 minutes after office to put together and was thoroughly enjoyed even by my son aged 4 as it wasn't too spicy. Happy cooking!

10 comments:

Prats said...

Congrats on this new venture.
This sure sounds really interesting and i'd be gald to contribute here...

You've kicked off with a great dish...
happy times cooking and feeding!!
Relate so well with the cook and feed people

Adorable Pancreas said...

Ah, you have pictures of how it looks in between. Good, I'll be sure to check back when I cook next. (that happens about once a decade, but fear not. I'll be back.)

Preethi said...

CONGRATS!! thats a lovely new venture.. hope to see some new stuff for a flailing cook like me :)

Vidya said...

hey, this is lovely.. join the club

aMus said...

happy posting...

now for some veggie delights...please..:D

amna said...

nice attempty madhumita :) i frequent tys's blog and came here via that. i too have a cooking blog so stop by when u have time :) welcome to the food blogosphere!

Madhumita said...

Prats : Look forward to your recipes ... I remember reading about the 108 you made during your son's exam! How about one for homemade sambar powder?

AP : yeah I had the same need to know if the in between cooking stages matched with the real thing. But you deliver babies and such like ... get someone to cook for you!

Tx Preethi and Vidya.

Nags : I did check out your food space a while ago and left you a comment on the breakfast thingies. Amamzing stuff.

Suma : Lots of veg coming up. I just didn't have any pics :)

Prats said...

heheh sambhar powder....done!! wil mail it to you....

Sairekha said...

Hey!! nice venture:) Tys has bragged so much about your cooking... and I had literally flipped over your methi jholi..:) You can expect a regular:)

Umm... do you pour in the milk when you grind the kajoo?

Madhumita said...

Ziah : Yes ... grind the cashews with the milk.

Prats : Looking forward ... I'll try it first and then post it with due credits :)