Chicken cardamom curry

I started cooking once I came to Germany. before I was pampered by my mom enough. Though she did expect something in return that I do something meaningful in my life, study, at least be qualified enough to be independent and follow my own chosen way. She always said " cooking is no big deal, you will learn it one day once the need arises." I still learnt a lot of cooking through watching and, of course, we were allowed to cook during the summer vacations if we felt like it and we - me and my sisters, did make use of these opportunities, even if not so often. Usually we would look up some yummy recipes from the magazines like Femina and try it. Sometimes some of my mom's recipes if I liked them a lot. Those were the times. Sigh!
Since my parent's were vegetarians - now, for those not from India- it is no big deal in India, as it is a way of life there and you really don't have to make any compromises of any kinds. So, I didn't get exposed to eating chicken until I went to college and lived in a hostel with friends from Manipur (India) who cooked during the summer break when the canteen closed for a couple of weeks. Once I came to Germany I also tried cooking chicken myself from what I had learnt from them and from the recipes in the Hawkins recipe book which I got with the pressure cooker I brought from India with me. I was told that pressure cookers are different and not so good outside India. Well, the pressure cooker got damaged after using it a couple of times, but at least I could make use of the book!! :D
This is my very first trial at making an Indian curry other than Chicken Makkhan. If I make chicken Indian style I usually just marinate it with some Indian spices , fry it and add some veggies to it. That's it! On seeing Soma's beautiful pictures of this wonderful looking curry, I thought that I had to try it. I did not make it exactly like hers, but I tried to keep the spices the same.

Chicken cardamom curry

Recipe by PG of My Kitchen Stories

Based on the recipe at Soma's eCurry

Ingredients:

3 chicken breast fillets, washed, pat dried and cubed into 2-3 cm (1/2 ") pieces
3 medium potatoes, washed, peeled and cubed into 2-3 cm (1/2 ") pieces
1-1/2 cups green beans, washed, ends cut off and cut into 4 cm (1-1/2 ") pieces
1 heaped tsp cumin
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp powdered jaggery
salt to taste
oil for frying

Marinade:
1/4 tsp turmeric
1-1/2 tsp coriander seeds, ground
1 tsp salt

Onion paste:
2 medium onions, chopped coarsely
3 cm piece ginger (about 1"), chopped coarsely -I used up the last 1/2 " piece remaining in my basket
3 cloves garlic, chopped coarsely
1 heaped tsp tamarind paste
1" piece cinnamon stick (half) -use one whole, as per your liking
1 dried red chili, broken into large pieces
2 cloves, (I ground them before adding)
6 green cardamoms, the seeds, (I ground them before adding)
1 tsp turmeric
1 heaped tbsp sesame seeds
2 tbsp dried coconut (as a substitute for 3/4 cup coconut milk)

chopped coriander leaves (cilantro) for garnish (optional)


Method:

• prepare chicken and marinate (marinade above) for 10 to 20 minutes
  
• in the meanwhile prepare the onion paste by grinding everything together or first the dry ingredients in the dry grinder and then together
• heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and fry chicken on medium heat, covered, till almost done, turning once
  
• take out of the pan, clean it
• now heat 2 tbsp oil in the pan and add cumin till it splutters, add the potatoes and green beans along with turmeric and fry on medium heat till done, stirring in between
• in the meanwhile, in another pan using 2-3 tbsp oil fry the onion paste on medium heat, stirring in between, till roasted (about 10 minutes), add a few drops of water if required
  
• mix everything together (chicken, potatoes, and fried onion paste) in the pan and add 1/2 cup water and cook for about 10 minutes till you get a nice thick gravy
• if required, add some more water
• serve warm garnished with cilantro along with warm Indian rotis (flat bread) and steamed basmati rice
  

It's no doubt a wonderful curry. Since then I have tried it twice already and I will surely be using this recipe often. Hubby loved it and was very pleased at how well it had turned out- you see I'm not so good at satisfying hubby with food. :D
I liked it a lot and honestly I was a bit skeptical initially, as I always believe that I don't like green (sweet) cardamom in savoury food. Well, until now. :)
Soma, thank you for this wonderful experience. I'm sure if you were on my side while I prepared it, you would have pointed out many improvements. But, I'm learning by doing. The picture doesn't look so perfect and a bit too dry as I had added lesser water and didn't use any coconut milk this time and by the time I took the picture - we had had our lunch- the leftover chicken had even lesser water. But what lovely leftovers for the next day! Delicious!

Some good information on Cardamom at Gernot Kratzer's spice pages:
Cardamom (Amomum subulatum Roxb.)

If you want to try the curry, go to Soma's Curried Chicken in Cardamom Infused Coconut Sauce at eCurry. You will not only get the recipe but a beautiful story behind it too.

Related posts:
Chicken makkhan

Herbed chicken

This was an effort to make a simpe dish without too many things. Simple. That was the explicit request of hubby, who was a bit down with cold. On asking if this type of chicken would be OK, he probably didn't hear properly and just said something which I couldn't understand and I repeated and and he said "what ever...". So, when the food came on the table, he was a bit surprised, as he was expecting something Indian style and I was quite irritated with this and said" well, I asked you....?". But, it didn't take long for us to get back into a happy mood as we were enjoying something which had turned out so delicous and hubby was all praise for me. I don't make chicken like this usually. I did check some recipes before I was confident enough to make it the way I wanted, just with some herbs, some black pepper , potatoes - I like to have them with chicken quite often, being a big potato lover! They also get a good flavour from the chicken through that. I had also put some fennel stems for flavour, which were the left overs of the side dish I was preparing, which had also turned out much better than my expectations. A simple meal turned great! That's how we felt about it.

Herbed chicken

Preparation time: 25 minutes
Baking time: 1 1/2 -2 hours
Baking temp.: 200°C
Main utensils: A large baking pan with lid or a porcelain baking dish and aluminium foil (a Roemertopf is ideal)

Ingredients:

4 chicken legs with skin, washed, pat dried and the fat removed
5-6 small potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
1 large red onion, cut into wedges
1/2 white onion, cut into wedges
2 large garlic cloves, thickly sliced lengthwise
2 tbsp lemon juice (I left it out)
4-5 leftover stems of fennel (optional)
1 level tbsp vegetable broth (organic) - as a replacement for the white wine
a hand full of fresh herbs like rosemary and thyme
250 ml water
salt to taste
10-15 peppercorns, or to taste - crushed coarsely in a mortar
2-3 tbsp olive oil

Method:
In a baking dish of choice:

• rub the cleaned chicken with the peppercorns, salt, the herbs and lemonjuice, also under the skin
• mix with garlic and onion (also under the skin)
• add the potatoes and fennel and olive oil and salt to taste for the potatoes
• mix the potatoes with the herbs as well
• stir the vegetable broth with the water and add to the chicken
• cover with a lid or aluminium foil
• bake for 2 hours at 200°C
  
• serve with steamed basmati rice or any rice of choice

I have never made chicken so simple, with so few spices and which still turned out so delicious!
We ate it with fennel and carrot Au Gratin and steamed basmati rice. This is again one of those pictures I hadn't planned to take, like I mentioned in my last post about the side dish, and in a hurry and the dark days that we are having now adding to the difficulty, it has beome difficult to take good pictures so easily. But, if you have tried something similar before then you would know what I'm talkig about. And I didn't miss the wine at all. Initially I was thinking of adding the vegetables to the chicken, but somehow felt it better to keep them separate. And it was surely a good decision. This was a splendid dish and a big success as an experiment, as I felt it to be!

Chicken makkhan..... and an Award!

Chicken, as many of you might know, I make quite often. So, this time I started with a whim, I felt like using fenugreek and then slowly the dish took its form in my mind until I knew I was going to make chicken makkhan, also called butter chicken in English.
Since I have made this dish a couple of times I really don't need a recipe book, but still I went through many different versions online, to make sure I was going to make it as true to its name, but at the end it has to be MY recipe, isn't it?
Since I was in the mood of fenugreek leaves, I didn't hesitate to add a nice portion of it into the dish, and it tasted delicious. Usually I also add some heavy cream, but this time I didn't have any (purposefully! need I explain why? the name itself says it all: HEAVY cream). I have found that even though I plan to add a little bit of butter and only a little bit of cream, ultimately things get out of hand, and though the dish turns our good, but you are worried about those calories. But then to do justice to this dish , the name of this dish, I had to make sure to add enough butter, not that i wouldn't have done it otherwise. And as you see I just couldn't resist adding some chopped carrots either. It does the dish full justice.

For the recipe, read on...

Ingredients:

400 g chicken fillet (boneless and skin less), washed, pat dried and cubed

Marinade:
mix together
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp red chili powder
2 tsp coriander seeds, ground

1 tsp salt, or to taste
1 tsp oil

Onion paste:
1 inch ginger, peeled and chopped coarsely
1 garlic, chopped coarsely
1 onion, chopped coarsely

whole spices:
1 tsp cumin
10 peppercorns
2 bay leaves
2 star anis
1 two inch piece of cinnamon

3 tomatoes, pureed
2 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves
1 large carrot, chopped
2 heaped tablespoons, ground almonds
2 heaped tbsp cold butter
1 tbsp oil
salt, to taste

Method:

• Marinate chicken pieces for 15 to 30 minutes with the spices in the refrigerator covered, or until required
  
• Prepare the onion paste by grinding the ingredients together in a blender
• heat oil in a saute pan, fry the chicken on medium to high heat and take out and set aside
• roast the whole spices in 1 tbsp butter
• add the onion paste and 1 more tbsp butter and fry on medium heat till golden brown
• add carrots fry for short and then add the tomato puree and some salt, cook till it thickens
• add the ground almonds and fenugreek leaves
• return the chicken into the sauce
  
• cook further till done, adjust salt to taste
• take out the whole cinnamon, bay leaves and star anise, if desired
  
• serve warm with plain basmati rice or rotis (indian bread)

This was a total pleasure to have made this dish, which we all enjoyed eating equally well. The flavours of the wonderful spices each of which blended together in this dish to give it a wonderful, harmonious and rich taste. The best way to eat it is either with hot Indian rotis or simply with plain basmati rice which compliment its flavours wonderfully.

This recipe goes to the Event Think Spice, think Fenugreek at Kittens in the Kitchen.

And, it also goes to Srilekha's Event "Chicken" taking place this month and the following month of Oktober.

******************************************************

Now, about something very very special. Something which has made me so very happy. I have got this award from the lovely and smart Aparna Inguva of Three Mangoes. This is my very first at this blog, which has grown from a my simple effort to just collect my tried and tested recipes to a new passion. Thank you so much Aparna!
I would like to pass on this award to :

Aparna of Sumi's weblog
Ivy of Kopiaste
Sunshine mom of Tongueticklers
RC of Redchillies
Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen

If I could I would make an "Excellent " out of it.
Gals, you deserve it!

cashews and chicken!

Isn't that a lovely combination. I saw this recipe of cahew chicken once at the wonderful blog Rasa Malaysia and the very sight of it told me that I had to try it. It took me long until I finally made it, but all the time, I had been looking for an opportunity for it. And I got it that weekend.
But, before I could prepare this chicken, I had to get the ingredients, for the recipe, as this is a style of cooking which is very new to me and I didn't want to take any risks of spoiling something so nice.
I have tried to stay as true to the recipe as possible, except for a few small things like replacing white pepper with chilli powder, as I don't like white pepper, and adding more soya sauce, and also adding more vegetables, as I was not going to serve any other sides to it except for rice.


Ingredients:

400 g Chicken, washed, pat dried and cut into small chunks or stripes
1 large carrot, peeled, and julliened
1 large green bellpepper, cut into small squares
3 spring onions/ scallions, chopped into rings
1 small zucchini, cut into 1/2 cm thick rings
ginger, julliened
3/4 cup cashew nuts
cooking oil (I used sunflower oil)

1st marinade:
1 tsp soda

2nd marinade: 1 heaped tsp cornstarch
1 tsp rice wine

Sauce:

1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soyasauce
3 dashes of white pepper powder (I used a dash of chilli powder)
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp rice wine
1/4 tsp sesame oil
5 tablespoons of water

Method:

• wash and clean the chicken, pat dry and cut into small pieces
• marinate with baking soda for 15-20 minutes
• wash away the soda thoroughly from the chicken, pat dry and marinate with cornstarch and rice wine for another 15-20 minutes
• mix the ingredients of the sauce together in a bowl and set aside
• cut the vegetables
  
• fry chicken in a wok or sauté pan on high heat stirrring in between, reduce heat to medium and fry till it gets cooked on the outside, but still not cooked through. Take out and set aside.
• Fry the ginger and julliened carrots in some oil and stir fry till they are more than half done
• then add the spring onions and green bell peppers and stir fry further till they have become slightly tender, but are still crisp and green. Take out and set aside
• Add the cashew nuts and roast for a minute on medium heat, take out and sert aside
• stir fry the zucchini rings till they get tender, but still have a crispy texture
• mix everything back into the wok along with the sauce and cook for two minutes, uncovered
• serve warm with warm steamed rice.

The first time I read the recipe I was surprised at the use of soda, as I had never heard of it before, but I wanted to try it out. And I was amazed that it held its promise. The chicken was different. Much softer and tender than otherwise. This is a wonderful recipe, one from so many others I plan to try out from Rasa malaysia.

Hubby and Rishab, both look forward to my chicken dishes. Hubby is especially fond of chinese food, the reason why I have been wanting to try out this recipe. We all enjoyed it thoroughly. But, the best part of it was the wows I heard from hubby without my having to ask him, how it tasted. Yes, he was amazed and impressed. So, I think this experiment was a big success. :)

Update:
I have already made this recipe once again and hubby still wants to eat it again! I also think that this is one great recipe which all chicken lovers would enjoy.

This is my entry to Srilekha's monthy Event "Chicken" for the month of September, which has been now extended upto the month of Oktober.

Thai Chicken in Red curry

Both myself and Chonu, my hubby, we love Thai food. After having eaten a couple of times at some Restaurants I also started cooking these dishes myself at home. Earlier, when we did not have any restrictions on the hotness of the sauce, I used generous amounts of these packaged curry pastes. And we found them not bad at all. They do not contain any preservatives or colours or any flavour enhancers et cetera. And still, they give the food a very authetic Thai flavour. One does notice the difference in the freshness between a good Restaurant curry, I admit, but still not to such an extent. In fact, this Thai friend, living here in Germany, told me that she likes to use them too - although, I guess more out of need than choice.
I still use these curry pastes, to avoid making things too complicated, but despite that, I cannot use these pastes like before, as that makes the curry we make too hot for my son to be able to eat and enjoy them. Earlier I used half of the paste each time for both of us, now it is not more than a teaspoon of the total, which is almost 1/10th of the whole quantity. But, it still adds to the wonderful flavours of the curry. So, I usually keep at least one packet of these pastes in stock in my pantry. But, otherwise I try to use as many fresh ingredients for the curry as possible.

For last Friday we had already planned a few days before that we will be eating Thai style chicken. And the desire to make it became even stronger after I saw a post on My Cooking Hut, a food blog, yesterday with some beautiful pictures and delicious recipes from someone who is a Malaysian. Her post on a prawn curry was the inspiration for this recipe.
The chicken turned out so good. Sometimes I feel the clarity of thought and a relaxed mind at that moment is so important to get good results while cooking too. Rather than a hurriedly prepared meal. I personally get into trouble when I have to prepare something in a hurry and I loose this feeling which usually guides me while cooking. Then I prefer sticking to the food I grew up eating, which I could prepare with my (concious) brain shut off!
So, here it goes, a simple but very tasty recipe:

Ingredients:


3 filets Chicken, washed, pat dried and cut into thin stripes

Chicken Marinade:
fish sauce and
a pinch of ground curcuma
1/2 tbsp dried coriander powder (optional - I'm just so fanatic about it!)
1 tbsp lime/lemon juice (added later, had forgotten to add this!)

Onion paste:
1 onion, peeled and chopped
3 small garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1 inch (about 3 cm) ginger, chopped coarsely
1 tsp lime juice

1 can of coconut mik, shaken before opening
2 cups green beans (French beans), chopped
1 cup carrots, chopped into thin slices
fish sauce, to taste

1 tsp Kaang Pa Country Style Red Curry Paste (Lobo)
1 lemon grass, cut into long pieces and the white part crushed
5-6 kaffir lime leaves, chopped or leaves slit on both sides of the mid-vain
1/2 lime (or lemon), the juice
1/2 tbsp dried coriander powder (optional)
1 cup cabbage, chopped

1 tomato, chopped
10 sprigs Thai basil leaves, washed and pat dried

2 tbsp coriander leves (cilantro), chopped, to garnish

Method.

• Marinate chicken : chicken pieces+ fish sauce+ turmeric+lime juice
• Make into a fine paste: onion, garlic and ginger with lime juice using an electric chopper/ food processor
• In a sauté pan or wok cook the beans and carrots in a few tbsps of coconut milk on medium heat till done, add a dash of fish sauce or to taste, if required add water, and set aside
  
• Again add a few tbsps of coconut milk in the pan and cook the chicken, stirring in between on medium heat till the chicken is done, adding more coconut milk, if required, and letting the coconut milk to dry up and turn golden brown. Take out and mix with the cooked vegetables
• Add some more coconut milk to the pan and fry the onion paste with the lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, the red curry paste, first on high heat and then, when the paste starts to get a bit dry, on low heat for a further two minutes , stirring continuously
• Add the chopped cabbage and a little more coconut milk stirring further
  
• Add the chicken and vegetables backinto the pan, stir and add the remaining cocnut milk and all the other ingredients except for the Thai basil and cilantro garnish and simmer for further two mintes.
  
• Switch off heat and add Thai basil and leave covered for a minute, mix
• Serve garnished with cilantro

Now, my red curry does not as red, as I have taken very little of the paste and no red chillies for it, but it tasted so delicious! When it comes to Thai or any south Asian food, I'm all for it!