This is Thanksgiving week, and on the last Thursday of November, a very special holiday for Americans, families gather together around a huge meal. For us orphans living and working in the US with no family about, it sometimes gets quite weird during this holiday. We often have invites to attend dinner parties, and if it is a very close knit family and we are the only outsider, it feels awkward. Then the hosts make extra effort to include you, and that is even more awkward. So, a very nice friend decided to have a Freindsgiving party this weekend, to have all her friends over for a huge shared meal, complete with turkey and all. I made Egg-Chicken Coconut Curry and Honey Raita.
I make chicken curry in a thousand different ways. Honestly, it is never the same, unless I purposefully want to recreate a particular recipe. My way of cooking is to just go by the flow about what I am feeling at that time, and so it is very hard for me to write down recipes with exact ingredients. This time I knew I wanted to do coconut chicken, but I was not sure what flavor to go with. The spice mix is usually quite random. Sometimes when I am lazy, I use premade/premixed spices too; like from MDH or Shaan or Everest; or just a mix of cumin, corriander, and garam masala powder. Coconut is the important ingredient here, not the spice powder flavors. And this time, I just wanted to have an egg curry too, and thought that I'll add eggs to the coconut curry, just for fun! Why not?
Ingredients
3lbs chicken, say three Costco Chicken pouches
6 eggs, boiled, peeled
Curry leaves
Onion, one large
Garlic, one head
Ginger, 1.5 inch
Turmeric
Kashmiri chili powder
Coconut oil
MaePloy Coconut milk
Spice powder ingredients (feel free to change ratio to suit taste)
2 Red chilies
2 Tbsp shredded coconut
1 Tsp peppercorns
1.5 Tsp Cumin seeds
1.5 Tsp Corriander seeds
1-inch Cinnamon
1.5 Tsp Fennel seeds
For Tempering - mustard seeds, curry leaves, fennel seeds
Preparation
1. Clean chicken, cut into 1-inch pieces.
2. Make light cuts on the eggs, coat them turmeric, chili powder, and salt. Fry them in oil, till they blister and turn red. Do not burn, but fry them well. The blistered texture is very yummy in curry.
3. Roast all the spice powder ingredients on a dry skillet till they are fragrant. Then grind them in a mortar and pestle to a fine powder.
4. Grind onion, garlic, and ginger into fine paste.
5. Heat oil, add curry leaves and let it fry for a second or two. Then add the onion-ginger-garlic mix and fry for a bit.
6. When the mix is a bit translucent. Add two tablespoons of the cream from the coconut milk can. mix well. Then, add the spice powder and turmeric. If you want it spicy, add some chili powder.
7. Mix and keep sauteing till the mixture is well done. Then add the chicken and start sauteing.
8. In the US, there is a lot of water in chicken, especially if it was previously frozen. So at this step, if the frying pan is not wide enough, the meat will release a fair bit of water. Nothing can be done. Keep sauteing till the oil is released from the masala. This is the longest step, and one has to remain vigilant.
9. Add the coconut milk, mix well. Let it simmer for 5 minutes. Add in the fried eggs. Simmer for another five minutes, mixing well.
10. For tempering, in a separate frying pan, heat coconut oil, then add curry leaves, mustard seeds and fennel seeds. Fry well till they splutter. Add the hot oil with spices onto the curry.
The key to any coconut cream curry is the quality of coconut cream. I recommend not to ever buy light cream, it is a waste of money. You may as well buy water! The best coconut milk I have found is Mae Ploy. And the trick to buy cans is to shake them. The one that makes the least amount of watery noise is the one you want to get, for it has the most cream. Coconut cream/milk is not homogenized in the factories. So, when the milk is canned, not all cans are made equal. You need to get the can that has the most cream, more value for your money. When I go shopping, you will find me spending a lot of time at the coconut milk aisle shaking the cans! Shopping for food can be playful too!
I make chicken curry in a thousand different ways. Honestly, it is never the same, unless I purposefully want to recreate a particular recipe. My way of cooking is to just go by the flow about what I am feeling at that time, and so it is very hard for me to write down recipes with exact ingredients. This time I knew I wanted to do coconut chicken, but I was not sure what flavor to go with. The spice mix is usually quite random. Sometimes when I am lazy, I use premade/premixed spices too; like from MDH or Shaan or Everest; or just a mix of cumin, corriander, and garam masala powder. Coconut is the important ingredient here, not the spice powder flavors. And this time, I just wanted to have an egg curry too, and thought that I'll add eggs to the coconut curry, just for fun! Why not?
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| Egg-Chicken Coconuty Curry |
3lbs chicken, say three Costco Chicken pouches
6 eggs, boiled, peeled
Curry leaves
Onion, one large
Garlic, one head
Ginger, 1.5 inch
Turmeric
Kashmiri chili powder
Coconut oil
MaePloy Coconut milk
Spice powder ingredients (feel free to change ratio to suit taste)
2 Red chilies
2 Tbsp shredded coconut
1 Tsp peppercorns
1.5 Tsp Cumin seeds
1.5 Tsp Corriander seeds
1-inch Cinnamon
1.5 Tsp Fennel seeds
For Tempering - mustard seeds, curry leaves, fennel seeds
Preparation
1. Clean chicken, cut into 1-inch pieces.
2. Make light cuts on the eggs, coat them turmeric, chili powder, and salt. Fry them in oil, till they blister and turn red. Do not burn, but fry them well. The blistered texture is very yummy in curry.
3. Roast all the spice powder ingredients on a dry skillet till they are fragrant. Then grind them in a mortar and pestle to a fine powder.
4. Grind onion, garlic, and ginger into fine paste.
5. Heat oil, add curry leaves and let it fry for a second or two. Then add the onion-ginger-garlic mix and fry for a bit.
6. When the mix is a bit translucent. Add two tablespoons of the cream from the coconut milk can. mix well. Then, add the spice powder and turmeric. If you want it spicy, add some chili powder.
7. Mix and keep sauteing till the mixture is well done. Then add the chicken and start sauteing.
8. In the US, there is a lot of water in chicken, especially if it was previously frozen. So at this step, if the frying pan is not wide enough, the meat will release a fair bit of water. Nothing can be done. Keep sauteing till the oil is released from the masala. This is the longest step, and one has to remain vigilant.
9. Add the coconut milk, mix well. Let it simmer for 5 minutes. Add in the fried eggs. Simmer for another five minutes, mixing well.
10. For tempering, in a separate frying pan, heat coconut oil, then add curry leaves, mustard seeds and fennel seeds. Fry well till they splutter. Add the hot oil with spices onto the curry.
The key to any coconut cream curry is the quality of coconut cream. I recommend not to ever buy light cream, it is a waste of money. You may as well buy water! The best coconut milk I have found is Mae Ploy. And the trick to buy cans is to shake them. The one that makes the least amount of watery noise is the one you want to get, for it has the most cream. Coconut cream/milk is not homogenized in the factories. So, when the milk is canned, not all cans are made equal. You need to get the can that has the most cream, more value for your money. When I go shopping, you will find me spending a lot of time at the coconut milk aisle shaking the cans! Shopping for food can be playful too!
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