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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

The origins of curry chicken

Curry chicken on rice is the most popular dish in my family. Both my husband and son is a curry lover. Curry originally comes from the South Indian, “Kari” which means sauce.
Curry powder has a long history dated back 3000 BC, the powder consist of turmeric, cumin, seeds, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, salt, five spice powder (cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper, bay leaf and cumin) and red chili powder.  Curry leaves is a plant with small, dark green leaves (about 1 inch long) that give a mild flavor to Indian food; they usually like to eat it fresh, not dried. The definition of curry are varies from different culture. For example; India refers them to a spicy stem or gravy with a sauce base. It’s one of the most common and most generally categorized dishes in India but the original recipe for meat in spicy sauce with bread was discovered near Babylon in Mesopotamia and dated back in 1700BC. 
There are no standard ingredients which go into the making of curry. It all depends on the culture, nationality and country. Today curry cuisine wide spread across cultures. Different tradition cruise would have its own way of cooking curry. Below is my way of making curry…
Lala's own recipe:
Ingredients: (serving for 3)
·         1kg chicken pieces of your choice (I used chicken thigh we love dark meats)
·         ½ pounds of small potatoes (preferably nugget pototoes)
·         5 stalk carrots (cut into cubes)
·         1 small onion (diced)
·         1 glove of garlic (diced)
·         1 pack of pre-made curry powder (Yeo’s brand-Malaysian)
·         1 can of pre-made curry gravy (Yeo’s brand –Singapore)
·         1 tsp of five spice powder
·         1 tsp of salt
·         1 pinch of sugar
·         1 tbsp of fish sauce
·         1 tsp of soya sauce
·         1 tsp of cooking wine
·         2 scallion of green onion
·         2 tsps of olive oil

Instructions:

Pan fried the diced garlic and onion in olive oil until it sizzles. Put the chicken in first and pan fried it for 15 minutes. During this process, put all spices in. Once the chicken looks 80% cooked, put the potatoes and carrots in together with the chicken. Mix the curry powder and the gravy together with the chicken and vegetable. Cook for about 10 minutes. Bring it down to medium heat and simmer it with a cover for about 30 minutes and the curry chicken is ready. The complete cooking time is less than an hour. You can eat this with bread, rice noodles or just over a bed of rice. It’s delicious!

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