Original Recipe: Celebration/Lost Recipe Curry

I was asked to make a slow cooked curry that I’d made once before by someone who had many things to celebrate, including graduating and obtaining a job.  Certainly worth a celebratory meal.

After trying to remember the book/site from which I obtained the recipe, I gave up and decided to create a new recipe.  Unfortunately there was no yogurt, coconut milk, coconut cream etc in the house and the vague memories I had of the curry indicated it needed these.  There was also many vegetables which were looking as if they would be inedible in a few days.  In addition passata and stock which had been partially used for another meal that would expire within a day needed to be included in the curry.   So it had to be a curry that included stock, passata and various vegetables.

It was cold and no one volunteered to go to the shop to buy further ingredients.  Only the items in the house were available.

So the challenge was to make a curry without the required ingredients.

Not so simple.

Fortunately there were many herbs and spices available.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil

3 medium/large brown onions chopped finely

2 chicken breast fillets cut into small pieces

5 small cloves of garlic, crushed

2 cm fresh ginger peeled and cut finely

1 tin tomatoes

300 ml chicken stock

7 cardamom pods, crushed

1/4 tsp cumin seed

1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1/2 tsp garam masala

1 1/2 tsp crushed chilli (or season to taste)

1/2 tsp tumeric

1/2 tsp ground chilli

 

Later additions

1/2 cup passata

2 bay leaves

1 zucchini cuts finely

2 small yellow capsicums cut finely

3 small sticks celery  cut finely

2 additional small cloves garlic

1/2 cup additional passata

A dash Worchester sauce

METHOD

As mentioned earlier this is a slow cooked curry and as the slow cooker used is a multi-function cooker it was possible to brown the onions in the olive oil on HIGH Sauté until they became translucent.

If desired the onions could be caramelised but this takes at least 30 minutes of constant mixing and there were too many other things to do.

Once the onion was partially cooked the first 5 cloves of crushed garlic and ginger were added.  This was cooked for a further two minutes before the chicken joined them in the slow cooker.  Then this  was cooked until there was no pink visible on the chicken.

The function of the multi-cooker was changed to HIGH Slow cook and the tinned tomatoes, first amount of passata and the rest of the ingredients up till the ‘later ingredients’ were added.  Before closing the slow cooker, I tasted the food.  It was bland and not very appetising.  Slightly worried I set the slow cooker for 4 hours and became busy doing other tasks.

 

(The reason there are later ingredients is if zucchini and some other vegetables become overcooked, they become bitter and unpleasant.)

When the cooker intimated (by beeping loudly) that 4 hours were up, after carefully venting the steam, it was opened and the food tasted again.  What a difference 4 hours made to the flavour.   Admittedly it caused a certain amount of coughing due to the spiciness of the crushed chilli.

 

The ‘later ingredients ‘ were now added and the slow cooker was programmed for 4 hours (because it won’t go lower) but I set a timer for two hours, to remind me.  When the two hours were up, the top was removed and it continued to cook, uncovered for another half an hour.

In the meantime rice and poppadums were prepared and the Mango Chutney was located to accompany the meal.  While I hate mango, I like mango chutney with curry.

There was an expectation amongst those present, watching while the meal was served.  The first taste indicated it was nothing like the curry which had been requested as it lacked the required creaminess.  Also, using a slow cooker means the liquid in the food does not reduce, which is something that does add more flavour, hence the reason it was left uncovered for half an hour.  In future it might cook uncovered for longer.

It was tasty, a very pleasant curry and perfect for a cold winters night in/near Canberra.

However, as it didn’t meet the brief, a new curry that contains the flavour but has the added creaminess needs to be created.

If you make this, please be careful of the bay leaves and cardamom pods if you do not remove them before serving.  Biting into either can spoil the taste and leave you either choking on a bay leaf or having everything overpowered by the strong flavour of the cardamom pod into which you have bitten.

It seems we have a new curry recipe and a new ‘In Search of…’ candidate.

Verdict: Will make again but cook uncovered for longer.