Tag: curry

“Playwrights are like men who have been dining for a month in an Indian restaurant. After eating curry night after night, they deny the existence of asparagus”
Peter Ustinov

The North Indian summer is always unbearably hot, & is meant to last a month or so. That is how we are programmed to survive here, because come July, we welcome the rains with open arms & hearts! This year has been different. It’s almost August & zilch; the rains didn’t come. We’ve seen the monsoons fail…The temperatures are still in the 40’s, & the days are HOT + HUMID = UGH!! An odd shower now & then makes life miserable. This year, we’ve seen cities across the globe also trying to cope with high temperatures. Vancouver is bad, & so is Seattle. Melbourne had a particularly bad summer with record breaking high temperatures.

Days like these call for light fare on the table, which is what I attempted to do today. I had chicken & I wanted to make curry. Hot weather calls for light curry. Light curry, full of summer flavour … mint, coriander, lime! Lots of mint because my mint patch is overflowing… A few readers mailed me asking me about my kitchen/workspace. Here are a couple of pictures. The kitchen is my playground & I just love it. It’s a largish kitchen, very minimally done on a very basic level…but I still love it. It is airy & lighted…& on most days I have free run of the place. This is when my recipes are born on the go. I thought of making a chicken curry this morning. Something light, something flavourful…& something that screamed summer. The heat can get to me!!

Stepped out in the morning to find mint reaching out to me. The beds are overflowing with mint. Pretty!! So I picked some & thought, hmmm, this must go into the curry. With no specific direction in mind, I marinated the chicken in basics – lime juice, garlic,salt & chili – to get it going. Lime, garlic & salt make a great first marinade for chicken, usually a first step for chicken tikka, tandoori chicken etc. An hour later, I decided to get more happening on the curry. Summer = light food = lots of yogurt! Yogurt is always a part of my curries, but summer means lots of yogurt. Fresh coriander & mint also sing summer to me, so I held an immersion blender & blended the yogurt with the two. I blended some tomatoes as well just in case I need them if the curry wasn’t ‘up to it’. As things went, the curry was more than ‘up to it’ & the tomatoes were resigned to the fridge. Will use them another day.

The kids L♥VED it. The curry conversation went something like this…
“Mama, the chicken’s yummy! It’s really very nice & tangy. “
“What recipe?” (I think this generation learns young! I don’t recall ever using the word recipe till I was 16)
“None…made it from my mind as I pottered around… “
“What’s the name? Which book?”
“I said no book. It’s my own.” (Very unbelieving…)
“What’s it’s called? “
(Um mm quick thinking) – “Indian Summer Chicken Curry”…(which is how it got it’s name!)
“It’s YUM!!”(Phew…talk about getting interrogated!)

INDIAN SUMMER CHICKEN CURRY
Ingredients:
750gms chicken on the bone
5-6 cloves of garlic; minced
Juice of 1-2 limes (about 2-3 tbsps)
1/4 – 1/2 tcp red chili flakes
Salt to taste
1/2 cup chopped onions (about 1-2 small onions)
1 cup of yogurt
Generous handful of mint leaves
Handful of coriander leaves

1-2 Green chilies (deseed to decrease heat if you like)

Method:

• Whisk the lime juice , garlic, red chili & salt together. Marinate the chicken in this for at least 30-45 minutes.
• Blend the yogurt with the mint & coriander
• Heat oil in a wok & fry the chopped onions till golden brown. Turn the chicken into it & stir fry on full heat till light golden. This seals the juices in.
• Add the blended yogurt. Stir well, allow to cook on high heat, uncovered, until the sauce thickens. Stir minimally to ensure that the chicken doesn’t debone. Adjust seasoning if required, add 1-2 slit green chilies & simmer covered for another 5-7 minutes for flavours to mingle.
• Serve with flat bread or rice. I served it with wholewheat risen flatbread. A simple recipe I’ve made. Knead 1 1/2 cups ot wholewheat flour with 15gms of fresh yeast (dissolved in water) + 1 tbsp oil + 1 tsp salt. Knead well to a smooth dough. Leave to rise in an oiled bowl for an hour until doubled in volume. (I intend to add some mined garlic next time)
• Note: The curry tends to thicken as it sits. We like it thick. Add a little milk & simmer to thin it out if you like.

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