Cookery School : Home-style chicken curry

As said before, I come from a vegetarian household. The family treasure-chest of pass-down-to-the-next-generation recipes has absolutely no mention of anything remotely non vegetarian (not even egg)

So for a chicken-lover like me, learning to make chicken curry meant banging on my neighbouring Aunty's door and demanding a lesson :D The said lady, Aunty H, has been ferrying across delicious dishes across the apartment landing for yours truly for years now. Her fried fish, stuffed fish, fish curry, spicy cabbage cake, chicken curry have been culinary highlights of my growing-up years. So it was inevitable that I roped her in to teach me her fabulous meat-and-fish recipes!

Our cookery school flagged off yesterday and Aunty, flustered at my actually wanting lessons, coralled her cook into making an unscheduled visit so that she could teach me. (Aunty claims the cook's mastery in the kitchen far outstrips her own) So off we started - with me clicking pics amidst giggles (from the cook) and exclamations of horror at the 'mess' in the kitchen (by Aunty).

The recipe is hearty yet amazingly simple, uses no exotic difficult-to-get-your-hands-on ingredients, and is ready in under half an hour. What more can one want?

Ingredients:

1 chicken, cleaned and cut into 10 pieces
3 mid-sized tomatoes
3 mid-sized onions
a big handful coriander leaves+tender stalks
3 green chillies (to taste)
1.5 inch chunk of fresh ginger
2 heads of garlic (15-20 cloves), peeled - yes, there's a LOT of garlic here!
3 teaspoons Malvani masala (readily available in stores) - if not available, its my guess that 3 teaspoons of a mixture of equal parts of garam masala and red chilly powder should do
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
Salt, to taste

Method:
Whiz the coriander, chillies, ginger and garlic in a blender with some water to make a smooth paste.


Rub this paste onto the chicken and let it marinate for 30 minutes or so.


In the meantime, whiz the onions to a fine paste. Keep aside.


Ditto with the tomatoes (skins on - don't bother with peeling and de-seeding. :D )

In a saucepan/large-ish vessel, add the oil and let it heat. Add the onion paste and saute till the oil starts separating from the onions and they start taking a golden hue.


Add the tomato puree and stir, again till the oil starts separating (at the sides) from the tomato-and-onion mix.


Add the malvani masala (or equivalent) and saute - yet again, till the oil separates and you get a gorgeous thick red gravy.

RED Malvani masala........

....gives a gloriously red gravy!

Dump the marinated chicken pieces and salt into the pan and stir so that the gravy coats the chicken pieces evenly.


Add about a cup of water and let it simmer gently on a low-to-medium flame till the chicken is cooked through.

Adjust the seasoning, take it off the flame and garnish with fresh chopped coriander leaves.

Serve piping hot with pao (dinner rolls) - NOT sliced white bread. This curry is yummy ladled over fluffy white rice as well.

The piece de resistance!

Cooking the chicken on the bone means that the meat is so lusciously tender that it slides off the bone when you prod it with a fork/spoon/your fingers. You can make this curry with boneless chicken cubes as well, but then you MUST be very vigilant about not letting the chicken overcook - especially chicken breast which starts getting dry and stringy very rapidly once its past the just-cooked stage.

My personal take on this dish is that its a great contender for a party dish. You can cook up a large vatful in minimal time and with minimal effort; its versatile; does not use too many or too exotic ingredients - and finally - its absolutely delicious. :)

Enjoy!