Punjabi chicken curry

This is based on a recipe given to me by a work friend and belonging to her mother. All up, it takes about half an hour, and it’s delicious! For vegetarian (see image from my work buddy) - just leave out the chicken. You can also leave out the chicken if you’re using it as a side dish for an Indian feast!

Ingredients

• Fresh ginger (about 2cm cube)
• 1 tomato
• 3 eschallots
• 3 whole dried chilies (more or less to taste)
• 6 curry leaves
• 2 tablespoons slivered almonds
• 1 tablespoon crush garlic
• 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
• 1 teaspoon black poppy seeds
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon black pepper corns
• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 chicken thigh fillets
• 1 medium potato
• 1/3 of a medium sweet potato
• 1 cup green beans cut into 3cm lengths (if using snake beans cut into 1cm lengths)
• Juice of half a lemon
• Salt to taste
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil

Method

It looks complicated at first, but basically it is just - prepare a whole bunch of ingredients and mix them together in four stages. The prep time is a bit more than 15, the assembly about less than 15.

If your pantry doesn’t have the spices in the list - a quick trip to your local Asian grocer will reward you for many months to come!

Preparation

• Put the tomato in a bowl, cut around and remove the stalk end, and microwave on high for 3 minutes. Remove to cool
• Peel the potato and sweet potato and cut into 1cm cubes. Top and tail the beans and cut as described above
• Place veggies in a bowl with a pinch of salt, a squeeze of lemon juice and the bay leaves. Cover and cook in microwave of high for 10 minutes, removing to mix up the ingredients about halfway through. While this is cooking, get on with the rest of the assembly. Once the veggies are done, just remove from the microwave and set aside still covered. Don’t uncover - the fragrance of the veggies and bay is just flavour lost
• Chop the ginger into smaller chunks and pound in a mortar with a little water until it’s part chunky part pasty. Set aside
• Heat oil in a frying pan on medium heat and add the eschallots, pealed and cut into 2 cm chunks. Cook until the begin to brown and soften
• Once the tomato is done you will be able to easily remove the skin with tongs or a fork (or your fingers if you let it cool enough). The flesh and juices should have pretty much collapsed together by now, so just give it a quick whisk with a fork and set aside
• Once the eschallots have softened, pound them in a mortar until they are part chunky, part pasty
• Slice chicken fillets about 3cm by 1cm

Assembly

And now it’s action stations…

1. Bring the pan you used for the eschallots back to medium heat, add chilies, cumin, poppy seeds, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves, almonds and pepper corns. Once the seeds start to pop and the almonds begin to brown, add the crushed garlic and eschallot paste. Stir through and cook for 2 minutes
2. Add chicken to pan, and stir though. The the flesh will collect all the spices and the aromas will be heavenly. Turn up the heat so the chicken browns at the edges. About 2 minutes
3. Add the turmeric, garam masala and tomato. Reduce heat and stir through and cook another 5 minutes
4. Add the veggies, stir though, and cook for 10 minutes

Garnish with coriander leaves and lemon slices. Serve with rotis or rice.

Serves 4