Curried Chicken
Just Like Mum's
I like curried dishes in most forms and fix them often. But my favorite remains the curry my mother made when I was growing up. I think what appealed most to me were the toppings that she'd place in bowls on a Lazy Susan. I've never run across a recipe calling for assorted toppings and so I suspect it's not traditional. Nevertheless, the mèlange of individual and easily distinguishable flavors and textures set against the curry background is, to me, irresistible. I find the the sweet flavors of fruit are particularly good.
This particular recipe is adapted from Living Lean and Loving It by Eve Lowry and Carla Mulligan Ennis (Mosby/Forman 1988) and is named Mum's Chicken Curry. According to the book, "Mum" is Analeen Stork who was raised in Ceylon. Although the recipe doesn't include toppings, the basic dish is very similar to what my "Mum" used to make.
I like curried dishes in most forms and fix them often. But my favorite remains the curry my mother made when I was growing up. I think what appealed most to me were the toppings that she'd place in bowls on a Lazy Susan. I've never run across a recipe calling for assorted toppings and so I suspect it's not traditional. Nevertheless, the mèlange of individual and easily distinguishable flavors and textures set against the curry background is, to me, irresistible. I find the the sweet flavors of fruit are particularly good.
This particular recipe is adapted from Living Lean and Loving It by Eve Lowry and Carla Mulligan Ennis (Mosby/Forman 1988) and is named Mum's Chicken Curry. According to the book, "Mum" is Analeen Stork who was raised in Ceylon. Although the recipe doesn't include toppings, the basic dish is very similar to what my "Mum" used to make.
Mum's Chicken CurryNote: I prefer a hot Madras curry powder.
Serves 6.
3 lbs chicken thighs — skinned
2 tbsps peanut oil
1 oz fresh ginger — sliced thin
1 ea jalapeno pepper — seeded and minced
1 ea onion — diced
3 ea garlic cloves — minced
1/2 c water
2 tbsps vinegar
1 c coconut milk
Spice Mixture:
2 ea cinnamon sticks — crumbled
10 ea cloves
2 tbsps curry powder
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
2 ea bay leaves
6 ea cardamom pods
1 tsp red pepper flakes
Toppings:
1 c banana — 1/2" dice
1 c pineapple — 1/2" dice
1 c scallions — 1/2" dice
1/2 c coconut flakes
1/2 c orange marmalade
1/2 c bacon — 1/2" dice
1/2 c raisins
1/2 c peanuts
1/2 c mango chutney
Heat oil in a dutch oven over medium high heat until it begins to smoke. With exhaust fan running, add spice mixture and cook, stirring constantly to prevent burning, for five minutes.
Reduce heat to medium low, add onion, garlic, and jalapeno and continue cooking for two minutes. Add chicken, water, and vinegar, reduce heat to very low, cover, and simmer for 90 minutes. Add coconut milk and heat thoroughly.
Serve over basmati rice with toppings of choice.
11 Comments:
I have an old recipe from a friend (not of Indian descent) who made lamb curry, and she had a list of about 30 condiments. I have the entire list if you're interested, but what I remember are: raisins, coconut, minced fresh pineapple, pine nuts, bacon, celery, green onions, chutney, of course, banana, fresh tomato and peanuts. It was a matter of pride to her to fix all the varied condiments. People always oohed and aahed when they saw all the toppings. Yours sounds great too.
Carolyn,
My mother also offered a huge array of condiments.
It's called Seven Boy Curry. This other blogger I randomly found has a recipe and their guess at how the name came about.
http://zoomiestation.blogspot.com/2007/08/seven-boy-curry.html
Amy,
I'd forgotten that. But now that you remind me that the story I also heard. And the more "boys" the greater the status.
My mother made the most wonderful curry and we always had the little side dishes with condiments. They fell into the fruits (banana, pineapple, mango, orange etc), nuts & seeds (cashew, grated coconut), savory (chives, chopped green onions) different chutneys. It was my job to come up with the condiments. When plated the rice went on the bottom of the plate, topped with the curry, then each person put a sampling of each condiment around the plate. Each bite had rice, chicken curry and one of the condiment flavors.
Anon,
"Each bite had rice, chicken curry and one of the condiment flavors."
I like that idea.
Growing up, the term I had learned was far less politically correct (even by today's standards) than "boy." It made me squirm then and the memory makes me squirm now: a delicious combination of pleasure (tasty curry) and discomfort (memory).
We used to eat our curry this way as well. I kinda think maybe there was a banana mashed into the curry itself, but I couldn't swear to it. My mom liked her food SPICY, so the curry itself was often too spicy for us kids, and we would just eat the condiments.
J,
My mother was a spice wimp, so we kids loved the curry. These days I like a bit of real heat in my curry,
Yep, we too called it Seven Boy Curry growing up. But we NEVER had 7 things, more like 15 at least. It was the "special meal" fixed for birthdays and to this day, it is my favorite meal of all time. Can't believe there is an actual history to it, thought my world traveling Grams and Gramps just invented it to combine all their travels into one meal...ha!
Dee,
It's one of my favorite meals too.
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