Making Indian style Dry Curry Chicken

Dry Curry Chicken Indian style. Learn from my Sifu in Seremban Aunty Marie~!

While in Seremban I manage to learn a new dish thought by Aunty Marie! I was ecstatic as she is a great cook and I am happy to learn a few tricks and dishes from her. During this trip she thought me to make Dry Curry Chicken and Chocolate Cake. I would attempt the chocolate cake on my own and post it soon.

Aunty Marie version while i was cooking with her in Seremban. Looks like I have a long way to go to cook it her way

Serving Aunty Marie dry curry chicken with Panneer rice and vege.

When i learn this dish from her there wasnt any measurement of ingredients. So below is a rough estimate of the ingredient required. On my next attempt I would add in more water and cook the chicken longer at stage C before proceed to dump in the powder and tomato. That way it will shorten the time to cook the curry part and chicken wont burn and dry.

Ingredients:

How to cook Indian style Dry Curry Chicken

A)
Cinnamon - 1
Star anise - 1
Cintan putih - a pinch
Cardammon pods - 3
Clove - 4
2 pandan leaf
2 curry leaf
4-5 medium size onion cut into slices

B)
1 small chicken or half a big chicken. Chop into pieces
3 big potato peeled and cut into cube

C) Dice below with food processor
8 clove garlic
2 inch of ginger
2 small tomato or 1 big tomato

D) This are rough estimate. Season to taste
Meat curry powder - 3 - 4 teaspoon
Tumeric powder - 1 - 2 teaspoon
Cili powder - 1 - 2 teaspoon
Cintan putih in powder form. 1 - 2 teaspoon
Salt season to taste - roughly about 1 teaspoon

E)
2 small tomato or 1 big one cut into cube

F)
A handfull of coriander leaf (I use a type of fragrant leaf in my garden)

1. Stir fry (A) till onion become brown
2. Put in (B) and stir fry for few minutes. Add in (C) and stir fry. Cover the kuali for 5 -10 minutes and let the juice soak into the chicken. Check intermediate and stir fry to make sure it wont burn. (Note to self: Best to make sure the chicken are half cook at this stage as curry powder can burn easily)
3. Stir fry (D) and (E). After a few minutes add in some water otherwise chicken will dry up. Amount of water depends on individual.
4. When potato has soften add in 2/3 of coriander leaf and add in the rest when serving the chicken.

How to cook Panneer Rice
After serving the chicken, there will be some curry juice in the kuali.
Scoop up a few cup of rice and stir fry the rice. I have switch off the gas at this point as the rice is still warm. You will get delicious yummy rice that goes really well with the curry chicken!

Picture for illustration in making the curry chicken

Slicing the onion

After dicing with food processor the tomato, garlic and ginger

3 Russet potato dice and put into water to prevent the potato from changing colour

Onion and tomato

I use half a large chicken

Rempah: Cinnamon, Clove, Cintan putih, Star anise and Cardamon pods

Dumping into kuali and Stir fry A

Cook till onion has brown

Add in the chicken. Stir fry and pour C inside and cont stir fry. Let it cook for about 5-10 mins

Add D and E. Stir fry for few minutes then add some water.

Curry Chicken recipe to compliment the Thosai (Part 2)

Making Chicken Curry

I wanted to make the curry to compliment my thosai. I decided to make the curry and thosai spontaneously when i found that no one cook for dinner. As it was spontaneous I tried to make do with the ingredients that I have on hand. I am not expert in making curry but the curry ended up taste great and the spices I use really enchance the flavour. Though my curry is successful it can further improve since my dad's curry taste even better than mine.

I wanted to prepare for 3 ppl. Therefore I wont be using a whole chicken. I cut down on the proportion:
-3/4 of half a chicken
4 tomato
3 potato
4 small onion and 1 big onion
2 pandan leaf/ 2 stalk of curry leaf/ fragrant leaf (not sure of exact name but its a replacement for corriander leaf according to my mum) / serai
Cilli powder/ Baba's Meat Curry Powder /
2 teaspoon of Santan and 2 teaspoon of MilkI also add 2 clove of garlic and ginger
4 Clove (Bunga Cengkih)
1 Star anise
3 Cardamon pods
1 Cinnamon

2 teaspoon of santan and 2 teaspoon of milk

The making of curry

Prepare:

-Cut the potato and tomato into quarters
-Chop the garlic, ginger, small and big onion into pcs - blend in food chopper
-Clean the pandan leaf, fragrant leaf, curry leaf and serai
-Flatten the serai. Put on the chopping board and use something hard to flatten the serai
-Once that the curry is almost ready. Lastly mix the santan and milk in a bowl and add some water

Cooking.
1. Pour some oil into kuali. Stir fry with small fire all the spices - Cinnamon, Star anise, Cardamon pods, Clove for few seconds.
2. Stir fry the mixture of onion/garlic/ginger/serai
3. Put in the fragrant leaf/ curry leaf
4. Put in the tomato, potato and chicken
5. Put in a very humble amt of cili powder - about half a teaspoon
6. Put in the curry powder. Make sure the curry powder cover the chicken adequately
Curry powder burn easily so make sure to control the fire. Overall I use medium to small fire.
7. Stir fry until its fragrant but dont burn the curry powder or the spices. If the spices burn then the curry will turn bitter
8. Transfer the whole mixture into a soup pot. Pour water till it covers the chicken. Dont pour too much else the curry will be too watery.

Cook about half hour - 45minutes. Check intermediary. Medium to small fire.

15 minutes before the chicken is ready put in the pandan leaf.

Once done put some salt to taste. Add in the santan/milk. Once we add the santan we cant cook for long as the santan can turn into oil if cook too long.

Voila~ done!

Related topics:
Making thosai the easy way (Part 1)
Tomato Chutney Recipe (Part 3)

Making Thosai the easy way (Part 1)

Thosai and Curry Chicken!

I made Thosai using Thosai Mix from Lingam's

Lingam's Thosai Mix. 500gram price at RM3.40

The thosai mix is bought from this shop Rejeeta along Jalan Trus near the Indian temple and Komtar in town

I wanted to make thosai for quiet some time but I was quiet discourage while discussing about making thosai with my colleague. Out of the conversation i gather that making thosai from scratch is more suitable for large family and that the preparation have to be done overnite.

One day my Indian colleagues came back from lunch break with some of their shopping and i discovered that thosai can be cook instantly! I was overcome with excitement and my colleague kindly sold her pack to me! Its call Thosai Mix and the brand is Lingam's. It is bought from a Indian shop. Next time i will try follow them to discover where they bought it [i have posted the photo above]. Thank you Indra and Geetha for sharing with me your Thosai making as i discover something new today!

At first I did not expect much from the instant thosai mix but the taste is surprisingly tasty (yummilicious) and very close to the thosai bought from Indian restaurant!

The Thosai Mix is very easy to prepare. One pack comes in 500gram. As I only prepare for 3 ppl, I use about 250 gram. In the end I made about 9 thosai.

According to the instruction it is to mix 500 gram of the pack + 1000 litre of water and set it aside for 10 min. Pour one scoop of mixture on flat pan and spread evenly to thin round shape. Serve with curry and chutney.

The way i prepare:
1. 250 gram of thosai mix (If you have 6 members than u can use all)
2. I follow the instruction and put 500litre water but while cooking i ended up adding another 300 litre water as the mix is still too thick.
3. Stir the water and the mix till its smooth and make sure there is no lumps.
4. In order to get ride of the lumps I sieve the mixture.
5. Let it stand for 10 minutes.

Before I prepare the thosai I have cook the curry. While waiting 30 min for the curry to be cook I prepare the thosai.

6. Heat the pan. Cut an onion into half. Use fork to poke it and use it to oil the pan.
7. Use a scoop - the kind that i use to scoop out soup - take out a scoop and pour slowly on the pan.
8. Wait until the bottom is brown. The top will remain white. It takes a few tries to judge when its cook. Fold it in half and ready to serve. Make sure dont turn it to cook.

Some pictures for illustration:

Set it aside after mixing the Thosai Mix and water

Poke the onion and oil the pan by circling it round the pan

Required Utensils: Flat Pan and Palette Knife

Pour one scoop of the mixture onto the flat pan

I will show how I made the curry in a second part. Combining both will make the post look too long.

Related post:

How I made the curry to compliment the Thosai (Part 2)
Tomato Chutney Sauce (Part 3)

Recipe: Roti jala

Serving for 2 - 3 person

Picture: Roti Jala with Curry Dahl

Picture: Ingredient, mould and measuring cup

Picture: flat kuali and palette knife
Ingredient

-1 cup/250 gm/1 china bowl of wheat flour
-1 egg
-2 tsp coconut powder + 2 tsp milk powder - put them into a bowl, add water and mix them
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 tsp tumeric (kunyit) powder - for taste + colouring purpose

-2 pandan leaf + 1 tsp oil - tie the pandan leaves into a knot then use it to grease the pan (pandan leaves optional)

Utensils:
-Roti jala mould
-Flat kuali/frying pan (flat kuali is preferred so that easier to fold)
-Palette knife: to fold the roti jala
-A bowl: to mix the ingredient.
-Measuring cup: measure flour (if u dont have it then fill up a china bowl with flour)
Tips: The above utensil will make ur job easier. Its alright if u dont have above utensils. U can use available utensils in ur kitchen. The mould can be bought in shop that sell baking utensils. If u cant buy the mould then try poking holes in tin can. Poke about 4/5 holes.

Mixing
- In short, just mix all the ingredient together (except the oil and pandan leaf). Read on for detail info.
- Put the wheat flour, tumeric powder, salt into bowl and mix it.
- Create a well in the centre and add the egg and some coconut milk (dont pour one shot or else there will be clumps in the mixing). Stir the mixing. Slowly add the coconut milk and mix - beat the batter for 10 min till its smooth and bubbly.
-Cover with towel and leave the batter to stand for 20 min.
tips: if batter too thick can add water. If too thick then the roti jala wont be soft. However if too much water added will be too soft. If there is clump (clump happen when the wheat flour clump together and did not mix well with water) in the mixing then sieve it before cook.

Cooking (medium/small fire)
- Heat the flat kuali. Use the folded pandan leaves and grease the pan with oil. The use of pandan leaves will leave a nice aroma on the roti jala.
- Pour some batter on the roti jala mould and move it in a circular motion around the pan. Tip: dont raise mould too high/move too fast/too slow/dont fill in too much batter into mould. Best to transfer the batter into a cup. When cooking, pour the batter from cup to mould. when u have pour enough then u put the mould back into the cup. This is a way to control the amount of batter coming out.
- When it is cook use the palette knife to fold the lacy pancake into quarters.

To serve
- Personally i prefer eating roti jala with curry chicken but u can also match with other curry.