(Coco)Nuts about curry...

Summer is here in full heatwavey swing and I absolutely love it!!

Now apparently there's summer food and winter food, I know it's about seasonality but in this day and age we can, mostly, get all the basic fresh produce year round. Unfortunately I don't have the opportunity to buy seasonal produce fresh from the farmer down the road, I buy from farmers markets when the opportunity arises but mostly from supermarkets. Winter meals are supposedly hearty and warming like big heavy stews, thick soups, spicy curries etc. but that's basically what they ate year round, ages ago when the houses were cold and damp and life was generally a bit of a misery, now we have heating and cooling and patio's and shops and stuff to make our hearts, stomach's and mouths happy chappies.

but back to winter and summer food.... Traditional wintery dishes are often 'heavier' than summer dishes but my taste-buds and stomach don't' really care what season it is, if it feels like curry it feels like curry no matter the temperature outside. As a cook I know all about the joys of standing and cooking on a warm summer day in an even warmer kitchen but there are ways to make traditional winter foods suitable for summer, case in point is this curry. This meal can be prepped and cooked in 40 minutes, actually about as long as it takes for the rice to cook and the most strenuous bit is chopping the onion, garlic and ginger and slicing the chicken.

This is a light curry with a base of spices, coconut milk and chicken and there are no added thickeners, the coconut milk reduces naturally so you can make it as saucy or 'dry' as you prefer.

It's is a vegan friendly base so instead of the chicken you can add Potato cut into small 1cm cubes or cooked butterbeans.

You will notice the beautiful, snow white, long & elegant grains of rice, it's this Tastic Sella Basmati rice and it's absolutely amazing!!! Make it exactly as the instructions on the packet tell you to and it comes out perfect every single time (but you should confirm with Angelique, she is the resident rice maker extraordinaire). It is a bit pricy but perfect to use on special occasions with a special meal.

Here's more or less how I make it;

gather and portion your spices and chop the onion, garlic and ginger

Fry the onion until soft, add ginger, garlic and cashews and fry

Add the spices and fry until fragrant and the oil has a deep ochre colour

Add the coconut milk and cook to slightly reduce

Add the chicken and poach in the sauce until cooked

Cook the rice and season with tempered spices, fresh curry leaves and a green chili

Serve with a tomato, onion & parsley salad flavoured with oil, white vinegar, salt & sugar

Here's my recipe

Coconut Chicken Curry

Serves 4'ish

Ingredients

for the Chicken:

500g Chicken Fillets

1 Can Coconut Milk (don't be tempted to buy coconut cream, it's to oily for this)

30ml sunflower Oil

2 Smallish Onions (or one biiiiiig one)

5cm piece of fresh Ginger

1 big or 2 small cloves of Garlic

100g Cashew nuts (unsalted and raw)

60ml Golden Raisins

15ml Sugar

10ml Salt

5ml Black pepper

seeds of 3 Cardamom pods

5ml Fennel seeds

5ml Cumin Seeds

5ml Asafetida

5ml red Chili flakes

5ml yellow Mustard seeds

2.5ml Fenugreek seeds

5ml red Masala

5ml Garum Masala

15ml Turmeric

1 red Chili (cut in half length ways)

A few sprigs fresh Coriander (about a third of a punnet)

for the Rice:

2 cups Tastic Sella Basamti (make according to the instructions on the pack)

2.5ml yellow Mustard seeds

2.5ml black Mustard seeds

2.5ml Fennel seeds

2.5ml Cumin seeds

Leaves taken off 3 Curry Leaf twigs

1 whole fresh green Chili

Method

Peel and dice the onion (about 1cm)

Peel and finely chop the garlic and ginger.

Chop the fresh coriander and set aside.

Slice the chicken fillets into +- 3cm cubes.

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium-high heat.

Add the onion to the warm oil and fry gently until soft but not brown.

Add the ginger and garlic and stir around for 30 seconds.

Add the cashews and fry for 2 minutes while constantly stirring. The garlic shouldn't brown.

Add all the chicken spices and keep stirring until this concoction smells fragrant and the oil is a beautiful ochre colour.

Add the coconut milk and raisins and stir to mix.

Turn the heat down and simmer the sauce until reduced and thickned (this takes about 3-5 minutes depending how thick you want the sauce)

Add the chicken and gently poach in the sauce for about 10 minutes until the chicken is just cooked, DON'T OVER COOK! If it gets to dry add a bit of water.

Do not over cook the chicken!

Stir in the chopped fresh coriander.

Check seasoning and add salt if you like.

Before you start the chicken curry start with the rice.

Cook according to the instructions on the packet.

Once cooked temper the spices like this;

Heat 15ml sunflower oil in a small pan to warm.

Add all the rice spices and the chili to the hot oil at once.

The spices should sizzle immediately and in a few seconds start to pop and splatter (take care not to burn yourself) Leave to splatter for a few seconds, you will start smelling the spices. Remove from the heat and immediately add the spices with the oil and chili to the hot rice and stir to mix. Do not stir to much or to vigorously, gently does it!

Cover and leave to stand for 5 or so minutes.

Now it's ready to serve. The spices might not look enough but it is, they impart a gentle fragrance to the rice.

Make the salad by finely chopping equal quantities onion and tomato and a bit of fresh parsley. Season with a few dashes of oil and vinegar, a pinch of salt and sugar.

Stir to combine, taste and adjust the seasoning to your taste.

Leave to stand while you finish off the other dishes.

Serve the curry garnished with a bit of fresh coriander and more fresh chilli if you like. I always eat the green chili I use in the rice.