Friday, February 1, 2013

Cooking with Curry

Curry Chicken

from Missy Tippens


The Belle, here. And today I'm sharing my first attempt at making curry from scratch (instead of using a packaged spice mix).

I recently began using e-Meals, a service that gives you a weekly menu, recipes and shopping lists. What's really nice about the site is that you can choose a particular grocery store, and they'll plan your menu around what's on sale that week! However, my grocery isn't one listed, so instead, I just chose one of the plans that can use any store. I chose the Clean Living plan. Here's the description:

Get everything you need, with nothing you don’t. Just natural ingredients and simple, tasty recipes for your healthy lifestyle. The only things added or processed are convenience and efficiency.
So far, even the kids have liked what I've cooked! And that's saying a lot since my son is pretty picky.

The recipe I'm sharing today for Curry Chicken is my take on the recipe using the ingredients I had on hand.


2 T vegetable oil
1 T curry powder
1 T garam marsala (see my note below on this item)
1 ts crushed red pepper flakes
4 T water, divided
4 carrots, peeled and cubed
1 red onion, peeled and quartered
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and quartered
6 oz can tomato paste
14 oz can coconut milk
1 t salt
4 thin cut boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed (or tofu for our vegetarians)
1 T cornstarch



Heat oil in heavy skillet. In small bowl, mix together the spices and 2 T water into a paste. I didn't have garam marsala and couldn't find it at my grocery. So I looked it up. Wikipedia said is typically has these ingredients:



So I mixed up 1 Tablespoon of the ones I had: ground pepper, ground cloves, cinnamon and ground cumin (didn't have cardamom). I went easy on the cloves and cinnamon (they're very strong!). I used mostly cumin.



So back to the recipe... Mix your spices into a paste with the 2 T water. Add in the skillet with the heated oil and cook until fragrant. Be careful you don't burn it. Mine started to stick a little so I had to add more oil and turn down the temp.

Add carrots, onion, garlic and red pepper and cook about 10 minutes. The onion sections will begin to separate and red pepper will soften.

Stir in tomato paste (this takes a little work since it's so thick). Add coconut milk, salt and chicken. Simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Stir the cornstarch and 2 T water together in a small bowl. Then add to the skillet and stir until thickened.



Serve over rice. It was very flavorful! I actually left out the red pepper flakes, and the dish probably needed it. It could have used a little more spice.

Enjoy!


3 comments:

  1. Well, this looks amazingly delicious. And what a fun combination of spices! My sister used to make a "Swiss Steak" that had a combo of cinnamon and other spices, and I never knew what a nice combination cinnamon and tomato was until then. They complement each other.

    And I love anything that let's me do a one-dish meal.

    Oy, I'm loving one pan.... I'm not counting the rice pan, of course!

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  2. Well, between the bowl for the spice paste and bowl for cornstarch and water (plus the rice, like you said), it wasn't quite a one or two pan dinner. But it was worth the work! :)

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  3. This looks so good, and my family loves curry - I'll have to try this.

    I went to the e-Meals link - I subscribed to a service similar to this several years ago, but my family didn't like most of their meals, and even though they claimed to save me money, I ended up spending more than I did without them.

    But this looks like it may work. I love how they personalize the menus so much - and taking advantage of store sales? Win/win.

    Thanks for the recipe AND the link!

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