At home… cooking π
Every week, this meal is requested by someone in the household and therefore it has become a staple practice.
Sabjee/ Curry, is essential for every family. You must try to fully appreciate the bliss within a crunchy bite of chicken with sweet and savory curry, and fresh short grain white rice.
Ingredients :
Chicken- Breasts or Thigh, Panko Bread Crumbs, Egg, Flour, White Pepper, Sea Salt, Tallow (frying oil of choice).
Curry – Butter or Ghee or Tallow, Onions, Garlic, Ginger, Carrots, Sweet Potato
Spice mix = garam masala ; cumin, coriander, cinnamon, fennel, cayenne, turmeric, black pepper, and anything else you’re soul would add like oregano, or chili paste
Stock of choice (I use beef bone)
Process. (30-45 min)
Prep: Defrost chicken (bring to room temperature), Dice Onions, grate ginger and garlic, peel and dice sweet potato, wash carrots and chop in large bite sizes (2 cm long)
Begin cooking: Hot Pan, Cold Oil
You need a large saute pan on medium low heat. Once the pan is hot, add cold tallow/butter/ghee to pan, and add diced onions.
Let them simmer until transparent, or place into the pan, without oil and allow them to char. Both methods work. (charring makes the onions sweeter, but it’s easy to burn)
Once Onions are cooked, move to the side, so they sweat on top of each other. On the hot clear surface of the pan, add garam masala.
Spices need heat, to awaken their aroma. Allow them to simmer, until their scents release into the air. Once “toasted” mix the spices with the cooked onions, still in the pan.
Add Ginger, and Garlic. Stir.
Add Fat/Oil. Add cut carrots, and sweet potato. Add stock.
Simmer-Boil for 1 hour on med, then bring down to low heat, as the simmer boil begins. The curry usually takes about 1 hour to cook down. Maybe more, depending on serving amount.
I use 1 potato, and 1-2 carrots per person (unless the potato is HUGE).
Start your rice. (rinse rice at least 3 times, until the water isn’t murky) Oh, if it’s organic rice, rinse the rice, then wash, and save the Starchy Rice Water, for cleaning the skin, and hair, for a morning or evening bath. (fermented rice water, is highly beneficial for the skin). One day outside of the fridge at room temp, is sufficient fermentation.
Next the Chicken. Bring frying oil up to temp. (put a chopstick in the oil, if it bubbles, the oil is hot)
You can prep this ahead of time, or do it while the curry is cooking, your call.
Bread the chicken. Egg wash, Cornstarch Flour Mix, then Panko bread crumbs.
One dry hand, one wet hand. Line it up.
Grab a tray, with a grate on top, to allow them to dry, or excess oil to drip of when they come out of the oil.
Add your prepared chicken to the hot oil. put it down away from you, to avoid oil “back splash”. Place them in gracefully. They lived for you, for this day.
Turn the Chicken in the oil, when the edges of the breading changes in color. Deep fry or shallow fry, its your call. Double fry if you want them extra crispy, and cooked evenly π
Cut the chicken “cutlet” into strip pieces.
Load up a bowl with rice, grab another bowl, and add curry, and sliced chicken on top. Cilantro is a lovely garnish, or parsley, or green onions, some green. It’s all your call.
Itadakimasu. (ι γγΎγ)
If you were to add the raw chicken to the Curry mix, and allow it to cook down on low simmer for mmmm 2-3 hours, you’d have classic chicken curry. Without tomato paste is how I make it, because I don’t eat night shade, but you can always add tomato and/or paste, for flavour.