Chicken Curry

I cook and eat for reasons. Sometime just because I am simply hungry, or it's a request from my family, or I have the food ingredients that must be processed, ...or it could be anything.

Last week, I was in a mood of curry!
The reason was because I couldn't get the curry soup that we ordered while visiting a new interesting open air restaurant in Sentul City, West Java.



It was one beautiful cloudy Saturday morning, when we decided to explore a new culinary place, just outskirt of Jakarta not too far from our home. It's only about 30 minutes journey by car.
The plan was for having a family brunch while enjoying fresh air away from the capital. Unfortunately, *probably because we arrived too early* when we ordered the food that we wanted to eat, we only got 75% of what we expected (& what we paid for). The delicious roti canai was served with curry sauce only, because the chicken was not available yet, even the menu says "Roti Canai with Chicken Curry".

I was not disappointed too much actually, because I got good Teh Tarik to accompany the dish, and we had overall beautiful experience there. Days after weekend, the idea to make my own chicken curry was flying around in my mind.
At the end... it was inspiring me for cooking homemade chicken curry.

My taste bud divides the curry into three different types; Indian Curry, Malay Curry, and Indonesian Curry. I used to  live in India and Malaysia before, and tried their curry for many-many times (for sure :D). This time, I decided to cook Malay type of curry.
I posted the Indonesian Chicken Curry recipe, about 2 year ago.

Where to find the recipe from?
Of course in the Malaysian Cooking Magazine. I remembered I collect 2 beautiful Flavours Magazine (written in English), and both are July-August edition, which is the Special 'Independence Day' Edition. One of them contains all kinds of fiery Malaysian curries recipes. The article explained the different of each type of their curries. Very interesting.

And for now, I chose the simple popular one; the Chicken Curry.

If you think that making curry is a mission impossible because it's too complicated to deal with lots of spices...oh please, I recommend you to try this recipe.
Using this recipe, other than pan and stove for cooking and the ingredients on the list below, all you need is a cutting board and a knife for cutting the chilies  garlic and onion. If you want to prepare your curry powder by yourself, then you need a grinder or a grinding stone. I use the convenienced pack curry powder.

Don't be surprised, when you put the spices ingredients one by one to a heated pan, at the same time you start to smell the beauty of aromatic curry.
*my daughter who just got back from school said, "Ah... I'm flying to India"*

I decided to skip the chili powder, so my children could enjoy this dish with us. That's why, the color of the curry is slightly pale, not too reddish. And instead of making roti canai, I prepared Roti Jala a.k.a Lacy Pancakes to accompany this curry.



Chicken Curry
This is the quintessential Malaysian curry, marrying Malay (pandan) and Indian (curry leaves) flavours. source : Flavours Magazine Malaysia, July-Aug 2007.

Ingredients:
800 gr meaty chicken pieces
50 gr meat curry powder (I used pre-packed curry powder)
1 tsp chili powder (optional)
3-4 tbsp cooking oil

Spice Mix
3 cm cinnamon stick
2 star anise
3 cloves
3 cardamoms
2 pandan leaves, knotted
2 big onions, sliced
2 green chilies, sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced

750 ml water or more if needed
2 sprigs curry leaves
2 potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
1 tsp salt or to taste
200 ml thick coconut milk

Method :
Combine the chicken with the curry and chili powder. Set aside to marinate in the refrigerator until needed.

Heat oil in a wok or roomy sauce pan over medium heat and fry the spice mix, stirring frequently, until fragrant and onions are lightly browned. Add the marinated chicken and fry for about 2 minutes, turning frequently.

Pour in water and add the curry leaves; simmer for about 10 minutes before adding the potatoes. Cook until chicken and potatoes are tender. Thicken with the coconut milk and season to taste with salt.

When curry returns to a boil, turn off heat. Serve with rice or bread.

Pic : The Lacy Pancake Mold

Lacy Pancakes / Roti Jala
Source : Primarasa Hidangan Indonesia Terlezat

Ingredients :
75 ml thick coconut milk
425 ml water
225 gr all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 small egg (50 gr), beat lightly
Oil for greasing the pan.

1. Mix coconut milk and water. Put the flour in a container, add salt, stir, then make a hole in the middle. Add the beaten eggs, stirring gradually while adding the diluted coconut milk until the dough is smooth and mixed well.

2. Strain the dough by using a wire sieve. Press with the back of a spoon if the dough is lumpy. The batter should not be too thick or too thin. Prepare a special mold to make the lacy pancakes.

3. Put a flat pan over low heat, basting with oil. Add the batter into the mold. Immediately turn the mold over the surface of the pan so the batter flow out of the mold and form holed nets. Let the the batter cooked, remove from pan. Repeat until the batter runs out.

4. Put the Lacy Pancake on a plate or cutting board, fold / roll.

5. Another way: if there is no bread mold nets, make a thin omelette, roll, and cut into pieces the size of 1 cm.