Thursday 13 January 2011

A tomato-y, coconutty curry

A really simple, easily adaptable curry – just the ticket for the kind of rainy, dank weather we seem to be enduring just now.

Brown 2 chicken thighs skin-side down in a little vegetable oil in a deep-sided pan or wok. Once the skin is bronzed, add in a sliced onion, a couple of sliced garlic cloves, a thumb-sized piece of chopped ginger and stir to coat the veg in the juices. When the onion has softened, add a couple of peeled, chopped sweet potatoes and cook for a few minutes more.

In go the spices: 1 tsp ground coriander, ground cumin, 1/2 tsp turmeric, a few chilli flakes and 4 or 5 cardamom pods.

At this point I ought to add that I had a tub of frozen roasted green tomatoes from the summer that I thought would add just the right tanginess and fruitiness I wanted, so in they went. You could just add a tin of toms or 3-4 fresh ones, chopped up and increase the tang with a little tamarind paste, which I added anyway because it is without doubt my favourite flavour in the world.

Pour in around 400-500ml of chicken or vegetable stock and leave to simmer for about 20 minutes. Then add in enough creamed coconut (or indeed coconut milk if that is what you have) to thicken, but go gently as it thickens very quickly and you might end up having to dilute again. Simmer for another 20 minutes or so until the chicken is cooked through and serve with whatever you fancy, although we had it just as it was.

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