Lockdown Green Chicken Curry

It is winter her in the Cape Town area. We are making hot food, soul food.  ‘Tis the time for stews, while all my foodie friends in the northern hemisphere are raving about summer fruit and vegetables, and fruity drinks alfresco.

 

This dish is the direct result of a challenge on handwriting, where I stuck my neck out on a dish that I have never made before.  A green curry using spinach. Yes, that stuff that nobody wants to eat.  So much for keeping a low profile.  An abject lesson in system linkage; news tends to travel across social boundaries.  I should have known.

The blended spinach. I doubled this quantity

 

A quick Google search came up with a load of recipes of varying ingredients.  I decided on my own fusion of flavours.  A basic dish using spinach, coriander leaves, and mint as the base for the sauce.  Add to this some roasted cashews for flavour, a dash of lemon juice and yoghurt for the sauce and we are in business.  I decided against lamb for the meat, as it takes long to cook.  More of this option later.  I opted for chicken breasts with the bone on.  The marrow and the cartilage add flavour and some texture to the sauce.  The sauce needs to be mushy, so take care not to burn the sauce.

 

This was an out-and-out experiment.  One of the better experiments in the kitchen I have ever had, if you will.  The dish is easy to make, and the result is astounding.  A serious contender for the top of my default recipe log. 

 

Dry roasted cashews

Asian spice dish recipes tend to come with a list of ingredients that is quite long, as they use their own mix of spices to make their masalas.  I have a masala that I make according to a Cape Malay recipe from Cass Abrahams, which I use for all my curries.  You may use your own.  The supply of chillies suitable for curry is intermittent here in my neck of the woods, so I standardised on a curry paste that will keep a month or two in the refrigerator.  You can find the recipe here. 

 

The green ingredients for this dish are all leafy.  So, we blitz the sauce with a blender to get a smooth consistency.  For flavour, I added dry roasted cashew nuts.  Just a ¼ cup will do. 

 

The meat can be either chicken or lamb.  I opted for chicken on this round, as the chicken cooks quite fast.  This time I used chicken breasts cut into bite size portions.  I left the skin on, as the fat adds some flavour to the dish. You will need a napkin and a dish for the bones, and you will need to use your hands.  Remember to lick your fingers clean before you start eating…

 

The blended coriander and mint

Fry the meat in batches until it gets brown, then keep aside.  If you want to use lamb, do the same, but then simmer the meat in some water until it is tender. The sauce of this dish is too thick to stand long simmering, it may burn.  Keep the stock from the lamb, you will need it to dilute your sauce as required.

 

I blended the green ingredients separately, but there is no need for that with a little planning beforehand.

 

Here is the recipe.

 

Ingredients

 

750 g chicken breasts, bone in, cut into bite sized portions

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

¼ tsp fenugreek seeds (methi)

¼ cup fresh mint leaves

1 medium size very ripe tomato, finely chopped

½ cup fresh coriander leaves

1 cup fresh spinach destemmed and coarsely chopped. Maybe more. I used about 120 grams.

1-2 tbsp chilli, garlic & ginger paste

2 tsp dry masala powder, your choice of flavours

½ cup plain yoghurt

Juice of ½ lemon

¼ cup cashew nuts, dry roasted

1-2 tsp garam masala to taste

Oil/ghee for frying

Salt

 

Process

 

This is the easy and fast version, not what I did.

 

Fry the chicken in batches in ghee/oil until it gets brown. Set aside. Fry the onions until they start getting brown, then add the curry paste or fresh spices and the chopped coriander and mint leaves.  Remember to add a little salt.  Stir fry for thirty seconds or so, the add the spinach, tomato and some yoghurt.  The acid in the tomato will pick up the caramelised meat from the bottom of the pan, adding to your stock.  The mix will be quite dry, so you may need to add a touch of boiling water or yoghurt.  Not too much, the sauce needs to be mushy.  Add the dry masala and the roasted cashews.  Stir carefully to prevent burning.  Then blitz with the blender until you have a smooth, mushy sauce.

 

Now add back the meat and turn down the heat to very low.  Add the lemon juice.  Simmer this for about half an hour or until the meat is tender.  In the case of lamb, you would have cooked the lamb until tender before adding to the mushy sauce.  When the meat is done, add the garam masala, mix through and turn off the heat.  Let the dish rest while you cook the rice.  My version came out slightly off-green, as my spice paste is made from red chillies. 

 

While the dish is resting, cook the rice.  I used basmati rice.  Don’t even bother to flavour the rice, the main dish has overpowering flavour.  However, with the thick sauce a roti may just be the optimal answer.

 

Now dish up.  I did not have the inclination for any additional side dish tonight.  This was enough balm for the soul on this cold Cape winter night.

 

Bon Appetit!

 

Authored by Johan Zietsman

Last updated on 2020-06-03

 

 

 

 

Tropical Pilaf With Chicken

Living here in the Western Cape we are surrounded by the Cape Malay style cooking, in a geo-culinary way. Which means that we literally have access to all the ingredients that make up the Cape Malay menu.

And we are not really expanding our domestic menu. Not very clever, one would venture.


So, with this realisation in mind and having the creative urge again, I did some brief research. Meaning I actually opened two of my cook books and perused the contents in a scholarly fashion, rather than a drooling hungry sailor fashion.

In our home we have regular curries with plain rice. But also we make biryanis, risottos and paellas, not forgetting stir fried rice with veggies. All of these are dishes that contains some form of sauce, making them on the juicy side. From my brief research the missus and I then decided to broaden our scope of rice dishes by trying a drier variety of rice dish and specifically pilaf. This dish has a myriad of variations and flavours and can be served as a side with just about any main by just varying the spices. The dish also has different styles and names, depending on where in the world you are. Wikipedia has some interesting facts on this dish.

We decided on a version with chicken, where the chicken is steamed in the rice. This makes it a complete one pot main. No extra cleaning up required! And just for fun I decided on a sweet and fruity version. Complete with coconut milk and mangos.

This dish will go very well with any fried or barbecued fish as a side dish. Especially in a tropical setting. The ingredients are simple and the process is almost a no-brainer. Preparation and cooking time is about half an hour.

The standard pilaf consists of raw rice fried in a flavoured oil, then slowly simmered in a stock till done. The rice comes out fluffy and loose, with all the flavours blended in. I chose to use coconut milk and some chopped dried mangos as main flavours to enhance the nutty flavour of the basmati rice.

Part of the stock for this dish comes from the caramelised meat sticking to the pan in the beginning.

The ingredients for this dish are simple and few, which is what makes pilaf so popular, I guess.

So here goes:

Tropical Pilaf With Chicken

Ingredients

400g chicken breast fillets, diced
1 to 1¼ cup basmati rice
¾ cup fresh peas
400 ml (1 can) coconut milk
3-4 slices dried mango, chopped
1 medium onion, diced
1 tsp whole cumin seeds (jeera)
1 tsp whole mustard seeds
3 pods cardamom (elachi), seeded
1½ tsp turmeric
salt and pepper to taste
ghee, butter and oil for frying

Process

Pat the chicken quite dry, then fry the cubes in a dry pan until they are brown. Set aside. Now add some ghee or butter and a small amount of oil to the pan and fry the onion until at least translucent. Add the whole spices and fry them until the fragrance fills the kitchen. Now add the raw rice and stir fry until all the kernels are coated with oil. This will help with flavour and with the separation of the kernels. The flavours of the rice should begin to fill the kitchen too.

Now add the coconut milk and the chopped mango and the turmeric. Check for salt and add as required. Mix through and check again. This will be the last of stirring the pan. Add back the chicken and cover the pan.


Turn the flame down to a minimum, the lowest it will go on the smallest burner.

The rice will swell out and absorb the fluid, so you will need to check that the dish doesn't burn. Add some boiling water as required. The peas are added when the rice is almost done. Peas cook quite fast and you want them not to be soggy and lose their flavour.


The most important part comes now. Once the rice is done, turn the stove off and leave the dish to rest for at least fifteen minutes. Some recipes even call for covering the pan with a dishcloth before putting the lid on. The dishcloth will absorb the steam and not allow the condensed water to drip back into the pan. This all is designed to allow the rice to turn fluffy.

Now dish up in bowls and garnish with some fresh coriander leaves.


And then understand why pilaf may just be the prince of rice dishes.


Bon appetit!





Authored by Johan Zietsman

Last updated on 2017-05-25

Traditional Easter Fare

It is that time of year again. Easter. For some reason Easter is celebrated in South Africa almost like Thanksgiving in The United States; Lots of family gatherings and lots of food.

Perhaps it has much to do with being the end of the harvest season. Us city- and seaward oriented folks tend to get somewhat dislodged from Mother Earth and the seasons. But the religious festivals help to keep us in line with the seasons.

For one, I know this festival is very close to the first equinox of the year which falls on 21-22 March. That is when the sun crosses the equator on its way to the northern hemisphere for their summer. It is also the first star gate of the year for some religions.

But here it is Easter. Time for wonderful celebrations and always accompanied with good food and wine. The Cape is no exception and Mother Nature played along very nicely this year and provided lots of good fishing recently. This played magnificently into the tradition to have pickled fish and bread for a picnic lunch in the balmy autumn weather here in the Cape Town area.

I am not a fisherman, so I went to the local fish market by the jetty and bought a fish. Pickled fish appears to be like South African potjiekos, a very personal dish with jealously guarded recipes.

Luckily for us, not all recipes are so closely guarded and we have the famous Cass Abrahams, who published her recipe for pickled fish. This one is special also because it is one of the very traditional Cape Malay dishes, steeped in history.

For me, this was the perfect opportunity to test the Cape Malay style spiciness. The spice mix is simple, the preparation easy and the waiting time forever. I did not even bother doing an internet search, as I had a proper reference handy right on my bookshelf: Cass Abrahams cooks Cape Malay, by Cass Abrahams. The book is available from Amazon books. This recipe is adapted from this book.


This dish is normally made using cheap fish.  The book calls for snoek, which in other parts of the world is called queen mackerel.  However, any fish will do. Especially game fish as they have firmer flesh. The recipe may be made by frying the salted fish in butter or in a light batter. It does not make a difference. I opted for the plain frying in light oil as per the recipe. The dish also calls for vinegar, for which I used apple cider vinegar. This gave a very fruity taste to the dish and I had to add a little regular vinegar to get the acidity levels up. The sugar is added to your own taste, so take care. It is easy to have too much sugar. You can always add some later when the dish has cured for a day or two.

The solid ingredients need to be submerged in the pickle. If not, add a little vinegar and turn the whole lot around. This will get the bottom pieces to the top and allow the top ones some better soaking and curing. Be careful not to break the pieces of fish, else you end up with flaked fish in brine.


Very important: The skin needs to be taken off game fish. The brine or pickle will not penetrate the skin and thus leave your fish not cured and tasting bland. I tend to always skin the fish. You may do this by soaking the cuts in boiling water for a minute or so. The skin will then come off easily. The size of the cuts does not matter. However, I like to have all the cuts with at least one dimension under my control. This means I cut all the pieces to the same thickness, which, in my case, is about 20mm or ¾ inch. This will ensure a similar curing time for all the cuts. Over-curing does not matter, but under-curing does. And make sure the onions are properly cooked, otherwise you end up with very crunchy bits! The onions may be fried in butter before adding to the pickle, if one so prefers.

So here goes.

Ingredients

1 kg game fish. I used yellowtail
2 large onions, sliced into rings
5 thumbs garlic, mashed
250 ml vinegar
125 ml water
10 ml coriander powder
10 ml cumin powder (jeera)
15 ml masala
5 ml turmeric
2 bay leaves
4 pimentos
4 cloves
1 ml peppercorns
Sugar to taste. I used brown sugar

Process

Salt the fish and fry until done. I did mine in batches. Keep these to the side and keep the frying oil. Add the fluids and the dry ingredients, except the sugar, to a saucepan and set to boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for a few minutes until the onions are translucent but still firm. Add sugar to taste.

Pour the hot sauce over the fish and ensure that every piece is properly coated with the pickle. Allow to cool and set into the refrigerator for three to four days. This will allow the flavours to develop and help the fish and onions to cure. Turn the lot every day to get the pickle soaking in properly.

Simple.

This dish goes well with an artisan loaf of bread, real butter and an off-dry white wine.

Bon appetit!



Authored by Johan Zietsman

Last updated on 2015-03-29

Flavours of South Africa: Bobotie

Being part of a large blogging community has some interesting side effects. One of them being the greater awareness of what goes on around the world in terms of culinary arts, if you will.

You also get ideas about the mood of the month and what is fashionable or not. I am also a member of the Flavors of the World community on Google+. This is quite interesting from a historical perspective, as South African cuisine is a fusion of flavors from the Far East, East Africa and Europe.

This is a result of the closure of the overland silk and spice route through the Middle East and Constantinople (now Istanbul) around the early 1400's. This led to the opening of the spice and tea route around the southern tip of Africa and the eventual establishment of the victualing station at Cape Town. Which led to my being a white African, so to speak. But that is another story.

The resulting food is quite delicious and flavourful, known as the Cape Malay style of cooking. This style of cooking is kept alive by the very colourful Cape Malay people in and around Cape Town. And the rest of South Africa as well, especially for a dish like bobotie.

Pronounced boh-boo-ti. “Boh” as in “bottom,” “boo” as in “booty,” “ti” as in a short cuppa. Close enough phonetics, I think.

The dish originally was made using minced lamb, which is relatively scarce or unobtainable. Unless you mince your own leg of lamb, of course. Lean ground beef works as well. Bobotie is a baked dish, consisting of spiced minced meat, covered in an egg custard. The flavour is on the sweet side and may be made mild to quite spicy. It is usually served with yellow rice with raisins as a very traditional South African dish. It is quite easy to prepare and well worth the little effort for the exquisite result. It took me longer to do this write-up than to prepare the dish, bar the baking.

The dish will go well with a fruity dry white wine, perhaps even slightly off-dry, depending on the spiciness of your specific version of bobotie. I normally have a light red wine with meals like this, where the South African Pinotage variety is the wine of choice.

I used fresh masala paste instead of the garlic and chilli. There is also some chopped up dried apricots to add to the sweet and tangy taste. Don't fret if you don't have chutney, just use a little more apricot jam and chilli. Or just a little more chopped up dried fruit. The vinegar and other spices will do the trick just fine. Or add some raisins.

I only used the freshly toasted almonds and chopped dried apricots. The result was outstanding. Toasting the dry almonds strengthens their flavour by a large margin, so you can use less, lest the nutty flavour dominates the rest of the spices. The bay/ lemon leaves I substituted with dried curry leaves.

This recipe will be enough for about four to six servings, depending on who dishes up!

Ingredients

500 g lean ground beef

1 thick slice bread/ 2 normal slices

2 large eggs

1 cup milk

1 onion, chopped

1-2 cloves fresh garlic, chopped and minced

15 ml curry powder of choice

15 ml turmeric

15 ml apricot jam

15 ml chutney

5 ml of brown vinegar or lemon juice

5 ml Worcestershire sauce if you feel like more flavour.

50 ml almonds, preferably freshly roasted, then chopped/mashed finely.

50 ml seedless raisins. I substituted 50 ml dried apricots, chopped finely.

some salt to taste.

8-10 lemon leaves or bay leaves.

  

 Process

Chop the bread into small cubes/large crumbs and soak it in the milk. Toast the almonds whole in a dry pan. When they are brown, mash them into coarse crumbs. Squeeze the milk from the bread and keep the milk, add the soaked bread to the meat. Add the chopped apricots, the almond crumbs and all the wet ingredients, except the milk and eggs. Mix this thoroughly.

Rather use less of the vinegar, chutney and apricot jam than more, as these may dominate the other flavours.

Fry the chopped onions until they start to caramelise. Add the garlic and fry until the garlic is also done. Add the dry powder curry and the turmeric and fry for 10 seconds, then add the meat mix to the pan and fry until the meat is done. The meat will turn a nice brown if you used duck fat instead of cooking oil for the frying.

Whisk the two eggs into the milk. Add a little more milk if required. You need about 1 to 1½ cups of the egg mix. Spread the meat in a shallow oven proof dish and arrange the bay leaves/ curry leaves/ lemon leaves in the meat. Pour over the egg mix, then bake this at 180ºC / 350ºF for twenty minutes or until the egg custard has turned a nice light brown in spots.

Remove the dish from the oven and let it rest for another twenty minutes to develop flavour. Or switch off the oven and leave the dish inside for another fifteen minutes.

You can remove the leaves before serving, but it is rather nice to lick them off during the course of your meal...

Serve with yellow turmeric rice.

Bon appetit!

Authored by Johan Zietsman

Adapted from this recipe.

Last updated on 2013-04-29