Lost in translation - Luxembourg Chicken!
One fine day my 'culinary challenged' room mate was having his lady friend over and asked me to whip up a curry for their date. His specifications were quite simple, please make us a curry and head out for a couple of drinks and don't make it spicy! I got a recipe off google and wrote down the ingredients and there I was...in the super market...staring blindly at the ingredients... I literally didn't know what the hell was written on those fancy packets.. And mind you this was back in the days when Nokia reigned supreme! Damn you, no Google search, no translator, no nothing, just SNAKE! After asking an attendant for most of the stuff, I needed help in finding 'fresh cream'. She took me to the dairy section and pointed to it. It said crème fraîche!
Everything prepped and ready to go, I tasted the fresh cream I bought and it tasted sour! At first I thought it was spoilt and after a few frantic calls to my friend, I was told this is how it tastes.
So when you're cooking for your room mate's date night, you'll need:
4-5 chicken breasts cut into cubes per size preference.
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 bay leaves
1 tsp cummin
2 dried Kashmiri chillies
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp crushed peppercorn
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp tamarind paste
2 green chillies
2 onions finely chopped
2 tomatoes finely chopped
1 bowl of spinach leaves
Heat up some oil and add the aromatics to it. Once those start crackling add the onions, tomatoes and the spices. Cook it down till the mixture turns a bit 'pasty' and starts sticking to the pan. Now add the chicken and a bit of water to the pan. Stir it around and "fresh cream" 😆 Cook it on an extremely low flame for about 45 minutes. Keep stirring and keep it covered while it cooks. Enjoy with hot chapatis, naan or just good old steamed rice!
Well, I cooked, they clicked and they're married now!
Very interesting, I like the spinach leaves idea :) I'm always trying to determine the time needed to cook that "perfect" chicken. You said it took 45 minutes?! Isn't that too much? If I leave it on that long, no matter how low the stove, it's bound to turn the cubes dry and chewy... do you marinate the chicken in brine first?
ReplyDeleteDry chewy chicken is something everyone hates. Yes, 45 mins is what has worked for me over the years with this preparation. To be honest it depends a lot on the fuel you use as well. When I was using electric stoves, I used to have this problem. Literally all the time! But if you're using a gas stove, a very low flame for 45 mins will do the trick. Try this and let me know if this worked? If not I'd reduce down to 35 mins the next time.
DeleteLike any Parsi household, we bring in the meat on Sunday and then there is whole family activity involving me cleaning the meat and my wife marinading all of it before we put it in the freezer. So, yes the chicken already had a very basic marinade of ginger-garlic, salt and lime.
This curry is delicious. I used chicken thigh which easily takes a longer cooking time.
DeleteJust made this for dinner tonight only change was instead of tamarind paste added balsamic vinegar and instead of spinach leaves added chopped long beans...have to say the taste was fantastic. ..enjoyed with laccha parathas 👌👌
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