What I like about curries is that once you realize those pastes are a waste of money and don't even always taste the way you want a particular curry dish to taste like, you can easily figure out with practice how to make a basic curry sauce and to learn from minor individual recipe tweaks what works and what doesn't. Seriously, learn how to work the curry miracle yourself and you'll save at the least 75% by leaving those lame-ass curry pastes on the shelf.
Today's Specimen
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ lbs. chicken breast, skinless and boneless
- 1 14 oz. can pumpkin
- 1 14 oz. can coconut milk
- 2 cups water
- 2 tbsp. canola oil
- ½ cup fresh basil, chopped
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 10 dried red chilis
- 1 tsp. fresh ginger, fine diced
- 2 cloves garlic, fine diced
- 1 cup dry shredded coconut, unsweetened
- 1 tbsp. turmeric
- 1 tbsp. cayenne pepper
- 1 tbps. cumin
- 1 tsp. coriander
- 1 tsp. marjoram
- ½ tsp. cardamon
- ¼ tsp. cinnamon
Directions
- In a tablespoon of oil cook the chicken in a large sauce pan on medium heat until it's cooked through. Set aside.
- Add another tablespoon of oil and saute the garlic, onion, and red peppers until the onions become slightly translucent and the peppers begin to darken.
- Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and add to the mixture in the sauce pan along with the water, coconut milk, coconut flakes, pumpkin, and all the spices except for the basil and cilantro. Stir and cover and simmer on low temperature for half and hour, add the basil and cilantro, and continue simmering for another half an hour or until the coconut flakes are no longer dry.
- Serve over rice, preferably white or brown jasmine or basmati, with a vegetable side of your choice.
Next Time in the Lab
Okay, adding that coconut was a huge mistake! It didn't mar the flavor or it, but it ruined the smooth, creamy consistency I wanted. Some more peppers and basil would be nice, too, to spice it up a bit more, only I want to find a way to add their flavor without adding them so as to leave the curry a beautiful dark ocher pumpkin color and smooth consistency: perhaps cook in the oil for a while and set aside for a while before straining out, or run the completed sauce without the chicken in it through a food processor for a bit. Other than that, just a few minor adjustments to the spice mix to balance the sweetness of the pumpkin with the acidic pungency of the peppers.
- Lose the coconut flakes!
- Increase the chili peppers to about a quarter of a cup, cut into quarters.
- Increase the basil to a third of a cup or try an equivalent amount of Asian basil.
- Drop the cayenne pepper down to a teaspoon, or maybe do without entirely.
- Add a quarter teaspoon ground celery seed.
- Add half a teaspoon ground anise.
- Add a bay leaf.
- Run the curry sauce through a blender or food processor before adding the chicken (and bay leaf), to blend in the peppers and basil so the sauce maintains its pumpkin color.
