Chicken Curry and Vegetable Jalfrezi

I made some more great Indian curries the other night. The Patak curry pastes and cooking sauces are great! I used the Pataks Biryani Paste 10oz with this curry last night. Basic genesis of the recipe comes from Jamie’s Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals, one of my favorite new cookbooks. The chicken curry is pictured to the left here.

• 1 pound chicken tenders, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 2 onions, halved and thinly sliced
• 1 fresh green chili (I used a red one)
• a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, minced
• a small bunch of cilantro
• 1 15-oz can of garbanzo beans, drained
• 1-2 Tbs vegetable oil
• 1-2 Tbs butter
• 1/2 cup Pataks Biryani Paste
• 1 14-oz can coconut milk
• salt and pepper to taste
• plain yogurt at the table
• 1 lemon

Separate the cilantro stems from the leaves and mince the stems up. Chop the leaves and set aside for garnish.

Heat the oil and butter in a skillet. Add the onions, chili, ginger and cilantro stalks and cook for 10 minutes or so, stirring often, until golden and softened.

Add the curry paste, coconut milk, garbanzo beans and chicken. Stir well to coat everything, then add a 1/2 can of water and stir.  Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer, cover and simmer 30 minutes or so. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Squeeze some lemon juice on top, sprinkle the fresh cilantro leaves on top and serve with rice. Have a dish of plain yogurt on the table and some lemon wedges.

I’m not sure if the latter dish qualifies as Indian or not. I got it from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food. I first served it at a family meal as a side dish for omnivores and a main dish for vegetarians. It was gobbled up by everyone! It seemed to go well with last night’s menu though, so I added it as I wanted some variety and was cooking a lot, thinking of midweek lunches and such.

I’ve posted the recipe for butter chicken before. The only difference this time was that I actually used a purchased Garam Masala blend from Penzey’s. It saves a bit of work but I think the Cooking Light mix is quite good.

Second up was this Chana Masala (Chickpea Curry) recipe I found online.  I had no mustard seeds so just skipped that. I skipped the red chili pepper as well.   I used canned garbanzo beans and just simmered them with everything a bit longer.

Third was this lentil and potato curry with coconut milk. I added the extra butter and made a quick yogurt and cucumber raita to go with everything.  I don’t think I measured anything. Probably half a cup or so of yogurt (it was already thick so I didn’t drain it), half a cucumber, seeded and grated, and some salt.  I saw a recipe somewhere that added some grated radish to this that sounded good but I had no radishes. Maybe next time.

I made this for my dad’s 84th birthday as a side dish for those of us eating salmon and a main dish for those of us not. It comes from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food

Everyone loved it, vegetarians and meat eaters. Should have doubled the recipe I think as there was not a spoonful left over! So I’ll blame that as the reason I went and grabbed a Subway veggie sandwich at lunch. No good leftovers!

• 1 cup brown lentils
• 3 1/2 cups liquid (I used 1 can of coconut milk topped with 1 1/2 cups water. You could use all water, some vegetable broth, or chicken broth if you’re not doing vegetarian)
• 1 Tbs curry powder
• 2-3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
• salt and pepper to taste
• plain yogurt and fresh cilantro

Rinse the lentils. Heat the lentils, liquid of choice, and curry powder to a simmer, stir, cover partially and cook 15 minutes. Stir now and then.

Add the cubed potatoes and stir in, then cover the pan completely  and cook 10 minutes or so, depending on how large the potato cubes are. If the lentils start to look too dry, add some more water. You don’t want them soupy but they should be moist.

Add salt and pepper to taste and cook another 10 minutes or so. Serve with yogurt and cilantro.

Variation: Add 2 Tbs butter when you add the potatoes.

This was a bit of a combo from a Rachel Ray and a Jacques Pepin, so what do you call that?! My earlier chicken curry recipes have all been great, but I always like to experiment. I wasn’t sure I’d like the tomatoes but I think this was one of the best curry recipes I’ve made.

Rachel Ray contributed the curry powder and the mango chutney. Jacques Pepin contributed the coconut milk and curry paste. (Yep, I did both curry powder and curry paste.)

This served 2 adults with one huge lunch portion for leftovers, so call it 3-4 servings.

2 Tbs oil
4-6 chicken tenders (maybe a pound altogether)
1/2 an onion, cut in half and then sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp curry powder
1 12-14 ounce can of unsweetened coconut milk
1-2 tsp curry paste
1 can diced tomatoes since I didn’t have fresh ones handy
1 Tbs dried basil (would be better with 1/4 cup fresh)
Major Grey’s mango chutney on the side

Start your rice cooking. For 3-4 people, I usually use 1 cup rice and 2 cups water, plus 1/2 tsp of salt. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook 20-25 minutes. If it gets done before the curry is done just turn the heat off and let it sit a bit.

Heat the oil in a pan at a medium heat.

Cut the chicken into bite size pieces. Obviously you could use pretty much any boneless chicken parts. I’d just bought a bag of chicken tenders by mistake so that’s what I used.

Add the onion and garlic to the heated oil and cook for about 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently.
Salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the curry powder and cook another minute.

Add the coconut milk and stir, then stir in the curry paste. (You can use red or green curry paste, depending on how hot you like it. Red works for me.) Cook another few minutes, stirring.

Add the chicken and cook at a simmer until the chicken is done, about 4-5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook till heated through. Alternately, you could add peas or bamboo shoots or…. Stir in the basil.

Rachel Ray had you mix in the chutney. I prefer to serve it on the side. It adds a nice sweet counterpoint to the potentially spicy curry, but serving it on the side lets everyone control their own meal.