Cooking web notes

    Curry as you know is any vegetable, fish or meat in a gravy.  And chicken curry can be made with different gravies. The difference between the gravies are the ingredients used to make them.  I would call the most basic one to be of onion and tomato.  The variations from the basic is when consistency and richness is changed by addition to the basic.  Fesh cream, coconut milk, cashew nuts ground to a paste, spinach or other leafy vegetables pureed or poppy seed paste etc to name a few. We will continue to update our blog with the variations in future.

  I am sharing the tomato and onion gravy spiced with curry powder and garam masala today.  By curry powder here I mean  coriander powder, paparika, turmeric.  'Garam masala' is a blend of whole spices like cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and fennel seeds.  Then again there are many more spices which are added and deleted as per taste and cuisine.

   I will share the way I make garam masala in my next post.

   The timings below are all approximate and even the powders mentioned are how I like it.  Depending on your tolerance towards the spices add and subtract.  Remember, thickening of the gravy is from the onions, tomato and coriander powder make your variations keeping this in mind.  At home we like the curries to be so spicy that it hits our senses so to speak. 

Ingredients:
Chicken             - 1 pound
Onions               - 2 medium
Garlic                 - 1 whole chopped coarsely it yields around 1/4 cup
Ginger                - a big piece when coarsely cut yields 1/4 cup
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tspn
Chilli powder      - 1 tbspn
Black Pepper     - 1/4th tspn
Coriander           - 3 tbspn
Garam masala    - 1 1/2 tspn
Tomato              - 2 medium size ones that you get on vine and which are sour
Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup packed chopped fine
Oil                      - 4 Tbspn (use according to your convenience as long as you can saute the onions golden brown)
Salt                    - 1 tspn or as per taste (use your judgement use half and only remaining after tasting)

Method:

1.  Saute onions till translucent and starting to turn golden
2.  Add ginger,garlic and saute
3.  Add all the powders and saute till oil leaves the pan or if you are using less oil on a low fire make sure you cook the powders till the raw smell leaves
4. Add tomato chopped and saute and stirring make sure oil leaves pan before you add chicken. The moisture from the tomato allows you to see the oil seperating so wait patiently and do this process on medium low
5. Add the washed clean and dried chicken and mix well.  At this point on a medium low heat again let the chicken cook until you see water leaving the chicken. Stirring intemittently.
6. I would cook the chicken in  its own water for approximately 20 - 30 minutes or until all the water has dried up and the chicken is cooked in its gravy.
7. Once the water has dried add 1/4th to 1/2 cup of boiling water and stir
8. Let the water combine well to make a thick gravy


Notes:
1. I make sure the chicken cooks on the stove on a medium low fire for 30-45 minutes.  This ensures we recommended cooking time for poultry is reached as well as the spices have permeated the meat.
2. Kashmiri chilli powder available in Indian stores are less hot compared to the paparika.  As such you may opt for this chilli powder to keep the color and consistency and keeping the curry mild.

Contributor: Sunitha