leafing through

Two weekends ago, I made chicken curry. For the rest of the week, our place had the wonderful aroma of delicious curry even after it was all eaten. We’d become the bad neighbors who cooked pungent foods for our selfish taste bud pleasure! Definitely a negative externality. So every night after work, we’d open the windows to air out the place. I even boiled a bar of soap in water. Then this past weekend, I went to Costco for an industrial-sized bag of baking soda. I’ve placed glasses of it all around the place. The curry scent should be gone now, though I’m not sure because I have a cold and my nose is stuffed.

I love curry anything. This chicken curry dish was wonderful and even better the next day and the day after that. But given that whole episode, I might take a break from it, at least until the neighbors have forgotten about that incident. So you’ve been warned. Make this on a nice day where you can keep the windows open. Incidentally, I did have the windows open as I made this, but curry is all powerful.

• Chicken pieces (whatever you like)
• 1 Tomato
• 1 onion
• black pepper
• 3 Tablespoons curry powder
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1 lemongrass stalk
• 10 sprigs of cilantro
• 1 teaspoon mustard powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon cayenne powder
• 4 tablespoons cooking oil

In a food processor, blend the garlic, lemongrass, tomato, half an onion, mustard powder, salt, pepper, cilantro, 2 tablespoons curry powder into a fine sauce.  Pour it into a bowl and marinade the chicken pieces in there for at least 2 hours.

When you’re ready to cook the chicken, use the 1 or 2 tablespoons of reserved curry powder, mix it with a little bit of water. Heat oil in a pan and pour in the curry slurry. Stir it around until the curry flavors get all over your walls and you can’t get the smell out for a week!

Slice up the other half of the onion and add it to the pan. Then add the marinaded chicken, sauce and all. If you need, add some water and let the chicken cook.

In a separate pot, add whatever vegetables you want. I had leftover celery so I tossed that in. I also added bamboo and carrots. Start cooking it for a few minutes. Don’t add water yet, the vegetables will sweat.

Pour in the pan cooked chicken over the vegetables. Cover it and let it simmer. If there’s not enough water at this point, go ahead and add it, but keep in mind it’s not supposed to be too soupy.

And tadaa!! So delicious.