A cooking experiment: Indian-style curry

After about a week’s worth of researching recipes, I decided to take a crack at making Indian curry Sunday. And then I realized I was missing yogurt. No matter, I tried it anyway loosely following a few recipes, but paying no attention to amounts.

The result? Spicy, but yummy. A rough recipe follows the photo.

Click the photo to view notes about what all of that goodness is.

A note about how I cook: I only use measurements when baking. Baking is basically edible chemistry, so the exact proportions are more important. Not so with cooking. So I guess and eyeball amounts and add more if I think it necessary.

In other words, all amounts are approximate. If it looks like more or less in that dinner plate (which I believe is 10 inches in diameter), go with the dinner plate estimate :-).

Ingredients

• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1/8 cup minced ginger
• 3 small thai chilies, or 1-2 green ones
• About 10 whole cardamom pods (or 2 spoonfuls of ground cardamom)
• 2 teaspoons whole cloves (or 2 teaspoons of ground cloves)
• 2 teaspoons fennel seed
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 cinnamon sticks (or 1 teaspoon cinnamon)
• 2 tablespoons turmeric
• 3 tablespoons paprika
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 2-3 dried bay leaves
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cubed
• 15 ounce can of tomato puree
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• Salt and sugar to taste

On using ground spices versus whole ones: I think whole ones have a better flavor since there is less surface area exposed to the flavor-changing effects of air. However, whole spices mean you’ve got to pick more stuff out as you’re eating. Your choice.

What to do

1. Heat the oil in a sturdy skillet
2. Add the chicken and simmer in the oil until it’s lightly browned
3. Add the onions, ginger, garlic and chilies. Simmer / fry until the onions are translucent.
4. Add the rest of the spices and simmer / fry for about 5 minutes.
5. Add the tomato puree, season to heart’s content with salt and sugar. Let simmer to your desired state of gloppiness.

Pick out all of the big spicy bits (bay leaf and any cloves or cardamom pods you can find), and serve over rice. Basmati rice is particularly nice.

If you make it, let me know how it goes.