Simple Chicken Curry

This is an easy to make Chicken Curry -- its a bit of a blend of north Indian and south Indian styles.

Almost anyone who loves Indian food loves butter chicken or chicken tikka masala. However these chicken curries originate in the north of India and so while I had my moms south Indian style chicken curry many times, I also went to college in North India and so butter chicken became a staple. I also learned a few tips and tricks from a Bengali friend who was a great cook, so this chicken curry is really a blend of some of those styles with its own unique flavor. That will take you on a journey from south to north India.

South Indian chicken curry is recognizable for its use of mustard seeds and curry leaves. North Indian for its use of yoghurt, cream or butter.

Ingredients

1 whole chicken cut-up (excluding giblets and wings) or 4-6 whole legs halved about 1.5 lbs of chicken

2 whole red onions

2 thai green chillies or Indian chillies (use 1 if you cannot handle hot food)

1 thumb sized piece of Ginger

4 garlic cloves

1 tsp Turmeric powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp Cumin powder

1 tsp Coriander powder

1 sprig Cilantro leaves

1 tsp black mustard seeds

1 tsp salt

3 tablespoons Olive oil

2 tablespoon Canola or other vegetable oil

3 medium sized yukon gold or other white potato

3 medium sized ripe tomatoes

5 curry leaves (only available in the Indian store, but they can be frozen and used, they also have dried but I prefer fresh)

5 tablespoons of plain yogurt (Indian or Russian preferably)

Peel slice the onions into quarters. Peel and slice the ginger into a few large pieces. Peel the garlic. Add all of them into a blender and blend, creating a puree (you may have to add a tiny bit of water to make it happen but just a tablespoon or so). Once it is pureed, set it aside.

Cut the potatoes into about 1-inch pieces. Slice the chilies by removing the stem and then slicing each chili lengthwise into two pieces, if the chili is very long you can also slice it once horizontally. Be careful not to rub your face after this - you should immediately wash your hands with soap -- it can get painful if you rub the juice on your face, it does need soap as its really an oil that water alone cannot get rid of! Chop the Cilantro and tear the curry leaves by half. Chop the tomatoes into 1-inch or less cubes.

Remove the skin from the chicken as well as any wings, neck giblets etc. (instead of throwing these away, I usually use them to create chicken stock to add to our dogs meal (make sure you filter out and remove the bones) -- he loves it!). If the legs are whole, cut them in half. For the breast, cut part of the meat from the bone so make boneless pieces (about 3/4-inch thick) and leave some meat on the bone. I usually chop the breast bone with some meat on it as it is quite tasty when removed from the bone while eating. Some folks only like boneless chicken so these boneless breast pieces are good for them.

In a large skillet mix the Olive oil and Canola oil and heat. Once hot add the mustard seed and let them crackle for a bit. Now lower the heat completely and carefully add the onion puree, watch out for splatter -- which will occur if the oil is too hot, best to add in one quick movement -- don't drip it in. Increase the heat to high and sautee the onion in the oil, mixing frequently, you will see steam rise, so you will want to sautee until it doesn't steam much anymore. If it gets too dry you may add some canola oil. Stir frequently so it doesn't burn.

Now add turmeric, salt, cumin and coriander powder to the cooked onion mix and continue to mix well until the spices are mixed well. After about 2-3 minutes when spices are somewhat cooked, add in the chicken pieces -- reduce the heat to medium to avoid burning and further curdling the yogurt which we will add next. Stir well until the spice is mixed well with the chicken. Now add the yogurt once the pot has cooled a bit -- one tablespoon at a time on top, rapidly stirring it in to mix well. When all the yogurt has disappeared into the mixture, add the tomatoes, stirring well for some time on medium heat. Now add the curry leaves, chilies and increase the heat. Add about half a cup of water or more so all the pieces are submerged completely, now add the potatoes most of the pieces and potatoes should be submerged at least 3/4 of the way.

Cover and let the mix boil, stirring every 2-3 minutes and checking to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom. Let it cook for about 10 minutes and then lower the heat to low and then add the cilantro. Now taste and add more salt if needed. Let it simmer for another 5-10 minutes and then turn the heat off.

Serve with hot chapatis, roti or rice along with a vegetable. Enjoy!!

Indian-Style Grilled Salmon

Salmon is generally not available in India, so the idea of Indian style grilled salmon came to me as something worth trying as I was trying to get our family to have more fish and they always said they didn't like the "fishy" smell/taste of fish.

I was curious as to what would happen if you added Indian spices to Salmon, it felt like it should work. I was initially worried that the Indian spice would overwhelm the delicate salmon flavors, much to my surprise, it worked very well.

As a family we got hooked on to Salmon as it was available in our local farmers market. Each Sunday in summer, we go to the farmers market and there's a fishmonger selling fresh salmon caught that morning. It is so fresh you can literally smell the ocean. At first I just prepared the salmon with olive oil, salt and pepper. The salmon was so fresh you didn't really need anything else. Late summer there was no more fresh Salmon so we had to get the store bought version and hence the need to spice things up!!

Salmon seems to go well with Indian spices as long as you don't overwhelm the Salmon with the spices.

Selecting fresh salmon is key to this recipe, opt for fresh salmon, the freshest you can find. If we can't get the Farmers market Salmon I usually get the Norwegian farm raised Salmon. For some reason Salmon seems to get to our local grocery faster from Norway than from Alaska!

Ingredients

1 Salmon (preferably tail piece medium thickness less than an inch)

Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp

Salt 3/4 tsp

Ground Black Pepper 1/2 tsp

Cilantro leaves - about a quarter cup

Garlic - 3 cloves

Ginger about a thumb sized piece

Curry Leaves - 3-6 leaves (you can find in the Indian store but if you don't have it you can skip)

Olive oil - 2-3 Tbsps

Fish Grill BBQ Basket (this is highly recommended to avoid the fish flaking and falling into the grill fire)

Wash and pat the salmon dry with paper towels and set aside. Chop the garlic and cilantro fine. Peel the ginger and grate into a paste. Tear up the curry leaves. Add all of the herbs, salt and into a flat bottomed saucepan large enough to hold the salmon steak. Add the Turmeric Powder, Salt and Pepper. Pour about 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil and stir the mixture well. Now add the Salmon steak, mixing it well gently with a wooden spatula (careful as the Salmon will tear if you use metal or mix too much), just enough to coat the Salmon on both sides.

Put the Salmon coated with the spices into a plastic ziploc bag, add 1-2 tablespoons of water to the bag so that any of the spices falling off the Salmon dissolves into the water forming a liquid marinade (don't add too much water otherwise all of the spices will come off the Salmon). Close the bag, mix gently so the spices mix with any water in the bag and coat the Salmon too. Leave the bag in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Fire up the Grill at high heat, wait a few minutes for the grill to get really hot. Put the Salmon in the fish grill BBQ basket. Grill the Salmon starting Skin down first for 2-3 minutes and then flip over every 2-3 minutes (lower heat to medium after the first flip). Total grilling time about 12-15 minutes depending on the heat of the grill and thickness of the Salmon. If the Salmon is very thick i.e. close to an inch you may have to grill longer. Knowing when it is done is the trick here, you will see some white paste ooze out, the Salmon is probably not done if it is continuing to ooze. After about 10 minutes you can test it by using a fork to dig into the thick part of the Salmon, it should be flaky and the center should be opaque but moist and the same color as the surface - not translucent, if the middle is darker in color you may need to grill for a few more minutes.

When done, take the Salmon off the grill and BBQ basket, let it sit for 2-3 minutes and serve.

You can also grill this in your oven indoors (also if you don't have a fish grill basket). To do this put the Salmon on a roasting tray pan covered with foil on the bottom (for easy cleaning) put the Salmon on the foil skin side down. Roast in the middle section of the oven at 400 degrees for about 8 minutes. Again observe for the white paste oozing out, when it stops, test the Salmon's doneness by slicing. Switch the oven to Grill or Broil and grill for 1-2 minutes just to get the top crisp.

The key to great Salmon is to cook it just right, take it out while it is still moist as it will continue to cook when off the oven or grill. Stay close to the oven or grill or you will have burnt Salmon as it cooks very quickly.