Today's post was written by my lovely friend Sandra. Sandra is one of the people who have been involved either in the cooking or the eating of probably more than 50% of the dishes I talk about on here so when she offered to show me how to make Cape Malay Curry and write a post for you guys, this was like winning the lottery.
Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this curry as much as we did.
My dear friend Katharina has been cooking the most wonderful dishes for me and so when she asked me to do a guest-post on her wonderful blog, how could I possibly say no? I know that she has previously referred to me as the queen of Austro-Hungarian cooking and so I decided that I was definitely not going to let her label me as merely that.
I grew up in South Africa and one of my favourite dishes from home is a traditional Cape Malay Curry. This is a curry that is distinct from other curries because it combines sweet and savoury elements in the dish by adding things like cinnamon (I absolutely love cinnamon, it's the best spice EVER) or dried fruit, in particular dried apricots. The dish gets it's name from the Cape Malay community in the Western Cape. They originate from the slaves that the settlers of the Dutch East India Company brought with them from India to Indonesia.
So last weekend, Katharina, Phoebe, and I decided that it was curry time.
Apparently this recipe is meant to serve 4 to 6, but it barely fed 4 hungry girls...
For the curry:
4 Chicken Breasts, cut into smaller pieces
Salt and Pepper
Vegetable Oil
2 Onions, roughly chopped
2 Garlic Cloves, finely chopped
1 small Knob of Ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 Cinnamon Sticks (or 1 huge one if you're Katharina)
1 tbsp Roasted Masala Spice (or any curry powder)
1 tsp Turmeric
1 tsp Ground Cumin
1 tsp Ground Coriander
1/2 tsp Ground Cardamom (also we managed without it)
400 g tin Chopped Tomatoes
410 ml tin Coconut Milk
Coriander Leaves for garnishing
Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Sear the chicken in some oil and then set aside. Now fry the onions until golden. Add the garlic, ginger, cinnamon stick , and remaining spices. Simmer for a few seconds to release the flavours and then add the tomatoes and the coconut. Now return the chicken to the sauce and cover the pan and leave to simmer for 20 to 30 minutes.
Whilst the curry is merrily bubbling away, move on to the sambals. Sambals are side dishes that compliment the curry by either making it milder or hotter.
Banana Sambal
Chop a banana into slices and cover with some yoghurt and leave to infuse.
Cucumber Sambal
1/2 Cucumber
Some chopped Coriander (optional)
1 tbsp Lemon Juice
250 ml Plain Yoghurt
Salt
Slice the cucumber into squares and mix together with the other ingredients. Season with salt.
Once you've made the sambals, it's time to enjoy the amazing and wonderful aromas and tastes of this amazing curry.
A perfect accompaniment to this is rice or naan bread. We loved both.
Right, I think that entitles me to at least another year of Katharina's delicious cooking!
I had a go at making this today (the curry + the banana sambal). I got a bit stuck figuring out what sort of curry powder to use, I went for garam masala powder in the end. I was worried that wouldn't be spicy enough with that though so I added a red chili in at the beginning. It seemed like it needed to be a bit sweeter for some of the spices to "come out" so I added some dried apricots and honey to it as well.
ReplyDeleteThe banana that I used for the sambal was only just on the right side of "ripe", but I think that might be how you'd want it rather than a mushy fragrant over-ripe banana. I can't imagine that being as nice.
Overall, it seemed to turn out quite nicely. I shall definitely be making it for my friends now I know what to expect from it. =)