Sandra's Cape Malay Curry

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It's a real pleasure to introduce my first guest-writer!
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!

Sweet Potato Curry

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I don't know about you, but what I really don't like about winter is how I'm always cold.
So this weekend, when Arti was running around in flip-flops, I was wearing a winter coat and was already regretting not having taken a hat during the 5 minute walk to the supermarket.
Today's recipe is a serious winter-warmer. It warms you from the inside and the cheerful colour makes you think of warmer days. It was born on a day that I couldn't find any coconut milk in town so yes, this is anything but authentic but it does a rather good job when your cupboards are looking a bit bleak.

Sweet Potato Curry
2 Sweet Potatoes peeled and chopped into 1 inch chunks
1 small Onion
2 cloves Garlic
1 handfull Coriander Leaves
1 generous handfull Shredded Coconut (the unsweetened kind...just a suggestion, if you live in a place where you can only get desiccated coconut, add a bit more water later on)
2-3 tsp Red Curry Paste
1 Red Pepper (if you feel like some extra veg)
100g Plain Yoghurt
Olive Oil
Potentially some stock cubes, most likely some salt and pepper

Dice the onion and chop the garlic.
Heat some olive oil in a pan, add the onion and give it a minute or so before you add the garlic. Once the garlic is making your kitchen all smelly and gorgeous, add the curry paste and give it some time to get all fragrant as well.
Now add the sweet potatoes (if you're adding peppers I'd probably add them at this stage).
Add enough water and a stock cube (or if you're too cool for that, add some stock) to cover the veg.
Stir in the shredded coconut.
Cover and simmer until the sweet potatoes are done.
Turn off the heat, then chop the coriander leaves and add them to the curry.
Stir some of the yoghurt into the curry (what the yoghurt is supposed to do is add some creaminess to the curry so see how it goes you might not need all of it, you might need more).
Enjoy with some naan (we found some in the freezer that day, whoop whoo :) ) and how about some proper lime and soda to complete the mental image...