Chicken Curry- in a hurry

I've been feeling under the weather lately, but not too ill to cook. I drank some hot whiskey as recommended from a great friend, and  felt well and good to cook afterwards.


I planned this meal Sunday. I need quick and delicious on the weekday and Chicken Curry came to mind. Full of flavors, fast, filling and cheap! I keep loads of whole spices in my pantry, so I didn't have to purchase much for this meal. Remember, when purchasing ground spices, buy only what you use frequently or else the spices will lose their true taste. If you're lucky enough to have a spice store in you area, then just buy what you need or just buy small jars if you don't. McCormick has small jars of spices.


I used a recipe from Food Network's Kitchens, but added my own tastes to it of course. Here's the original recipe Food Network's Kitchens Chicken Curry Recipe

Ingredients

• 5 cloves garlic
• One 3-inch chunk peeled, fresh ginger
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 heaping teaspoon whole cloves
• 10 green cardamom pods
• 8 whole allspice
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 2 teaspoons Madras-style curry powder
• 2 red chiles , or more to taste
• 3 pounds skinless, bone-in chicken thighs 
• 1/2 cup pureed tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cups cold water
• 1/2 cup coconut milk

Directions

In a small food processor (mini-chopper), combine the garlic and ginger and puree to a paste.

In a small skillet, toast on medium the cardamom, allspice, and cloves until fragrant. Then put into a mortar and pestle pounded to the texture you prefer (or coffee/grinder or put into a plastic bag and bang until spices are broken down).

Heat the oil in a stew pot or Dutch Oven over medium-high heat. Add the grounded cloves, cardamom, allspice, cinnamon stick, and bay leaf and cook, stirring constantly, until dark and fragrant and the cinnamon stick unfurls, about 30 seconds. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic-ginger paste, curry powder, and jalapeno and cook, stirring, until lightly browned and fragrant, about 1 minute.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Add the tomato puree and chicken and cook, stirring, until the oil begin to separate and there is a distinctive crackling sound as the ingredients "re-fry" in the oil, about 6 minutes. Continue to cook, stirring, until the chicken is lightly browned, about 7 minutes more.

Add the water and coconut milk and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to maintain a simmer, cover, and stew for 15 minutes. Uncover and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through and tender and the liquid thickens into a sauce, about 30 minutes more. Transfer chicken curry to a serving bowl and nom it all up!

I wasn't feeling well enough to make a mango chutney and I forgot to ask my husband to buy basmati rice as when I was cooking I saw that we were missing some. So I just boiled up some Uncle Ben Rice and called it a day. I highly recommend you use basmati rice, but use whatever rice you have :) I also love to make naan bread with curries, but again, only had the energy for this! Look for a future blog post with chutney and naan bread recipes!!

Wordless Wednesday- My Sleepy Town

Took a walk today with just me and my 1 year-old around  my town. Though I felt a bit under the weather, I thought a nice walk is a great to sweat the cold away! There's so much more about my sleepy town to discover, and will share whenever I can! Here's some photos from the walk today


One of many fruit stands. Red currants looking nice.

There's no shortage of bakeries here


 Someone's in denial

 mmm


Gorgeous Flowers




Love the butchers and produce markets. Here's 2 of my favorites
Butchers


Organic Produce



My Fave Bakery!


The only way to travel in the summer

Cherry-Vanilla Smoothie

Have I expressed how much I love Ellie Krieger? This woman is amazing. If you haven't picked up her cookbooks, watched her on television or caught her in FineCooking, you're missing out my friends!! I am telling you, her recipes will lead to the light and feeling much lighter! And you'll want to try out more healthier alternatives to old favorites.

So, lately I've been having crazy Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Coca Cola cravings. I was off the stuff for a good 6 months, but stress has led me down the wrong path. Luckily I am not drinking no where as many cokes as I drank in the past. From September on to December last year, I was drinking at least 40oz of Coca Cola....A DAY! I had horrible headaches and slept even worse. Then reading some of Ellie's books I found some awesome smoothie recipes. Killed my sweet soda cravings and I actually craved water instead! One of my favorite smoothies is her Cherry-Vanilla Smoothie. So yummy, quick and super delicious. I drank these once every other drinks last winter. And it's can be easily changed to your taste! Give this a shot. It makes a great  breakfast or midnight snack. I just made one at 10:30pm!  

Cherry Vanilla Smoothie

2 cups pitted sweet cherries (unsweetened), frozen

1 cup nonfat or lowfat vanilla yogurt

2 teaspoonshoney

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup ice

Combine ingredients in a blender and blend on high until smooth.

From Ellie Krieger's "So Easy" 2009.

Naughty Sunday Dinner: Sweet Chili Root Beer Ribs with Grilled Corn with Spiced Butter

I love ribs. They're cheap and yummy to eat. My children love them some pork, so I was sure this would be a hit! It's not so healthy, but hey Sunday is a cheat on healthy food week. Though healthy cooking/eating is just as wonderful as the naughty stuff!

I got the recipe from one of my favorite cookery magazines, FineCooking. The original recipe called for the ribs to be baby back ribs and grilled. Living in Germany, finding baby back ribs is a task!! We could have bought the frozen stuff, but this was last minute, so we went with spare ribs. Also the original recipe called for a sauce called kecap manis. The commissary does not stock that (not surprisingly) and as it was Sunday, all German shops are closed so I had to come up with my own replacement. Kecap  Manis is a sweet thick Indonesian soy sauce made with palm sugar, galangal, anise, garlic, and among other ingredients (FineCooking, pg 88, June/July 2010 issue). I am sure you stateside dwellers will have no problem finding this. I, living in Germany may have to tour the Asian Shops in my city! Lastly we roasted the ribs as our grill in on its last leg and slow cooking ribs for 2 hours would not be the greatest idea! We felt our grill could only handle grilling the corn.

 Also the butter for the corn was supposed to be flavored using tasso- a smoked cajun pork, bit I just omitted the tasso ham altogether. Again, it's something else I am sure is difficult to find here. If you want to use meat to flavor the butter, and can not find tasso, look for any smoked ham.

So here is my version of the recipe. I hope you all enjoy!

Sweet Chili Garlic Root Beer Spare Ribs
Adapted from FineCooking
1 rack of Spare ribs, silverskin removed***
Kosher salt
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbs. brown sugar
1/4 cup root beer
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup chili garlic sauce
2 Tbs. hot chili sauce also known as sriaicha


Let the ribs sit at room temperature for about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 300F/150C

Sprinkle the meat side of the ribs with 2 tsp. salt. Arrange the ribs bone side down on a shallow roasting tray. Roast ribs about 2 hours. To test if they’re done, insert a knife into the rib meat—if it slides out without pulling at the meat, they’re ready. The meat should be tender but not falling off the bone.

Increase the temperature of the indirect grill fire to 350°F. In a medium bowl, mix the brown sugar, root beer, honey and both chili sauces. Set aside 1/2 cup of the sauce for serving. Brush the ribs on all sides with the remaining sauce. Cover rack with foil, then return the ribs to the oven. Cook another 30 minutes tuning once.

Let the ribs rest, tented with foil, for about 10 minutes before cutting and serving with the reserved sauce for dipping or for drizzling over the ribs.




Grilled Corn with Spiced Butter
2 oz. (4 Tbs.) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. sweet pimentón (smoked paprika)
1/2 tsp. honey
1/4 tsp. ground mace
1/4 tsp. dried sage
1/8 tsp. cayenne
1/8 tsp. dried thyme
2 medium ears corn, shucked
Kosher salt


In a small bowl, mix the butter, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, honey, mace, sage, cayenne, and thyme until well combined. (The tasso butter can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks or frozen for up to 2 months.) 

Prepare a gas or charcoal grill fire for direct cooking over medium (450°F) heat. Grill the corn, turning occasionally, until tender and browned in spots, about 10 minutes. (The corn can be grilled 1 day ahead.)

Cut the corn kernels from the cobs. In a 12-inch skillet over medium heat, melt 2 Tbs. of the tasso butter. Add the corn and toss until heated through, 2 to 3 minutes. Season to taste with salt. Transfer to a warm serving bowl, garnish with a dollop of the remaining butter, and serve immediately.


****SILVERSKIN REMOVAL
On the boneside, there's a thin white membrane on the ribs. it keep flavors from penetrating and the ribs from getting to their optimum moistyness yes, I said moistyness! So with a paper towel, pull that baby off. It's easy. If you need help, here's a link showing you how: http://www.finecooking.com/item/16067/how-to-remove-silverskin-from-ribs