Some Like It Hot – Rediscovering Curry

Curry has been one of my favorites for some time now. I’ve learned to eat it since I was 18 years old, when my dad cooked in the house of my aunt in Cebu. We had stayed there for about 5 years until the time we bought our own house.

It was on a Christmas eve. We didn’t want anything traditional that year so we had other exotic food. My dad, who is really fond of spicy food, said he’d cook chicken curry. He served it with some bread and since then became a family favorite.

Lately, as I was thinking of something to cook, I remembered how we used to like dad’s curry. Let me share it with you:

Ingredients:

1 kilo Chicken, cut – all thighs, or all legs or breast, or a combination will be fine

Garlic – about 3 cloves, minced. More would be better.

Onion – 1 pc. sliced

Ginger – about the size of a thumb, julienned

1/4 cup vinegar

1 large potato or 2 medium sized ones – cut into wedges

2 cups coconut milk

curry powder

lemon grass (about 15 leaves, bundled)

1 bay leaf

Green peppers – about 6 pieces

Chilli peppers sliced thinly – about 10 pieces (optional; reduce amount if you want it less hot)

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Procedure:

Combine vinegar, chicken, black pepper, bay leaf, lemon grass onion, garlic and ginger in a pot with about 1/2 cup water. If you’re using one of those pots that make the juices of meats come out, omit the water. Cover it tightly and cook on low heat for about 15 minutes. Do not stir.

Add 1/2 cup of the coconut milk and the rest of the ingredients to the chicken. When potatoes are done, add the remaining coconut milk. Simmer for about 5 minutes.

Notes:

You may replace chicken with beef, pork, lamb, shrimp or any meat. When cooking shrimp or any crustacean, I suggest you take the crustacean off from the fire when cooking the other ingredients. Combine it again when adding the remaining coconut milk. Also, it is better to omit the vinegar for seafoods. Vinegar is better when cooking fish or chicken.

We normally like using freshly baked loaf bread with it. Just slice it and serve. Additionally, you may want to have some butter on your bread and heat it a little. It adds more flavor to the curry.

Serve the curry garnished with slices of green and red bell peppers.

How to eat it? Simple. Get a slice of bread. Break it into small pieces with your hands. Dip a piece into the curry sauce and dunk it in your mouth. Smell the aroma and, hey, watch your diet! Tee hee.

Happy eating!