Garlic chili chicken masala

Minder

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

One thing I'm going to have to try and recreate is a dish our favourite indian used to do in Woking - garlic chili chicken masala. It was a firey, piquant dish, garlicky and spicy with whole green chilis, a tomato base and the fragrance of fresh coriander stirred through before serving. It rawked.

Obviously going to be difficult to suggest a recipe without a reference point, but I thought your Takeaway deserved a thread on it's own. Maybe other posters could offer suggestions.

As you describe the dish, I imagine a bright, fresh, quick curry, cooked to order rather than sitting in a vat in the kitchen. I would start with a curry paste - the ingredients below will make a lively paste.

Balti Masala Spice Mix

4 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 tablespoons cumin seeds white
2 each cassia bark 2 inch pieces
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
2 teaspoons mustard seeds, black
4 each cloves, whole
1/2 teaspoon onion seeds wild
1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 teaspoon fenugreek dried leaves
10 each curry leaves dried
1 teaspoon cardamom seeds green
1/2 teaspoon loveage seeds

To make a paste

6 ounces vinegar spiced or plain
6 ounces vegetable oil sunflower or peanut oil

Roast the whole seeds, grind and mix with the vinegar and enough water to make a stiff paste. Heat the oil in a wok and add the paste. Cook on a low heat until the oil starts to float on the top. Store in a jar in the fridge.

For the Garlic chili chicken masala

Curry sauce base -

2 or 3 onions, 6 garlic cloves, thumb size piece of ginger. Get it all cooking gently until soft, then blitz until smooth.

For four people

8 chicken thighs or 5 breasts
1 lb fresh tomatoes (skinned & seeded)
1 batch curry sauce base
4 cloves garlic chopped
6 to 10 fresh green chillies
2 tbsp curry paste
Large handful of chopped fresh coriander
Not so large handful of chopped mint

Splash of oil in a wok
Fry the chicken pieces to get a bit of colour.
Add the curry paste a cook for a bit
Add the sauce base and the tomatoes
Cook down on a rapid heat - if it gets too thick, add a drop of water
After 10 minutes the chicken should be cooked, add the chillies and cook for another 5 minutes
Finish with the coriander, season with salt, then gradually add the mint, tasting as you go.

It should be spicy, pungent, hot and fresh.

The Sweeper

Sounds good. Cassia bark may be a bit of a tall order to find - I feel a trek to the Victoria Market coming on...

Minder

I tried the recipe last night. The fresh tomatoes made the sauce grainy, not ripe enough. I had a paste from The Curry Club that was not the recipe above. Not enough aromatics. The chicken breast was fine but could have been added to the sauce raw. Thighs would make a better curry if fried off first.

Tasty though.

Sparks

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

Sounds good. Cassia bark may be a bit of a tall order to find - I feel a trek to the Victoria Market coming on...

Just buy a cinnamon stick in tesco. It'll taste the same as cassia. (Hell, if this was North America, it would be cassia - true cinnamon is hard to get over there).

Minder

Cassia or cinamon? I read in a curry book last night that the bay leaves used in curries in india actually come from a cinamon tree - not a bay as we would know it. Then just to confuse things, the writer says he will refer to them as Cassia leaves in the recipes? Huh???

The Sweeper

[tra la la]You say potayto, I say potatto, you say tomayto, I say...[/tra la la]

Minder

I tried the balti masala paste at the weekend. Too much vinegar, too wet. Reduce the quantity to 4 fluid ounces to make the paste.

The Sweeper

I've sent a friend of mine back in Woking on a mission to the said curry restaurant to try and get their recipe for me. If he doesn't, I'm going to try phoning them. We'll see how far I get, but I can only try. (Hell we used to be in there all the bloody time.)

It'll be good time to try it out soon, as my chili plants are plumping up with wicked little green finger chilis...

Ishindar

hi, ive been cooking indian many years and am well down the road of discovery.

most indian resturants make their curries use a "curry base" and then add to the base to make each individual curries.
ive done a lota experimentaion and research into bases and here is a great one. Note, i used to make my own curry masala but MDH make a really good one with great balance.

medium curry base
==============
1 star anaise
1 stick cassia bark
3 onions finely chopped
1tbs garlic paste
1tbs ginger paste
salt
1tsp turmeric
2tsp deggi mirch (MDH, high quality indian brand of chilli powder)
3 chopped tomatoes
60g beaten yoghurt,(optional)
15g of curry masala (again, MDH brand curry masala spice mix)
1 tsp ground mace
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tbs of garam masala
1tbs fenugreek leaves.

heat the pan and add a generous amount of oil
add the cassia bark and star anaise.
add onions and fry until they start to brown at the edges
then add ginger & garlic paste and salt and continue to cook until golden brown.
Add the tomatoes and a 150ml of water
add deggi mirch, curry masala, mace, cardamom, turmeric.
mash down the tomatoes with a potatoe masher.
Bring to the boil and simmer until the spices release their oils, (20mins).
add water to adjust to the required consistancy when required.
Remove the star anaise and cassia bark
Blend the mixture in a food processor until u get a smooth sauce.
put the sauce back in the pan heat & add your garam masala & fenugreek leaves.

you should now have about 4-6 servings of medium curry base which can be used to make the the different medium to hot curries u like.

for a garlic chili masala i would fry a tablespoon of garlic paste.
add 2 green finger chilis
add a portion of curry base.
Add 2tbs of lemon juice.
meat of your choice. (The meat is usually marinated previously)
before serving add 1tsp kewra water(for that special indian smell)

enjoy