The good thing about having your own cooking blog is that you can quickly refer to certain recipes without having to flip to through your notes, cookbooks or surf the internet just to find that recipe. Having said that, my little family has finally had enough of me cooking the same old dishes from my blog, delicious as they may be… getting BORING, BORING, BORING!
Now cooking for my household isn’t that easy too… hubby likes spicy food, is a sauce person, doesn’t quite like fish with bones or crab (too much work to eat), is not a vegetable or soup person, etc. His loves meat and is a difficult man to cook for. Whereas Little One & I are the opposite, we like soup, vegetables, fish etc, however Little One can be equally difficult to cook for too. She loves pasta and rice. You would think ‘oh that’s easy then, just cook any meal that has pasta or rice.’ Wrong! Mademoiselle has her days – good days, she eats everything presented to her, difficult days (which is often the case now) – she picks out everything off her rice or pasta and simply happily just eat plain rice or pasta with cheese much to my chagrin. And getting her to eat meat is another story – it’s like serving her poison. She shows a clear sign she isn’t a meat person since she was a baby.
You must be wondering how do we ever come to a compromise on our palate – well, apparently hubby and baby share a common love for PIZZA! Any mention of that send both of them into a joyful pizza dance, but not so for me. Since it’s 2 vs 1 – I’m out voted. LOL! Both love cakes and cookies, a true blessing for me since I love to bake. I have to say in regards to bakeries, she’s a true Daddy’s girl for she has the same possessiveness about her sweets just like her papa. Just this evening, she told everyone at the table (grandparents included) not to touch her cake as it is only reserves for little ones like her, and if any adults eat it, it will make them sick to their stomach. LOL!
So what binds hubby and I? Love for spices and spiciness. Little One has been prepared and trained for it since the day she entered our lives. And apparently she loves it too for I had 9 months of pure bliss savouring all sorts of spicy food. Once she started on solids, now and then we sneaked some spicy food on her plate without her knowledge. From experience, we found that once she knows it is spicy, she won’t touch it or she will spit it out even though it is not that spicy. However there are times when she sees us tugging in our spicy food with such sheer delight that rouse her curiosity and she asks for bite, just like tonight’s dinner. At first she was hesitant, but encouraged and coaxed by me, she gave it a try. Much to her own surprise and ours, she loved it and even asked for some on her rice. Now that’s my true little ninja spirit.
Hot Chicken Curry
(taken from Indian – Shehzad Husain & Rafi Fernandez)
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp corn oil
- ¼ tsp fenugreek seeds
- ¼ tsp onion seeds
- 2 medium onions (chopped)
- ½ tsp garlic pulp
- ½ tsp ginger pulp
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 400 g (14 oz) canned tomatoes
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 350 g chicken meat (cubed)
- 2 tbsp fresh coriander/cilantro (chopped)
- 3 fresh green chilli (cut into chunks), I only used 1.
- ½ red bell pepper (cut into chunks)
- ½ green bell pepper (cut into chunks)
Directions
- Heat oil in a medium wok, fry the fenugreek and onion seeds until they turn a bit darker.
- Add the chopped onions, garlic and ginger and stir-fry for about 5 minutes until onions turn golden brown. Lower heat to very low.
- In the meantime, mix the ground coriander, chili powder, salt, tomatoes & lemon juice together in a big bowl.
- Pour this mixture into the wok and turn the heat to medium. Stir-fry for about 3 minutes.
- Add the chicken pieces and stir-fry for 5 – 7 minutes.
- Add the fresh coriander (cilantro), green chilies, red and green bell peppers.
- Lower the heat and let it simmer for about 10 minutes covered or until bell peppers and chicken are cooked.
- Serve hot with plain Basmati rice or chapatis.
The Verdict
This is not a “curry” in the sense that most western people think of it: there’s no curry powder inside and it doesn’t have the characteristic flavor. This is however a very aromatic and spicy dish and is definitely one of my favorite Indian recipe. It’s also quite healthy as you can see from the ingredients – low fat and veggies but definitely not bland 🙂. Everyone loves it, especially hubby who isn’t a vegetable person.
Notes
I used normal vegetable oil and omitted onion seeds in above recipe as I couldn’t find it anywhere in town. And also I only put 1 green chili, it’s already a bit spicy so if you can’t take spiciness, it’s better to totally leave out the green chilies.
