Chicken and Vegetable Curry –

Made by Jodie

I Made This is a Fresh Cooking Project feature each month. This month’s I Made This is with another of my lovely readers, Jodie – we made a family friendly curry.

I Made This is a session where the reader chooses the recipe chosen to make.   You can tell your friends “I Made This”.

 

Why Curry?

Jodie chose to make a curry as it is something that she has not made before. Like many of us, she grew up eating meat and three vegetables for dinner. Jodie is married and has a 4 year old son and young twin girls. Dinners need to be quick to make, or able to made in stages. This recipe lends itself well to that. It contains no chilli so is suitable for children. The flavors are fresh and creamy.

It went through testing on 3 families (9 children) before writing this. On the first test 4 children ate it happily with one going back for seconds! On the second test my 4 year old ate it and loved it again, and my 1 one year old ate some of it. Jodie’s children didn’t eat it, but it was their first time tasting coconut milk and the flavors of the spices and herbs.  The result is 6/9 ate the curry happily.

Top Tips for making this curry:

• Use vegetables that your children like to eat. In Jodie’s home her husband dislikes pumpkin and the girls are not fans of beans. The vegetables in the recipe below suits her family.
• When I make this recipe I use capsicum, beans and pumpkin. Adjust the vegetables to suit your family.
• If your children are not used to eating coconut milk or cream serve them only a small amount of the juice
• When cooking this meal add the basil and lime juice at the end of the cooking process
• The base of the curry (eg: before adding the vegetables and meat) can be made in advance
• Leave out the meat for a lovely vegetarian meal
• Use fresh herbs, not dried (except the curry leaves-which could be fresh if available to you)
• If using pumpkin in your recipe – dice it into 2-3cm cubes and cook it in the oven for 20 minutes while  you prepare the other ingredients. It will complete cooking when simmering in the curry.

 

• Preparation Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Serves: 4 adults

Family Friendly Curry Recipe:

Ingredients:

Curry Paste

• 3 small fresh lemongrass sticks (or 1 from the store) – remove the first couple of outer layers and chop
• 3 kaffir lime leaves- torn
• 3 cloves of garlic – peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 cm knob of fresh ginger – peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon dried curry leaves

Curry:

• 1 chicken breast chopped
• 1/2 tablespoon oil
• 2 tablespoons of paste (above)
• 2 tins coconut milk or cream (2 x 400 ml each)
• 1/2 piece of palm sugar chopped finely (just under 1 tablespoon)
• 1/2 tablespoon of tamarind puree
• 2 medium sized zucchini peeled and sliced into sticks
• 2 small carrots – peeled and sliced into sticks
• 1 capsicum – sliced into sticks
• large handful of fresh basil leaves
• Juice of 1 lime
• Rice to serve plus extra fresh basil leaves

 

Steps:

To make the Curry Paste:

Add the ingredients to a mortar and pestle and pound until a paste is formed

 

To Make the Curry:

1. Add a drizzle of olive oil to a pan and brown (part cook) the chicken
2. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside
3. Add 2 tablespoons of the curry paste to a pan with the oil
4. Cook for a few minutes until fragrant
5. Add the cans of coconut cream (or milk) to the pan and stir bringing to a simmer
6. Add the chopped palm sugar and the tamarind puree and stir until the sugar dissolves totally
7. Add the vegetables to the coconut cream in the pan and cook on simmer for 5 minutes
8. Add the chicken into the pan and cook for a further 3 minutes, stirring occasionally
9. Add the torn basil leaves after the 3 minutes and bit by bit (tasting for the right balance)add as much of the lime juice as you like
10. Simmer for a couple more minutes and remove from the heat to serve
11. Serve with rice