Doing It My Way

I can probably be considered a borderline “compulsive clipper”; I am constantly clipping food articles and recipes from newspapers and magazines. These get filed away in folders, and almost never see the light of day again. Rarely do I go back and read them a second time, and rarer still do I cook any of the recipes. Over the years, this haphazard collection of pieces of paper has grown into an unwieldy and rather messy pile of folders covered with dust. So, recently, whenever I have a spare moment or two, I take on the arduous task of going through some of these files, and weeding out the “obsolete” recipes.

I can’t help but notice how far my baking and cooking skills have evolved over the years; how much my gastronomic tastes and interests have changed; and how different my current perceptions and concepts of good food are from way back when. There are so many recipes which, when I first snipped them from the newspaper or magazine, I must have found especially compelling, and yet when I look at them now, I go: “huh? Why did I cut this recipe?” Or even, as I read through some of the recipes, I can now instinctively tell: “nah, this won’t taste very good”, or, “this won’t work too well”.

One of the local food columns I have a fair collection of clippings of is “Mad About Food” by Sylvia Tan, a well-known Singaporean food writer. She seems to live a charmed life; married to a suave actor, she appears to be constantly holidaying at all sorts of exotic locales around the world. She would then come home and write about her food experiences in these wonderful places and give recipes of her attempts to re-create some of her best-loved flavors from these trips.

I like her casual writing style, and she has some interesting ideas, about food, cooking and the creation of the various dishes, which I quite enjoy. All her recipes sound tasty and wonderfully straightforward – at least on paper. Until the last couple of months, I had never made any of her recipes. The very first time I tried one of them, and followed her instructions to the tee, it was an unmitigated disaster. Eighty percent of the dish was left uneaten; the family politely tried to eat at least 20% of the dish to make me feel better. When I decided to try a second recipe of hers, I wised up a little, and made some adjustments along the way, and yet the end result still could not be described as being tasty. Refusing to admit defeat yet, I took out a third recipe for a gorgeous looking Kerala Chicken Roast and decided to give that a go.

I love cashew nuts, and this recipe uses lots of them. And I have a soft spot for dishes that are full of various spices, and yet are mild in terms of chilli heat. I tend to find such creations more intriguing and tantalizing than straightforward “hot” curries; I find their flavors to be more complex and full-bodied.

Going on past experience, I knew some tweaking would be necessary; I just didn’t realize how much. In the end, the dish I created was almost nothing like the recipe she wrote about. It was almost like I had created a brand new dish based on her writings.

As with the previous two recipes, the ingredient quantities were very inaccurate and inadequate. Her recipe was for 1.5 kg of chicken; I used only 1 kg of chicken but I ended up using, for example, 5 medium tomatoes to her 2, and I still felt there were not enough tomatoes in the final dish; I ended up using 2 cups of cashew nuts to her 1 cup. I also increased, across the board, the amount of spices called for.

Another realization was that her instructions were frustratingly vague; for the most part, I had to use my own past experiences of cooking Indian curries to see me through. Even basic descriptions, such as how much ginger to use, how the ingredients should be prepped (chopped or finely minced? sliced or diced?), or how much cooking time would be required, were sketchy at best or simply left out altogether. The dish took a lot longer to cook than she had indicated; I ended up with a table of very hungry people waiting impatiently to be fed. The article also expounded at some length about not adding any water to the pot; the gravy should come entirely from the onions being cooked down. And yet, as those who often cook Indian curries will tell you, most of the gravy usually comes from tomatoes being cooked down, with only supplementary moistness coming from the onions. Even with my much increased amount of tomatoes, there just wasn’t enough moisture in the pot. It got to the point where the food was starting to stick to the bottom of the pot before the chicken was cooked. The article intoned that I should be patient; but if I had waited any longer, dinner would have been burnt. So, yes, I added a little bit of water (about ¼ cup or so), and the ingredients immediately slurped up every drop thirstily. It still produced the “dry” sauce/gravy it was supposed to produce, and it also prevented the dish from burning. The next time round, I would up the amount of tomatoes even more – to maybe 8 or even 10 tomatoes; then there would be no need to add any water. It would also give the dish a more pronounced tangy feel, which would be nice.

After a long road of much adjusting and last minute improvisations, I was so glad the final result was a stunning success. Everyone loved it! The flavors were well-balanced, with just the right touch of soft chilli heat. It was spicy, sweet, savory and a touch tangy. Very nice indeed. And yes, I would most definitely make this dish again – but only if I do it my way.

Kerala Chicken – My Way

1 kg chicken parts *
3½ generously heaped teaspoons chilli paste **
1½ generously heaped teaspoons turmeric powder
4 tablespoons light soy sauce ***

6 to 8 big purple onions
8 to 10 medium ripe tomatoes
7 cloves garlic
2” to 2½” knob fresh ginger
1½ to 2 cups raw cashews ****
1 cup raisins
1 to 2½ tablespoons light soy sauce (optional; to taste)
1½ heaping tablespoons coriander powder
1½ rounded teaspoons garam masala

* I used just the whole legs and wings of three “kampong chicken” (local free-range chicken). [The breasts and backs were saved for cooking soup with.] Keep in mind that if you are using non-kampong chicken, it will cook slightly quicker.

** I used our own home-made chilli paste; you may use instead about 4 to 5 generously heaped teaspoons of regular chilli powder.

*** I know soy sauce is not very Indian, but I tend to prefer using this to salt, as I find it gives a more complex and rounded saltiness than just salt alone. However, feel free to use salt – about 1 tablespoon worth, and adjust further to suit personal preferences.

**** I really like cashew nuts, and bunged in 2 cups of the stuff, which was just nice for me. However, a couple of my guests preferred it to be less nutty. So I’m thinking perhaps 1½ cups (or even 1 cup if you really don’t want too many nuts in the dish) would be a nice balance.

• Remove the skin and excess fat from the chicken. [I have found that this usually helps the meat absorb the seasonings; and I was gratified that the Keralan chef from whom Sylvia learnt this dish was quoted as saying the same thing; he always stripped the chicken of all skin and fat before cooking.] Rub the chilli paste (or powder), turmeric powder and soy sauce into the chicken. [Important note: if using salt, do not add to the marinade. Macerating the chicken in salt for longer than 20 minutes will result in very tough meat fibers! Add the salt just before cooking the chicken. The same concern does not apply however if using soy sauce.] Leave the chicken to marinate in the fridge for about an hour or so.

• Meanwhile, cut the onions into thin half-rounds; blanch, peel, seed and dice the tomatoes; finely chop the garlic; and peel, thinly slice then pound (using a mortar and pestle) into a paste the ginger.

• In a wok or large pan, heat about 3-4 tablespoons of oil. Sauté the garlic and ginger briefly, until fragrant.

• Add the onions and sauté until lightly softened. [It will look like there is an excessive amount of onions; but it all cooks down in the end.]

• Once the onions are slightly soft, add the tomatoes, and stir to combine. If more chilli heat is desired, 2 to 4 chopped green chillies can also be added at this point.

• Next, pop the chicken into the wok and brown.

• After the chicken has changed color, throw in the cashews; stir to combine.

• Cover the wok, turn down the heat, and cook until the chicken is tender and the onion mixture is cooked down and thickened. [My chicken took about 45-50 minutes to cook.] Stir occasionally to prevent sticking.

• Halfway through the cooking time, add the coriander powder and the raisins. If necessary, also adjust the seasonings to taste; add more salt/soy sauce or chilli paste/powder as required.

• Just before removing the chicken from the heat, stir through the garam masala.

And there you have it – Kerala-style chicken with cashew nuts. This is a very mild, dry “curry”. The “sauce” is less of a gravy and more of a thick relish of cashews, onions and raisins. The flavors are simply quite gorgeous; rich, intense and complex. The cashews are beautifully tender with a delicate bite and crunch; their richly nutty aromas and creamy texture add wonderful complexity to the dish. The raisins are soft, plump and soaked through with the flavors of the chicken and gravy, and in themselves lend a beautiful finishing note of sweetness to the sauce. The onions, all soft, caramelized, sweet and infused with the spices, are out of this world. And the combination of the tender chicken with this thick, intensely flavorful “relish” is simply finger-lickin’ good!

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I served the chicken with a stir-fried spicy veggie, a sweet, sour and spicy cucumber relish/salad and a hastily improvised coriander-raisin basmati rice.

Coriander-Raisin Basmati Rice – My Way

Freshly cooked, warm basmati rice
Big bunch of coriander (cilantro or Chinese parsley)
¾ cup dark raisins
½ to 1 carrot, finely diced

• Cook basmati rice as per normal, remembering to add a pinch of salt to the cooking water. [It is also important to soak the rice for about ½ hour before cooking, and then cook it in the soaking water. This does produce incredibly soft and fluffy rice.]

• Prepare the coriander chiffonade and set aside.

• Finely dice the carrots and very quickly sauté in a little hot oil until nicely tender. Drain well, and set aside.

• Just before the rice is assembled, quickly rinse the raisins in hot water, just to plump them up and warm them a little.

• Fluff up the rice with a fork; add the other ingredients and toss to mix.

Now, you will notice that the final rice looked rather haphazard. I had given instructions to my househelp to put together the dish while I busied myself with finalizing all the other details of the dinner party before the guests arrived. I figured it was a pretty straightforward assembly. Unfortunately, as you can see, the carrots were diced way too fine; they almost disappeared completely into the rice. I had wanted to use them to give a bright dash of color to the dish. The coriander, on the other hand, was so coarsely chopped that it was a rather dominating sight. Plus, I had intended to include some diced cucumbers in the rice too (as can be seen from the picture of the ingredients), just to give a nice refreshing crunch. However, A. totally forgot about the cucumber and it was left out. Oh well. These things happen, and they are not the end of the world. While the rice was not a very elegant sight by any means, it still tasted wonderful. The coriander gave a wonderful herby overtone to the naturally aromatic rice, while the raisins provided subtle sweetness and tied the rice and chicken together rather nicely.

I really like the idea of serving basmati rice tossed with different ingredients. The possibilities are near-endless. Perhaps kernels of fresh corn for a colorful and crunchy addition… dried apricots… finely diced black olives… lightly sautéed zucchinis… and nuts! Nuts would be absolutely wonderful. If I had not been serving the rice with a dish that already had cashews in them, I would most definitely have thrown in some toasted almond slices or slivers. What a gorgeously fragrant rice that would have made!

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It wasn’t a particularly elegant or refined looking meal, but taste-wise it was a hit! I really liked both the chicken and the rice. Both are definite keepers.

And to round off the highly satisfying meal, I served up home-made soy milk-based lychee kulfi…

These tasted very good; but everyone agreed the texture still needed some fine-tuning. Still, being the highly supportive friends that they were, everyone slurped up the kulfi quite happily!

Another evening of good food in the wonderfully enjoyable company of friends!

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All Rights Reserved.
Please contact me for permission to copy, publish, distribute or display any of the images or text contained in this article.