Not One But Three

Love curries? If you do, there are three to choose from in this post :)  I was looking at my backlog and started scratching my head (while sighing).  So, i decided to clear all three curry dishes in my backlog in this one post.  And having three to pick from is better than one if you are looking for a curry to make, surely.

Curries are popular dishes in the Asian part of the world.  It has become a dish that is very varied with the different cooking styles though underlying it is still meat/vegetables cooked in a rich concoction of spices.  My family love curries, everyone will be eagerly waiting for meal time once they catch a whiff   of it.  

In this post you will see that each of these curries have their own main ingredient lending each variation a distinctive taste of its own.

First up is this Vietnamese style spicy lemongrass chicken.  This was quite popular among bloggers some time back and I have made it a couple of times since then.  As in the name, the key ingredient for this one is the lemongrass which gives it a nice, lemony fragrance.  The use of fish sauce and palm sugar gave the curry a light savory sweet umami flavor.    

I did not follow the original to the T, mainly to make it more convenient for me.

Recipe-Vietnamese Spicy Lemongrass Chicken

Source : First spotted on Nasi Lemak Lover with original recipe from Echo's Kitchen

Ingredients

Spicy lemongrass paste

• 5 Fresh Lemongrass（use only the white part）
• 25 Dried Red Chili（replaced with 5 tbsp grounded chili paste)
• 1 1/2 inch of ginger root 
• 8 Cloves of garlic

Method

1. Slice the lemongrass and ground it together with all other ingredients into a paste.  
2. It is OK if the paste is a little coarse

Spicy Lemongrass chicken

• 1/3 cup cooking oil
• 3 tbsp Spicy Lemongrass Paste
• 500g chicken pieces/chicken breast pieces（marinate with a pinch of black pepper powder and some salt）
• 1 tsp Meat Curry powder (1 tsbp)
• 1/2 onion, chopped ( 1 big onion)
• 1 tbsp Soy sauce/Fish Sauce 
• 1/2 tsp Salt (1 tsp) 
• 1/2 tsp Sugar/Palm Sugar (shaved palm sugar to taste)

Method

1. Heat up oil in pan then fry lemongrass paste until fragant and slightly dry.
2. Remove the additional paste leaving 3 tbsp of paste in the pan.
3. Add in chicken and fry to coat with spices.
4. When grease released from the chicken is visible, stir in the chopped onion, and cook for another minute until onion soften, add in curry powder and stir well until it smells fragrant.
5. Add about 1/2 cup of water, salt, soy sauce/fish sauce and sugar.
6. Bring it to boil then simmer until chicken is cooked and until gravy is reduced to preferred thickness.

This other curry is the Green Curry which is a popular Thai cuisine.   It obviously got its name from its colour, and its color from green chillies and coriander.  Don't be deceive by the color though, it can be as fiery as its redder cousins. The aroma can be quite strong and may not be well received especially for those who dislike coriander.  If so, the amount of coriander used can be slightly lessen.

This is my first time making green curry, thought I would give it a try after drooling at the one blogger friends,  Kimmy and Phong Hong posted.

Recipe-Thai Green Curry

Source : Kimmy's Cooking Pleasure

Ingredients for Paste 

(A)

• 3 lemon grass (white part only)
• 1 inch piece ginger
• 1 tsp black peppercorns 
• 4 large green chillies
• 10 small Thai green chillies
• 4-5 cloves garlic
• 10-12 shallots
• 2 tsp grated kaffir lime zest
• 2-3 stalks fresh coriander with roots

(B) 

• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp tumeric powder
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp oil

(C)

• 800 gm chicken thighs - cut bite size pieces
• 1-2 stalks basil leaves - used the leaves only
• 5-6 kaffir lime leaves - shredded finely
• 150 ml water
• 100 ml coconut milk
• 2 medium size eggplants (cut into half then slice to 3 inch long pieces)
• 3-4 tbsp oil
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar to taste

Method

1. Blend ingredients A in a blender until fine.
2. Mix with rest of ingredients B into a paste.
3. Fry paste with about 100 ml oil until oil separates then remove additional paste to store if amount of meat is lesser than amount noted.
4. Add in chicken pieces and mix well.  Add in water after meat turns opaque.
5. Bring to a boil then add in eggplants.  Simmer until chicken is tender.  Add in coconut milk.  Cook until gravy is slightly thick.  Add seasoning to taste.
6. Stir in the basil leaves and kaffir leaves if serving immediately otherwise add the leaves when reheating the curry before serving.

And the last one here (but not the least definitely) has an Indian origin, specifically a town named Goa in Southern India.   This type of curry is known as the Vindaloo.   And it's also interesting to know that  the Vindaloo originated from a Portuguese dish known as Carne de Vinha d' Alhos,  which is a meat dish (normally pork) cooked with wine vinegar(vinha) and garlic(ahlo).  The Indians then added their signature touch to it with fiery spices after the Portuguese explorers introduced it to them when they arrived  at Indian shores way back in the 15th century.

I am not sure how authentic this recipe is, it was from a recipe booklet that came free with a tub of yogurt.  The original recipe called for chicken but i used pork ribs instead.  As the norm with complimentary recipes, one of the ingredient has to be the one from the sponsor.  Yogurt was used to marinate the meat.   It's quite an easy recipe as it suggested use of instant curry paste.  This was the first time i tried this recipe and we loved it.  The use of yogurt instead of coconut cream made it less guilty but just as flavorful.  The addition of some tomato sauce gave a slight sweetness to it too.

    

Recipe-Pork Vindaloo

Source : Nestle Yogurt Recipes Collection

Ingredients

• 500g pork ribs/chicken pieces

(A)

• 6 tbsp set yogurt
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp pounded garlic
• 1 tbsp pounded ginger
• 1 tsp grounded black pepper

(B)

• 1 sachet curry chicken paste (1/3 packet of Tean's Gourmet Chicken Curry Paste)
• 1 onion diced
• 2 sprig of curry leaves
• 1 tomato diced
• 1 tsbp tomato ketchup
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 stalk coriander leaves

Method

1. Marinade meat with ingredients from Part A for several hours  (I only had time to marinate it for 1 hour).
2. Heat oil and fry onion until soft and fragrant.
3. Add curry leaves, tomato and curry paste.  Fry until aromatic.
4. Add in marinated meat and mix well.  Add tomato ketchup and water after meat turns opaque.
5. Simmer until gravy is slightly thick and meat is cooked and tender.  (I let it simmer for 15 minutes before transferring it to the pressure cooker for 5 minutes to have a nice melt in your mouth ribs)
6. Season with salt and pepper.
7. Garnish with coriander leaves.