Chicken Curry In A Hurry..

Invoking the summer gods with the Okra has worked (:)) as it is warm and sunny here finally. What a difference in last week's rainy and gloomy days and this week's sunny days!!

But the days suddenly have become hectic and cooking has taken a back seat for a moment. After a long time, studies are back on the horizon (for a test) and all the yummy recipes seem so time consuming and labour intensive. Focusing on remembering what you read is not so easy with a rusty brain, and stressing it further with a complicated meal planning is just not right.

Nevertheless food has to be cooked unless you want to brave the greasy restaurant staples on a daily basis. Blogging too has thus been quite on the slow track. So today, I am stealing some time to rescue my readers from the corny hindi video.:)

Rummaging through my cookbook, I came across a handwritten malayalam recipe tucked in my recipe drawer, called Chicken Shahi Kurma. Though daunted by the name, the recipe looked easy and It turned out to be a creamy chicken curry which fools you into thinking that it is rich and took ages to cook. No cream, no coconut milk, just good ole ground cashews to thicken it. Prep time is minimal if you use a 2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts and the cooking time is 15 minutes. Curry in a hurry indeed!

You will need:
Chicken-1 ½ lb, (700gm) boneless, cleaned and cut into small pieces.
Onions- 1 1/2 medium sized ones
Green Hot Chilies-6-8
Garlic cloves-3
Ginger-1/2 inch piece
Carrot-1 large one
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
Red Chili Powder- 1 tsp
Fennel Powder-1/4 tsp
Black Pepper Powder- 1/4 tsp
Cashew nuts-7
Whole spices: 3 cloves, 2 cardamom
Lemon juice-1tbsp
Plain Thick Curd (Yogurt)- ½ cup beaten
Curry leaves- 1 sprig
Cilantro(Coriander)- 2 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Oil-2 tbsp
Preparation:
1. Cut the chicken into 1-2 inch even sized pieces. Wash the chicken and lightly toss it with lemon juice and rinse again. Drain well onto a slotted drainer. Slice the onions finely and dice the carrots. Soak the cashew nuts in ½ cup warm water for 10 minutes. Cook it in the microwave for 1 minute to speed up the soaking. Then wet grind it with the cleaned ginger, garlic and green chilies to a very fine paste. Add water only as you need to grind.
3. Heat the oil on a medium flame in a large shallow pan, add the whole spices and the onions. Saute the onions till they are light brown. Keep stirring and add oil if the onions are sticking to the pan or browning too fast.
4. Add the ground paste, spice powders and saute well for at least a minute, or till the red chili powder gets cooked. Then add the chicken and carrots and stir well till all the excess moisture dries up. It would be good if the chicken gets sauted on all sides before getting cooked. Then lower the heat, add 1/2 cup water, salt and cook covered for about 10 minutes or till the chicken gets cooked. Keep checking and add a little bit water if it starts sticking to the pan.
5. Check to see if the chicken is cooked. Add the chopped leaves and then lower the flame to a minimum. Add the beaten yogurt and adjust salt seasoning. If the yogurt is not sour, add a tsp of lemon juice to balance the flavors.
Serve hot with pathiri, appam, bread, puttu or just paratha.