Tender Chicken in a Spicy Curry and Prune Sauce

That curry powder I've been writing about in my last post was used in this succulent chicken dish. It's a mix of Persian and South East Asian cuisine that complement each other very well. Any good flavourful dish needs that extra kick in aroma by using a little teaspoon of a freshly made curry powder.

This dish has been one of my favourites and my dearest friends for a while now. The chicken melts in your mouth and the sauce is incredibly velvety that we hardly leave a drop of it in our plates.

The prunes, pre-soaked in warm water, adds such an interesting fruity flavour without overpowering the dish with sweetness. It is very easy to make as you simply mix all the ingredients together and leave it on low heat to simmer for no more than 30 minutes. Chicken thighs cook very quickly and become very tender when cooked slowly over low heat.

Recipe "au pif":
4 skinless chicken legs (includes drumstick and thighs)
2 medium sized yellow onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 tsp flour
1/3 cup red wine
10 prunes, pre-soaked in warm water for 30 minutes, water discarded
1 tsp hot chili paste
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tsp good quality curry powder (hot or mild - your preference)
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 cups boiling water
2 tbsp vegetable or olive oil
Fresh coriander to garnish

Heat oil in large deep sauce pan on medium low heat.

Brown the chicken on both sides. Put aside.

Add in the onions, garlic and stir until the onions have softened.

Add in the flour and the wine and stir for about 2 minutes. You should have a thick and velvety texture.

Add in the tomato paste, the chili paste, dijon mustard, curry powder and stir for about 1 minute.

Add in the chicken legs and pour in the boiling water, enough so that the chicken is covered just at the surface.

Add in the bay leaf and the prunes.

Lower the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Cook until the prunes are slightly softened and almost disintegrated.

Serve with brown basmati rice, cooked in water which was drizzled with a bit of oil and melted garlic butter. Garnish with fresh coriander.

Serves 4 people.

Share and enjoy.

Authentic Homemade Indian - Sri Lankan Curry Powder

The great thing about meeting people who share the same passion as you, specifically as in eating good food and cooking, is that you create this special bond because you have that common interest that means so much in your every day life. At least, this is the way I see it. I just met one of my colleague's wife who just absolutely loves cooking and happened to have become a loyal reader of my blog thanks to her hubby Mayur. Mayur is an avid photographer who takes phenomenal pictures of just about anything, without the expensive SLR. With a very simple camera, he takes fabulous shots from all different angles and great composition. I think the latter is key to great photography. And as he stumbled upon my blog via Facebook he complimented my macro shots of the dishes I prepare for QlinArt and forwarded my blog to his beloved Bhavya. Quickly, Bhavya and I became friends and started sharing stories over lunch outings and decided to keep in touch to further explore our culinary delights together. Friends like these are difficult to find, but so worth the wait.

One (and I do mean, one of the gifts... as Bhavya and Mayur are one of the few giving and generous people I have ever met)of the magnificient gifts I received from them is an authentic and wonderfully fragranced Indian curry powder made in India by Bhavya's mother. Unfortunately, I do not have the exact quantities of each ingredient, but they tell me that with practice and experience, one will reach the desired texture and taste. I have a feeling that they just want to keep the recipe as a family secret. ;)

In case you feel adventurous and are not afraid of experimenting, feel free to try it out and let me know of the outcome!

I already have a good batch which I've been using in almost all of my spicy dishes! So, I'll be experimenting later...or probably bribe them in giving out the secret recipe.

In my friends' native language it's called kharada pudi. It's a complex blend of the ingredients. Usually, they need their mothers' help to make this good of a curry powder.This one doesn't have chillis. I've been warned though to be extremely specific about quantities. This homemade curry powder is an Indian blend specifically from Mysore, a region of Karnataka in India.

The ingredients are dried in the sun for a day then dry roasted and then will be taken to the flour mill.

The ingredients are as follows :

Fenugreek seeds

Curry leaves

Raw rice

Raw turmeric

Cumin seeds

Coriander seeds

Horse gram

Asfoetida

Toor dal

Bengal gram dal

Roasted Bengal gram

Urad dal

Mustard seeds

Enjoy and have fun!

Imports : Strawberry Fragranced Fresh Japanese Green Tea

Moving to a new home can certainly throw off my schedule and blogging activity. I was pooped and got incredibly lazy that the last thing I wanted to do was to blog about anything. My stomach, however, always craved for home cooked meals. Thank goodness I had my new kitchen as a prime motivator to unpack most of my boxes labelled "kitchen stuff" and quickly put all of my kitchen gear to its proper place. It didn't take much time to figure out where to put most of my kitchen stuff, like pots and pans, spices, plates and utensils, as I had designed the kitchen myself to make it as practical as it can be with the house's original layout. Certainly, we had to break down walls to create a much more open space than it originally had. What a beautiful difference it makes. It's been just over a month now since I moved to my new house and there are still bit a of fixings to do, here and there, but nothing major. Things are starting to come together now. In a few days, I will take pictures of my now favorite hangout and will certainly post a couple of them.

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I have to admit that lately, my focus was more on getting the place organized and cozy, but from time to time, I still managed to cook some of my favourite meals but never found the right time to take any food shots. Finally, I got around to it last weekend and I am now back in action. I had to look into my boxes for my camera, my tri-pod and the rest of the props.

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As a first post since my moving, I'd like to share with you my favourite evening tea : Japanese green tea with a tinge of strawberry fragrance. This tea was given to me as a gift from a friend who had spent 3 weeks in Japan to visit her family. As a little anecdote, I kept bugging her to bring back a Japanese dessert specialty called Dai-fuku, which I fell in love with a few years back when I was in Tokyo. They're fresh and very moist rice-flour cakes stuffed with red beans. When made right, they're incredibly savoury. In Montreal, they're almost impossible to find them this fresh, only frozen in popular Asian grocery stores. So, when she came back from her trip, my body language in welcoming her back was ridiculously funny as if I were ready to jump on the Dai-fuku she'd bring back from Japan and have absolutely no care in the world to hear about her experience and her trip. Obviously, I was very happy to see her but I was also dying to have my teeth sunk into a delicious Japanese sweet treat. Unfortunately, she didn't have any due to her tight schedule in visiting family and friends. However, she had brought back this fantastic green tea with strawberry flavour.

For years I've been drinking green tea from tea bags but ever since I tasted tea from fresh green tea leaves, I can't go back to the bags. I would pay more money to enjoy an evening tea, made from fresh leaves, after a nice and hearty dinner. It's a well known remedy for digestion problems and a great antioxidant. That, and it's also great with a mouth-watering Dai-fuku.

It can also be purchased in local Asian grocery stores. Any other fragranced green teas can also be found in specialty stores but they're harder to find.

Next stop, I'll be visiting a local Japanese bakery, recently discovered by that same friend who went to Japan. It is located in a popular district of Montreal and specializing in Japanese sweets. I will certainly write and most probably rave about it, as I've already tasted a few samples shared with my friend. Now, that is a great foodie friend!