With the final days of winter upon us, keep warm with two super simple curry recipes brought to you by CW food writer Libby Kimber.
Light butter chicken
Image and text from The Healthy Slow Cooker by Ross Dobson, photography by Jeremy Simons. Murdoch Books, RRP $35.
Serves: 4
Prep: 20 mins
Cook: 4.25 hrs
- 750g chicken thigh fillets
- 1 brown onion, chopped
- 3cm piece ginger, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 large green chilli, seeded and chopped
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp butter
- ½ tsp chilli powder
- 1 Tbsp ground cumin
- 1 Tbsp ground coriander
- 1 Tbsp garam masala
- 1 Tbsp sweet paprika
- 5 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tsp chicken stock powder
- 400g can crushed tomatoes
- 1 Tbsp cornflour
- 1 cup (260g) natural yoghurt
To serve
- Brown basmati rice
- Handful roughly chopped coriander
- Lemon wedges
Heat your slow cooker to high.
Trim off all the fat from the chicken thighs and discard. Cut each thigh in half, or into thirds if large, bearing in mind that they will shrink as they cook. Refrigerate until needed.
Put the onion, ginger, garlic and chilli into a food processor and process until you have a chunky paste.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the paste and cook for 8–10 minutes, until the liquid from the onion has evaporated and the paste looks dry. Stir through the butter and cook for a minute until the butter has melted. Stir in the chilli powder, cumin, coriander, garam masala, paprika and cardamom pods. Add 2 tablespoons cold water and stir to incorporate any stuck-on bits. Stir in the tomato paste and stock powder, then scrape the contents of the frying pan into the bowl of the slow cooker. Add the crushed tomatoes, cornflour, yoghurt and chicken. Give everything a good stir, nudging the chicken into the sauce, then cover and cook for 2 hours.
Give it a stir, then quickly cover again to avoid losing too much heat. Cook for a further 2 hours, until the chicken is very tender and the sauce is thick.
Serve the butter chicken on brown basmati rice, garnished with chopped coriander and with lemon wedges on the side.
Beef and green pea curry
Recipe by Mitsubishi Electric ambassador, Ed Halmagyi.
Serves: 4
- 1.2kg chuck beef, sliced
- 1 Tbsp ghee
- 2 brown onions, finely diced
- 12 cloves garlic, minced
- 10cm piece ginger, cut into fine batons
- 1 Tbsp garam masala
- 24 curry leaves
- 2 long red chillies, seeded and finely diced
- 1 Tbsp fish sauce
- 500ml coconut milk
- 1L beef stock
- 1 cup green split peas, rinsed
Fry the beef in ghee in a large saucepan over a moderate heat for 5 minutes, until browned, then set aside.
Sauté the onion, garlic and ginger in the saucepan for 5 minutes, then stir in the garam masala, curry leaves and chillies. Pour in the fish sauce, coconut milk and stock, then return the beef. Simmer for 1½ hours, add the peas, then cook for a further 1 hour until the beef is tender.
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