Pineapple & Coconut Chicken Curry

For absolutely ages - and I do mean ages - hubby has been asking for a "fruity, mild, creamy, Caribbean type curry".  However, I've really only just begun to get my head around Indian curries, without trying to expand my repertoire to the Caribbean!  However, I've been reading, watching, thinking and reading a bit more, to absorb all that is encapsulated within a "Caribbean type" curry.

I've had a few false starts, too.  Curries that started off with every intention of going Caribbean, but wound up being resolutely Indian.  I've had one or two "nearlies", in that they have been too heavy and a little bit cloying (forget using cream then!) and too rough in the spicing (leave out the ginger and cayenne), but nearly there.

Last night, however, I hit the nail right on the head.  Now please don't - for a millisecond - think that this is an "authentic" Caribbean curry, because I wouldn't know one of those if it jumped up and bit me on the nose.  No, this is "our idea of what a Caribbean curry would be like" - so is quite probably very different.

However, if you forget where I was trying to go with it and just take it on face value as "a curry", it was blinking marvellous.

Friends have suggested that maybe it has a flavour of Thailand, or Singapore.  Well, I'm sure it probably does, as in the course of my reading and absorbing, I visited both those destinations and no doubt tucked some of their methods and/or flavourings under my wing.

I was jolly pleased with it, anyway.  You know you are on the right track, when you take that first taste of the very young sauce and your immediate reaction is "Mmmmmmn!".  Oh it tasted good - and very right - and very promising.

I had originally intended to make this curry with some of the Barcut Farms rose veal - and I'm quite sure it would be fantastic with that.  I shall do a slow cooker version that would be perfect for the rose veal, now that I've had such success with the chicken.  If only I could remember to take the meat out of the freezer the night before, so that it has defrosted by the time it comes to putting it in the slow cooker.  But I didn't - and so off we went to Spring Fields butchers for some chicken, which doesn't take anything like as long to cook.  D'oh!  Nothing lost, however, as the chicken curry was a singular triumph.

I'd had plenty of time to formulate a plan for the chicken version, so a sudden change of protein type wasn't a problem at all.  For once, I allowed plenty of time to do all the cutting, chopping and peeling - particularly as I also had a plan for a fruit salad, to use up the leftover pineapple.  (A few leftover strawberries and a well ripened papaya worked beautifully).

I do so much prefer to cook knowing I've got time in hand.  I hate the frenzied, Masterchef style of cooking where an imaginary Greg Wallace is yelling "only 45 minutes to go!" in "you should be panicking now!" tones in my head.  I much prefer the Two Fat Ladies' style of "I'll just be peeling and chopping this onion, whilst regaling the assembled throng with a tale of breakfast at the Thruppington-Smythes, back in 1944" cooking.  Much less stressful - and I'm quite sure that the end result is better for it, too.

So, with Clarissa Dickson-Wright (bless her) controlling my knife skills, I had a happy hour or so at the chopping board, before moving to the cooker and adopting a more Jennifer Paterson approach.  Woe betide any onion chunk that decided to become airborne and avoid my frying pan.  One stern look soon took the wind out of its sails and everything was peace and tranquillity again.

I love cooking curries.  You just sit there and add stuff to your frying pan in order and lo and behold, a curry appears.  Magic.

There is also magic to be had when cooking with coconut milk, I think.  It's the transformation that occurs.  When you open the tin you are confronted with a supposedly impenetrable wall of thick white goo yet, suddenly, there comes a flood of sweet coconutty water.  After five minutes' stirring in the pan, you suddenly realise that the contents of the tin seem to have doubled in size and turned to - albeit delicious - pond water.  Minutes spent diligently and gently reducing said pond water, turns it into a delicious sauce - however, beware turning your back on it, or within seconds it will dry out, the fat will separate and you'll wonder what the heck happened and where did the magic go.  Fickle, that's what it is.  Fickle coconut milk!

Ahem.  So anyway - back to the job at hand - if you're not moved to poetry by pineapple, I am quite sure you could substitute mango without seriously damaging the balance of the dish.  However, the two ingredients that are essential to the balance, are the sweet potato and the green pepper.  You just have to have sweet potato, even if you hate the stuff and throw it away before you eat, or the sweetness balance just won't be right.  Likewise, with the green pepper, it lends a savouriness to the balance that would be utterly lost without it.  So there.  Don't say you weren't warned.

A perfect curry for the hot weather, this one will fill you full of Caribbean sunshine without weighing down your hammock.  Lovely!  Chin chin! 

PINEAPPLE & COCONUT CHICKEN CURRY     Serves 3-4

Ingredients :

2 tbsp sunflower oil
1 large onion, half chopped fine, half left chunky
a pinch of sea salt
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 small sweet potato, cut into 1cm dice
4 chestnut mushrooms, quartered
1 green pepper, cut into 1cm dice
3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp Garam Masala, divided into two
2 tsp mild curry paste
200ml chicken stock
400ml coconut milk
200g fresh pineapple cut into 1cm dice
2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped and divided into two
1 tbsp coconut powder (optional).

Method :

1.  Heat the sunflower oil in a deep frying pan or wok.  Add all the onion and a pinch of sea salt and gently fry until the smaller pieces are golden brown and the larger pieces transparent.  This should take around 10-15 minutes.

2.  Add the garlic, sweet potato, mushrooms and green pepper and continue to fry until the mushrooms are beginning to soften.

3.   Move the vegetables to the outside of the pan and add the chicken to the centre.  Increase the heat slightly and fry the chicken until most sides of each chunk are whitened.  The vegetables will mix in as you turn and fry the chicken.

4.  Add the ground coriander, cumin, 1 tsp Garam Masala and the curry paste.  Stir to combine.

5.  Add the chicken stock and stir to combine.  Bring to a gentle boil, cover the pan and cook for 10 minutes or so, or until the sweet potato is softened but not cooked through.

6.  Remove the lid and, stirring occasionally, allow the liquid to reduce by two thirds.

7.  Add the coconut milk and stir to combine.

8.  Add the pineapple, half the fresh coriander and the coconut powder (if using it).  Bring to a gentle boil, but stir gently and more regularly to avoid the mixture catching on the pan.  Continue to cook while the sauce reduces, until it reaches your preferred consistency.

9.  Add the remainder of the fresh coriander and the last tsp of Garam Masala.  Stir through and serve on fluffy Basmati rice, with naan bread for dipping.

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Meal planning the week away ..

Right then!  Enough of this being distracted by birthdays and Christmas - let's get back to the important job of telling you all what we're due to be eating this week.

Ahem!  Pay attention at the back!

I have to tell you, though, that I don't have a great deal of confidence in this week's meals turning out how I've planned them - especially as the first one, Tuesday, has already gone awry owing to the exhausting process that is Christmas shopping.

Anyway, here's what I hope we'll be having this week :

Mon : was to be Pear, chestnut & stilton risotto, but was pizza

Wed : Pork in cider with carrot & swede mash, broccoli & peas

Thur : Chilli beans with chorizo and ciabatta

Fri : Caribbean Curry and rice

Sat : Lamb & Apricot Stew with Green Couscous

Sun : Salmon Filo Parcels with carrots, broccoli, peas & parsley sauce

Mon : Corned beef pie, red cabbage & apple with peas.

I was really quite disappointed not to be having the pear, chestnut & stilton risotto last night.  However, because poor hubby (the Champion Risotto Maker) had been out trawling the doom-laden shops of Poole - doing his Christmas shopping - the risotto was just one step too far.  I don't blame him, as I used to find Christmas shopping exhausting in the extreme.  All that looking at stuff, I always came home feeling as though I'd bought far more than I actually had.  Then, when you look at what you've brought home, you feel vaguely disappointed.  Online shopping rules, so far as I'm concerned.  Even though I can't now walk around the shops, I don't really think I would do it now anyway.  To buy online and have stuff delivered to your door seems a very civilised way of going about it.

So, I'm looking forward to tonight's dinner of Pork in cider sauce.  I'm using a different cider, as we couldn't get any of the usual type from Asda.  I don't suppose it will be all that different, but if it is, hopefully it will be for the better.  Also, because I'm keeping off of carbohydrates, we'll be having carrot & swede mash instead of mashed potato.  Don't tell son & heir, or he might cry.  He's definitely inherited my love for the humble spud!

Thursday's Chilli beans with Chorizo is one of Antony Worrall Thompson's slow cooker recipes.  Son & heir has the day off school that day (teacher training), so it'll be nice to get the dinner organised early and then just make some ciabatta toast for the lads and dish it up.  Easy peasy!

Bless it, I'm still determinedly trying to get the Caribbean Curry to feature on the menu list.  I just hope it's worth all this commitment!  It'd be too bad if, after three weeks of trying to make it happen, it turned out to be disgusting.  Mind you, I can't see it happening.  With all those lovely curry flavours along with bay and allspice, I'm quite convinced it'll be yummy.

No, that's a stew pond, not a lamb stew!

The lamb & apricot stew is a new addition to the BBC Good Food's repertoire.  I've always liked tagine-type dishes, but hubby has been a bit lukewarm in the past.  I hope this one will be a hit, as that would open the door to others.  Needless to say, I can't remember the last time I saw "stewing lamb" in any shops and I'm sure as heck not about to buy a shoulder of lamb (have you seen the price?) so we're going to be having minced lamb.  To create the textural effect of having "lumps" of lamb, I will include some cubes of sweet potato which will also increase the anti-inflammatory factor for the dish.

OMG, that makes me hungry!

I'll be serving it with Ottolenghi's Green Couscous, which has such a great deal of herbs, garlic, onion and chilli included with it, that they are very likely to almost negate the inflammatory effect of the couscous itself.  Not only that, but it is truly gorgeous, so fingers crossed!

Now then, Sunday's Salmon Filo Parcels is my "dish of the week".  I am SO looking forward to having these again.  I first made them over a year ago - before I was writing Rhubarb & Ginger - and blogged them on my general blog.  Since then, I've been looking at the price of salmon going through the roof and wondering when I'll ever get the opportunity to make them again.

Well, as the price of fresh salmon hasn't got anywhere near affordable yet, I'm experimenting with some frozen salmon fillets.  I just so hope that they aren't waterlogged and will do the job required of them.  This is the first dish I made that hubby turned to me and said "this is as good as you'd find in a top restaurant" - which is high praise indeed.  Hence they have a lot to live up to and I so hope that they do, because they were completely gorgeous.

The first time I made them, I paired them with some salad.  Salad days are now pretty much gone and this time, I'm pairing them with some carrots, broccoli, peas and a parsley sauce.  Parsley sauce is something that makes everything taste better - much like bacon and cheese - so fingers crossed, it'll be good.

Sadly this is what Corned Beef looks like, here

Monday's Corned Beef Pie is a blast from the past and having tried to find a photograph of one very much like it, I think it may be something of a one-off.

Many, no really - many, years ago (before I owned my own horse) I went on a week's riding holiday with a girl friend.  The very first night we were there, after an afternoon of gallivanting about the countryside on horseback, we settled down to a completely gorgeous pie of unknown parentage.  Everyone was intrigued by this pie and much discussion was had, back and forth across the table, about its ingredients.  It was soft, like lamb, but tomatoey like baked beans, quite dense, fried onions, shortcrust pastry and a deliciously savoury thick sauce.  Well, it turned out to be corned beef pie.

Now, in the past, I've had one or two goes at recreating the pie - none of which have been the least bit successful.  However, with my (relatively) new found culinary experience and several very successful attempts at recreating flavours from our youth (the Nasi Goreng and Kentish Pie, for instance), I'm quite hopeful I can get it right, this time.

I thought it would be nice (plus seasonal and cheap!) to pair it up with some red cabbage and apple.  Son & heir has been very dubious about that in the past, so it will be interesting to see whether he's any happier about it now.

So there we are!

I'll also be cooking some batches of Lunchtime soup out of any leftover vegetables and thinking about making the profusion of plums that seems to be blocking the light in the fridge, into a light and healthy dessert.

Of course, planning for Christmas dinner needs to become a whole lot more focused than "maybe a whole salmon?" or "perhaps a nice piece of beef?", plus I'll be petitioning my parents to allow me to prepare a dessert to bring with me on Boxing Day, when we will be visiting.

I'm also pondering on joining in with the "White Christmas" themed recipe challenge that VeryGoodRecipes.com are currently running.  However, I may well ponder so much that I run out of time to make something - time will tell!

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