Chicken Jalfrezi - a lighter but still tasty version!

Over the last few months, my hubby has slowly taken agin the curry pastes that are widely available for home made curries.  He's begun to find them very one-dimensional but more importantly to him, they don't taste of curry. Now this curry flavour is a very definite thing that we have yet to quite pin down, but this Jalfrezi got the closest to it in any curry for a long time.  We're still not quite there, but as I liked this recipe a lot for its flavour and use of fresh vegetables, I thought I'd pass it on to you all.

This recipe doesn't result in a heavy, thickly sauced curry but one that is a lot lighter in texture and without the pools of oil that characterise so many curries these days.  Oh and I'm really not sure how much of a Jalfrezi it really is, but I'm hoping that it is close at least.  As it uses curry powder, my first word of warning is to make sure you are using a good curry powder.  One which has a number of different flavours to it is by far and away the best.  I have yet to find - and yes, I will admit that perhaps there is one somewhere - a supermarket own brand curry powder that would even remotely fit the bill. My favourite curry powders come from our local ethnic shop, where I'm hoping that the curry powders on offer are close to the "real thing", but are certainly a long way from bland.

Secondly, make sure to use tomatoes that have flavour.  Vine ripened are the best of the supermarket choices, but it is worthwhile throwing in a few cherry tomatoes just to boost the profile a bit.

Lastly, make sure to leave yourself enough time.  Once the tomatoes get cooking, you need time for them to cook down, then time for the juice to reduce and intensify the flavour.  If you take the pot off the heat and think it's finished too soon, you'll just have a vaguely spicy tomato stew and not a curry.  So, give yourself and your curry time to chuckle, burp and spit tiny blobs of curry into random spots in your kitchen, you'll be glad you did even if the clean up is tricky.  (Of course, I could have got out the splatter guard which would have made sure no blobs escaped, but I was comfy and would have had to have moved.  What can I tell you?  ~shrug~).

From first putting the coconut oil into the wok, to calling everyone to attention in order to get them sat down and ready for the meal, my curry took around 50 minutes (with a good 30 minutes of chopping beforehand).  So it's not an earth-shattering amount of time, but if you only have half an hour, you're going to be in tomato stew land.  So leave sufficient time.

I really liked this curry.  Hubby wasn't so enthused, but I've already told you about the quest for curryness that we're on there.  When cooking it, I was concerned that it didn't have enough curry character, but as our son came home from college and immediately knew it was curry for dinner, I'm assuming it was just that my nose had got used to the aromas.  It tasted good right from the off and really came together in the last 10 minutes, once the liquid had reduced and the proper curry sauce texture arrived.  It was amazing the difference that reduction made to the overall flavour.

So, enough blathering and on with the recipe!

CHICKEN JALFREZI  (serves 4)

Ingredients :

2 red peppers, one roughly chopped into chunks, the other sliced
1 large onion, half roughly chopped into chunks, the other half sliced
4 large garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tbsp coconut oil
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced
a pinch of sea salt
4 heaped teaspoonfuls curry powder
1 heaped teaspoonful garam masala
a quarter of a teaspoonful of ground black pepper
2 very large sweet tomatoes, chopped
6 cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 tsp chicken stock powder (or 1 stock cube)
150ml hot water
1-2 tsp runny honey (optional)
10g butter (optional)
15g fresh coriander, chopped (reserve a little for garnish)
cooked white rice to serve.

Method :

Begin by placing the chunks of red pepper, the chunks of onion and the garlic into a food processor and blitz until a purée is achieved.  Set this aside.

Next, heat the coconut oil in a large saucepan or wok until really quite hot and gently add the sliced chicken breasts and sprinkle with the sea salt.  Spread the pieces across the pan and leave them to achieve a little colour, then turn and do the same again.  The slices do not need to be cooked through at this stage.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the chicken to a bowl and reserve.

Add the sliced red pepper and sliced onion to the wok and cook, covered, for 5-6 minutes stirring half way through, until they have gained a little colour and begun to soften.

Add the puree to the wok, along with the curry powder, garam masala and black pepper.  Stir well to combine and fry, stirring occasionally, until the juices are released and the mix has dried out considerably.  This should take around 10 minutes if your wok heat is high enough.

Add the chopped tomatoes and stir through, along with the chicken stock and the water.  Once combined, add the chicken pieces and stir through.  Now this is where the patience is required.  You need to have the pan hot enough that the tomatoes will cook and release their juices, then the juices (and the chicken stock) will reduce and the full flavour be created.  You will start with a quite considerable quantity in the pan, but once everything has cooked down and reduced, the sauce will thicken and the liquid will evaporate.

Marginally before the sauce reaches its final few minutes, taste for the salt level and add a little more if necessary, but remember that there will be a little salt in the butter that if you're using, should be added now.  Taste also for acidity and add the honey to your preference to correct that.  If you consider there's no sweetening required, then don't use the honey.

Once everything is combined and happy to be there, the sauce is thick and there are no pools of water on the surface of the curry, then you're ready to serve.

Serve with plain white Basmati rice and sprinkle with the reserved chopped fresh coriander as garnish.

Printable version

Menu plan : 31 May - 6 June 2011

Here we are again with the meal plan for this coming week and already we're two days into it.  Mind you, we did take one day out to drive around the New Forest and see this year's crop of foals, which was a lovely sunny day which everyone enjoyed.  We took a picnic and stopped at Bolderwood where they've got a well organised picnic area with loos and even an ice cream stand.

This week's menu is following on with the lighter, less calorific, fresher meals - well, as much as is possible!

One deviation from this is Saturday's curry, which is taken from the Gurkha part of the British Army Cookbook - a copy of which (just the Gurkha part, not all of it!) was given to me by the generous Willie who I am sure you will have noticed in the comments sections of my blogs.  Goodness only knows where he got it from - and we won't ask.  ~taps the side of her nose knowingly~  LOL

So, this is how the week's menu has shaped up :

Tuesday : Chicken Jhalfrezi, basmati rice and Peshwari naan

Wednesday : Turkey meatballs in tomato & fennel sauce, with wholemeal pasta & doughballs

Thursday : Chilli Prawn Noodles

Friday : Paprika chicken with Jacket Potatoes

Saturday : Fried Pork Curry with sauce & mushroom rice

Sunday : Pork Shoulder, roast potatoes, carrots, corn on the cob, spring greens & apple sauce

Monday : Chilli con carne & rice.

As I am writing this on the Wednesday evening, we have already sampled the Chicken Jhalfrezi, which was spectacularly successful.  I was a little bit dubious about it, as it was a "healthier" recipe which didn't sound like any curry I'd ever produced.  Not that that's a bad thing - it's always good to learn new techniques.  I was just a little concerned that it would be a bit left-field for the menfolk.

The curry itself was made with chicken marinated in yoghurt, tomato puree, chilli and lemon juice.  You cook the onion and green pepper and add the marinated chicken, cooking the whole thing until fairly dry.  Then - and this was the left field bit - you serve the curry on a bed of salad leaves (I chose watercress, although spinach would be good too) that have been dressed in lemon juice & sea salt.

It was, as they say, blindin'.

This evening's fare was a dish of home-made meatballs in a tomato & fennel sauce.  The meatballs were made with turkey mince which is as economical as it is gentle in flavour.  However, with a clove of garlic, some breadcrumbs and lemon zest - not to mention a good hit of sea salt & freshly ground black pepper - a fairly uninteresting pack of mince turned into some cracking good meatballs.  The sauce was great - the fennel seeds gave it an interesting fragrance and a hint of aniseed on your tongue.  I'll be blogging this one once I've done the Jhalfrezi!

Thursday is hubby's night to cook and he's trotting out his famous Chilli Prawn Noodles.  I can't wait, as I really enjoy this dish - and we've a few interesting ingredients in the cupboard now that we didn't have previously.  Hubby may opt to stay with the approved recipe - but with things like Mirrin and Fish Sauce just sitting there, they'd be hard to resist.

Friday brings the second attempt at the Paprika chicken that got bumped from last week's menu.  Fingers crossed, it makes it this week.

Saturday is Ghurka curry night and, because I couldn't rustle up 10 or 50 friends to come and share, I'll be having an interesting time scaling the British Army's recipes down to suit 3 of us!

I'm really looking forward to Sunday's roast.  I haven't done a roast for a few weeks now and have been yearning for a piece of pork.  I figure a slow-roasted piece of shoulder will fit the bill perfectly.  I've managed to accumulate enough dripping in my fat cup for roast potatoes, and we'll be having Chantenay carrots, corn on the cob and spring greens.  I'll try to avoid doing Yorkshire puddings, in the interests of keeping the whole thing on the lighter side of "thumping great roast dinner".

Which brings us back to Monday, when we'll be trotting out another old favourite - Chilli con Carne.  Well, it is possible to make it without incurring the wrath of the calorie police, plus Son & heir really enjoys a good chilli.  It won't be the mega-chilli of late, which involves beef shin, but a more demure version using minced beef.  I've got a few aces up my sleeve that were used in the mega-chilli, so it'll be interesting to see how they translate in the more demure version!

So there we are.  It would seem as though meat-free Monday has taken a bit of a back seat again, which is very naughty of me.  I'll have to do better for next week!

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The menu plan for 24 - 30 May 2011

Coming along! Our Gooseberry bush.

It suddenly occurred to me to include the date in the title to these menu plan posts.  At least, that way, if I ever want to analyse how I'm doing on the "cooking seasonally" front then I've got half of the information!

I'd been looking at recipes in the low fat and "healthy" range, but it occurred to me that "low GI" is another category of healthy meal that it would be worth investigating.  Not least because of hubby's mild diabetes.  If we can keep it at the "mild" stage, then that'd be fantastic.

The weather doesn't seem to be able to make up it's mind whether we're in summer or still in spring, at the moment.  However, with summer in its infancy, it's a foregone conclusion that we're heading into a time of salads and a lighter style of eating.  Personally, I'd love to eat the Mediterranean way - lots of fish, lamb, lovely vegetables and bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Gorgeous!  However, it's not that easy to do when you're having to balance your meals around everyone's likes and dislikes.

Jonty sunbathing on a warm day

Still, I figure that if I try everything in lots of different orders, eventually I'll hit on a repertoire of styles that suit everyone!

So, this week's menu looks like :

Tuesday : Pasta with Bacon, Goat's Cheese & Savoy Cabbage

Wednesday : Paprika chicken with Jacket Potatoes

Thursday : Indonesian fried rice with smoked Mackerel

Friday : Chicken Jalfrezi with rice

Saturday : Health in a Bowl with Ciabatta

Sunday : Dinner with my parents

Monday : Pie, new potatoes and vegetables.

Beginning with Tuesday, this Pasta dish really is the epitome of simple.  Just fry off the bacon, drain all but a teaspoon of the bacon fat (into the fat cup again) and cook the red onion.  Meanwhile, cook the pasta to which you add shredded cabbage in the last couple of minutes.  Melt a creamy goat's cheese in with the bacon & onions, let it down with a little of the pasta water and combine.  Add loads of parmesan to the plate and tuck in.  Does it get any more simple than that?  I don't think so!

Wednesday was originally meant to be the Paprika Chicken, however as I write this it is Wednesday evening and the chicken dish got bumped owing to the fact that I was needed to drive into town and collect hubby and his new stereo (brilliant bargain!) at exactly the time I would normally have been cooking.  ~gallic shrug~  What can you do, eh?  Couldn't leave the poor chap to juggle it all the way home on the bus!

In the end, we had a sort of mini high tea.  Ham sandwiches and a swiftly purchased box of cakes.  Son & heir definitely approved - that's his sort of dinner!

So tomorrow, Thursday, is the Indonesian fried rice with smoked mackerel.  It is another really simple dish to prepare - I'm pretty sure that the longest thing involved in it is picking the bones out of the middle of the mackerel!  This is one of the low GI meals, so it will be interesting to see how well received it is and whether it manages to keep us full for long.

Friday was to have been another low GI dish - Chicken Jalfrezi.  However, as Asda forgot to send me all the ingredients for it, I'm tempted to make this one into the bumped Paprika chicken - as I've got all the ingredients just waiting to go for that!  It'd save us having to shop for the Jalfrezi until next week, anyway.

Saturday brings about the return of Health in a Bowl.  Unfortunately it got bumped from last week for a very similar reason to the Paprika chicken.  I was supposed to be driving to collect a telescope for Son & heir's use, but unfortunately the chap decided not to sell in the end and we didn't go.  Shame really, because I had intentions of taking a quick spin around the New Forest to see some foals, plus Son & heir would have had fun looking at the stars - and I'd have been able to make the Health in a Bowl.  Hubby thinks I'm stark raving mad to even consider this dish, as he reckons it will contain everything that Son & heir dislikes in a meal.  For me, I reckon that if you combine ingredients in the right way, then you've every chance of a recipe turning out to be delicious.

Now I've seen Anthony Worrall-Thompson making his Health in a Bowl on t.v. and it intrigued me then.  It looked absolutely bursting with flavour and so very good for you, that as a Mum trying to feed her brood (and "brood" includes hubby) healthily, it is just too much of a temptation.  Of course, there's every possibility that the way in which the ingredients are combined for this dish, isn't the way that either hubby or son & heir enjoy having said ingredients presented - but as I said at the beginning, I'll try anything once!

Sunday is easy for me, as we've been invited over to my parents' for the day.  Hey, as they live in the New Forest, I might get that spin around, looking for foals after all!  I'll just lay in some nice sandwich fillings for when we come home.

Monday, even though it is a Bank Holiday, is a work day for me but hubby will be at home for Son & heir, who is on holiday that week.  Hence a nice easy pie with vegetables (as yet undecided) and new potatoes.  Fingers crossed we can get hold of some Jersey Royals still with their dirt on - as they seem to be the ones with the best flavour!  I know the season for Jerseys is almost over, but knowing how the supermarkets delay seasons, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

So there you have it.  Even before I've managed to blog the week's meal plan, it's gone awry - but I'll keep on trying to make the best of what I've got before me!