Quick Chicken Kurma (Murgh Korma)

The start of 2013 has been keeping me extremely busy at work.  Hardly have time to do anything else.  Last weekend was my niece's wedding and that too have kept the family occupied.  And now with Chinese New Year approaching, a week from today to be exact, I've been busy baking cookies too.  So, I'll be travelling down south to my hometown, Malacca, comes the weekend.  Already feeling so tired.. I'm getting old! lol

Anyway, here's a wonderful kurma chicken recipe that I want to share with you.  Cooked this a couple of weeks ago but was too busy to post it.  Recipe is taken from a book my sis gave me for Christmas.  It's called 100 Essential Curries by Madhur Jaffrey.  My family like this and it's not spicy at all.  So it's suitable if you have small kids at home.

Quick Chicken Kurma

The ingredients given here is based on actual recipe but I doubled the amount.

4cm fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped

5-6 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped

6 tbsp vegetable oil

3 bay leaves

5cm cinnamon stick

8 cardamon pods

4 cloves

1/4 tsp black cumin seeds

120g onion, peeled and finely chopped

1 tbsp ground coriander

1 tbsp ground cumin

3 tinned plum tomatoes, chopped (I used 1 can)

1 chicken, cut into pieces and skinned

1/4-1 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp salt

3 tbsp single cream

1. Put the ginger, garlic and 3 tbsp water in the container of an electric blender. Blend to a smooth paste.

2. Put the oil in a wide frying pan or saute pan and set over high heat. When very hot, put in the bay leaves, cinnamon, cardamon pods, cloves and cumin seeds. Stir once or twice and add the onion.

3. Stir fry for 3 mins or until onion browns, add the paste and ground coriander and ground cumin, fry for a min. Add the chopped tomatoes and fry for another min.

4. Add chicken pieces, chili powder, salt and 250ml water. Bring to boil. Cover, turn heat to medium and cook for 15 mins, turning the chicken pieces over now and then.

5. Remove cover, add the cream and cook on high heat for 7-8 mins or until the sauce has thickened (I like mine with a bit gravy).  Stir gently as you do this.

Serve with white fluffy rice.