I bought Sophie Dahl’s cookbook on a whim, in part because I’m a sucker for a good sale (it was half off), and in part because she seems to have gathered her recipes the same way I do, by loving her friends’ food enough to demand the recipes for them.
I made her father’s curry recipe twice in as many days because I liked it so much. The first time I made it with chicken, and the second time I made it with tofu. Both were delicious. And now I’m going to copy it here almost word for word (sigh) because I am a thief like that.
Sophie Dahl’s Dad’s Chicken Curry
Ingredients:
1 large onion
2 dried chili peppers
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger root
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons curry powder
4 skinless and boneless chicken breasts (or one block tofu)
1 tomato
1 red pepper
Salt and pepper
14-ounce can light unsweetened coconut milk
1 5’2 girl-sized handful fresh cilantro (I say this because my roommate Colin’s hands are twice the size of mine, and that may be too much cilantro)
Do:
Finely chop the onions and run the garlic through a garlic press (or just chop it as fine as you can stand). Also, chop up the chicken breasts, pepper, and tomato into bite-sized pieces. And while you’re at it, put the dried chili peppers in a tea or spice ball. And, okay, you’re still at the counter, may as well roughly chop up the cilantro, too.
Set a large pan (or even a large soup pot) on about medium heat, and (as Sophie says) ‘sweat’ the onions, garlic, and ginger in the olive oil until the onions look glassy. Add the curry powder and stir for a bit. Now add the chopped chicken, pepper, and tomato and cook for a few more minutes.
Pour in the whole can of coconut milk, and put in the spice ball with the chilis. Simmer at low heat until the chicken is fully cooked, checking towards the end for the spiciness of the sauce and adding salt and pepper as you see fit. When it’s slightly less spicy than you’d like, pull out the spice ball with the chilis. (I find that once it’s as spicy as I like on a small taste test, as soon as I have more than two bites my whole mouth is burning, burning… burning.)
Serve with brown basmati rice and a small bowl of the cilantro, so people can add as much cilantro as they like. (Cilantro is a weird herb, and some people think it tastes like soap, so I usually put it on the side even though I love it more than almost any other herb ever, except for maybe mint and cinnamon and a whole bunch of others I can’t think of right now.)
Sophie says to also serve it with cauliflower that’s been steamed with mint leaves, and I think that sounds like a great idea even though I have never done it.
Finally, this recipe says it’s for four people, which I’ve translated into ‘four people, or two very hungry ones’, which has so far been the case.
