Asian Connection + A Recipe: Sri Lankan Chicken Miri Sata
I posted a Sri Lankan Curry a few weeks ago and mentioned that what I love most is the cultural diversity in my office. We have colleagues from different areas of the world; Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Sierra Leon, Liberia, Pakistan, US, France, Japan etcetc, it’s a great selection, I just wish I could convince each one of them to teach me just one dish. That would make a good series for this blog.
Last year my colleague Tomoko, from Japan (she is the one who taught us how to make teriyaki and Karage chicken remember?) suggested that we should make Chinnesedumplisngs, we never got round to it and she again reminded me a few weeks ago, by then Sampathi, from Sri Lanka, had also said she could teach me how to make another dish. I thought it was best to have this two done togather and thus Asian Night was born, we invied most of the ladies in our office and ended up with a mini cooking class. It was very interesting but as usual like in any other class there were students like Liz who were not paying attention who kept coming to ask me what was going on and a few others who came to ask me for my notes at the end of the lesson, it was like Uni all over again.
Apart from the cooking we also did a lot of catching up, photo taking and of course drinking. We had a good time and I hope we’ll do this again soon. The pictures of the night and the recipe follow. HAPPY COOKING!!
All the ladies!
More posing
Don’t they look lovely; Mo and Liz
The lovely Sampathi
Now the recipe ( step by step picture instructions then the recipe), HAPPY COOKING!!
- the pre mixed curry that Sam used
marinated chicken: marinated chicken: Blend all ingredients in curry column and marinate chicken
Put the oil into a pot and add the ginger and garlic . Add the curry leaves, onions and mustard seeds.
Add the chicken and cook for 5 minutes and add 1 cup of water. Cover and simmer till almost cooked add the tomatoes and simmer for another 10 minutes, add coconut milk/ fresh milk and simmer till cooked through. Serve over rice
Ingredients
- 1 chicken cut into small pieces ( we used kienyeji but you can use a broiler)
- Curry paste (ingredients below)
- 5 small-medium sized onions
- 2 tablespoons garlic
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 8 tomatoes
- 5 curry leaves (available at ngara, city park hawkers and city markets)
- 2 stalks of lemon grass, cut into 2 cm strips (available in leading supermarkets)
- Chillies
- 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1 cup coconut milk or fresh milk.
- Oil for frying
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 4 tablespoons chillies
- 1 tablespoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- 1 tablespoon ginger paste
- 1 tablespoon garlic paste
- 2 tablespoons coriander powder
- 3 cloves
- 10 cardamoms
- 3 pieces of cinnamon
- Some vegetable oil
Instructions
Put all the ingredients in under curry paste into a blender/spice grinder and blend till smooth. If you do not have a blender you can use a pestle and mortar. Put aside. Marinate the chicken in this paste for at least an hour but overnight if possible.
Put the oil into a pot and add the ginger and garlic and fry till fragrant. Add the curry leaves, onions and mustard seeds. Cook for 3 minutes
Add the chicken and cook for 5 minutes and add 1 cup of water. Cover and let it simmer over low heat till almost cooked (this should take 30-40 minutes for kienyeji chicken, less for broiler)add the tomatoes and simmer for another 10 minutes then add coconut milk/ fresh milk and simmer till cooked through. Serve over rice
HAPPY COOKING!!
Curry leaves really cannot be substituted as their flavour is quite unique, but if you do not have them DO NOT use curry powder it is not a substitute, try using either basil leaves mixed with a dash of lemon juice or lemon zest.
You can also substitute the lemon grass with lemon zest or lemon leaf.
If you choose to substitute both ingredients I suggest you use the basil option for the curry leaves to avoid a very lemony curry.
If you do not have tomatoes you can add tamarind or lime juice to the coconut milk/ fresh milk
