Sometimes all you need is dash of love and a measure of simplicity.

Passport & Plate - Chicken Curry and Dhal

Sri Lanka | Friday, March 6, 2015 | 5 photos

Ingredients
Chicken Curry (Otherwise known as Kukul Mas)
Ingredients
1 whole Chicken
3 tbsps Roasted black curry powder (I use homemade curry powder)
2 tbsps Chilli Powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
300-500 mls of Coconut Milk (I get powdered coconut powder and mix with hot water – 3 tbsps of this)
Half a Lemon

4 garlic cloves grated
Half ginger grated (around 3 tbsps)
1 large red onion
1 chicken stock cube
3 tbsps of tomato puree
Oil (3 tbsps)
Curry leaves
1 Lemon grass
1 Cinnamon stick
2 Rampe leaves
Salt and Pepper

Dhal (Otherwise known as Lentil Curry)
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups Red lentils
½ tsp curry powder
1 tbsp chilli powder
1 tbsp turmeric powder
1 onion chopped
2 garlic cloves, grated
1 cup water
3 curry leaves
300 ml coconut milk
1/2 tsp mustard seed
3 tbsp chilli pieces
Salt and Pepper
Oil

 

How to prepare this recipe
Method
1) Cut the chicken into small pieces and wash well. I take the skin off but leave all the bone, the curry tastes a lot better when the bone is included.
2) Finely chop the onion, grate garlic and ginger.
3) Add the chicken, spices, lemon and a bit of oil and mix well. Use your hands and get stuck in.
4) Allow to marinade if you have time, if not cook straight away.
5) Over medium heat, fry the onion, garlic, ginger, curry leaves, rampe and cinnamon.
6) Once browned, add tomato puree and then the chicken to brown
7) Once everything is mixed well, add the coconut milk, chicken stock cube, salt pepper, close with lid and let it simmer.
8) This should be completed in around 20-30 minutes, however I normally open it to add anymore spices which I feel is require along with salt and pepper.

Method
1)Wash the dhal thoroughly, add turmeric, chilli powder and curry powder then boil in a pan with 1 cup water,
2)If you feel that the lentils are sticking to the bottom of the pan and doesn’t look cooked yet, then add some more water and let it boil.
3) Once lentils have turned yellow, transfer into a bowl.
4) On low heat, fry everything except the coconut milk and dhal. Just a few minutes will be enough.
5) Once golden brown, add the boiled dhal to the pan and stir well. Cook for another couple of minutes. Add the coconut milk, and salt to taste.

 

The story behind this recipe
My Chosen Dish:
CHICKEN CURRY AND DHAL CURRY
Sometimes all you need is dash of love and a measure of simplicity.

My earliest memory of starting to cook is hiding behind the kitchen door and looking at my Grandmother (Achi Amma), sitting on her stool in the kitchen, using the coconut scraper to grate coconut in preparation to squeeze it for coconut milk to make a curry.

Once she caught me watching and demanded that I come and help her. I was 3 years old and this I can say is the start of my love for the Culinary Arts.

I loved watching my grandmother and aunties work their magic in the kitchen. They scraped coconut for coconut milk, used 5 foot pestle and mortars to grind onions and chilli, left spices outside in the sun to roast in preparation to make curry powder and used authentic clay pots over burning wood to cook the curries. Most of all what I loved was that cooking in our family was a family affair. You could see Aunty 1 cutting the onions, Aunty 2 marinating the meat, Uncle 1 making the salad, Uncle 2 making the rice and the list goes on. I loved waking up to the noise of them all having great banter and laughing in the kitchen along with the aroma of chicken curry drifting around the house.

Let me explain in more detail: My Grandmother is from a town called Maharagama in Sri Lanka. She has a contagious, happy, loud personality and when she spoke most of the town would hear her. When she cooked, she didn’t just cook only for her 7 children, she cooked for the entire village. I always remember the house being filled with family, friends, and not to mention a LOT of food.

I can remember my aunties feeding their kids with their hands, my uncles having their favourite drinks with a bite (devilled beef normally), grandma shouting at someone for not eating enough, and then shouting at someone else for eating TOO much. It was just a room full of happiness and love and what bought everyone together? Yes, food!
Amongst the array of food that was cooked, one of the staple foods that you would find in any household is Dhal (Lentil Curry). And what can I say, my grandmothers and now mothers dhal is simply to die for. I have had friends in the UK who has asked me for a big pot of Dhal as their birthday present. Then I would sit and watch them eat it with a ladle. I did tell them it wasn’t soup, but they didn’t seem to care. Who am I to judge how people eat their food, when I would most likely do the same.
I have cooked many dishes over the years but I must admit that my life is not complete without a good, home cooked Chicken curry and Dhal. No matter how many nice restaurants I eat at, the amazing countries and cuisines I try, I always come back to these two things. I have made it for family, for friends and for work colleagues and every single time it goes down a storm. I currently have my work colleagues in England begging me to make it once a week in exchange for anything I want. It might not be a Michelin star dish, but it’s something I learnt to cook from my grandmother and mother with love, and I think that’s the most important thing. From cutting and prepping the ingredients, to marinating the meat with my hands (the way my grandma held my tiny hands and showed me how to do it ), to getting the aroma when you fry the onion, garlic and ginger, to watching it bubble away and be transformed into a master piece of amazing gorgeousness. Cooking is love, made visible and this is how I feel about the Wickramatunga/Seneviratne chicken curry and dhal.
My grandmother and mother are my inspiration when I cook. They thought me not only how to cook amazing food, but how to spread love and happiness through the things you can create.