Sunday lunch with the local bird

Passport & Plate - Khukra ko jhol (chicken soup/curry)

Nepal | Tuesday, February 17, 2015 | 1 photos

Ingredients
Whole chicken cut into pieces
Oil
Onions
Ginger garlic paste
Turmeric
Chilli powder
Fenugreek seed
Corriander and cumin seeds
Salt
Fresh chillis crushed (optional)
Fresh tomatoes cut into pieces
Corriander for garnish
Water
Tomato paste (optional)

 

How to prepare this recipe
1. Heat oil and once its hot enough, add in the fenugreek seeds
2. Add chicken pieces and cook it till it turns brown and starts to caramelise
3. Add in the onion and cook till the onions turns tranparent
4. crush the ginger garlic paste with corriander and cumin with a mortar and pestle. Crush the fresh chillis as well (optional)
4. Add salt, turmeric, chill owder and ginger garlic and spice paste
5. Cook for another 5 minutes. Add in a few table spoons of water if the spice starts to stick. This step is to cook off the rawness of the spices and the and ginger garlic and caramelise the meat which gives it the added layer of taste
6. Add in the fresh tomatoes and the tomato paste (this is optional so use if if you like your jhol to have that ochra red color)
7. Cook for another few minutes till the tomatoes are cooked
8. A this stage, add in about couple of cups of water depending on how much soup you wold like
9. Bring the jhol to a boil and cook it until you can slowly see the oil separate at which stage, take the stalk part of the corriander and chop it and add t to the jhol. Cook for another few minutes.
10. Garnish with the leafy part of the chopped corriander
11. Serve with rice

 

The story behind this recipe
Every Nepalese household has their own version of the 'khukra ko jhol' and while most of the ingredients are the same, they tend to taste slightly different based on the 'cook's hand'! This was a Sunday lunch staple of our family growing up in Brunei. The reason this was special was because the chicken used was what we referred to as a 'local' chicken which were basically organic free range chicken which cost much more than the usual supermarket bought one. My dad would do the weekly shopping at the wet market where he would buy fresh vegetables and the 'local' chicken. I have early memories growing up of him bringing the live chicken home early in the morning and killing it and de-feathering it at home. He would chop the head off and collect the blood in a bowl, place the bird in a big bucket and pour boiling hot water and pull the feathers out. He'd then put the bird on top of the stove to burn off any of the leftover feathers and char the skin which gave the 'jhol' a yummy, smoky flavour. He'd then chop the chicken into pieces, keeping every bit including the innards like the intestines and the heart and liver. I think seeing the effort he put in doing all this made us appreciate the meal even more. Mum would then cook it for lunch and the smell of the spices would waft through the whole apartment. She would serve it with rice, tomato chutney and stir fried green vegetables. 'Jhol' in Nepali means 'soup' and it has connotations of being an easy, cheap meal and sometimes even a poor man's feed. The reason this food resonates so well in my memory is that even if it was a 'jhol', it was 'local chicken jhol' and thats what made it that much special. Mum hardly made this type of jhol with the other supermarket bought chicken. Nowadays, living in Australia, i make this only on days when i crave it but its never the same as mum's. I guess the chicken is not 'local' enough and the family incomplete with only us kids here in Australia.