Authentic, or convenient? Good any way; curried chicken

I've written at times in this blog about the cuisines that I don't know little about, and don't cook. One of those is Indian. I have tried , but I just don't "get it." Indian cooking , at least in my view of it, requires a fair amount of time, and patience. It also calls for techniques that I simply do not have under my command: things like dry frying spices, and slow cooking of pastes, and so forth. When I have tried to make Indian dishes, they've usually been failures, or at least not very good. This is one of those things that is on my list of "things to do one of these days," and maybe I'll get to it.

So last night I made a chicken curry. Sort of. There is no question about it. I cheated. I used a prepared curry paste. If I were to speak to people who know this cuisine better, I know I'd be told "oh, don't worry. Everyone uses them in India." If you know Annalena, you know that's really not much comfort. But I had it in my mind that I wanted to do "something different,' and curry came to m ind.

One thought that the careful reader might be considering is "curry? Well, the way they're cooked, you lose the vegetable identity. Isn't that contrary to your philosophy?"

Well, maybe the careful reader would not be considering it. I was thinking about it though, as memories of curries in Indian restaurants, most of which have been bad, went through my head.
In fact, I think this kind of cooking actually plays into the idea of immediacy. Look, let's face it. A fresh vegetable is going to taste better than one that isn't regardless of how you cook it. So even though the slow cooking of vegetables, in spices, for a long time, will change their identity, they're going to taste better if they are fresh, and local, than not.

Anyway, enough with the philosophy. On curry pastes, I have found three different varieties, identified by color rather than anything else: red, green and yellow. Most people who know more about this type of food than I do say that the red type is coarsest. I hear disagreements about the green and the yellow, and essentially, the "break down" seems to be that if you're cooking beef, or something strong, use green curry. For things like fish and chicken, use yellow. But that's a very close call from my friends. So here's what I would suggest: try them all. And try to imagine them in the context of what you're going to cook. I went with yellow with my curried chicken. It's good. Would green be better? Maybe. It would be different.

So, here's how I went about it. I had a pound and a half of skinless, boneless chicken breasts. How THOSE wound up in the house is another story, for another post. In any event, I patted them dry and salted them, and then cut them into chunks. I added some vegetable oil to a nonstick pan, and sauteed them . No olive oil in India, so that was an easy choice. The nonstick, because I did NOT want any browning on the chicken. That's the same reason that I crowded the pan, so that there would be a bit of a steaming effect, rather than the browning one that I usually like. I didn't cook them through, but just enough to get the raw color off of the perimeter.

While they were cooking, I sliced a big yellow onion, and a green pepper and a yellow pepper. Why those? Because that's what I had in the house. One thing I CAN guarantee you: Indian cooking, like all cooking, depends on what you have. Perhaps this is not iconic, but it was there, and I used them. Peppers cook at just about the same rate as do onions, so after I removed the chicken, I added some new oil, and sauteed the vegetables just until they were beginning to soften.

Using the principle of "frying spices," I added about two tablespoons of yellow curry paste to the vegetables, and stirred them until they were coated, and cooked them for a minute or two. Then I added the chicken back and a cup of light coconut milk, to which I had added a scant, quarter cup of paste. Adding the coconut milk probably makes this more of a 'korma' than a curry, but it is what it is. The coconut milk came to a simmer right away, and I lowered the heat, covered the pan, and let it cook away for ten minutes. Then, I took off the lid and let the milk reduce for another five. I had a thick, slightly spicy sauce around my chicken and vegetables , and the apartment smelled wonderful.

I tasted it when it was hot, and the spice was much more pronounced than it was when the curry cooled. This happens with food a lot; how it tastes, hot, is different from how it tastes, cold. So when I reheat this for dinner, I may stir in more of the paste, if the heat is not to my liking.

If you wanted this to be more substantial, I would suggest adding some potatoes to it when you add the coconut milk. Chunks of them, small enough to cook in fifteen minutes. Otherwise, put this over some rice, and make some green vegetables.

This is certainly convenience cooking, far from anything I could call authentic. It's how we all cook. Try it. Let me know how yours works out. I think I'm going to try one in the future, with fish