curry chicken and friends

This is my godson J'vonte. He well love a curry chicken. So as I didn't get to lime with him for Christmas, I brought him up after the fact for a day of snacks, curry chicken and Wii battles.





This is a most important street if you're looking for something to eat curry chicken with. It's in El Socorro, and it's a secret. One that I'll tell more about in another entry. But this is the real stop for dahlpuri and paratha.





From the road, you walk down this driveway towards what could only be explained as a roti factory. Yeah, sounds like a scene. I know.





When you get to the yard, there are two buildings. In this one they make the paratha, and they also have cooked curry mango and channa/potato on sale.





This side is straight dahlpuri.





I was trying to capture the operation under low for you all, so I wasn't using flash. Didn't want to alarm de scene.





So the pics came out dark.





But doh worry. They saw my interest, and invited me to come back early when they were making the roti to get a proper documentation of the whole process.





So with that piece of good news in the bag, we got our roti and bounced. Now for my part.





We went up the road to bubble some curry chicken to deal with this roti. Took out the usual stocks. Doh worry. The Johnnie and Samboka was for J'von's father Evo and me. Daz muh boy since primary school. As in we literally pitch marbles together. But anyway...




First step... cut up the seasoned chicken pieces.





Then I bowled it all up to season it some more.





But first... who say flaming samboka shots?




Added some curry powder to coat it like a sorta rub.





Then I like to drop some lime juice in there. That lime juice in the bottle is a real handy thing in the kitchen when you like to lime things up like me.





While I let the curry soak into the meat, muh boy Evo (sous chef and photographer on this shoot) handled up some shadon beni, garlic and onion, then placed the two hot peppers in the shot for no reason. Colourful eh?





After a round of boxing with J'vonte, i thanked Evo for the help and scraped the fresh seasoning into the chicken.





Really rubbed it in. Ah mean, is curry. Seasoning is what it's all about.




Next, in went curry powder, massala, roasted geera, a little saffron powder and some salt in my trusty ice cream bowl. And just in case you're sayin' "Ice cream bowl? That's so cheap!". I'll have you know that saffron is said to be the world's most expensive spice by weight, so my cheap ice cream bowl is dealin' with some expensive spices.





The way I learned to make this mixture requires hot water. From what i remember, it dissolves the spices better.




Meanwhile, I engaged in a process called chonkayin'. I'm not sure I spelled that right, but I did it right though. It's not that hard.




It's basically burning garlic in oil. Really simple, but really important.




Next step... SHHEWAAAAH! Curry mixture goes into the pot.




I usually leave the burnt garlic in the mix while the curry burns. I don't know if it's a mind thing, but that helps with the flavour. Just before I put the meat in though, I take out the garlic and save it in my ice cream bowl for a little later.




Popped that chicken in and mixed it around in that curry. This is precisely the point at which neighbors begin to say things like "Mmmm... somebody cookin' a curry boy!". My advice, be very quiet and pretend that you're not at home.




Now I add a lot of coconut milk to this thing. AH LOVE IT! So i sprinkle from the pack.




Mix it in and let it cook up for a little while.




Then I put the remainder of the coconut milk powder into the ice cream bowl with the burnt garlic then added hot water. I don't use straight water to cook the meat down. So I add this in, plus one more thing that might be slightly uncommon...




Ketchup. When I heard it, I was like "What?". But the first time I tried it and realized that it gives the curry a sweetish undertone and a really nice, different flavour, was the last time I made a curry without including that little trick.



Mix that up and add peppers. I like to add a 2 peppers and play the "Well, ah hope de pepper doh burst in de pot" game.




Then I covered it down and proceeded to play multiple Wii games with J'vonte while it bubbled.




So a few tennis games and a good bit of "Uncle Quincy let me win dis one nah?" later, the pot was done. Got some good news and some bad news. The good news was that I found one of the peppers. The bad news was it burst.




Yeah so daz it dey. Now remember J'vonte likes curry chicken. Not potato, not mango, pumpkin and all dat... curry chicken. I could relate to dat. Like God father... like god son.




Truss mih... he like heself. And that was the main purpose of the day.



leh we bubble.

chicken salad. a leftover story

I hate throwing food away. Hate it! Unless it's spoiled food of course. So from time to time I would end up with leftovers from last night or night before. This one time, this happened. True story people.

I was out havin a drink or somethin, when de hunger attacked. Now i knew that i had a lot of stuff home, but i didn't know what i was in the mood for. Actually, i was thinking about spinning a mac and cheese to post up on the blog... but really wasn't in the mode for it. Then it struck me... CHICKEN SALAD!! Quick, easy, tasty enough to have after some drinks and I could use up some of the leftovers in the fridge. So i went to the house and started at it.




Pulled out some Hormel cooked chicken breast. some smoked turkey. Chopped up some onion and celery, and placed some spices close by... well... just for the picture honestly.






I put a little mayo in a bowl and added to it the celery and the onion. Did it that way to make sure it mixed up properly and the mayo had the flavour in it all the way through.





Must add the Chief Brand All Purpose Seasoning. At least in my kitchen it is a must have. Love that in almost everything. You'll see.





Black pepper. Just because really.





Then, just a pinch of salt, because everything needs salt. Even salt needs salt.






Then I added the chicken and the smoked turkey. By the way, the smoked turkey I'm using here is slices cut off of an actual whole bird that was baked. If you've had it before, you'll know this has a ham-like flavour. A mild saltiness and a nice smoky taste. I thought in the context of a chicken salad it would be interesting.

Basically, that's it. All done. Next step...





Reach for the vital supply. It was kinda late, so Crix felt more appropriate. Not too heavy if yuh know what ah mean.






And BOOM! There it is. A nice little platter.






Had to try de lil vanity shot. Might drop it on facebook to promote. The downside to makin it look semi decent like that is that your little snack ends up attracting curious mouths, thus cutting down on yuh planned portion. But iz all good.

HOWEVER, ah not done yet. We didn't eat all the chicken salad, so the leftover creation became a leftover itself. Here's how I dealt with that.






I got a KFC chicken breast and took it off the bone.





Then chopped it up a little finer, but still quite rough. Skin and all by the way. This is no place for the health food enthusiast by the way.





Added the chicken to the remainder of the chicken salad.






Added a little more mayo and a little bit of mustard. Then mixed it into a paste just like the original creation.





This time, I made sandwiches. Whole wheat and white bread. Made one layer...






Then put two slices in the sandwich maker for that light toasty texture. That made the second layer.





Then BOYAKA!!! Triple Decker KFChicken Salad Sandwiches!! And this time I anticipated the extra curious mouth and made two.

And that's my left over story.


Leh we bubble.

Cauliflower Trick 2: Cauliflower Harder

I tried quincy's cauliflower trick today with a few mods of my own. Q already went through the basics, so I will just comment quickly on what I did differently.

First and foremost is the secret ingredient: Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup.


Q and baidawi once advised me to use this as a cheese sauce stretcher in macaroni pie and lasagna. I haven't made a cheese sauce without it since. It adds a good thickness to your sauce, and a rich taste. It's available with less sodium...look for the green tin.

I wanted to season up my sauce a little as well, so I used some Garlic & Parsley Blend and a Maggi Garlic & Onion cube (mostly because I couldn't decide which one to go with) along with the salt and black pepper quincy recommended. I also used a little sweet basil.

You will find out over time that I like to pack my food up with plenty ingredients. Cooking with fewer ingredients is good when you want to savor the flavor of one main ingredient, but...I'm de fella who must take everything with a Subway, for the taste explosion. So I ended up with this. Cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and tomato. I decided to leave out the corn because I didn't think there'd be enough space for the sauce.





This was the final result. I put a small handful of diced cheese (too lazy to grate) straight into the sauce. You really won't need much. I sprinkled some parmesan and bread crumbs on top.

And here's the plate. It went down well with some fish sticks.

Tell me how yours turns out.

the gospel according to naparima

fuh years, the naparima girls' high school cookbook has been the bible when it comes to the dishes of trinbago and the caribbean. just ask overseas college students. it's just right for the homesick trini craving a doubles or a roti or somethin. yuh can't go wrong with the naps cookbook.

after doing it for some years well, they have it down to a science. very simple to follow, helpful conversions, measurements and techniques. but the most impressive feature of all for me, is the inclusion of nutritonal facts for each recipe. that's good info to have no matter if you're goin to use it or not. at least it's fun to see how many calories that pie is costing you.

this particular copy though has a special feature that few others have:



boyaka!!
who say signed copy!!?
through no fault of mine, (my good friend lisa is totally to blame for this) the obviously talented celia teelucksingh signed my copy. bess!!


so you can be sure that i'll be puttin some heat on these recipes. with my own twist maybe, but the book shall be the influence.



leh we bubble.

now we cookin' with gas

so as i mentioned before, the idea was to check some friends and invite them to put their hand in this virtual pot. as they say, it ain't no fun if the homies can't get none. let me introduce them quickly:

the kicker.

this is the designated chef in the lime. a pizza guru. makes the wickedest pizza sauce ever. (or peezat sauce as we call it). also very mean with a minced beef and pita bread. i'm sure he has that blog in mind already. not a big meat man, but into "tasty morsels" as he likes to say it.

VIX

the master of meat. as long as it has flesh on it, he knows how to curry, stew or roast it to perfection. he not easy. don't know just yet if he has the patience or the time to really slap us with some hard core recipes and pics and all that, but i am sure he would drop some noteworthy comments and tips for us to follow. daz how he is.

kayode

relatively new to the fireside, but so adventurous, you would think he's been doin it fuh years. not afraid to ask questions or season ideas with his blend of creativity to concoct unique contributions. expect him to bring some interesting and different things to the table.

there you have it. more people bringing more things to the table.

leh we bubble.

what the hell is a cannelloni?

apparently lots of people knew about this thing. where was i? under some kinda gourmet rock or somethin'? the word sounded made up. no way that existed. then i saw this:



so i guess it is real. obvious next question: so how do you cook it?





well it's pasta, so there must be some kinda boiling. unfortunately, the no boil variation either isn't available or isn't available any where close to us. bring a pot of water to boil and add a generous bit of salt to it. only put the cannelloni pasta in when the water is bubbling. boil the pasta for 4 minutes. they need to be a little firm, because they have to be stuffed later on.





while that's boiling, you can start making your filling. what pops did here was saute some onions and garlic in some olive oil, then added a lean mince beef to it. then he added a little more salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, basil, thyme, a little rubbed sage, a little paprika and a small dash of bitters. then he added the remains of the sauce that he used in the cauliflower trick. (see previous post). let it cook down until the mixture gets some body.

now at some point during this filling making process, you should have taken the pasta off the stove, poured it into a strainer and set it down to cool. you will be holding it, so the cooler the better for you.





get your baking dish and grease it down with some butter.





now here's some dramatics. take a little of your filling mixture and drizzle it around the baking dish. just gives it a meatty feel when it's done. little chunks of meat to pick up and enjoy.





time to fill it. cover one end of the pasta with your hand while spooning your mixture in to the open end. be gentle, because it's pasta... it tears easily. if yuh know yuh wild, boil a little more than you actually want to cater for the ones you totally shred up.





lay your creations out side by side in the baking dish. fit them however you can, that's cool. in this instance, we sprinkled some parmesan cheese on top of them. a grated cheddar seasoned with some finely chopped celery and parsley could work well too. some pepper jack slices may be interesting. but you know our motto: "do what yuh like!"





oven time. these should be fine sitting in an oven pre-heated at 350° for a while. in cases like these, i cook by colour. of course when the place becomes fragrant, you check the oven. the more fragrant, the more you check.





drag them out the oven, and you're done.





we had it like a side on a big plate, but really, i see no reason why two or three of these with a fresh salad shouldn't be considered a proper meal. but maybe daz just me though.

either way...

leh we bubble.

a cauliflower trick for the new year

once upon a time, my father introduced me to this cauliflower dish. about 10 years later, when i tell people about it, it's usually new to them. as it makes its way into our new year's menu all the time, i thought it was a cool entry for the new year. it's relatively quick and easy, plus it's a nice way to include veggies in your meal. (ingredients in bold)






first, you want to select a big cauliflower. use your pot as a guide. it's simple. get a cauliflower that you can fit into one of your pots. make sense right? yuh just want to boil it in some water to soften it a little, because it has to go into the oven still.






grease an oven safe bowl. and by grease i mean rub a lil butter in it.
drop your cauliflower in with the stem facing downwards... then pause. time to make your sauce.






for this you can use a sauce pan, but yuh know how we duz do it right? iron pot! add to the pot (preferably in this order) evaporated milk, a lil butter, some corn flower, salt and black pepper to your liking. flavour it how you like. pops will drop some basil or oregano in there depending on his mode. put some heat on that and give it an occasional stir. you're lookin for a thickish mixture that's still fluid enough to pour.






attack your cauliflower with the sauce. spoon it over the top as evenly as you can and allow some of the sauce to trickle down inside.






now come at it with some grated cheddar cheese.






sprinkle with some biscuit crumbs.






and then it's oven time. it doesn't take that long to bake. maybe about a 20 minutes or so in an oven preheated at 350. check for a nice brown colour on the top.






whip that out and it's on.







and this is proof that you can teach an old vegetable new tricks.

leh we bubble.