"I can cook curry! Curry rice...and I can make very easy cake... Noodles, noodle soup..."

Ming

Curry rice

This sweet and spicy "curry rice" is from Japan, but has become popular in Taiwan as well. I used a recipe from a blog called Taiwanxifu, with only a few changes made. It was a different way of preparing curry than I'd made before; by making a tomato and curry based roux and thickening it with chicken stock.

This is such a delicious dish, and it goes a long way!

1 tbsp chopped ginger
1 large clove garlic, chopped
4-5 cups chicken stock
4 tbsp flour
2 tbsp Japanese curry powder
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 onion, chopped

2 carrots, peeled and in chunks

3 small potatoes, in cubes

1 lb chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 red apple, peeled and grated

1 tbsp soy sauce (or sweet soy)

Rice, to serve

1. In a large, heavy bottomed pan, heat a knob of butter with a good splash of oil. Add the ginger and garlic and cook briefly, until aromatic.  Meanwhile, bring a pot of your  chicken stock to boil.

2. Add flour and cook for a bit, stirring frequently. Once it's gotten a bit of colour, add curry and tomato paste. Heat through.

3. Add a small amount of hot stock and stir to incorporate. Ladle by ladle, add hot stock to the pot, stirring constantly. 

4. Add remaining ingredients and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and cook for about a half hour, stirring occasionally.

5. Serve with rice.

"Right now, I'm craving spicy chickpea curry...."

Food styling and photography: Annalise Muller

I was excited to try this dish out, because I have relatively little experience with cooking curries. I've made some kormas and laksas from shop-bought pastes, that's really it. 

 Upon a bit of research on chickpea curries, I came up with chana masala, a tomato based dry curry (meaning most of the liquid has evaporated, not that it's dry like a cracker). 

This dish did involve a trip to my favourite Indian market, where I bought amchoor (dried, powdered green mango) powder for the dish. It adds a sour, bright flavour to the dish. If you can't find it, use more citrus instead!

I used Smitten Kitchen's recipe for chana masala, which was adapted from one of Madhur Jaffrey's recipes.  I made a few  slight changes, but nothing major. 

I am always wary of giving measurements of chile peppers, since people buy all sorts of them. I used a green Jwala chili, which is common in Indian cooking and quite hot. I only used half. You may want more. 
I would recommend serving this with yoghurt or a raita of some sort. 

Chana Masala

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

2 onions, chopped finely
1 large clove garlic, chopped finely
1 thumb sized knob of ginger, grated
1/2 hot chile pepper, chopped (can less or more to your taste)
1 tbsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp tumeric powder
1 tbsp amchoor powder
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp garam masala
1 1/2 cups crushed tomatoes
1 cup water
4 cups cooked chickpeas
The juice of half a lemon or lime.


1.  In a large, heavy bottomed pan, heat a bit of oil. Add onions, garlic, ginger and chile pepper and cook for about five minutes, until fragrant.
2. Add all the dry spices, lower the heat as not to burn, and stir to incorporate with the onion mixture. Sautee over low heat for a couple of minutes.
3. Add tomatoes, water and chickpeas. Stir to incorporate. Simmer, uncovered, for 10-15 minutes, until most liquid has evaporated.
4. Stir through citrus juice and season with salt.
5. Serve hot with rice or a fluffy flatbread such as naan.