Sali Murghi (Chicken and Apricot Curry with Matchstick Potatoes)

Happy New Year!

I have no good excuses for not posting. I was lazy at the end of November, in the US for most of December, and then ate nothing but BBQ and leftover Christmas ham during the holiday break. Yesterday saw the seventh-hottest day ever recorded in Perth, so all I could face was the usual Thai beef salad, thrown together from whatever salad vegetables I had, plus half a bag of fresh beansprouts and a big bunch of mint, for extra cooling effect. Nice to use a post-BBQ extra T-bone steak as well; never have I had such deliciously chilled and soft beef.

Anyway! Last year, just before I left for the States, a surprise present arrived from a friend in the UK: Rick Stein's India, a really fantastic compilation of Indian recipes from all over the subcontinent. On Sunday I decided to try out one of the more challenging looking recipes, sali murghi, or chicken and apricot curry with potato straws. The ingredients list is moderately long, but of course the spices are essential. We found that they combined beautifully with the apricots and other vegetables to form a thick and sweet-sour sauce that complemented the chicken and potatoes perfectly. From a single chicken, there was easily enough for six people, or for us, two dinners and two lunches. (We had the second dinner with perfect pilaf rice and quick-friend coconut vegetables.)

Ingredients
For the matchstick potatoes (sali):

• 250g of Chat (or other chipping/new) potatoes, julienned and soaked in cold water for at least 15 minutes
• a deep fryer or heavy-based pan full of vegetable oil for deep frying
• salt

For the curry:

• vegetable oil
• 8 black peppercorns
• 6 cloves
• 3 green cardamom pods, lightly bruised with a rolling pin
• 2 dried chillies
• 4cm piece of cinnamon stick
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 100g tomatoes (about 1 large, or 2 small), finely chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• a thumb of ginger, finely grated
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1.5 tsp ground cumin
• 1.5 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 chicken, jointed into 8 pieces (get the butcher to do it!)
• 2 tsp jaggery, palm sugar, or brown sugar
• 150g dred apricots
• 3 tbsp white wine vinegar
• handful of fresh coriander, leaves torn off

Bruise the whole spices in a mortar and pestle and fry in a large casserole / Le Creuset for a minute until fragrant. Add the onion, turn the heat down, and fry for 10 min until softened and golden. Stir in the tomatoes, salt, ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander and turmeric, and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the chicken pieces to the pan and turn in the spce mixture, then add the sugar, apricots and vinegar.

(At this point, Stein suggests adding enough water to cover; if you do this, you will likely need to remove the cooked chicken and then vigorously boil down/reduce the sauce for ~10 minutes at the end, unless perhaps you remove the lid, but then the chicken may cook unevenly. I suggest instead adding 200ml of water, covering, and turning over the chicken pieces a few times until they are cooked, and leaving the lid off for the last 15 minutes of cook time.)

Bring to the boil, lower the heat, cover the pan and simmer for 30-40 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is reduced. Meanwhile, drain the potatoes, dry in a colander, and deep-fry at 180C for 2-3 minutes per batch until crisp and golden. Drain on kitchen paper and season with salt, then use to top to the finished curry, along with the coriander leaves.

BBQ Challenge Week: Day 3: Pork Chop and Sweet Potato Wedges with Apricot BBQ Sauce

Stone fruit are great at this time of year, but even I was challenged to use up a whole kilogram of apricots - but at $3 they were too much of a bargain to ignore. Eventually I got round to making something of them - a sweet and acid barbecue sauce which worked perfectly with a juicy pork chop and yummy toasted sweet potatoes. The key to the pork is to barbecue for just a few minutes each side, and stop as soon as the juices are no longer red. With the sweet potatoes, roast them indirectly for twenty minutes before turning on to a hot flat plate to brown up. The barbecue sauce takes an hour to make so it's a good idea to make it well ahead, or just have a starter ready to take the edge of your hunger off.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg apricots, pitted and halved
• 2 large tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 white onion, chopped finely
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard

Place all ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for an hour, stirring every fifteen minutes. Once it starts to stick to the bottom of the pan, it's ready. Strain it through a sieve, pushing the semi-liquid through with a large metal spoon and scraping the underside of the sieve every so often. Use immediately or refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks.

Roasted Baby Courgettes with Cous-Cous and Apricot Topping

Another recipe inspired by Nigel Slater's Tender, but one that I think needs some modification to be perfect. He bakes the courgettes for only 25 minutes, but I found that was not nearly long enough, and more like 55 minutes was needed if baking from raw. I also found that the topping was nice but a certain piquancy was missing. These problems can be easily remedied by adapting a method I usually use for Provençal tomatoes: frying them in a very hot pan for 5 minutes and then drenching in balsamic vinegar before baking in the oven with the topping. I have yet to try it on this recipe but I'll suggest it here as I think it would be an improvement.

Ingredients:

• 8-10 baby courgettes, washed and halved lengthwise
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 100g cous-cous
• half a white onion
• one slice of bread
• a small bunch of parsley
• a handful of dried apricots
• a handful of pistachio kernels, unsalted
• 200g natural yoghurt
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Fry the baby courgettes in olive oil, first round-side down, then cut-side down, for 1-2 minutes (depending on thickness) each side, using a griddle (nice char marks) or frying-pan (more even cooking). When golden and seared, place in them in a baking dish, cut side up.

Meanwhile, prepare the cous-cous according to its packet instructions: I cover in boiling water in a 2:1 ratio, add a bit of butter and some vegetable stock powder, stir once then cover with a plate for 10 minutes. Finely chop the onion and gently fry in olive oil for 3-4 minutes. Whiz the bread and parsley in a blender to make breadcrumbs. Roughly chop the apricots and pistachios, then combine with the cooked cous-cous and breadcrumbs, and onions. Season well and scatter over the singed courgettes, cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes.

Combine the yoghurt, white wine vinegar and olive oil, and serve the courgettes with this dressing to spoon over. (We had a little prosciutto on the side for protein.)

Lamb Burgers with Apricot Cous-Cous

Lamb and cous-cous, always a delicious combination! Especially on these slightly chilly spring evenings, when you've been warm all day but as the evening draws in, you definitely still want a hot meal. The lamb is from the market butcher and as I only bought it yesterday, I decide to cook it in burgers, thick and rare in the middle. A little spice and garlic in the patties, some sweet cous-cous, and a warm green salad are a perfect closing note for a delightful weekend.

Ingredients:

• 300g lean minced lamb (preferably from within your own country!)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 medium clove of garlic
• 1 egg
• A handful of fine breadcrumbs
• dried cous-cous
• a few dried apricots
• a small handful of almonds
• a thin slice of butter
• 1/2 tsp of vegetable bouillon

In a mixing bowl, combine the lamb, spices, egg and breadcrumbs, and grate over a good seasoning of black pepper. Mix thoroughly and shape into four 3/4" thick patties. If you prefer your meat cooked to well done, make them half as thick. Fry in a heavy-based non-stick frying pan, to which you should add a barest trickle of oil to stop them sticking at the start. They'll need about 4 minutes per side, or until seared and brown.

Roughly chop the almonds and dried apricots; add the latter to a pyrex bowl with enough cous-cous: it will double in size when cooking, and only you know how hungry you are! Pour boiling water over the cous-cous in a 2:1 ratio and stir in the slice of butter and bouillon. Microwave, covered with a small plate, for two minutes, then leave to the side until needed; the grains will absorb any remaining water and it can be fluffed up at the end with a fork, at which point you should stir in the chopped almonds.

Tonight we served this with a couple of pita breads and a broad bean & pea salad; some yoghurt, hummus or tzatziki would also go beautifully alongside.