Words spoken to me as the bowl of 'parts' (misc chicken innards?) was placed before my plate with great pomp and ceremony. When my hosts then receded into another room to eat there without me, as seemed the custom, I opted for the rice and vegetable dishes instead, sparingly poking through the unknown to me, strange, tubular looking meat. Such is my experience while visiting India on a shoot many years ago. Wonderful invites to people's homes and a beautiful meal presented... to be left to dine alone or with my non english speaking liaison, Vijay. Delicious food (minus the 'parts')... but little company and fellowship. I felt they missed the point of dining. Kind of like their 'Yes' head bobble that looks more like a 'No' to this western raised man.
This attempt today, on a cold winter's night, was my first real foray in to making "honest and authentic" Indian food on my own. Hayden and I both love Indian, but cannot afford the luxury to eat out, so I stepped up to try something fun on my own.
Starting with loosely cutting the chicken into pieces, I dusted them with curry, salt and pepper and then lightly browned them in olive and coconut oil. Removing them from the pan, I sauteed ginger, garlic, onion and more curry until fragrant, adding the chicken back into it. Placing yellow peppers, a tomato and peas along with a little stock and Cilantro, I reduced it all to thicken and then topped it with some plain greek yogurt, dusting a little more curry with each step until it smelled like I remembered. On the side, steaming some Basmati rice with coconut milk, I fork fluffed it in layers with Coriander. A fresh lime on the plate to add a fresh spark and served with warm Naan from the oven.
It was a vedy vedy good meal, one that I would serve to an Indian friend... even if it was not loaded with chillies to scorch the earth. Hayden loved it, we ate together (as is our custom) and he went back for seconds. Still being the one armed man in his cast, (not caste) I did the dishes alone, much like a true Indian dinner.
The chicken getting all curried up.
Goodness before hitting the plate. 