2. Thick Chicken Curry

Bless my mom who just called fifteen minutes ago. After she finished complaining about not being able to use my dad's prepaid credit (coz it's time for him to topup again to make calls/sms), I took the opportunity to ask her how to cook chicken curry. Now this is not the conventional coconut-milk-induced chicken curry. It's a recipe with thick gravy that doesn't require any coconut milk, tomato paste, milk or the like - making it a fat-free recipe! (yea rite :p) Anywhooo...the recipe! (Serves 4)

Ingredients A
1 medium size chicken (cut into 12 parts and cleaned)
2 tablespoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon salt

Ingredients B
4 red shallots
2 cloves garlic
1 inch ginger

2 cloves
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
2 cardamom
1/2 teaspoon tamarind paste

1 big onion
2 stalks green chilli
1 small packet of curry powder (i prefer Baba's over other brands)

1 cup of oil (for frying the chicken)
2 tablespoon of oil (for cooking the curry)
1 cup water

Method:

1. Put Ingredients A into a bowl and make sure all chicken are well coated with turmeric powder and salt. Put aside
2. Blend Ingredients B until they reach fine consistency. Put aside
3. Dilute the curry powder with half a cup of water. Stir well
4. Pour 1 cup of oil into a hot wok. Fry the chicken until it's 3/4 cooked. Set the chicken to cool and press it lightly using kitchen paper to remove excess oil
5. In a pan, heat 2 tablespoon of oil and sweat Ingredients B until it browns
6. Put in the curry paste and stir well. Add the cloves, star anise, cinnamon stick and cardamom
7. Pour the remaining water into the pan. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes
8. Half the onion and slice it thinly. Also thinly slice the green chillies
9. In a separate small bowl, put 2 tablespoon of water into the tamarind paste. Stir it well and pour it into the pan
10. Put in the chicken, onions and chillies. Stir well and cook for another 15 minutes
11. Serve with hot rice, and, if you love more heat, "sambal belachan" will be the perfect companion! ;)