Nonya Chicken Curry

By sarah_carroll

Ingredients

• Spice paste:
• 1/3 c sunflower oil
• 1 star anise
• 2 whole cloves
• 1 cinnamon quill
• 160 ml coconut cream
• 5-6 curry leaves
• 1/5 k chicken thigh fillets, trimmed
• 300 g chat potatoes, peeled, halved
• 2 small red chillies, seeds removed, finely chopped
• 400ml can coconut milk
• 3 t caster sugar
• 1/4 c coriander seeds
• 1 t cumin seeds
• 1 t fennel seeds
• 1 T shrimp paste
• 15 dried chilies, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes to soften, squeezed dry
• 8 Asian red schalots, roughly chopped
• 3 garlic cloves
• 3 cm piece fresh turmeric, peeled, grated or 1T ground)

Details

Servings 4

Preparation

Step 1

For the paste, toast coriander, cumin and fennel seeds in a dry frypan over medium high heat for 2 minutes, shaking pan, until fragrant and just smoking. Tip into a mortar and pestle or spice grinder and grind to a fine powder, then set aside.
Wrap shrimp past in a square of foil and dry fry in a wok or pan over medium heat for 1 minutes each side to toast lightly. Combine shrimp paste, soaked chilies, eschalot, garlic and turmeric in a mortar and pestle and pound to a fine paste. Stir in dry spices until well combined and set aside.
Het oil in wok over medium heat. Toast star anise, cloves and cinnamon quill for about 20 seconds. Add spice paste and stir fry for 4-6 minutes until fragrant. Add 1/4 c coconut cream and curry leaves, then cook for a further 2-3 minutes until oil begins to separate from the mixture.
Add chicken and stirfry for 1 minutes. Add potato, chopped chilli, coconut milk and sugar, season, then cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes until chicken and potatoes are tender. Add remaining 100ml of coconut cream and simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes. Serve with rice and topped with coriander sprigs.