Kerala-style chicken curry using drumsticks ケララ風のチキンカレー

At the start of COVID, certain grocery items became scarce. Indeed, we had a time when we could not always get chicken or pork. We turned to Instacart and got groceries from the Korean market "HMart". They appeared to have sources different from the ones used by the regular grocery stores. They were able to obtain these meats when the other grocery stores couldn’t.   So one time we got a large package of chicken "drumsticks" which is a part of the chicken we usually don’t get. But at the time we were grateful to get any part of the chicken. In any case, my wife recently found the package in our freezer and we decide the time had come to use it. We made two different dishes; I made a Japanese style simmered dish in black vinegar and soy sauce or "Kurosu-ni" 黒酢煮 in the Instant pot, and I asked my wife to make the remainder into curry. After consulting her Indian cookbooks, she decide to make Kerala-style chicken curry based on a recipe in Madhur Jaffrey’s “Curry Easy” cookbook.

As always, this was a very flavorful and satisfying dish. The recipe called for basil which we had in large supply from our window sill basil forest.* It is shown here with basil, tomatoes and a dab of greek yogurt as a topping. 

*Digression alert: This basil forest was another legacy of the covid time period. We were having trouble getting fresh herbs since we were relying on grocery deliveries. Several times the basil arrived completely rotten and we had to throw it away. Other times it was not available at all. So when a decent package of basil finally arrived from the grocery store my wife decided to root it, plant it and raise our own crop. She took some cuttings that included long stems and put them in a glass of water. About a week later the basil formed roots so she planted it in small pots of soil. As long as the basil isn’t allowed to flower it will continue producing. So over time my wife took cutting after cutting planting them is small pots and putting them in the sun on the window sill in the kitchen. The basil is quite happy there and we now have a basil forest growing. We had so much basil my wife gave away several pots as gifts. It is amazing that all of this derived from just one small plant from the grocery store. 

The picture below shows part of the basil forest.

The next picture shows a basil stem that has sprouted roots. This developed after it had been in the water for about a week. It is now ready to be planted in soil.

For the Kerala-style curry

Ingredients:
1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds
1/2 tsp. Whole brown mustard seeds
2-3 onions roughly chopped
2 Tbs. Peeled and finely chopped ginger
4 garlic cloves peeled and chopped
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbs. Red paprika
1 tsp. Salt
15 to 20 curry leaves (or basil leaves as a substitute.)
Several small red potatoes skinned and chopped into small similar sized pieces.

Directions:
Add some peanut oil to a frying pan and add the cumin and mustard seeds. As soon as the mustard seeds start to pop add the onions and stir until the onion is lightly browned. Add the rest of the spices stirring until they bloom i.e. become fragrant. Add the potatoes and stir them into the sauce. Then add the chicken pieces. Spoon the sauce over the chicken. Turn the heat to simmer, cover and cook until the potatoes and chicken are soft. If the sauce gets too thick and starts to scorch add some chicken broth. See the next picture below. The bright red color comes from the paprika. Just before serving add the basil leaves (shown in the last picture).

 

This was another good curry. It was a perfect way to use the chicken drumsticks. The potatoes again absorbed the flavors of the spices and added to creaminess of the sauce. The taste of the paprika and the basil was a nice addition.