A Curry Odyssey Episode 3: Curried Lemon Chicken

OK, before I get onto whether or not this recipe is breaking the rules of the Curry Odyssey, I have a more worrying issue to address. Part of the reason why I was so keen to get right into making curries this year was because I had discovered, just across the road from where I work, a little Indian Food Grocer, who carried all sorts of obscure ingredients for authentic Indian cooking.

In particular, they sold jasmine rice in bulk, at about half the cost of getting it at the supermarket, as well as things like whole cardamons, fengureek seed, and a whole raft of uncommon spices and flours. Now, they're closing the doors.

This recession bites, and not in a good way.

So, can anyone in the Wellington area direct me to another good supplier of the raw ingredients I need to make my Curry Odyssey something worth writing about? Because a year of variations on a theme of "2T Curry Powder" will get boring pretty quickly.

But on the more serious side of this issue, I think we all need to ponder, at least briefly, how we treat our small local businesses, and ask ourselves whether we care for them like they deserve.

Because if we find that the only place we can go to buy food in ten year's time is a giant supermarket, and we all end up eating the same bland mass-produced meals, because all of the little stores that catered to the business end of our taste-buds have closed down, who will we have to blame?

Moving on, were there any rules to the Curry Odyssey? For example, could I only make curries that were recognised as classics and had a proper Indian name, or can I still make stuff up? Experience would suggest that I am not really enough of an expert in the field to fudge it, but when has experience ever taught anyone anything useful?

Also, am I allowed to post stuff that I actually cooked and photographed before I even made the decision to begin the Great Curry Odyssey? Well, the best thing about playing your own game is that you can make up the rules as you go.

I therefore decree, that YES, I can make stuff up if I want to, and YES, I can post in whatever temporal order I feel appropriate. And since the impending death of my local Indian supplier has left me somewhat bereft of inspiration right now, I present for your eating pleasure...

Mysterious Curried Lemon Chicken

(Serves 3)

Lemon chicken might be a Chinese thing, but I have a lemon tree, so as far as I'm concerned, Lemon can go with anything.

Even Chicken.

And Curry.

Yip.

Ingredients:

6 x Scored Chicken Drumsticks (ie, duplicate this recipe once for every 500g of Chicken Pieces you might want to cook), marinaded as below;

For the Marinade:
4T Soy Sauce
Zest and Juice of 1/2 Lemon
1T Garam Masala
2T Olive Oil
1T Minced Garlic
1T Honey
Freshly Ground Pepper

Marinate the chicken for at least 1 hour, preferably 6, in an oven dish that fits the pieces snugly.
Bake, uncovered, @ 220C for 45 mins to 1 hr, until the chicken juices run clear. Switch the oven over to grill for the last 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the sauce, and boil a pot of jasmine rice.

Lemon Sauce Ingredients:
Juice of 1 Lemon
Shaved Lemon Zest
1/2 Cup of Water
2T Malt Vinegar
1 Cinnamon Quill
6T Brown Sugar
1t Vanilla essence, or the scrapings from 1 Vanilla Pod

Put all the ingredients in a small pot. Bring to the boil and turn down to a simmer, gradually reducing the sauce until it thickens. Remove the cinnamon quill after about 5 minutes of simmering. When the sauce is ready, scoop out the solids.
Dish the chicken over the rice and drizzle the sauce over everything. Serve with a nice crisp green salad.

Crunchy Lemon Muffins

I have said in the past that I need to post more desserts here, but the fundamental flaw in that plan is that I really don't do desserts. Luckily, my lovely wife has earned the moniker Dessert Chef for a reason.

Not so much a dessert or a pudding as a sweet treat, these lemon muffins are straight from Kiwi legend cook Alison Holst's repertoire. They're sweet yet tart, and soft on the inside but crunchy on the outside. They're more than just a dessert. They're an artform.

Crunchy Lemon Muffins

(Makes 6 large muffins and 12 mini Muffins - so probably makes 12 normal-sized muffins - that's my inexpert guess, based on what I have to move out of the way in the oven drawer when I'm trying to get a roast ready...)

Sift the following into a bowl:

2 Cups of Flour
4 t Baking Powder
3/4 Cup of Sugar

Melt 75g of butter in a bowl and add 1 Cup of milk, 1 egg, and the grated rind of 1 large lemon (or 2 small lemons) and combine well with a fork. Combine wet and dry ingredients until the dry ingredients have been lightly dampened but not thoroughly mixed. Divide the mixture into greased muffin trays and bake at 200C for 10 mins.

Stir together 1/4 cup of lemon juice and 1/4 cup of sugar, without dissolving the sugar. Brush this over the muffins as soon as they are removed from the oven. Remove the muffins from the trays as quickly as possible so that the sugar doesn't set and stick to the tray. Brush any excess mixture over the underside of the muffins.

Lemon-Garlic Chicken

This meal follows on from an absolute travesty that was committed against a poor innocent chicken the night before. I do like to branch out and try new things, and after seeing a few recipes for Poached Chicken and scoffing at it, I suddenly had a change of heart and decided to try it out.

What a terrible idea. My heartfelt apologies go out to Liz E. Bear and Dessert Chef C for that one. I think I need to research the concept a bit more thoroughly. Suffice to say that if anyone ever tells me that they like their chicken rubbery, I'll know exactly what to cook for them. I'm sure that it all comes down to technique, but it'll be a while before I give that one another crack.

Thankfully, I had jointed off the legs, thighs and wings and put them aside for another meal, and my spur-of-the-moment Lemon-Garlic Roast Chicken Pieces more than made up for the previous night's sad debacle. I dare say this one will make it up there with Slow-Cooked Paprika Chicken and Zesty Crumbed Chicken, except that its quicker and easier than both of them.

Lemon-Garlic Roast Chicken Portions

(Serves 4)

In a pestle or large bowl, grind up the following to make a rough paste:
Zest and Juice of 1/2 a Lemon;
6 Cloves of NZ Garlic;
2T Soy Sauce;
Freshly Ground Salt and Pepper.
Score the Chicken pieces (I had 2 Leg quarters and 2 wings - increase your quantities accordingly to serve more) and press the garlic mixture into the skin and meat. Place the dressed chicken in a bowl with some olive oil and sprinkle with semolina flour. Toss gently until coated.
Place in the oven at 220C, on a rack to allow the fat to drain, and cook for 1 hour, turning twice in that time. Baste if the chicken looks like it might be crying out. I used my oven's Pizza setting, which gently grills the chicken from above while the bottom element does most of the work from below.
Serve with roasted onions and kumera and steamed veges fresh from the local market.