Indian Style Curry

I LOVE Indian food, most of it I leave to the experts to make. However I feel fairly competent with making this curry. I initially got the basis of this recipe from a book called "Curries Without Worries", this is my variation of it.

Here's what I used for this meal:

2 small/medium onions

Garlic (as much or as little as you like)

1 TBS ground ginger

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/8 tsp ground cardamon

3/8 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp coriander

1/4 tsp garam masala

1/4 tsp tumeric

1/2 head cauliflower

1 chicken breast 

1 medium zucchini

1 head broccoli

2 large leaves of curly kale

I start this curry by prepping my aromatics; garlic, onion, and ginger.

I ended up throwing the garlic and onion in a food processor so it turned into a paste. I had previously done this with my ginger and froze the excess for easy use later. I'd say the ginger-cube was equal to about 1-1&1/2 TBS.

While I was pureeing my aromatics I was also heating oil in a pan over med-high heat (I used about 1 TBS). You can tell your oil is at a good temperature because it will look like its rippling in the pan.  I added in my cumin seeds at this point. I cooked them alone until they were darker in color.

As a note: To make this dish healthier this is the only oil I added for the rest of the meal. When ever my curry started sticking in the pan I would add a couple of TBS of water to deglaze my pan. The deglazing also gives this dish a depth of flavor that I don't think can be achieved without it. The water also steams my vegetables so they cook even faster.

I added in my pureed aromatics to the cumin seeds, cooking them until they started to "tan". At this point I added my other spices to the pan.

Starting at the top going counter clockwise I used cardamon. Which is actually a pod that is ground up it has a very floral taste, I'm not the biggest fan of this spice so I only used about 1/8 tsp. Next spice is coriander, this one has a citrus note to it which I like, so I used about 1/4 tsp. Next spice up is cumin; cumin is one of my favorite spices, as it blends well in many different dishes. Since I like cumin so much I used about 3/8 tsp. Garam masala is next, this spice is, I believe, a combination of a couple of spices. To me it smells like cloves and cinnamon. My final spice for this was turmeric; in my opinion turmeric doesn't have much flavor, but it has amazing health benefits. At some point in the future I will devote a whole post to the benefits of turmeric, until then take my work for it or google it yourself.

*Remember I add water whenever I feel like my food is sticking in the pan. When I made this particular curry I ended up adding water after each vegetable.
Next I added cauliflower, because I only use fresh vegetables I have a very precise order of adding them, as they cook for different amounts of time and I am not a fan of mushy vegetables! I cooked the cauliflower for a couple of minutes  until it was warmed and my aromatic and spice mixture coated them.

Next I added in my chicken. *I tend to cook with more vegetables then actual protein. This was one chicken breast roughly 1/2lb. I Cut it into bit size pieces so it could be incorporated throughout the dish.

Once the chicken was about half was cooked I added in my zucchini, as you can see I cut the zucchini into 1/4-1/2in crescent pieces.

I let all of that cook for about 5 minutes or so then I added my broccoli. I cut the broccoli into med/small florets. Immediately following the broccoli I added kale.

At this point if the pan is dry and not giving off steam add more water. Once the water is in and mixed around a bit cover the pan. This will help the kale wilt.

You will be amazed at how fast the wilting happens; once wilted you can stir your curry so the kale and broccoli get cooked in the bottom of the pan where all the flavor is.  Once the broccoli and kale are cooked to your specification your done, enjoy your dinner!

This meal is great served with lentil dal and rice. I will have a follow up post for the dal soon as well.
Enjoy!
LMC