from BEARDO's kitchen: Tumeric Chicken Curry on Cooked on Pud Pot

 

Lunch Today

 Lunch today was tumeric chicken curry cooked in mud pot, stir fried small spinach stem, beet root stir fried with mustard seed and pepper, Vallarai (daun pegaga/pennywort/gotu kola) in yogurt salad and thanks to chef Greeja, we have basmati rice with apricot oil, cumin and tumeric.

The highlight of today is the naatu kolzhi (free reign chicken or ayam kampung) cooked with tumeric on mudpot (claypot).

Cooking Ingredients

Looking at the above picture, 1 naatu kozhi a.k.a kampung chicken, cut into small bite sized pieces. On the silver plate we have chopped tomatoes, chopped small onions, cinnamon stick, dried chillies and in the centre we have garlic ginger paste. One thing about cinnamon stick, make sure you get the Sri Lankan variety which has a thinner and lighter texture versus the other harder one called Cassia which is often mistaken for the real stuff. 

Mud Pot or Claypot

As usual heat cocunut oil, but today we are heating the oil in a mud pot. It is difficult to get a flat bottomed mud pot. Thankfully we managed to get one in Kuala Selangor from a claypot maker some time ago.

Tempering

When oil is heated transfer dried chillies first, allow the chillies to turn a little brown, followed by cinnamon stick and chopped onions, and stir well.

Transferring garlic ginger paste

Then transfer the garlic ginger paste,  stir till it blends well. Make sure you can get the aroma of this concoction to rise before adding tomatoes.

Tomatoes

 

Potatoes

Poatatoes was an after thought. Greeja said it would give body to the curry. I was fine, as long Greeja was willing to peel it. As you can see potatoes went into the pot already. Make sure the tomatoes and potatoes blend well with the base item.

Transfer the chicken and stir well 

At this point transfer the chicken and stir it well for at least 3-5 minutes. It is important the tempered blend gets absorbed into the chicken.

Tumeric Powder

This will be the defining momement for the dish, because the main ingredient for this preparation is tumeric powder. Be generous when you put tumeric powder into the blend. Stir well, allowing tumeric to mix well with the chicken. If you like, you can add 1 - 2 spoons of chilly powder (optional). Actually if you like your dish spicy, add more dried chillies, that should do the trick.

Chilly Powder

Finally add hot water and salt. The amount of water would depend on the amount of gravy you want. By the way since this is kampung chicken, the meat is leaner hence it needs longer time to cook, unlike the common broiler chicken.

Claypot Naatu Kozhi Curry

Once its cooked add some ghee, which gives the "Uumpp" to the dish.  Voila, your Claypot Tumeric  Naatu Kozhi Curry is ready.

By the way do not fall for the so called claypot curries peddled everywhere nowadays. These fellows cook the curry the conventional way, and upon request they transfer it into a claypot, reheat it and then they serve you. In some cases they add rice into it and call it "chatti soru curry" a.k.a claypot curry and rice.  

Do try this recipe and let me know. It is a very simple recipe requiring very little ingredients, but with a unique taste.

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