Malaysian Chicken Curry with home made Naan Bread

Do you ever see a photo of a dish and know that you just have to make it?  I do it all the time.

I saw the photo for this dish in the MasterChef magazine several months ago.  It looked so good, I just knew I had to make it.  I even went out and bought all the ingredients, but just never seemed to get around to making it.  Anyway I was revisiting the magazine and ran across the picture again. That was it, I just had to make it now!  The trouble was after going to all the effort of making the dish I was really let down by the flavours.

I think if I ever made it again I would do it all a little differently.  It needed a little more flavour - perhaps a little more chilli, and I really think the curry leaves need not only to be a garnish, but cooked within the dish as well.

Malaysian Chicken Curry
From MasterChef Magazine April edition

Serves 4

2tbs vegetable oil
20 curry leaves *
1/2 tsp chilli flakes, or more to taste
1 cinnamon quill
1 onion, halved, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
185g jar Malaysian Curry Paste **
800 - 1kg chicken thigh fillets, trimmed and cut into cubes
2tbs coconut milk ***
2 large desiree potatoes, quartered lengthwise
1 tsp sugar
50g unsalted peanuts, roughly chopped
coriander sprigs, hard boiled eggs and steam rice to serve

Heat oil in a deep frying pano voer medium high heat.  Add curry leaves and chilli flakes, and fry for 1 minute or until curry leaves are crisp.  Remove and drain on a paper towel.

Add the cinnamon, onion and garlic to the pan and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes, or until the onion is soft.  Add the curry paste and stir for 2 minutes or until fragrant.  Add the chicken and cook for 3 minutes until well coated.  Add 1/2 cup water, coconut milk, potatoes and sugar.  Season with salt and stir to combine.

Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer over low-medium heat for 25 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and the chicken is cooked.

Divide the curry among bowls and scatter with the curry leaves, peanuts and coriander sprigs.  Serve with quartered hard boiled eggs.

* I think you need to double the amount - fry off half and put the other half in the curry while cooking
** I used Ayam brand
*** I omitted the water and added more coconut milk - around 200ml

Homemade Naan Bread

FromMeat on the Menu Thermomix Cookbook

1 egg

50 olive oil

200g milk

210g greek style plain yoghurt

2 tsp yeast

600g bakers flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

Place the egg, oil, milk, yoghurt and yeast into the TM bowl and mix for 5 seconds on speed 3.  Cook for 4 minutes at 50 degrees on speed 3.  Leave in TM bowl for approximately 10 minutes to activate yeast.

Add the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder into the TM bowl.  Set dial to closed lid position and knead for 3 minutes on interval speed.  Place the dough into a large oiled bowl.  Cover tightly with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place to rise for up to 2 hours.

Preheat oven to at least 200 degrees C.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead by hand until smooth.  Divide the dough equally. Roll out to 1/2cm thickness.  Stretch by hand into a pear shape.  Place onto a baking sheet that has been lined with baking paper.  Bake in the hot oven for around 5-8 minutes, or until golden. You do not need to turn them over.

 Serve with curry....

Has anyone else made this curry - I would be interested to hear your thoughts on it.  I just think it lacked a little something - I was so disappointed after all that anticipation.

It does look nice though!!!!