Shahjahani Murgh (Indian)

Maybe this will surprise you, but I'm not a stranger to Indian cuisine.  As with all my phases, my Indian phase lasted maybe four months where I would cook 2 different curries and serve them with rice and one of the many Indian flat breads, or some appetizers and chutneys and raita, and this EVERY day.  I love really spicy Indian curries that makes your nose leak!  By the way, Indians call "curry" everything in sauce, it doesn't need to contain "curry powder".

(I posted the best, most authentic butter chicken and a tandoori marinade before, see here: http://sunnysdelights.blogspot.ca/search/label/Indian)

When you think curry, you probably think bold and spicy flavours.  This Chicken Shah Jahan doesn't fit in this category at all.  It is creamy and contains a lot of different spices like other curries, but it's not spicy at all (there's no chilli in any form in this curry) and has very mild but complex aromas.  It's a really subtle but delicious dish.

I took this recipe from the book Cuisine Indienne by Manju Malhi.  I have some really good cookbooks written by foreigners to the country where the recipes are from, but I usually trust, lets say, an Indian cookbook written by an Indian lady, I know it has more chances of being authentic, it's all about authenticity with me!  Anyways, in the book, they explain that Shah Jahan was the emperor who ordered the construction of the Taj Mahal for his favourite wife, Mumtaz-i Mahal.  This dish was created for him.  If that curry was made for an emperor, it has to be good for me, no?

You might be scared with all the spices, but just find a small Indian market, Indian people are usually really nice and happy to see non-Indians interested in their food!  They'll help you find whatever you need, and spices are like 2 to 4 dollars each. Once I asked a store-owner for some spice, he told me to wait, exited his shop and came back with the spices I needed, but since he didn't have them, he bought them for me from a near shop.  He also gave me a bag of fresh curry leaves on the branch for free.  Each time I go there I'm received like a friend! When I started my Indian cooking phase, my boyfriend bought me two books, I went through all the recipes and made a list of all the spices, seeds and powdered version.  It cost me a total of $30-40! Also, Indian cooking only requires a pan, and maybe a coffee grinder or small food processor to grind your own masalas.  It's a really easy, often quick and cheap cuisine.  And curries are essentially always cooked the same, first whole spices and onions, garlic and ginger, then meat/lentils/peas/paneer, then cream or yoghurt if used and powdered spices.  That simple. 

So here is the recipe for Shahjahani Murgh from the book Cuisine Indienne by Manju Malhi.  There is so many good chefs on YouTube and the internet, incredible authentic resources on the internet if you are interested in Indian cooking (luckily most Indians speak a good English, so it's easy to find real Indian food!).  If you are interested, I thought I'd post a list of all my resources for all different ethnic cooking I've been into since I started cooking seriously, 3-4 years ago (I still have a long post to write about Ramen today, so maybe the resources will wait tomorrow).

(serves 2-3)

Masala (is it the good term, I think masala is a spice mix...?)

-3 bay leaves

-3 black cardamom pods

-4 green cardamom pods

-1 cinnamon stick

-4 cloves

-1/4tsp cumin seeds

-10 black peppercorn

-2tbsp ghee or butter (to make a ghee replacement if you're motivated, melt a couple spoons of butter and remove the scums, there you have it, clarified butter!)

-1 onion, finely chopped

-3 garlic cloves, finely grated or puréed 

-1tsp peeled ginger, finely grated

-1/4tsp salt

-1/4tsp white pepper

-400g chicken breast in cubes

-4tbsp cream (I use fat 30%)

-10 saffron strands, Spanish and Iranian preferred to American of course (mixed and resting in the cream while cooking the rest)

-100ml water

-2tbsp almond powder (I grind almonds with skins in a coffee grinder)

-some fine ginger matchsticks for garnish

In a warm non-stick pan, on medium-high, melt the butter or the ghee and add the masala ingredients.  Roast a couple second until aromatic, then add the onion, the garlic and the ginger and stir-fry for 3-5 minutes. Add the chicken cubes and cook for 10 minutes (at this stage the chicken should be white, but it might not totally be cooked in the center, that's fine).

Make the almond powder rain over the chicken, mix and cook 2 minutes.  Add the salt, the white pepper and the saffron cream and water and cook 2 more minutes or until the thickness of the sauce is to your taste.  Top with ginger strips and serve with basmati rice (and maybe a lentil curry or some aloo gobi perhaps)?