sri lanka chicken curry with cashew coconut sauce

After trying Sri Lankan Curry in Hakone, I looked in one of my cookbooks, "Madhur Jafferey's Ultimate Curry Bible"...

Thursday was a cold rainy day (we even had thunder and lightning, some places even had hail!)...perfect for trying the recipe.

I adlibbed here and there because I was lazy and because I didn't have some of the ingredients.

Sri Lanka Chicken Curry with Cashew Coconut Sauce (servings 2) adapted from "Madhur Jafferey's Ultimate Curry Bible"

80 grams skinless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
1 teaspoon garam masala
dash of cayenne pepper
pinch of salt

1/2 tablespoon mochiko (rice flour)
1 tablespoon unsweetened coconut, smashed with rolling pin
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground clove
1 tablespoon raw cashew, smashed with rolling pin
30 milliliters water

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 red onion, minced
1/2 stick cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1/2 clove garlic, minced
5 dried curry leaves

50 grams diced tomatoes
300 milliliters consomme stock

60 milliliters coconut milk

Massage the garam masala, cayenne & salt into the chicken then set aside for 15-20 minutes.
In a plastic bag, with a rolling pin, smash the raw cashews and coconut.
Mix with cardamom, clove, mochiko and water to make a paste then set aside.
In a pan, heat olive oil then add onions, when onions get translucent, add cinnamon, fenugreek, garlic, curry leaves to heat the spices with the oil.
Add the chicken and brown slightly.
Add the tomatoes, stock and nut paste.
Bring to a boil, cover then reduce the heat to low.
Cook gently for 15 minutes.
Stir in coconut milk, then turn off heat.

NOTES: Apparently cashews and coconut are commodities of Sri Lanka, so this recipe incorporates them.

I read somewhere that curry leaves can substitute for pandan (ingredient in the original recipe), so that is what I used.

I also don't have a spice mill (and was too lazy to take out my food processor), so I just smashed the cashews and coconut in a plastic bag with a rolling pin.

The recipe also instructs you to make a rice flour by toasting it then putting the rice into a spice mill, since I already have mochiko (rice flour), that is what I used.

The cookbook does not have many photos, so I am not too sure what this curry was supposed to look like, but I think I should've cooked it without covering so that some of the liquid could have evaporated.

Satoshi said it was tasty and would've been better with rice.

Getting everything together before starting to cook made things go smoothly and I'm glad I finally tried a recipe from this book.

I hope to try other recipes in the coming weeks.