malvasia bianca

The third in our “chicken curry by country” series. Or, I suppose, the fourth in our “chicken curry” series; I don’t have a single Indian version to highlight, but we’ve already seen one from (or at least inspired by) that country, and I’ll doubtless come up with more.

Don’t worry about finding all the ingredients for this one: it will be fine if you leave off lemongrass, curry leaves, and/or cardamom pods. For that matter, if you happen to have access to rampa, feel free to throw three one-inch pieces into the pot; I’m not quite sure what the stuff even is! Also, don’t let the number of ingredients deter you from making this one: all you have to do is chop stuff up, marinade overnight, and dump it in a pot. It’s actually quite nice for evenings when you have a bit of extra energy and want to prepare something simple but (quite) good to make when you come home from work the next day.

I only have this in a xerox copy (I borrowed the book from my Pali professor a long time ago); searching on Amazon, I think it’s the book of that title by Balasuriya and Winegar, but I could be wrong.

Sri Lankan Chicken Curry, from Fire and Spice

Marinade:
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/4 cup garlic, chopped
1/4 cup ginger, minced
1 tsp each turmeric, ground coriander, ground cumin, and cayenne pepper
4 whole cloves
4 cardamom pods, crushed
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 1/2 Tbsp cider vinegar

1 – 1 1/2 lbs chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 can coconut milk
1 stick cinnamon
salt to taste
8 curry leaves
2 one-inch pieces of lemongrass

Combine marinade ingredients with chicken; marinate several hours our overnight. Dump everything in a pot and cook over low heat for about half an hour.