Caravan chicken, a chicken curry using my simple spice kit I take with me everywhere and the usual produce available to everybody in our local supermarkets.
Hubby and I spent a week recently off grid in a caravan nestled in the Welsh hills. It’s a beautiful hideaway, far from chaos, Covid and every day mayhem.
It’s a friend’s caravan and it was nice to get away again this year, only this year it was just the two of us.
We picked up a few things at the closest supermarket. We didn’t have a fridge and we had some fun with no electricity for a couple days which added to the sense of adventure! I resorted to cooking using the torch from one mobile as we did not have any facility to charge our phones unless we sat in our cars. Not that it mattered as there was no signal unless you drove about 4 miles to a isolated bridge in the middle of nowhere! It was pitch black, I mean the blackest of black! But we loved it! The most dazzling sparkling stars and shooting star extravaganza I’ve had the delight to witness! Better still I loved cooking with the absolute basics and I have to admit it, we had some fabulous food some evenings chilling with a good DVD when we had the electricity back!
The key difference here is that I didn’t have any indulgent ingredients and what was cooked was the most simplest with the most basic curry ingredients, but what was made tasted absolutely delicious.
With very little to do in the evenings it was easy to jot down the recipe and method. I thought it would be useful to put it up on the website as they could potentially be useful for a quick midweek curry. No faff, little prep and fab food!
Sorry about photo quality but it was torchlight pics!
INGREDIENTS:
4 small chicken thighs diced small
4 tbsp tomato puree
2 med potatoes cut into 1 inch pieces skin on (optional)
2 med onions diced small
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay
5 cloves of garlic chopped fine
2 tsp East End Kashmiri Basar powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder ,
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp salt
METHOD:
Heat the oil in a nonstick pan then add the cinnamon stick and bayleaf.
Let this become aromatic and then add the onions, salt and garlic.
Fry till the onions are golden.
Add the tomato puree and continue to cook on a medium low heat stirring intermittently.
Fry till oil splits, add splashes of water and cook repeatedly till the oil separates and until onions are soft and mushy.
Now add the powdered spices, cook for a few minutes. Add splashes of water till oil splits. Do this for approximately 5mins
Now add the chicken and potatoes. Stir well.
Cook covered on low heat till the potatoes and chicken is cooked. Do not add water. The thighs will release its own juices. Just cook on low heat covered. Cooking it this way will help give you an intense flavourful sauce.
You should have enough sauce if cooked on a low simmer.
I served this with a portion of rice, however a few tortilla wraps heated on a naked flame will do wonders to accompany your meal!
TIPS:
If you have fresh tomatoes add 1 chopped with or instead of the tomato puree.
If you don’t have cinnamon or bay leaf you can still cook without.
Spices are essential!
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