Burmese Curry

== Description ==
Well - I had a go at cooking a Burmese style Chicken curry.I have to admit that cooking this dish was very much an Indian/Chinese “fusion” experience: it’s effectively a Punjabi-style Chicken dish - but without tomatoes or peppers - and instead: coconut milk and besan (gram flour) with a dash of Thai sauce at the finish.
Here is a Route79-style illustrated guide to cooking this exquisite dish:
== Ingredients ==
* 8 medium-size Chicken thighs - no bone - no skin - chopped into bite-size chunks.
* 2 medium onions - sliced relatively finely.
* 400ml of chicken broth. I made this from a Marks and Spencer concentrate jar - although you could just use Oxo or “bouillon” Chicken cubes.
* 100ml of coconut milk - I made this from “Rajah creamed coconut” bar - chopping off a chunk and dissolving it in warm water.
* 3 tablespoons of gram flour (which is ground chick-pea flour - otherwise called “besan”).
* 1 chunk of pre-pulped garlic. (See a previous recipe where I explain what these pre-pulped garlic and ginger pieces are.)
* 1 chunk of pre-pulped ginger.
* 1 cinnamon stick (otherwise known as dal-chini) slit into two pieces.
* 2 bay leaves. (Did you know that bay leaf is the leaf of the “laurel” tree? The leaves of this tree were considered holy in the days of the Roman Empire - and were used to “crown” honoured people - hence the laurel wreath and hence the term “resting on your laurels”.)
* Spices: Ground coriander, garam masala, chillie, salt, turmeric.
* A bottle of Thai sauce - just a few drops needed for this dish. 
== Directions ==
Fry the onions in some vegetable oil for a few minutes - until they are translucentish. Then add the spices - a teapoon of turmeric, a teaspoon of chillie powder, a teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of coriander and 2 teaspoons of garam masala. Stir well.
Once the onions/spice mixture has been stirred well - add the chopped Chicken thigh pieces - and stir fry on high heat:
Thoroughly coat the Chicken in the Onion/spice mixture - until the Chicken has gone “rubbery”. Then add the pre-prepared chicken broth, as well as the bay leaves and cinnamon stick pieces:
Simmer the pot for around 20 minutes. Whilst that is simmering - add about half-glass of warm water to the gram flour powder and stir until all lumps are out. Sieve through a tea-strainer to make sure you remove all lumps of clumped gram flour - and then pour into Chicken pot. Stir and then pour in the coconut milk. Stir thoroughly - at this point the pot should be thickening a bit. Keep stirring until you get to a consistent simmer. Leave it simmering with lid off for another 30 mins.
After the 30 mins of simmering - add a few drops of Thai sauce from the bottle and stir thoroughly:
Taste to ensure that there’s enough salt - and add some if needed. Stir thoroughly.
Turn off the heat - and it’s done! Serve on a bed of freshly-cooked rice noodles - or else (as in my case) on a bed of freshly-cooked basmati rice.
Enjoy!
I really enjoyed cooking that - the coconut milk, gram flour and sauce add a completely different dimension to the sort of North Indian cooking that I’m used to - but I certainly will be cooking something like this again!
== Recipe by Route 79 ==
We need a general description of the blog
Category:Basmati rice Recipes
Category:Chicken Recipes
Category:Chicken stock and broth Recipes
Category:Chickpea flour Recipes
Category:Coconut Recipes
Category:Coconut milk Recipes
Category:Curry Recipes
Category:Fish Recipes
Category:Garam masala Recipes