This journey begins in the later days of 2020. We had locked down and stayed safe since late March. My girlfriend was my lockdown partner as we both agreed to stay smart and stay away from everyone else when possible. We never got covid. But it also meant that I had exhausted my culinary prowess. There’s only so much homemade spaghetti you can eat in one year. So I came up with an idea, World Chicken Tour.
We chose chicken for several reasons. Weight loss, the desire to not contribute to further depletion of the Amazon and denying the cattle industry there a couple customers, price and the varieties of recipes that I could think of off the top of my head that I wanted to try.
World Chicken Tour started in New Mexico with Chicken Adoba; Peru for Cilantro Lime Chicken; Ukraine for Chicken Kiev; France for Chicken Fricassee and then we went to India. As a life long bachelor I’ve never owned a cookbook. But in these cases I found and printed out a recipe online and followed it to the letter. Hell, we were really bored! This was the first time I bought certain spices that the recipe called for. Would the local market even carry garam masala? And what the heck was it? Well, that first attempt was fairly simple. A diced tomato and yogurt base for the sauce and a sprinkle of fresh cilantro and garam masala on the top as it simmered. Wow.
We had never tasted something so good that I cooked. I was stunned that I could make something so yummy. It rapidly became our go to dish. We just couldn’t get enough! As a stated life long bachelor, I quickly went Dr. Frankenstein on these dishes. Frozen peas, green beans, lima beans, sweet potatoes, jicama all made a rotation through different iterations in the desire to add more vegetables because I found myself eating once a day. One bowl of this stuff lasted me all day. Of course hunger would creep in but I always disregard the notion. Going hungry is one of the ways I like to attempt to stay humble. I never want to forget what it was like to be poor. It’s better to be grateful for all of my blessings.
But something happened that I did not expect. I lost all my winter weight before winter was over! Thinking about it, I realized that without even trying, my girlfriend and I had cut out all dairy (except the yogurt). I hadn’t had red meat in months. The only sugar was in my one cup of coffee in the morning and whatever sugar my body made from my couple beers during Sanity Hour, Happy Hour being replaced in early 2020.
I noticed myself thinking about other things too. One of the best aspects about learning to cook Indian dishes was learning about all the different spices. Once I had started to grasp the relationship in taste with all these spices, I started experimenting with these. I took different parts of different recipes and used those spices that sounded like they would compliment what I was doing. Nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon all became regular additions. But wait a sec. If these were traditional spices used in India, why do I have such strong mental attachments to them as traditional “European” dishes? Can you imagine, say pumpkin pie, without nutmeg, cloves or cinnamon? How about all the yummy stuff like mincemeat, snickerdoodles or apple cider? Then I started thinking about all the history books I’ve read.
We all know that everyone since Vasco De Gama has gone on trips to India and acted like a bunch of spoiled rotten jerks when they get there. Why did they keep this atrocious behavior up for so long? Was it because they were in such a foul mood because their food sucked? Is that why they went to such great lengths to procure all these spices and pack them into tiny little ships and haul them all the way around Africa back to home? I know what it’s like to eat bland tasteless food month after month, I’ve been to the midwest. And now, I would be wiling to go to the ends of the earth to get spices that blow my palate away. I would like to think that I would do it with much more dignity and less murder than our forebearers.
My neighbor is such a sweet woman. She found the complete book of Indian cooking and left it on my door step one afternoon. I never thought it would happen but I spent my own money and bought a cookbook too, dealing with all sorts of recipes found on the streets of cities across the country. Now, rarely do we cook the same dish the same way twice. I have been incorporating all sorts of twists and turns to come up with the next, best dish I have ever made. I also garden and ordered seeds for things I suspect I can grow here to get even fresher flavors. I can’t wait to try my hand at growing Cumin and harvesting the seeds. I love the idea in participating in a ritual that my brothers and sisters on the other side of the world have been doing for centuries. Just by cooking these dishes I feel more connected to humanity.
So, I present my recipe as close to what I can estimate as an actual recipe instead of the flurry of chopping and chaos that occurs in the kitchen when we cook. I make a big batch so I don’t have to cook for the rest of the week. Again, bachelor. Don’t be afraid to change what you want but most of all do this together with your loved ones. Turn it into a party.
I caramelize all of these together in a big skillet-
three sticks of cinnamon
tbls carroway seed
12 cardomom pods, these are the greatest find I have made in this journey
20 whole cloves
while I am measuring out spices, my girlfriend is chopping the following,
2 medium sized onions
8 or 10 serrano peppers
2 bulbs of garlic
a large ginger root
stirring occasionally, this is the time when we sit on the couch and bring each other up to speed on the events that happened since we last saw each other. I fortify myself with bourbon and beer for the next steps.
Once cooked well, I throw everything into a big pot and set to low heat. I then fry up a large sweet potato cut up into bite sized pieces. Any hard veggies that you want to put in work really well at this step.
Once they are fairly done, I throw them into the pot and proceed to the step that has turned my house into the best smelling house on the block.
3 lbs of chicken breasts sliced up for stirfry get coated with the following spices in a bowl.
4 tbls of tumeric
2 tbls of cumin
2 tbls of garam masala
2 tbls of curry powder
1 tbls of nutmeg
1 tbls of clove powder
1 tbls of red chili powder
1 tbls of corriander
1 tbls of paprika
Throw all of this in the skillet and simmer until the chicken is mostly done. Then throw it in the pot!
I start the rice cooking at this time. I add one bunch of chopped cilantro, a quart of yogurt and a can of tomato paste in the pot. Mix it up and let simmer while the rice is going. I top the pot off with another bunch of chopped cilantro and a couple tbls of garm masala to create a crust on top as the juices start to bubble up. Time for more bourbon and beer.
I’ve tried my hand at several batches of Naan bread. I’m no baker. So we use store bought flatbread. Yummy. I no longer have to cook the bread in the skillet at this time, but go for it!
I toss a half a bag of shredded coconut in a bowl with a couple tbls of tumeric, making sure there’s no white showing. I throw this in the skillet with no oil and toast while stirring constantly so it doesn’t burn. When it’s nice and browned the rice is usually done. Time to eat!
I toss the coconut on top of my bowl with a half of a lemons worth of squeezins.
Don’t try to eat the cinnamon sticks. For some reason, some batches are spicier than others. Half way through the bowl we take a break to blow our noses and mop our foreheads. We play a game where every time one of us bites into a cardomom pod we shout out, Cardamom! If you have never had this experience, this is reason enough to try this dish. Holy cow they are good. No wonder they are considered the second most expensive spice on the planet after saffron.
So do your taste bud a solid and try this out. Of course I would love feedback and suggestions on how you would tweak this dish. I do love to experiment.