A few weeks ago my husband and I were fortunate enough to meet one of our favourite celebrity chefs, Lynn Crawford. Yes, we were Food Groupies for a day. A new experience for us and actually kind of fun. Weird but fun. Even though I was pretty nervous to meet a famous person. I'm such a nerd. I stressed about what to say to her as we waited our turn in the lineup for her to autograph our book, "At Home with Lynn Crawford: 200 of my favourite easy recipes." But I needn't have worried as my husband decided to talk to her about hotdogs (!?) Yah, I know, he's so cool and that's why I love him. If you have never heard of her...then you must live under a rock somewhere...kidding! No, on second thought, I'm serious about that. We first heard of Lynn Crawford, when we enjoyed and had cable, on a little old show on the Canada Food Network called "Restaurant Makeover." She was one of our favourites as she always seemed to be so down to earth, was humorous, blunt without being facetious, and her recipe ideas sounded simple and delicious. She's been on "Iron Chef America" (only the third Canadian to do so according to Wikipedia, so it must be true), "Top Chef Masters" (lost out because her brownie was deemed "too sweet" WTF???) and is on a new show called "Pitchin In." Watch it if you can. She's good. She also owns a restaurant in Toronto called RubyWatch Co. (went there for dinner a few nights ago...was totally worth being stuck in 3 1/2 hours of traffic to enjoy her food...who the heck thinks travelling anywhere on a Friday night of a long weekend is a good idea???)
Suffice to say, we've been oohing and ahhing over her new cookbook and have bookmarked several recipes to test out. She had me totally won over when a few of her breakfast recipes included booze as one of the ingredients. There is no better combination than booze and breakfast. What a perfect concept! Plus the last recipe in the book is one for the dogs, literally. Dog biscuits for her two favourite pooches. As an animal lover (4 cats) and a new dog owner (Sidvicious or Sidlicious depending on the day), this totally won me over. I am that easy.
If you've been following this blog at all (no pressure, but there is plenty of good stuff tested here) then you know I've been trying out lots of curries. I think my quest may end here. This has by and far been my favourite curry recipe. It did take some prep time (an hour to make the sauce) but it was soooo worth it. I will make the sauce up ahead of time and freeze it for time crunched healthy meals through the week. And I will also make some up and give to one of my good friends who is also a curry aficionando (you know who you are). That is how nice I am and how good this recipe is : I can't wait to share it with the ones I love. It is a very rich and mild curry, however you can spice it up a notch by adding more cayenne etc. if you should so choose. I served it alongside some brown basmati rice, naan bread and cilantro for garnish. Delicious. That pretty much sums it up. Cheers!
Chicken Curry
from Chef Lynn Crawford's cookbook "At Home with Lynn Crawford" 2013
Serves 4
Curry Sauce
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 lb onions (about 3 medium) (I used 8-10 small shallots), chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
3 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 cups tomato juice
2 cups chicken stock
salt, pepper and cayenne pepper to taste
Chicken Curry
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut in 1 inch cubes
1/2 cup diced mixed bell peppers
1/2 cup diced carrot
1/2 cup diced celery ( I omitted celery and just added more carrots and peppers)
cilantro, chopped, for garnish
Curry sauce: Heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Add oil and onions, stirring frequently, until light brown (about 15 minutes.)
Add garlic, curry powder, garam masala, cumin, cardamom, and turmeric. cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to low. Stir in coconut milk, combining well, then add the tomato juice and the chicken stock. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens, about 1 hour.
Season sauce to taste with salt, black pepper and cayenne. Let cool for 10 minutes, then puree until smooth. Reserve 4 cups of the sauce for the chicken; refrigerate or freeze remaining sauce for future use.
Chicken: Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add oil. Add chicken and saute until browned on all sides, about 10 minutes.
Add peppers, carrot, celery and saute until vegetables are tender-crisp, about 5 minutes. Stir in curry sauce, bring mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook sauce for another 10 minutes or so. Serve immediately, spooned over basmati rice (or bulgur etc) with naan bread. Garnish with delicious cilantro.
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