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| Food and Wine’s Grace Parisi |
We love a good curry at our house. It’s warming and satisfying on all levels. This particular recipe is the product of that master chef at Food and Wine magazine, Grace Parisi. What Grace has achieved here is a melding of flavors that would lead you to believe that the dish has been happily percolating on the stove for hours. Actually, the whole thing takes a little over a half hour to make. What you end up with is a creamy curry rich with the tang of Greek-style yogurt. And Grace has blended in tomatoes, corn kernels, Serrano chile, ginger and curry powder for a truly flavorful dish. Surprisingly, even with the addition of the Serrano chile, the curry comes off as mildly spicy with just enough heat to add interest. I adapted this recipe slightly with some ideas I think are worth sharing.
Grace’s recipe appeared in an August issue of Food and Wine. Grace no doubt availed herself of summer’s perfectly ripe tomatoes. She also used fresh corn kernels. Now that we’re deep in fall, the last of the summer tomatoes are a happy memory and freshly-picked corn on the cob is long gone. Instead, we used some excellent greenhouse grown, vine ripened tomatoes grown, according to the “clam shell” they come in, in Kingston, Ontario. They’re called “Gourmet Medley” and they’re an assortment of cherry-sized tomatoes in a variety of colors. They added so much color to the dish! For the corn, we went straight to the Giant. The Green Giant niblets were a worthy substitute. We served this dish with Basmati rice to soak up as much of the delicious sauce as we could. And for some more color, we steamed some sugar snap peas. This is an easy evening meal which will satisfy you on many levels. Here’s the recipe:
Recipe for Curry-and-Yogurt-Braised Chicken adapted from Grace Parisi
1/4 cup grapeseed or canola oil
1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs
Salt and freshly ground pepper
All-purpose flour, for dusting
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
1 garlic clove, minced
1 serrano chile, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper—cored, seeded and cut in thin strips
1 tablespoon Madras curry powder
1 pound tomatoes, cored and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup fresh corn kernels (from 1 ear)
1/4 cup Greek-style plain low-fat yogurt
1/2 cup water
Cilantro leaves, for garnish
1. In a large, deep skillet, heat the oil. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and lightly dust with flour, tapping off the excess. Add the chicken to the skillet and cook over high heat, turning once, until lightly browned, 6 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate.
2. Add the ginger, garlic, chile and bell pepper to the skillet and cook over high heat until slightly softened, about 2 minutes. Stir in the curry powder and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, corn, yogurt and water; stir until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Return the chicken and any accumulated juices to the skillet and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over very low heat until the chicken is tender and the juices are slightly thickened, about 15 minutes. Sprinkle the chicken with cilantro and serve.
