This recipe for a Malay style chicken curry can be considered a base curry from which a number of deviations can be made. You may choose to add more or less chilli, add onion and or potato, adjust the spice mix or Nonyacise it (yes I just made up that word) by increasing lemon grass and shrimp paste or make it more traditional by removing those items all together and increasing the tamarind content.

Ingredients

• 1 kg Chicken pieces
• Vegetable Oil
• 2 Cups of Coconut Milk (not cream)
• 1 Cup of Chicken Stock
• Salt (To taste)
• 2 Teaspoons of Sugar

Curry Paste - Dry Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons of Coriander Seed
• 2 Teaspoons of Cumin Seed
• 1 Piece of Cinnamon Bark (The rough variety not the smooth one)
• 1 Teaspoon of Fennel Seeds
• 3 Cloves
• 5-15 Dry Chillies
• 1 Teaspoon of Whole Black Pepper

Curry Paste - Wet Ingredients

• 1 Teaspoon of Shrimp Paste (Trasi)
• Lemon Grass
• 2cm of Galangal
• 3cm of Fresh Turmeric or 1 Teaspoon of Turmeric Powder
• 4 Candle Nuts or Macadamia Nuts as a substitute
• 4 Cloves of Garlic

Instructions

Gently roast the dry curry paste ingredients in a dry fry pan until pungent. Transfer both dry and wet curry paste ingredients to a blender and blend until a smooth paste. Remove paste and fry gently in vegetable oil in a large wok before adding chicken pieces and continuing frying until the chicken is browned. Add coconut milk, chicken stock and sugar and simmer until chicken is cooked through. Add additional water as needed to compensate for evaporation ensuring a thin sauce rather than a thick coconut milk one common to Thai curries. Pour over white or coconut rice.