Chef Marc Michelon Malaysian Curry.
While this curry is nice and summery, it also hits the spot when you want something substantial with a bit of heat.
Recipe serves six
MALAYSIAN CHICKEN RENDANG
4 organic chicken fillets
6 cloves of garlic
1 large onion
2 to 3 tbsp of red curry paste
3 tbsp of coconut oil or chicken fat
1 large root ginger
3 to 4 sprigs of lemongrass
A can of coconut milk (optional)
Nam pla (fish sauce) to taste (around 2 tbsp depending on
saltiness)
Handful of fresh coriander
Hot sauce to garnish
Handful of freshly chopped coriander
1 or 2 chillis chopped with the seeds in
The juice of a lime
A splash of nam pla
Cut the chicken into strips and brown it in the coconut oil or chicken fat. Remove it from the pan and leave to one side. To the juices add the curry paste, and finely chopped garlic, lemongrass, ginger and onion. Fry it well until it reduces to a nearly-dry consistency. At this stage you can add the coconut milk if you like a liquid curry. Otherwise add the chicken back into the sauce and cook for a further 10 minutes. Stir in the nam pla to taste and add coriander just before serving.
Combine the hot sauce ingredients and this can be drizzled on top to add an extra kick. We do this in the restaurant and people adore it. You can make up the sauce and keep it in the fridge. The flavours intensify and it is terribly easy to just fry up chicken and add in the sauce. It also works well with prawns or beef. We serve it with sticky basmati rice with the green coriander seed (that comes just as your coriander plant bolts), stirred through the rice.
Marc Michel's Organic Life restaurant: 01-2011882