Indira Naidoo summer cookbook recipe: Selvie’s chicken curry with curry leaves

When our spice couriers managed to get their contraband through customs, there was much celebrating – usually in the form of Mum’s fragrant chicken curry.

Indira Naidoo

Indira Naidoo: The Way to the Heart

2 min read

12:00AMJanuary 05, 2023.

Updated 7:45AMJanuary 05, 2023

Every day this summer, we’ll publish an exclusive recipe from a favourite Australian author, dishes made with affection for family, friends or someone special.

When my family first settled in Tasmania in the 1970s, it was impossible to source many of the spices my mum, Selvie, used in her South African Indian cooking.

While commonplace now, back then few Australians would have heard of cardamom, curry leaves or even coriander.

This forced my parents to bend a few biosecurity rules in order to replicate their favourite dishes from their homeland.

Our South African aiya (granny) would sometimes smuggle in her suitcases packets of masala (curry powders) wrapped in her exotic saris.

And Australia Post unwittingly facilitated an international seed exchange program that would horrify today’s border security authorities.

But when our spice couriers managed to get their contraband through customs, there was much celebrating – usually in the form of Mum’s fragrant chicken curry.

2 tablespoons ghee

2 brown onions, finely sliced

4 cloves organic garlic, crushed

5 cm piece young ginger, grated

1 cinnamon stick

3 cardamom pods, cracked

4 cloves

2 dried bay leaves

20 curry leaves

2 teaspoons ground fennel

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon hot smoked paprika

1 teaspoon mild curry powder

3 teaspoons salt

6-8 chicken drumsticks

2 large tomatoes, chopped

6 potatoes, skin left on, scrubbed and halved

1.5 litres boiling water

Handful chopped coriander leaves

Steamed basmati rice, to serve

1. Melt the ghee in a large heavy-based casserole over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 10 minutes or until it is just beginning to caramelise. Add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, bay leaves and curry leaves and fry for 2-3 minutes or until fragrant.

2. Reduce the heat to low, add the ground spices and salt and fry for 3-4 minutes. Be careful not to burn the spices or the curry will have an acrid taste; you may need to add a little more ghee if the mixture gets too dry.

3. Increase the heat to medium-high and add the chicken pieces, turning to ensure they are well coated with the spices. Fry for 5-8 minutes or until the chicken pieces are golden.

4. Add the chopped tomato and cook for 10 minutes until it has reduced to a thick sauce.

5. Next add the potato and cook for 5 minutes.

6. Finally, add the boiling water and cook over medium-high heat for about 1 hour or until the potato is soft. The liquid will have reduced by half, and the potato will have thickened the sauce slightly.

7. Stir through the coriander and serve the curry with steamed basmati rice alongside. Serves 6.

Indira Naidoo is one of Australia’s most popular broadcasters. In recent years her journalistic interest has focused on the role that global environmental issues play in conflict, poverty and food security. Her first bestseller, The Edible Balcony, was about growing food in small spaces and her second book, The Edible City, was about community gardening. Her latest book, The Space Between The Stars, is about the healing powers of nature.

The Space Between the Stars: On Love, Loss and the Magical Power of Nature to Heal, by Indira Naidoo, Murdoch.

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Indira Naidoo summer cookbook recipe: Selvie’s chicken curry with curry leaves

SUMMER COOKBOOK: THE WAY TO THE HEART

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