Kari Kapitan Chicken Curry - Nyonya (Nonya) Chicken Curry

 
Kari Kapitan is like no other Indian or Thai Curry chicken you have ever made, finding the fresh ingredients is the hard part but doing so will change your cooking forever.

Dish Description Malaysian Chicken Curry with coconut, chillies, tamarind, turmeric, lime leaves, lemon grass, easy, quick.

Next time I'll remember to take a pic of the finished dish. Above is when I had just added the chicken fillets.

Story

15th Century Malacca covered an area from Southern Thailand, to Sumatra in the South, traders from China, India, Persia etc flocked to the important Sultanate. Chinese traders and settlers married local women, and 'Peranakans' are the ethnic group that derive from the first wave of Chinese immigrants, men are known as baba and women nonya or nyonya.  They are said to be Chinese but not Chinese. Their cuisine a mix of Chinese and Thai.

I've been making a  fab Thai chicken curry forever and this recipe is just as great (see elsewhere on the blog).  The sensations of sweet, hot, sour, salt with the perfume of lime leaves and lemon grass is awesome. For this dish you do need fresh spices though, but the effort to get them is worth it and galangal, turmeric, etc will live happily in a freezer, long time honey..

Recipe and Ingredients:-

Anyway, above are the ingredients for Kari Kapitan so called after a local leader (a Kapitan) demanded the cook make curry. Not shown is a couple of (skinned) chicken breasts that have been marinating in light soy and madras curry powder overnight.

Rempah - is the paste - see below

Soak some long red dried chillies in a little hot water and then add to the rampah blend of shallots, turmeric, ginger, galangal, fresh chillies. Blend to make a paste. You could add lemon grass to the blend but I add it to the sauce as it isn't fresh in the UK.

Fry the rempah in a little oil for a few minutes, then add chicken stock, Kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, tamarind paste, brown sugar, salt, lemon juice, bring to a simmer and then add your chicken fillets and simmer.

Add some large chunks of sweet potato and continue to cook, allowing it to reduce a little.

Taste for saltiness, sweetness, sourness and heat. When your sweet potatoes are done your chicken ought to be too, reduce the heat and add a tin of coconut cream, bring to a simmer again and serve.

Enjoy

Andrew