Feng Curry

I'm always  looking for inspiration to try out a new dish to add to my repertoire of food-to-cook-for-dinner. I decided to give this dish a go when I saw the interesting use of spices as I  started flipping through one of my cookbooks.

Verdict: Certainly worth a repeat.

It appears that Feng Curry is a special dish, usually eaten at Christmas by the Portuguese Eurasians. The authentic version uses offal or pork, cut into small cubes. I substituted the meat with chicken and also modified the recipe a little bit as my way of experimenting. I hope the Eurasians don't take offence to me bastardising their dish!

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients A:

• some oil
• 3 cm fresh ginger root, peeled and shredded
• 1 kg chicken cut into cubes
• 1 half chicken stock cube (non-msg)
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 3 tbsp dried italian basil*
• 1 tspn sage*
• half a lime*
• 2 tbsp peppercorns*
• Salt to taste

Ingredients B (for paste):

• 2 tbsp coriander seed powder
• 2-3 tspn cumin seed
• 2-3 tspn fennel seed or anise
• 2 tspn ground white pepper
• 1 tspn ground tumeric/tumeric powder
• 3 cloves garlic
• 7 shallots
• 2-3 stalks of chilli padi*

*Denote where I have modified the recipe by adding some other ingredients to enhance the tatse

Method:

1. Blend all the ingredients B to make a paste.
2. Heat oil in wok and fry the ginger until light brown. Remove and set aside.
3. Add the blended spice paste and fry till fragrant and slightly dry.
4. Add the meat and mix well.
5. Add the stock cubes and simmer over low fire until meat is tender and gravy is thick.
6. Add in the fried ginger, vinegar and salt
7. Lastly, sprinkle over the italian basil, sage, peppercorns and squeeze some lime. Continue to simmer over low heat.
8. Serve with white rice (apparently good to eat with bread too!)

Bon Appetite!