Chicken curry

I was amazed yesterday to see what some climbers have in their rucksack…you think it’s usually full of equipment, rope, carabines, etc… A normal backpack with those weigh at least 12 kgs, depending of how you minimise. Well, when a fellow freind of ours turned up at the African Wall, and unpacked his bag, it was full of things to eat! Let me list out what I saw: 3 litres of water, 1 500g milk, 1 500g espresso tin can, 2 packs biscuits, 1 salami, 1 huge bag of bread, his camping gaz cooker, a small pot, espresso maschine…and so on. The Bag was still half full after taking those things out. Who knows what else he brought. He probably changed his mind of having his breakfast at home and decided to eat out His climbing partner probably took the rest of the real equipment along to the crag. And no, he wasn’t planning on sleeping out either…

Being on the go, you find yourself with just basic spices in your cooking utensils. The luxury is at home, far off in your home sweet kitchen, but when you’re travelling around, and a lot….you miss home cooking. Eating out in a restaurant all the time is too expensive, and sometimes you don’t get what you want just b’coz you don’t speak their language. It gets frustrating…but there are ways to help yourself out. After days of pasta, I start craving for my asian food. Europe’s not blessed with any hawker stalls like those in asia. You realise that you’re very much on your own…and to eat what you crave for – you’ll have to make them by yourself!

Curry is easy to make and easy to get the basic ingredients too. If you do some shopping at home already in any asian shop, you’ll be able to get a good authentic curry powder to bring along for your trips. The less you’ll need to buy at the supermarket.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• Chicken drumsticks with the upper thighs, 3 pieces
• Curry powder (2-3 tablespoons)
• 3 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 1 big onion (chopped)
• Ginger (size of a thumb), sliced
• Chilly (either fresh or dry)
• Milk (3% fat) or best: Coconut Milk 400g
• 1 chicken bouillon cube
• salt to taste

Method:

Clean those drumsticks and cut them into smaller bite pieces. I usually just cut them at the joints – or if you’re blessed with a washing sink and lots of water and a sharp knife, it’s best to debone the chicken altogether. This quickens the cooking time and ensure that the meat is through. Pat them dry and lay aside.

Start your gas/petrol cooker. Add some oil to your pan. Once hot, fry onions, garlic and ginger till brown. Add the curry powder and chilly and continue frying till the oil comes out from the paste. Put in the chicken and fry shortly. Add milk or coconut milk and simmer them (lower the heat) for at least 10 -15 mins. Stir now and then to ensure that nothing is burning at the bottom of your pot.

Serve hot with rice,  couscous or white bread. Cucumber slices are great to go with rice and curry.

As always, the longer you cook the more intensive it will become. 15 minutes is the least this meal should get.