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Malay Chicken Curry with White Pumpkin

Malay Chicken Curry with White Pumpkin is a traditional Anglo-Indian recipe from the 1860s for a classic Malay-style curry of chicken cooked in spiced coconut milk with lemongrass. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Anglo-Indian version of: Malay Chicken Curry with White Pumpkin.

prep time

20 minutes

cook time

30 minutes

Total Time:

50 minutes

Serves:

6–8

Rating: 4.5 star rating

Tags : CurrySpice RecipesChicken RecipesFusion RecipesBritish Recipes


This is a traditional Anglo-Indian recipe redacted from the volume THE INDIAN COOKERY BOOK: A Practical Handbook to The Kitchen in India (author unknown), published by: WYMAN & CO., HARE STREET CALCUTTA circa 1869.
.

Original Recipe


Common:
The condiments and other ingredients necessary are as follow:—One chittack or two ounces of ghee,
one tspful and a half of salt, four tspfuls of ground onions, one tspful of ground
turmeric, one tspful of ground chilies, half a tspful of ground ginger, a quarter of a
tspful of ground garlic, the milk of a large cocoanut, say two cups, two blades of lemon-grass,
three or four cloves, ground, three or four cardamoms, and as many small sticks of cinnamon,
ground.

55.—Chicken Malay Gravy Curry with White Pumpkin or Cucumber


Take the usual full-sized curry chicken, and divide it as before directed; get either six cucumbers or
a quarter of a white pumpkin; remove the green skin and the part containing the seeds, then cut it up
into sixteen pieces of about two inches square, and steep in water.

Fry in the ghee all the ground condiments, including the ground hot spices; when brown, add the
cut-up chicken and salt; fry to a fine bright light brown; then put in the pumpkin, having previously
allowed all the water to drain away through a colander; pour in the two cups of cocoanut milk, the
lemon-grass, and hot spices, and allow the whole to simmer over a slow fire for about half an hour,
when the curry will be ready: the blade of lemon-grass is not dished up.

Modern Redaction



Ingredients


1 small chicken, cut into serving-sized pieces
1/4 white pumpkin, peeled, de-seeded and cubed
60g ghee
1 tsp salt
4 tsp onion paste
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp garlic paste
500ml (2 cups) coconut milk
2 lemon grass stalks, bruised
1/2 tsp ground cloves
4 cardamom pods, bruised
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Method:

Place the pumpkin pieces in a bowl, cover with water and set aside to soak for 20 minutes.

Place a curry pan over high heat. Add the ghee and use to fry the spices and pastes for 2 minutes, until lightly browned. Add the chicken and continue frying, stirring occasionally for about 8 minutes, or until nicely coloured all over.

Drain the pumpkin and add to the pan then stir to coat in the spices. Pour in the coconut milk, then add the lemon grass, the cardamom pods and the cinnamon.

Bring to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is tender and the gravy has thickened.

Remove and discard the lemongrass then serve.

Find more Victorian Recipes Here and more Curry Recipes Here. For the original version of The Indian Cookery book see my The Indian Cookery Book main page.