Chicken with soy sauce and coconut milk

Cooking, like most other things in life, is a quest. It can be more than a means to satisfy hunger. It can be an adventure, a spiritual journey and a way to show love. I am thinking about the mother who cooks for the daughter she hasn't seen for years, the kid who makes chicken soup with inept hands, the husband who makes French toast for breakfast. It need not be elaborate. The expressions vary. We might forget the details of a particularly flavorful dish, but we will always  remember how it made us feel. Comforted. Warm. Happy.

Years ago, my father made a spicy chicken dish in soy sauce and yogurt on my brother's birthday.  It was so long ago that he has forgotten the recipe. We can seldom recreate our own creations, but this is as close as I could get. I used coconut milk instead of yogurt and added curry leaves. Tweak to suit your taste. Search for your own perfection.

Method using wok or frying pan :

1. Clean, pat dry with paper towels and dice 2 lbs (1 kg) boneless chicken thigh into serving size. Marinate in salt, turmeric, ground cumin-coriander, red chili powder, ground black pepper, lemon juice overnight.
2. In a wok or nonstick frying pan, fry 1 big onion (finely chopped), minced ginger, crushed garlic, minced green chilies, 1 medium sized tomato, and 10 curry leaves.
3. Crush whole garam masala like 1 stick of cinnamon, 4-5 green cardamom, 5 -7 cloves, 1/2 tsp coriander seeds and 1/2 tsp peppercorn in mortar and pestle. Add to the wok.
4. When the onions have been fried well, add the chicken. Keep stirring. Do not cover yet.
5. Add 1 tsp dark soy sauce, 2 tsp (or drizzle) low-sodium soy sauce. Stir and cover.
6. When the soy sauce is almost dry, add coconut milk. Cook till the oil separates.

Use whole green chilies instead of minced if you want it less hot.

Alternate method:
You may also use the ingredients to make a spicy roasted chicken. Use a cornish hen with skin on and rub the marinade inside the sking and over it. Cook 30 mins at pre-heated oven at 375 F (190 C) for 30 mins and turn to cook another  20-25 mins (or until the skin is crisp). Broil the last 10 mins. If you are using coals, place the chicken sufficiently distant from the heat so the chicken cooks through before the skin gets too brown.

Whole carp pan-fried and baked

1. Clean the fish, remove entails. Make shallow diagonal cuts on the skin. Sprinkle salt evenly. You may sprinkle some ground cumin, coriander and pepper too.
2. Thinly slice onions, chilis and make matchstick ginger. 
3. In a non-stick, shallow fry the fish on both side and then the onions and chilis.
4. Transfer to an aluminium foil, add soy sauce and ginger(inside the cavity too). 
5. Seal and bake for 40 mins at 350 F. Add cilantro.

You might also like : Steamed halibut

Steamed halibut with ginger, soy sauce and scallions

This is a recipe I got from a guy we met while shopping for fish at Ranch 99. He even took us to the aisle where the right soy sauce was. I already had regular Kikkoman, but he insisted we should try the one specially meant for steamed fish.

       VS

 I added jalapenos to his recipe . You can bake or steam it.. I like it both ways.

Before 

After

1. Take steaks of white fish (I used halibut for this one), clean and pat dry with paper towels.
2. Add soy sauce, ginger, diced jalapeno to the fish and wrap it in aluminium foil . Bake at 350 F for 40 mins or steam, until the fish turns flaky. (You can add wine too)
3. Add scallions and/or cilantro generously. 

You might also like this Malaysian recipe of Red Snapper grilled in Banana Leaf

I tried this recipe with whole carp. I shallow fried the fish and sauteed the onions first.

Poha / Chirer Polao

Chirer polao or aloo poha is a favorite for breakfast in winter. And surprisingly easy to make too.

1. Wash the poha (flattened rice) in cold water and drain in a colander.
2. Finely chop onions, green chilis. Julienne/matchstick ginger if you prefer to add them.
3.  Dice potatoes, cauliflower in small bits.  (You might want to add a little salt here)
4. In a wok, heat vegetable oil and add mustard seeds, onions, then potatoes, cauliflower, frozen green peas. Stir.
5. When the veggies are about done, add curry leaves, Whole mustard seeds, green chilis, ginger, dry roasted peanuts. (you can use your favorite snacking peanuts too.)
6. Add the moist poha (you can add salt and a tsp sugar uniformly before you add it to the wok), stir well and serve warm.

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I always try to think what I can have for breakfast- I had almost forgotten how good a well toasted bread tastes in warm milk. Yum.