Lucullun-Adventures, Vol.1, 2nd Edition

Lu.cu.lan (adj)- extremely luxurious, esp. of food.

This week our Lucullun adventure takes us to the exotic locale of East India.

CHICKEN IN COCONUT MILK from The Best-Ever Curry Cookbook

The Ingredients:

-a handful of ground almonds

-a handful of dry, unsweetened, shredded coconut

-2/3 cup coconut milk

-2/3 cup ricotta cheese

-1 1/2 tsp ground coriander

-1 tsp chili Powder

-1 tsp crushed garlic

-1 1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger

-1 tsp salt

-2 Tbs veggie oil

-1 lb cubed chicken breast fillets

-3 cardamom pods (or 2 tsp card. powder)

-1 bay leaf (we used 3 dried bay leaves)

-1 dried red chili (we opted out of this)

-2 Tbs fresh chopped coriander (optional)

The Business

1: Dry roast the almonds and coconut in a large wok, use no oil. Be sure you brown them, not burn them. We found this embarrassingly difficult. Set aside dry mix in a small bowl.

2: Add the coconut milk, cheese, coriander, chili powder, garlic, ginger, and salt in a medium bowl, mix well. Side note: instead of ricotta cheese, we use the whole can of coconut milk. It tasted great! but was very oily due to the oily nature of coconut. We recommend using the ricotta cheese/coconut milk combo instead.

3: Heat the veggie oil in the wok and add chicken, cardamom, and bay leaf. Stir fry for about 2-3 minutes (ours took about 4) until you no longer see pink chicken bits.

4: Pour in coconut mixture and stir. Zap the heat to low, add the chili and coriander. Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until the liquid reduces by at least 1/4 (or more if you want it thicker).

5: Uncover and simmer for 2-3 more minutes, stirring frequently. Garnish the finished dish with the dried almond-coconut crunchies mix.

Serves four.

A great way to serve this puppy would be with nan or basmatti rice. If you like, keep some of the extra sauce to pour over rice for leftovers. It only gets better after a day or two.

The Outcome:

ck: very tasty. The coconut is subtle enough to taste the garlic in there. I was a little concerned about the shredded coconut. I was unable to find unsweetened shredded coconut. Instead, I washed sweetened coconut in a large sieve over the sink. I rung out all the water several times, then patted it dry with a kitchen towel. It worked great. I wished we would've had ricotta cheese, as the coconut was very oily and made the sauce look orange (its supposed to be a creamy white color). 4/5

che: oily, but good. It was a little tough to sense when the chicken was done because of all the sauce. I might cook them through for another few minutes before adding the coconut mix next time. 3.5/5

Try this at home! It easy to replicate and takes no time at all.

By the way, thats grapejuice and and a bottle of gingerale...in case you were wondering.