Nonya Chicken Curry Kapitan

Nonya is a description for the coming together of two cuisines, Chinese and Malay (nyonya). Coconut, chilli and ginger or galangal are the key ingredients, as are the sweet & sour flavours you get with lime and palm sugar or tamarind paste.

I have made a nonya chicken curry before from a recipe by Madha Jaffery, although it was quite different with tomatoes, potatoes and tamarind.

This recipe is adapted from Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey.

Ingredients

4 Dried red chillies, soaked till soft in hot water then chopped

200g Shallots, roughly chopped

2 tsp Chinese five spice powder

2 tsp Turmeric powder

25g Garlic, roughly chopped

1 inch Ginger, peeled and roughly chopped

2 Lemongrass stalks, chopped

1/2 tsp Shrimp paste

2 tbsp Vegetable oil

3 Chicken breasts, sliced

3 tbsp Desiccated coconut

300ml Coconut milk

1 Cinnamon stick

1 tsp Palm sugar

1 tsp Salt

Juice 1/2 Lime

Coriander, chopped to garnish

Method

Put the ingredients for the curry paste into a blender – Chillies, shallots, spices, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, shrimp paste and 1 tbsp of oil.

Heat a dry frying pan and add the desiccated coconut and stir until lightly golden. Transfer to a pestle and mortar and crush to a fine powder.

Heat the remaining oil in a large heavy based saucepan and add the spice paste and fry while stirring for 3-5 minutes. Add the chicken and continue stirring for 3 minutes.

Add the coconut milk, cinnamon stick, sugar and salt, simmer for 30 minutes to reduce the coconut milk. You can spoon off any excess oil that appears on the top.

Add the lime juice and ground coconut and simmer for a further minute. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with plain basmati rice.