A Curry Worth Staying Home For

My sister and her husband finally convinced us to go try Indian food with them a couple of months ago. I’d only ever had curry once before, and it was in a restaurant that had a different menu page for 9 different Asian cuisines. Their pho was good. Their curry was not.

So when Anna & Sean wanted to take us to an Indian place shortly after we moved here, we resisted and talked them into going to a Japanese hibachi place instead.

But, finally, they persevered and we set a date. Farmer Paul was definitely nervous before we went, asking what he was getting himself into. I asked a friend at work who gushed about this dish and that, and so armed with the word “tandoori” we headed off to dinner.

And LOVED it! I have no idea what I had. It was chicken. And creamy. And good. Paul & Sean’s dishes were the best of the four. And we went home satisfied.

Fastforward to two weeks ago. Paul surprised my by saying that he would like to have curry again. Since we’re watching our budget, the only solution I have is to make it myself. So Anna & Sean were invited and I started searching for recipes and pieced together the meal: Indian Spiced Chicken with Spinach, Indian Spiced Veggie Patty and Naan.

The Naan was good, not great. I cooked it on a super-heated pizza stone which one website said was the closest to a tandoori oven I could get at home. It cooked perfectly, I think I just need to work on the recipe some because it wasn’t as light and fluffy as I remember. But that could be due to the fact that I used wheat flour, trying to move towards the healthier side of things.

The Veggie Patties never happened. When Paul saw me come in from the garden with a handful of green beans, he suggested I make Chinese-style, garlicy stir-fried green beans. It sounded good, so I went for it.

But the Chicken. Aaahhh, the chicken. It was warm, mildly spicy, and full for rich flavor. Sean’s not a big fan of spicy, so I toned it down for him assuming that the rest of us could add spice if we wanted, but I don’t think anyone did. THIS is going on the meal rotation.

Oh, and why did noone tell me that basmati rice was SO GOOD?!?

I substitued curry powder for some of the individual spices rather than buy whole bottles of things I might never use again. It worked well, but if you want the actual list of spices, click the link to the original recipe. I also added more cream than it originally called for, because it looked too dry. And the original called for frozen spinach, but I subbed about 5 ounces of fresh and it was the perfect amount. All of the amounts listed in the recipe below are the amounts I used.

Indian Spiced Chicken and Spinach
adapted from the Food & Wine Website