I pick up recipes like crazy cat ladies collect strays. All over the world and from anyone who will share with me. They come home to live with me and become my own. The favorites stay forever.
When we were living in Brazil, I made friends with a lovely Burmese lady named Ma Toe (and I say Burmese because she does – never ever heard her call it the M word, even when we visited her there.) Far from a stray, she was an inspiration.
She earned her MBA in the United States with an eight-year-old daughter in tow, up and leaving the family who had practically disowned her in an manipulative effort to make her stay with an abusive first husband. She is bright, compassionate, funny, multilingual, an excellent cook and the single most humble person I have ever met.
She lived right across the street from me and we bonded first over cooking. I would bake her things and she would cook me things and we enjoyed an open door policy few neighbors can tolerate. Cooking together was the most fun. She was the mother of one teenage girl, still going to school in Burma, so she would often swoop in and talk my two little ones into going to her house for some treat, both because she enjoyed their company, but also to give me a moment to myself. Now, that is a good friend.
Over the years, we have seen each other as often as we can. But I have never stopped making her Burmese chicken curry. It’s become a part of our family repertoire.
Our last time together was in Singapore in 2009. My mother was there for eldest daughter’s high school graduation and since it was Mother’s birthday, she got to choose the meal and the cake, as we do in our family.Her request was Burmese chicken curry and tres leches cake. What a treat it was to cook with Ma Toe again!Dinner was delicious and the company sublime.
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| There she is, serving her delicious curry at our home in Singapore! |
Burmese curry does not use spices, just a paste made of onions, garlic and ginger, cooked until fragrant and then reddened with cayenne and paprika or annato. For chicken curry, you add cinnamon sticks when cooking. For fish curry, you can add tomatoes and lightly crushed lemon grass stalks. Do not deviate. Ma Toe would not approve.
Ingredients (enough for 3 pots of curry)
For the paste: 4 large onions
2-3 normal heads of garlic or 4-5 small ones
About 5-6 inches of fresh ginger
1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light cooking oil plus a little for the pot
1-2 teaspoons cayenne
2-3 teaspoons paprika or ground annato
Find instructions for the paste here: https://www.foodlustpeoplelove.com/2018/09/burmese-curry-paste.html
For the chicken curry:
I whole chicken, cut into pieces or 5-6 chicken breasts, with bones, cut in thirds
Sea salt Black pepper
2 good serving spoons Burmese curry paste (1/3 of recipe above)
2 sticks of cinnamon
4-5 medium potatoes
Good handful cilantro or fresh coriander
Make your curry paste according to the instructions in this post. It makes enough for three pots of curry - chicken, fish or vegetable - so you'll freeze the balance.
Season your chicken with salt and pepper. (This can even be done earlier, while your paste is cooking, if you are making it fresh that day.)
Put one third of your paste into a large pot and warm it through, if frozen. Pop the chicken in the pot with the paste and stir to coat the chicken with the paste.
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| Two good serving spoons! |
Now add enough water to cover the chicken and add in your cinnamon sticks and cook, covered, for about 20-30 minutes over a low fire. Stir occasionally.
Meanwhile, peel your potatoes and cut them into pieces. Not too small or they will turn to mush in the pot.
Stir the curry occasionally. After the 20-30 minutes is up, add in the potatoes and give them a good sprinkle of salt. Make sure to poke the potatoes down in the liquid to cook.
Meanwhile, chop your cilantro.
Cook, uncovered, until the potatoes are done, stirring occasionally, perhaps another 20-25 minutes. Check the seasoning and add more salt, if necessary.
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| Check out the second photo after I put the potatoes in and you can see how much this slowly reduced, thickening your sauce. |
Top with the chopped cilantro and serve over white rice.
We also add in more pepper in the form of my homemade pepper sauce. But that's just us.
Enjoy!
