from Madame Curry
“Walking through the shopping district of my hometown, Isipingo, was like stepping into a whirling kaleidoscope: a collision of brightly coloured shop windows, greengrocers, tearooms and cafés at every turn. And, in their midst, a traditional herbalist, clothing stores, a pharmacy and a butchery too. PJ Powers and Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse would be blasting at full volume over transistor radios. This is what gave rise to fusion recipes such as this one. Combining elements of isiZulu and Indian cooking, dishes like township chicken put Isipingo on the map as a symbol of cultural integration and historical significance. As children, we were raised mainly on a diet of curry and rice, so chicken cooked this way was such a hit that we would fight over it. There is no official recipe, so I recreated it here from memory and added a few touches. Spicy top notes of peppers and chutney balance the sweetness of the onions. The dish is further enriched with some mayonnaise. The dash of cream that I added in recent years can be omitted.”
SERVES 4
60 ml sunflower oil
1 onion, finely chopped
5 ml coarse salt
200 ml finely chopped red and yellow bell peppers
1 large carrot, peeled and grated
6 cloves garlic, crushed
10 ml crushed ginger
4 green chillies, halved lengthways
Few sprigs thyme
30 ml mixed masala
1 x 400 g can chopped tomatoes
1 x chicken stock cube
250 ml boiling water
60 ml fruit chutney
125 ml mayonnaise
65 ml pouring cream, plus extra for drizzling
12–16 chicken pieces
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Fresh curry leaves, to garnish
Mango atchar, to serve
Mixed vegetable pickle, to serve
Preheat the oven to 180 °C.
Heat the sunflower oil in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat. Add the onion and salt and sauté until lightly golden. Stir in the peppers, carrot, garlic and ginger, and once the peppers and carrot soften, add the green chillies and thyme. Spoon the masala into the side of the pot and mix well for 3–5 seconds to heat it up, then add the chopped tomatoes. Turn down the heat and simmer for 6–8 minutes, until the tomatoes have cooked down and the oil has separated. Use the back of a wooden spoon to break down any lumps to form a thick paste. Dissolve the stock cube in the boiling water and add this to the pot. Add the chutney, mayonnaise and cream, and mix. Pour the sauce into an ovenproof dish and add the chicken pieces, skin-side up. Spoon the sauce over the chicken to coat and season to taste with black pepper.
Bake for 45 minutes until golden and the juices run clear when tested with a skewer. Drizzle with some cream, garnish with fresh curry leaves, and serve with some mango atchar and a mixed vegetable pickle alongside.
Recipe extracted from Madame Curry by Yudhika Sujanani.
