Initially, I was reluctant to blog about this, because, come on, what's the big deal about curry chicken dish? Most people could cook this. Some even could cook this dish with their eyes' closed, to them, it was as simple as brushing teeth, like no brainer cooking step. However, coming from a background who was only being exposed to Chinese cooking, cooking a curry dish was a big deal for me. It was like a baby learning to talk. No kidding!

So, if there was one thing good that happened during Covid19 lockdown, it would be me learning to cook curry. Clap! Clap! Clap! Self-praise!

Learning to cook curry chicken

Since we were not allowed to dine out during lockdown, I needed to cook daily. And not only were my children and husband were bored of Chinese cuisine, me too. So I decided to learn cooking a curry dish, gotto start somewhere. I did it once in my first year of marriage but I forgotten about it.

My husband loves curry and we could easily have curry cravings satisfied because we are in Malaysia, most Malay food are curry-based. And we have 'mamak' and Indian restaurants too. So there wasn't any need for me to master curry dish.

I watched some YouTube videos and found out that cooking curry from scratch was super tedious. You needed to get different curry powder and chilli powder with different measurements of weight. After consideration and still wanted to stick to my motto of 'easy cook', I used short-cut way.

Tada!

I knew my husband would not judge, so I went and bought this online. Instant curry paste recommended by my online friend.

There was basic instruction written behind too. Make life so easy! With this paste, I did not need to prepare the onions, garlic, ginger, spices. Yayy! Thank you! I will learn to cook curry from scratch when I retire next time, when I have all the time in the world, this will fill up my empty nest.

Ingredients:

I improvised from the instruction given on the pack because I did not have 1kg of meat, so added other extra ingredients.

• 2 chicken breast about 500 gram
• corn flour
• curry paste
• potatoes
• fried fishballs
• tofu pok (beancurd)
• curry leaves
• coconut milk

Steps:

Firstly, I marinated the chicken breast with some corn flour to tenderised the meat abit. Or else the chicken breast would be hard. And some salt too. I choose chicken breast because my eldest son did not like chicken pieces with skin. Once he saw the skin, his appetite turned off automatically.

While the chicken was being marinated, I cut the potatoes then slightly browned them on the pan. Scoop out and set aside.

Back to the chicken. Slice them small slices so that easier for the boys to eat.

In the same pan, add some oil then stir fry the chicken till slightly cooked.

Followed by adding in 200gram curry paste which was the whole packet. Then stir the paste with the chicken to blend them together while letting the paste to incorporate on the chicken meat.

Next up would be adding 500ml of water, followed by adding the potatoes I browned earlier.

So, I mentioned earlier that I did not have 1kg of meat for the 200 gram curry paste. So I added in leftover cabbage, some fried fish balls and 'tofupok' aka beancurd puffs.

Then, simmered in high heat for about 15 minutes.

Then, I noticed I had some curry leaves left. Of course, also dumped all in since I was cooking curry. Okay, this step for me, was no brainer. lol

Lastly, added in coconut milk, always choose fresh coconut milk. For some reason, I never like the coconut milk in box, because I could not accept the preservative taste or it tasted somewhat chemical to me. What about you?

Simmered again on high heat for 15 minutes and I was done cooking. I felt so good that I did it. The house smelled nice too!

Using the curry paste to cook a curry dish was really simple. It was not complicated at all and I did not feel intimidated by the whole list of long ingredients. I liked the taste of the curry paste, my friend who is a Malay said they also used this when they were running out of time to blend all the ingredients. And she said it was almost similar. Hopefully, one day, I can cook curry dish spontaneously like how I brush my teeth. My Malay friend always said this, "Senang je. Practice makes perfect. Lama-lama, senang macam berus gigi je". She said cooking curry dish is so simple, that practice makes perfect. Sooner, it will be as simple as brushing teeth.

Thank you for reading my humble learn-to-cook session. I was glad the family loved the dish. We ate this with rice, our staple food. Very satisfying meal after dayssss of Chinese food.

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All images are mine unless stated otherwise, photos are taken using my phone Hua Wei P20.}

_{Hello there, I am the lady behind this little space of my blog in this awesome vast Hive blockchain. Often, when I blog, read, curate and get to know new people, I feel that I am no longer stucked inside the four-wall of my apartment, but rather, I am travelling all across the world, just like a little heaven-on-earth experience. Hope you enjoy reading this snippet of my life as I enjoy exploring yours. Thank you for swinging by.}