A rich variety of cuisines and a wide choice of restaurants have sprung out of Melbourne’s Suburbs, making Melbourne a truly world-class city.
Ranging from classic and traditional to exotic and eccentric, there is something for everyone: Charming cafes, intimate wine bars, pub meals and fine dining restaurants.
Among them is the famous Shavans Indian fine dining restaurant in the southeast suburb of Patterson Lakes…
Ingredients
- 150g of tomatoes
- For Marinade:
- 1 kg, bite sized pieces of skinned chicken
- Coconut- grated (400 g)
- Onion shallots (6)
- Ginger
- Garlic cloves (10)
- For spices- Dried red chillies, a few tablespoons of peppercorn, cumin seeds and poppy seeds
For Curry
- 6 tablespoons of oil
- Finely diced onion (250g)
- A bunch of finely diced coriander leaves
- For spices- Bay leaves, 1 star anise, turmeric powder, cumin seeds, cinnamon stick, salt, cardamom pods and cloves
Preparation
1.Marinade:
Make a paste from the onion, ginger and garlic with one teaspoon each of cumin and peppercorns. Add with this one tablespoon of poppy seeds with coconut, chillies and some water.
Marinate the bite sized chicken pieces in the marinade for about 40 minutes.
2.Curry:
Cut the tail end of the tomatoes and use boiling water to immerse them for 2 minutes until the skin starts to shrink. Once this happens, take the tomatoes out and peel the skin. Roughly diced them and blend to make a fine purée or paste.
Take 6 tablespoons of oil in a deep bottomed saucepan and add 1 tablespoon of cumin seeds and let them splutter. To this saucepan, add 2.5 cm of cinnamon stick with 4 cardamom pods, 2 cloves, bay leaves and star anise. Add some onion to this and sauté them until the mixture turns golden brown.
Add tomato purée prepared earlier to this mix and allow cooking for 7 minutes until the oil separates from the tomatoes. To this add the marinated chicken, turmeric and salt, and then cover these ingredients. These should be allowed to boil and after which the heat is reduced and it is cooked in medium heat for around 35 minutes to bring to boil. Reduce the heat and cook for about 35 minutes, after which the dish is ready.
Hence, now let your tongue that has been bubbling over with joy to get treated with the delicious Chettinad chicken curry with some Indian bread and rice.