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August 2017 - macferret's Lemon Jeera Chicken

Group testing of selected forum recipes by forum members
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macferret
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August 2017 - macferret's Lemon Jeera Chicken

Post by macferret »

This month's Curry Club "Curry of the Month" recipe is macFerret's Lemon Jeera Chicken kindly selected by boognish.

Remember, the first member to try this recipe (anew) and report back, with photos, gets to select next month's recipe....

Recipe can be found here



I once had lemon jeera chicken in an excellent Indian near The Oval cricket ground. The chef let me watch him cook it, so it was relatively simple to recreate.
Last edited by macferret on Sat Nov 12, 2016 5:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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steveparadox
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Re: Lemon Jeera Chicken

Post by steveparadox »

Really interesting looking dish! If not heard of hing but I googled it and it goes by the name asafoteda too which makes sense as I imagine the yellow colouring complements the lemon flavour to the dish. It would be great to see a photo next time you cook it! Are they standard finger chillies you used - I'd imagine 3 would give it a nice bit of heat to complement the lemon.... lemon, chilli and jeera......mmmmmmm :thumbup:

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macferret
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Re: Lemon Jeera Chicken

Post by macferret »

Yup - just green bird eye chillis. It's a very nicely balanced dish, with the dark cumin flavours, the sharpness of the lemon, the chilli heat and the umami from the chicken. I can't really take credit for it but it's a real favourite from our kitchen. Feel free to remove it from the thread I originally posted it on as it might not quite 'nail the brief' as they say on Masterchef :)
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steveparadox
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Re: Lemon Jeera Chicken

Post by steveparadox »

Nope, that's what I was after - member's to post their favourite recipes they've developed! I'll definitely try this one, just need to tackle the pickling of the lemon! I'd also been looking at pickling Turkish chillies recently so this might give me a kick up the behind to try out some pickling!!!!
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Re: Lemon Jeera Chicken

Post by Admin »

This month's Curry Club "Curry of the Month" recipe is macFerret's Lemon Jeera Chicken kindly selected by boognish.

Remember, the first member to try this recipe (anew) and report back, with photos, gets to select next month's recipe....

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Philb52
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Re: August 2017 - macferret's Lemon Jeera Chicken

Post by Philb52 »

In our local Pak shop they have packs of very small lemons which are only an just over an inch or 30mm in diameter. i am definitely going to try to pickle a batch of them as i often wondered why they pick them when they are so small. This could be an answer to my question.
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Dragonsfire
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Re: August 2017 - macferret's Lemon Jeera Chicken

Post by Dragonsfire »

@steveparadox
What are those Turkish Chillies like?
I have "Turkish Cayenne" seeds, have not tried growing them yet.
I did pickled regular lemons, they disintegrated, guess theirs a shelf life lol.
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Greybeard
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Re: August 2017 - macferret's Lemon Jeera Chicken

Post by Greybeard »

Meat Loaf, the rather portly rock and roll singer sings a track called “Life is a lemon (And I want my money back)”. Lemons are a very underrated fruit, and while the name is quite often used in a derogatory fashion, there are not many objects in the universe that you can stick two pieces of zinc and copper into and generate enough voltage to light a LED or a small light bulb. Lemon juice added to olive oil and vinegar makes a superb salad dressing. Better still, grab some ice cubes, a bottle of Bombay Sapphire gin, a few lemons and a bottle of good quality tonic water and you have a night to remember. Or possibly forget, depending on how much of the aforementioned brew you consume.

For some, the idea of fruit and curry is a bit of an anathema. Being a child of the 60’s, such deviation from cultural norms comes naturally. I have had everything from raisins, sultanas, apples and even banana in curries. I vaguely remember some kiwi fruit as well but that may have been on a night involving some real ale. Strawberries, cherries and lemons though don’t naturally spring to mind, although the latter does quite often appear in Chinese dishes. Having entered the world of curries at the Birds Eye and Vesta ready meal phase during the 70’s, fruit and curry holds no fear for me. Both manufacturers included fruit (frozen or dried) in their products.

Traditionally though, lemons are used as a marinade to break down and soften meat fibres. It can also be used with fish to effectively cook the flesh, but such a method is not recommended for meat as the bacteria content is only rendered safe with heat. In Asian dishes, kiwi fruit can be used to tenderise beef, and one of the best crispy beef stir fries I have ever had in my life was pre-marinaded with that particular fruit. So how will lemons adapt to a BIR dish where marination is not required?

We now come to confession time, where the chef owns up to the “adjustments” he or she made to the recipe. I didn’t go to the length of pickling my lemons (no jars), and as the brown sugar sitting in the jar on the top shelf has probably been sitting there since the dawn of time I decided to use some jaggery as it is kept in my special climate controlled curry area in a hermetically sealed container. Apart from these deviations, I used my base and mix powder and 3 smallish frozen finger chillies (The thin hot ones rather than the fatter more anaemic ones). Mrs GB is not great fan of fresh chilli. Personally, I don’t think frozen chillies (or frozen anything for that matter) has anywhere near the kick of fresh, but I wasn’t taking chances. Everything else was per instructions. Or to completely pervert a Meat Loaf phrase, two out of three ‘aint bad.

My new range cooker has a wok ring, but to be honest I get just as good results with the largest fast ring at the bottom left of the cooker. I tend to use this from a practical point of view more than anything else, on full pelt the wok ring generates enough heat to scorch the handles of my large 5l pressure cooker and anything else on the back burners, and even with the heat turned down a bit my large 28cm curry pan hasn’t got much room for manoeuvre. With the large pressure cooker on the front ring it is even more precarious, so unless I am nuking base straight from the microwave into the curry I tend to use this ring.

Prep and cook off shouldn’t hold any surprises. As today was a major curry day (fresh base plus a batch of pre-cooked chicken) I had some cooking liquor left over from the chicken. It would be easy enough to use some extra base or some defrosted cooking liquor if you have frozen it. You might even get away with some stock (or boiling water at a pinch) but my guess this is more a consistency than flavour adjustment, unless of course the gravy you cook your chicken in has some real attitude. The worst part is shredding the ginger. I started using my microplane, but this resulted in ginger purée rather than strands. In the end, I just chopped the ginger into very fine julienne strips, but you could compromise by using a sharp vegetable peeler and then chopping this finer with a sharp knife if you really wanted a fine cut.

The resulting curry was served with pilau rice, and as my last review was negatively interpreted as I didn’t give the dish centre stage on its own I have assembled a comprehensive photo montage from chopping board to plate. The resulting curry got a 9 from Mrs GB. I loved the addition of the roasted cumin seeds which compensated for the lack of heat and added that extra dimension. This is a slow burner, you do get some heat eventually, but the flavour is what stands out more rather than beads of sweat on the forehead. This certainly is a curry you could use to introduce the curry phobic to Indian cuisine.

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Dragonsfire
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Re: August 2017 - macferret's Lemon Jeera Chicken

Post by Dragonsfire »

Awesome! great looking dish :)
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Cory Ander
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Re: August 2017 - macferret's Lemon Jeera Chicken

Post by Cory Ander »

Looks good, GB, thanks for giving it a bash and for reporting back so soon 8-)

PS: What DID happen to that plate!?? Is it supposed to look like a taco?? :huh:
CA (aka Admin) :)
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steveparadox
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Re: August 2017 - macferret's Lemon Jeera Chicken

Post by steveparadox »

That looks great GB!!! Good job :thumbup:
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Greybeard
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Re: August 2017 - macferret's Lemon Jeera Chicken

Post by Greybeard »

The "taco plate" is my dedicated BIR dinner plate, large enough to hold a variety of curries, rice, naan bread etc. I like the shape, and the ability to contain pig-out servings ... :D

IIRC, we bought it from Tesco or Asda, so it was probably made in China (groan).
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slicker55
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Re: August 2017 - macferret's Lemon Jeera Chicken

Post by slicker55 »

GB... looks good mate... I'll get round to trying this one as soon as I can but as you know an extensive house refurb is getting in the way at the moment :(
pmottram
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Re: August 2017 - macferret's Lemon Jeera Chicken

Post by pmottram »

Those pictures look great! Definitely something I would be impressed getting served in a restaurant nevermind making at home! Not sure mine would look quite as good as that one though!!
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