Poppy Seed Creamy Chicken Curry

Poppy seed Creamy Chicken Curry is cooked blended with a nice creamy paste of poppy seeds and coconut milk mixed, which make it a  flavorful dish. Here I have not added any whole spices. The flavor of poppy along cashew paste makes the dish delicious. Poppy seeds are good coolent and as chicken is heat, this type of curry can be made during the summer season. It is a rich and aromatic curry that makes a wonderful meal for the family. It can be served with plain steamed rice or with chapatis/nan/idli.

Ingredients:
1 kg chicken
1 coconut (grated and ground to paste to extract milk)
1/2 cup cashew
3 tbsp Poppy Seeds ( Khus Khus)
4 medium diced onion
1 tsp turmeric powder 
1 tbsp cumin seed
10 garlic fine chop
Garlic 1" fine chop
15 pepper corn
Red chilli (roated) 15 no's
1 tbsp coriander seed
4 green chilli
2 tomato chopped

Masala paste:

• Soak poppy seed and cashew for 1 hour before proceeding to make a paste.
• Grind the following to fine paste: Byadagi Red chilli (Roasted), Coriander seeds (Roasted), pepper corn, Turmeric powder, Poppy seeds, cashew nut. 

 

Method:

•  Take a voke, fry the cumin seed, garlic, ginger, followed by onions. Fry until onions turn transparent.

• Add the chicken and saute well. Add the tomatoes, green chilli, 1 tsp salt and let the chicken cook in medium flame for 15 minutes.

• Mean while extract the coconut milk from the ground coconut. Extract 3 batches of milk using a strainer.

• When the chicken is cook, add the ground masala and cook for 5 minutes.

• Now add the coconut milk, adjust the salt and bring the curry to a boil.

• When done, serve along Chapati/parata/nan/idli or even rice. You will see the gravy gets thicker after a while, which is due to the poppy seeds.

Padmashree Raikar

@ gHara javaN