Yen Thongba

It is country fowl, and the onions go in as a paste rather than sliced.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains chicken.

Ingredients

• 1 kg country chicken, in medium pieces
• 3 onions, made into a paste
• 4 green chillies
• 8 cloves garlic
• a 4 cm piece of ginger
• 2 tomatoes, finely chopped
• 400 g potatoes, halved
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 3 tablespoons mustard oil
• 2 teaspoons salt

Method

1. IT IS COUNTRY FOWL, AND THE ONIONS GO IN AS A PASTE RATHER THAN SLICED. Its article is specific on both: prepared using COUNTRY FOWL cut into medium pieces, with onions made into a PASTE and tomatoes finely chopped. Both choices change the dish. Country chicken is older, leaner and much tougher than a broiler, so it wants forty minutes rather than twenty and it holds its shape instead of shredding. And onion paste dissolves into the gravy to thicken it, where sliced onion -- which Nga Thongba, as on its own page, uses -- stays as pieces.
2. THE PASTE IS RAW ONION BLENDED, NOT FRIED ONION GROUND. Three onions blended with a splash of water, then cooked out in the oil until the raw smell goes, which takes eight or nine minutes. Fried first and then ground, you get a sweeter, darker gravy and a different dish.
3. THE SPICE BASE IS GREEN CHILLI, GARLIC AND GINGER, CRUSHED TOGETHER. Its article lists exactly those three as the base. Crushed rather than blended smooth.
4. THE WHOLE SPICES GO INTO THE OIL FIRST. Cumin and coriander seeds, which its article names among the whole spices, until they darken a shade.
5. THE POTATOES GO IN HALVED AND PART-WAY THROUGH. Its article says cut into halves. Twenty minutes before the end, so they take up the gravy without disintegrating.
6. IF YOU HAVE ONLY A NORMAL CHICKEN, SAY SO AND CUT THE TIME. Twenty-five minutes rather than forty, and the result is softer and milder. The page is not going to pretend the two are interchangeable.
7. MUSTARD OIL, SMOKED FIRST. As with the fish curry here. It is the fat of this cooking.
8. IT IS SERVED WITH PLAIN STEAMED RICE. Its article calls it the most typical preparation of chicken in Meitei cooking, which is a reasonable claim to leave to the article and not repeat as fact.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes