Chicken Curry

This recipe is a favourite at my dinner parties as a crêpe filling. It is also excellent served over rice. I take it wilderness camping, preparing the curry ahead of time and freezing it in airtight plastic freezer bags. The curry then serves as an ice pack for the rest of my food during the first couple of days of my trip. Once it has thawed out, it is time to enjoy it. Cook the rice over an open fire, then stir curry mixture into cooked rice and heat through.



Ingredients:

• 1 coconut
  
• approximately 1 cup hot water
  
• olive oil for frying
  
• 1 garlic, peeled and diced
  
• 1 yellow onion, peeled and diced
  
• 1 inch ginger root, peeled and diced
  
• 1 lb chicken breasts *
  
• 2 tablespoons hot curry paste **
  
• 1 red pepper, seeded and diced
  
• 1 yellow pepper, seeded and diced
  
• 1 mango, peeled, pitted and diced
  
• fresh cilantro leaves
  
• freshly squeezed juice of one lime
  

Notes:

* I often work with chicken breasts pre-cut into strips for stir frying. This makes for quick, even cooking throughout without drying the outside of the chicken, and speeds up the work of dicing the cooked chicken.

** I favour Patak's Madras curry paste, but there is a wide variety of excellent prepared curry pastes available for those of us without the time to prepare our own.

Directions:

Drain and reserve water from coconut.
Bake coconut at 400°F for 15 minutes.
Break coconut open and pry flesh away from shell.
Peel brown skin off coconut flesh.
Purée coconut flesh in blender or food processor with reserved coconut water and enough additional water to make liquid up to 1.5 cups.
Allow pureéed coconut mixture to stand for 15 minutes.
Press coconut mixture through a fine sieve to extract milk.
Stir fry onion, garlic and ginger in olive oil.
Add chicken and continue stir frying until chicken is cooked through.
Dice chicken with spatula while continuing to cook. (Once cooked, it should slice easily with a plastic or rubber spatula.)
Add curry paste and mix well.
Add peppers, continuing to stir fry.
Add coconut milk and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer.
Add mango, chopped cilantro leaves and freshly squeezed lime juice.
Continue to simmer curry until flavours are well blended.

To fill crêpes:

Prepare crêpes.
Spoon curry mixture in a line across crêpe, 1/3 of the way in from one edge.
Fold near edge up over curry mixture and roll up crêpe to surround curry.
For best results, serve crêpe immediately.
When large quantities are required, place filled crêpes in a singler layer in a large baking pan (such as a lasagna pan) and warm in oven to heat through just before serving.