Chicken Cooked in Coconut Milk and Flavoured with Curry Leaves

Chicken Keema in Coconut Milk

I’m trying to encourage my curry leaf tree to grow, so I was determined this week to use a couple of stems. Ground chicken was on the menu and it occurred to me that it would taste sensational cooked in coconut milk with a generous helping of curry leaves. I added the curry leaves in 3 stages – first of all, while tempering the mustard seeds, then while frying the onions, garlic and ginger and finally at the end as a garnish. And I followed my friend’s advice to shred the curry leaves added while cooking to extract as much flavour from them as possible. It’s amazing how good the combination of coconut milk and curry leaves tastes! This chicken curry is cooked until dry but still moist, which makes it perfect to eat with chapatis or tortillas, but also tastes good with rice.

Burmese Stir-Fried Spinach with Shrimp

Hin Nu Ywet 

This is another Burmese dish that reminds me of my mother and our childhood. Mum would garnish it with roasted sesame seeds which I didn't have, so I used sesame oil. The shrimp can be omitted altogether because the shrimp paste gives this dish a lot of flavour. Any kind of greens can be used, of which water spinach is my favourite.