No Hurry Curry

I decided today that I wanted to make a curry in my Crock Pot. I started by going to Lee-Lee Oriental Market in Peoria (a Phoenix suburb). I picked up Garlic-Ginger Paste and Madras Curry Powder. The paste makes it so easy to add garlic and ginger to a recipe. Curry is actually a mixture of other spices including turmeric, chili, cumin, bay leaves, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Some inexpensive curry powder is nothing but turmeric and chilis. Some people are confused by the fact that there is another spice called Curry leaves which are normally sold fresh and are not related to the curry spice mixture even though they may be used in certain curries.

I found a nice recipe on the Net at "The Lemon Bowl" and made some of my own adjustments.

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 4-5 mushrooms - sliced
• 1 medium onion – thinly sliced
• 15 oz. can chickpeas – drained and rinsed
• 1 medium sweet potato – peeled and diced
• 14 oz. can coconut milk
• 14 oz. chicken stock – low sodium
• 15 oz. can tomato sauce
• 2 tablespoons Madras curry powder – salt-free
• 2 tablespoons of ginger/garlic paste
• ½ teaspoon cayenne powder – optional
• 1 cup green peas – frozen
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• cilantro – optional garnish

Add liquid ingredients to the Crock. Whisk in the curry powder and garlic-ginger paste. Add chicken breasts. Add chickpeas, onion, sweet potatoes, and mushrooms. Cook for 4 hours on high or eight hours on low. Serve over rice. The lemon juice and green peas are added during the last five minutes of cooking.

Note: Remember that you can always make it hotter, so go easy on the cayenne pepper. I like a more  liquid curry. If you like it thicker, reduced the amount of liquids.