Recipes – Taste Tibet

Taste Tibet FAMOUS CHICKEN CURRY If you take momos out of the equation, then Taste Tibet’s famous chicken curry is definitely our biggest seller. Its name did not come about without the wild appreciation for all the joy it provides to starving festivalgoers across the land and to the fine, curry-loving people of Oxford. So here we are – the great reveal. We’ve kept nothing back, and we hope you’ll enjoy making it as much as we enjoy serving it. For the full Taste Tibet experience, pair it with basmati rice or Balep and Yeshi’s dal.

Taste Tibet by Julie Kleeman & Yeshi Jampa, Photography by Ola O. Smit. Murdoch Books RRP $49.99. INGREDIENTS

• 2 tbsp cooking oil • 2 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced • 2.5cm piece of ginger, washed but not peeled, thinly sliced • 1 small red onion, thinly sliced • 2 large tomatoes, thinly sliced • ¼ tsp turmeric • 1 tsp Bassar curry masala (or hot chilli powder) • 1½ tbsp Madras curry powder • 2 tbsp coconut milk powder • 6–8 fresh curry leaves, or 10–12 dried • 1 x 400ml tin of coconut milk • 600g chicken breast fillets, cut into bite-sized pieces • 1 teaspoon salt • Chopped coriander (cilantro), to garnish – optional

Place a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a mediumhigh heat and add the oil. When it’s hot, add the garlic and ginger and let it brown for a couple of minutes, then add the onion and stir for a further 2 minutes. Now add the tomatoes, turmeric, curry masala and curry powder. Mix together and cook for 10–15 minutes, turning the heat down a little and adding about 50 ml (2½ tablespoons) of water if anything starts to catch, then add the coconut milk powder, curry leaves and coconut milk and mix thoroughly. Take your time here: you are making a curry paste, and it needs to be cooked through completely before you can add the chicken.

Now add the chicken and salt. Turn the heat back up to high, stir the chicken through the sauce and cook for 8–10 minutes, adding a little boiling water – but only a little – if anything sticks. The pan should be quite dry to begin with, before the juices from the chicken start to be released, so wait a while before adding any water.

After the chicken has been in for 8 minutes, check to make sure it is fully cooked. To do this, take a piece out and cut it through the middle – it should be white all the way through. If the sauce looks too thick, add a little more boiling water and stir briskly for 2 minutes. Garnish with coriander, if you like, then serve.

Taste Tibet SESAME CHICKEN

INGREDIENTS

• 3 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch) • 600ml cooking oil • 1 large garlic clove, thinly sliced • 2–3 fresh green chillies, thinly sliced on the diagonal • 1 small red onion, thinly sliced • 1 green pepper (capsicum), diced • 1 red pepper (capsicum), diced • 1 tomato, diced • 1 tsp sesame oil • Pinch of salt Coriander (cilantro) sprigs, to garnish – optional For the marinade • 2–3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped • 6cm piece of ginger, washed but not peeled, finely chopped • 1 tsp salt • ½ tsp cumin seeds • 1 tsp Bassar curry masala (or hot chilli powder) • 2 tsp dark soy sauce • 1 tsp sesame oil Yeshi came up with this one here in the UK, and it has become a real crowd favourite at our restaurant and food stall. The name has stuck as it has a lovely ring to it, but the sesame element is in fact a bit incidental. There’s very little heat to this dish – the kids love it. Serve with basmati rice and Yeshi’s dal.

Combine the marinade ingredients in a bowl. Cut the chicken breast fillets on the diagonal to make bitesized strips. Add the chicken to the marinade and mix well using a fork or your hands, then cover and leave in the fridge for 1 hour.

Take the marinated chicken out of the fridge. Tip the cornflour into the bowl and use your hands to massage it through the chicken so that it is mixed through completely.

Pour the oil into a large wok and place over a high heat. To check if the oil is hot enough, toss in just a little bit of chicken first: if it bubbles furiously, you’re good to go. Using a slotted spoon, lift the chicken out of the bowl and carefully lower it into the hot oil. Stir gently, then let it cook for 7–8 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through, then remove and set aside.

You now need to carefully pour off all but 2 tablespoons of oil from the wok. (We pour ours into a heatproof jug and leave it to cool, then it can be strained and re-used.)

Return the wok, with its remaining 2 tablespoons of oil, to a medium heat. Add the garlic and chillies and stir-fry for about a minute, then add the onion and cook for a further 2 minutes – the onion won’t look cooked at this point, but this is fine as it only needs to be lightly stir-fried. Add the green and red peppers and stir-fry for just a few minutes, then return the chicken to the wok. Stir everything together for 3–4 minutes.

Just before you serve up, add the tomato to the wok and mix it in well, then stir in the sesame oil and salt. Garnish with coriander, if you like, but the dish is plenty colourful without.

Taste Tibet CHOCOLATE MOMOS Makes about 20 momos This one is just a bit of fun. Our relatives in Tibet have no taste for chocolate, so they would probably be horrified with what Yeshi has come up with here! But the kids have a lot of fun making chocolate momos, and this unique dessert is certainly a crowd-pleaser. Plain yoghurt, to serve

INGREDIENTS

For the dough • 90g chocolate, 70 percent cocoa • 50g unsalted butter • 300g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting • 1 large egg For the filling • 90g chocolate, 70 percent cocoa • 70g unsalted butter • 70g caster (superfine) sugar • 100g plain digestive biscuits, about 7 • 60g Tsampa (roasted barley flour, – optional) For the dough, fill a medium-sized saucepan about a quarter full of boiling water and place over a low heat. Sit a heatproof bowl on top, making sure that its base isn’t touching the water. Break up the chocolate into small pieces and add to the bowl, along with the butter. Stir gently for 2–3 minutes, until everything has melted, then take off the heat and leave to cool for a minute or two.

Meanwhile, put the flour into a mixing bowl, break in the egg and use your dominant hand to roughly combine. Add the slightly cooled chocolate mixture and, while mixing with your hand, slowly pour in 60ml (¼ cup) of warm water. Keep mixing and kneading until you have a ball of dough, then cover and set aside for 15–20 minutes.

Meanwhile, for the filling, break the chocolate into a saucepan and add the butter and sugar, then place over a low heat. In a bowl, crush the biscuits to crumbs using the end of a rolling pin. (You could also do this in a blender and then transfer the crumbs to a bowl). Add 100ml of boiling water – and the tsampa, if using – and mix well. When the chocolate mixture has completely melted, work it into the biscuit mixture using a spatula.

Knead the dough for a couple of minutes, then divide it in half. Sprinkle a little flour onto your work surface – but don’t overdo it, as too much can stiffen the dough, making the momos harder to wrap later. Take the first piece of dough, keeping the other covered in the bowl. Roll it out into a sausage shape about 25cm long, then cut into ten equal slices, lightly flattening each one with your hand. Using a rolling pin, and making one wrapper at a time, push and pull the flattened piece of dough up and down quickly and firmly, holding it with your spare hand and turning it little by little as you go. The middle should end up a bit thicker than the outer edges, and it should fill the palm of your hand; it doesn’t need to be a perfect circle.

As these chocolate momos have a nice buttery skin, there’s no need to grease or line your steamer baskets. Steam them over a high heat for about 14–16 minutes, then serve with yoghurt.