Chicken Curry via SKYPE

Technology is a life-saver in many many ways. For one, it gives me direct access to a walking cookbook also known as my mum. :)

A few days ago, I had by mistake cut open a packet of coconut milk instead of tomato paste. Yes, it is possible when both packs are identical with only the printed name on the pack as differentiators. When the fire is going and there are 10 others things lined up to be done, you (or is it just me?) just don't take a second look.

The metal version of pestle and mortar

I know I am not ready to cook curry with no curry paste but I also don't want to waste the packet of coconut milk. So I decided to improvise with what I have and try. Finally, I took out the mortar and pestle that I had bought on a whim when we first got here.

My plan was to try to re-create something close to curry paste. I have helped my mum do this chili paste thingie for vegetables (think sambal kangkong) before when she cooked and thought that would be the next best substitute. I know there was chili, onion, garlic, belachan, ginger but what else? Then the other questions came up. Was there lime juice? Do I have to add water to the coconut milk? Does the paste go in first or later?

I tried looking for chicken curry recipes online without using curry paste but could not find any. So I decided to call home using Skype to ask mummy. We had paid to get Skype credits for calls to Singapore and these calls do not cost much at all. So I have the luxury of calling home when I want to. I mean, if it was 10 years ago when the call might have cost $10+ for a few minutes, would I have called for curry? I doubt it. 

So, she told me what went into the paste and of course, I didn't have all the ingredients. Though she was saying "the taste will be different without this and that", I just had to make do. I felt quite happy with the end result though I just could not get that red colour typical of our chinese curry.

This was what the end product looked like:

The weak looking curry that tasted not too bad!