I first heard of the idea of curry with boys when my
mother in law made it for me years ago. (I am told that calling the side dishes "boys" comes from
the fact that many boys were needed to serve the different condiments for
the curry.) I immediately
loved it-- so colorful with so many different flavors and textures. I'm a
big food mixer. Even when I have a meal made up of separate components
(steak, potatoes, vegetable), I combine every bite with a bit of
something else. So this, a meal all about combinations, is perfect for
me. Also, I love one-dish meals, as you can probably tell from the count
of 20 such recipes with that label on this blog. It's sort of funny to
call a recipe featuring nine little dishes in the above photo alone
"one-dish." Apparently for me, the dish count of a meal has to do with
the number of things I have to dream up/plan for, vs. actual number of
dishes. So, curry with boys: one dish.
I'm
not deeply attached to any curry recipe itself, and am certainly not
experienced in making curries at all. But this (cheating, not
authentic at all) one that I found on a blog was good and easy. (Feel free to
share with me if you have a favorite that's better!) But I mostly wanted
to share the colorful idea of the boys because it's a meal that makes you smile.
Chicken Curry with Boys
Chicken Curry
slightly adapted from savour-fare.com
~2 T butter
1 1/2 apples, finely chopped
1/2 an onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 T flour
3 t curry powder
1 t+ salt
1 C milk
1 C chicken broth
~1 lb cooked, chopped chicken
Melt butter in a large saute pan. Add apple, onion, and garlic, and cook over medium low heat, covered, till onions are translucent, ~10 minutes.
Add flour, curry powder, and salt. Cook and stir a couple minutes.
Add milk and chicken broth. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce has thickened, about 15 minutes.
Add chicken and heat through. Serve over rice with boys at the table to mix and match as you please.
Boys
Serve any number of the following in individual little dishes:
- diced celery
- diced carrot
- chopped tomatoes
- raisins
- hard-boiled egg whites, chopped
- hard-boiled egg yolks, chopped
- chutney
- peanuts
- grated coconut
- sunflower seeds
- chopped parsley
This is very similar to a recipe I grew up with. We used to call the condiments "side boys". We used to also include sliced bananas, and now, I also use finely chopped stuffed olives and kosher dill pickles. Thanks for posting this!
ReplyDeleteThis dish has been a family favorite for over 70 years, my mother learned this recipe in China in 1948, although we think it came from India. My mother had 15 boys, my wife raised that up to 36 (the more boys, the wealthier you were). We never ever had more than one servant and that was in Japan. It became the Christmas Eve dinner and know my grown children are doing it. Some additional boys were: sweet and del pickle, onion, bacon, baby corn, banana, pineapple, celery, chives and water chestnuts. There are so many more, but it’s up to your taste. This is a great dish for the family and the kids love it because they get to build their own.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThis was introduced to me as a young newlywed Navy wife in California in the mid 70s. They were called side boys in that community. Our favorites were chutney, bacon, hard boiled eggs, peanuts, raisins, coconut, cheddar cheese... I'm preparing it for friends soon, keeping the tradition going!
ReplyDelete