Below is another one of my mother’s muscle memory recipes. This time it’s a chicken with these great tasting potatoes mixed in this creamy, yogurt gravy. She has a few recipes that she dumps yogurt into, so I decided to do a little research into yogurt and cooking.
What is yogurt and how is it made? Yogurt is produced by bacterial fermentation of milk. Usually cow’s milk is used but milk from other animals can be used such as water buffalo, goats, ewes, mares, camels and yaks. They also produce yogurt with slightly different flavours and results. The type of milk use, such as homogenized or not, pasteurized or raw will give slightly different flavours and results as well. [1]
There are different types of yogurt whether it’s from different parts of the world or made with different ingredients. There is the regular yogurt that we are all used; Greek yogurt that has become popular and has a greater protein content and has a thicker consistency than regular yogurt; then there are yogurts made from milk that is NOT from a cow such as goats milk or sheep milk yogurt; Skryr is Icelandic yogurt and it is the thickest of the yogurts; Australian yogurt is somewhere between regular and Greek and Icelandic yogurt; Then there are the non-diary yogurts such as soy yogurt, almond, coconut yogurts; yogurt drinks are another great invention, kefir being one example. [2, 3]
Yogurt may be used in cooking and is found a lot in Indian and south Asian cooking. But why? That’s a good question. You’ll notice in Indian restaurants there is always a yogurt like sauce or dip that is on the side. The lactose has this cooking effect that is helpful with all the spicy chilli hot food that can be found in that type of cuisine; many Indians are vegetarian and whole-milk contains protein, calcium and fat, all good things; (fun fact: a gallon of milk produces a gallon of yogurt so there is no loss in the production.); yogurt is great for thickening curries which seems to be what my mother does and it makes it very creamy; yogurt is also used in their drink such as the mango lassi. [4]
Below is just one of the recipes my mother has made that includes yogurt. More general Indian recipes that include yogurt as ingredient can be found in the article 8 Indian Recipes with Yogurt by Drew Glover. [5].
Ingredients
- 1 lbs chicken drumsticks
- ¼ c butter
- 1 large onion
- 2 medium sized potatoes
- 5 tsp ground ginger
- 5 tsp ground garlic
- ½ tsp turmeric
- ½ c plain yogurt
- 1” cinnamon stick
- 4-5 pods cardamom
- 4-5 cloves
- 2-3 bay leaves
- ½ c milk (optional, if necessary)
- Sliced almonds (optional)
- Pistachios (optional)
- Rosewater (optional)
- Saffron (optional)
Instructions:
- Peel and chop potatoes into bite sized pieces
- Wash well.
- Marinate potatoes in a pan of water with ½ tsp turmeric and pinch of salt.
- In medium pan, melt butter; add chopped and washed onion; ground ginger, garlic and other spices. Add yogurt. Turn off heat.
- Add chicken. Mix well.
- Add potatoes to a separate frying pan and fry, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
- Add potatoes to chicken pan.
- Turn heat back on. Add 1 cup of water.
- Let simmer on low medium heat until chicken is cooked.
- Continue simmering until potatoes are cooked adding ½ c milk, if necessary.
- Bring to boil; simmer; cover if potatoes are not fully cooked otherwise, uncover to let water evaporate.
- Add almonds, rosewater and saffron.
Notes: I’m not a cook and I’m sure there are many techniques to making Indian and Asian cuisine that would make the above recipe tastier. In any case, I hope you enjoy the recipe and the results.
Onions, it seems using onions like a Spanish onion isn’t encouraged. So just regular cooking type onions that make your eyes water when you’re cutting them are best.
One thing I’ve noticed about these recipes there is a lot of prep required. So I’m noticing with trying each of these recipes, sometimes multiple times, that if I do some of the prep the night before, it makes the actual cooking process easier and less rushed. For example, chopping up the onions, garlic and potatoes beforehand. Marinating the potatoes overnight doesn’t hurt either. And having the chicken prepped the night beforehand. I found this made the actual cooking experience easier as I could just concentrate on cooking and adding ingredients in at the correct times rather than prepping ingredients while trying to pay attention to the actual cooking process.
Modifications: I can’t possibly offer modification to this or any other recipe of my mother’s except for the type of yogurt. In this recipe I just used regular plain yogurt. But I’m wondering how the recipe would turn out if plain Greek yogurt or Skyr were used? Or, perhaps goat’s milk yogurt or another type of milk? Or even one of the non-dairy yogurts? This is where I may considering a modification to the recipe, only to see what the difference is.
Tea pairings: Tea pairings isn’t something I have studied extensively, yet. From what I have read it seems that green teas are best with chicken. There is the steamed or the fried green teas. The latter are smokier and go better with chickens, stir fried vegetables, potatoes, root vegetables and turkey. [6]
References:
- Yogurt, Wikipedia, URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogurt
- The 10 types of Yogurt You Need to Know About, Becca Dicenso, March 2016, Eat this, Not That!, Url: https://www.eatthis.com/yogurt/
- Do You Know the 7 Different Types of Yogurt?, Cara Geertsema, Feb 2018, Wide Oopen Eats, URL: https://www.wideopeneats.com/every-single-type-of-yogurt/
- Why Do Indian People Eat So Much Yogurt?, Jess Kapadia, Jan 2013, Food Republic, URL: http://www.foodrepublic.com/2013/01/23/why-do-indian-people-eat-so-much-yogurt/
- 8 Indian Recipes with Yogurt, Drew Glover, March 2015, Grokker, URL: https://grokker.com/cooking/indian/article/8-indian-recipes-with-yogurt/1eff516b862188c8feac3c32d26e6c4e
- Tea and Food Pairings – What tea goes with what foods?, Shanti Tea, Mar 2012, URL: https://www.shantitea.ca/stblog/article/st/777/tea-and-food-pairings-what-tea-goes-with-what-foods
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