Outside cooking not just for the caveman... chicken curry on the fire

The other day, I thought to myself (and perhaps said out loud to the hubby), “I’m tired of always hearing from other people how fabulous it is to cook on an outside fire.” It’s almost as if they look down on us for cooking on the stoves in our kitchens, imagine!

Now outside cooking is a way of life is South Africa, with braais (barbecues) and potjies at every turn. And as luck would have it, the house which we bought and moved into last year has a built-in braai with a chimney on the patio… which, needless to say, I’ve not tried before. So, why not?

Now I don’t know the first thing about lighting a fire for cooking – is there special wood, can I just use any ol’ pot from the kitchen, etc. Do I need a special “outdoor” recipe? Now if there’s a man around the house, I figure I need to put him to good use. I left the fire part up to him. Turns out you don’t actually need any special type of wood, the gas stations sell chopped firewood which is good enough… and mighty convenient. As for the pot, well, yes, I did need something different – a cast iron pot. Off I went on a search for a reasonably priced, nice looking cast iron pot that wasn’t actually a potjie pot. This I found at one of the hardware stores, along with a tripod. And the recipe? I just thought I’d try my normal, everyday chicken curry recipe, except outside. Why complicate things unnecessarily, right?

 We started by kindling up the fire using the chopped wood. Once the fire caught up, I placed the tripod over the fire, and the pot on the tripod to warm up. After that, it was fairly easy. Well, when I say “fairly” I mean not really. Every so often I had to tend to the fire, which was in danger of dying out if I didn’t blow on it now and then, and then throw another piece of wood on to feed it. The lesson here is that modern man really is out of touch if we’re struggling to keep this tiny fire under control with all the conveniences we have at hand… like lighters and matches. Oh, and firelighters. 

Back to the food. That part was under control, with a few small differences. I needed an extra jug of water, whereas when I cook on the stove I don’t add much. I would also suggest leaving the lid off the pot for quite a bit of the cooking time, so that the food absorbs some of the smoky wood-fired taste which adds that x-factor.

 Here’s my step-by-step for the curry:
 Ingredients:
1 chicken, disjointed, cut up into pieces and washed
 1 onion, finely chopped
 1 tomato, grated
 3 potatoes, cut into quarters
 2 cardamom pods, whole
 2 cloves
 1 stick cinnamon
 1 dried bay leaf
 1 stem of curry leaves, washed
 1½ tsp coarse salt
 ¼ tsp turmeric
 1½ tablespoons mixed masala (or if using plain chilli powder, then use 2 tsp chilli powder mixed with a ½ tsp each of coriander powder, cumin powder and garam masala. Adjust to desired spiciness/heat)
 1 heaped tsp ginger/garlic
 A jug of water
 A handful of chopped coriander (cilantro)

 Method:
 1. When the pot is hot enough, add enough oil to coat the bottom of the pot.
 2. Add in the whole spices, i.e. cardamons, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaf. Fry off for about a minute.
 3. Drop in the chopped onion and curry leaves, and fry until soft and golden in colour.*
 4. Be careful not to burn this as the fire can heat up the pot very quickly.
 5. Once the onions are soft, add in the salt, turmeric, mixed masala and ginger/garlic mix and stir.
 6. Throw in the washed chicken pieces and stir to coat with all the spices.
 7. Now is the time to really turn on the heat and get that fire going.
8 . Allow the chicken pieces to fry up a bit on a hot fire, without burning, approx. 10 minutes. 
9. Add in the grated tomato and mix in.
10. Leave to simmer for about 10 minutes, then add in about a cup of water and stir. ** Leave again for about 15-20 mins, making sure to check the fire every now and then, and to stir the curry up, adding more water only if necessary. ***
11. Then when the tomato has cooked into a thickish gravy, add in another cup of water, with the potato quarters. Let this boil up and cook for 20 mins, until the potato is cooked through and soft if you poke it with a fork.
12. Garnish with the chopped coriander and the curry is good to go.

 Notes:
 * When frying the onions, try to get the pot as hot as possible, then once the onions are on, try to “lower” the heat, by lowering the wood, or letting the flame go down just a bit. This will allow you to get an nice heat on to get the onions frying, but not enough to burn them before they soften.
 ** When the curry is on the go, make sure there’s enough liquid (from the tomato and added water) and no danger of the curry drying up. 
*** Don’t immediately add too much water, as this will just dilute the curry. Let the tomato cook for a bit and then decide whether the fire is hot enough and on the boil that you need the extra liquid.