Ravinder Bhogal
THE GUARDIAN – Wherever migrant cooks roam, they pick things up and leave others behind. They cross so many borders that their food repertoire becomes vast, seasoned with the intonations of many cultures. These dishes are the bonny love-children of those blended borders – African ingredients overlaid with warm Arabic spices and Indian culinary traditions. They pay tribute to migrants who learned to reconcile the old and new with grace, who preserved memories while learning to let go, who carved a place for themselves in their new nations and expressed their contentment with food.
Smokey chicken and coconut curry
This iconic dish is eaten all over Kenya. Its roots are in coastal Mombasa, a port on the Indian Ocean where many immigrants arrived (of which my own grandfather was one in the 1940s).
Every family has its own version – the spices can differ and some may not include tomatoes – but they all share coconut milk. In my version, I smoke it at the end to recreate the memory of cooking it over an outdoor stove.
Prep 20 minuntes
Cook two hours
Serves four
One tbsp ghee
One red onion, peeled and finely chopped
One thumb ginger, peeled and finely grated
Four garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
Two green chillies, finely chopped
One tsp ground turmeric
100g chopped tinned tomatoes
Six chicken drumsticks
400ml coconut milk
Juice of one lime
Sea salt
One piece lump charcoal (optional)
Two hard-boiled eggs, peeled and cut in half, to serve
One small handful chopped coriander, to serve
For the masala
Two tbsp coriander seeds
Two tbsp cumin seeds
One tbsp fennel seeds
One dried red chilli
One tsp green cardamom pods
Quarter tsp cloves
One star anise
One tsp black peppercorns
One cinnamon stick
One tsp hot paprika
One tsp ground ginger
Quarter nutmeg, finely grated
Begin by making the masala. Heat a dry frying pan over a medium heat and toast all the whole spices until they are aromatic, stirring frequently and being careful not to scorch them. Pop the spices into a spice grinder and whizz to a fine powder, then stir in the paprika, ground ginger and nutmeg.
Put the ghee in a large frying pan over a low heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes, or until dark and caramelised, then add the ginger, garlic and chillies and fry until fragrant.
Next, add two tablespoons of the masala and the turmeric, and cook for a few minutes, until your kitchen is full of the fragrance of the spices. Now tip in the tomatoes and season with salt.
Cook for 10 minutes, then add the chicken and coconut milk. Mix well, then cover and simmer for 25 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and toothsome. Squeeze in the lime juice and season with salt to taste.
If you want to smoke the dish, sit the piece of charcoal directly on a gas burner or barbecue, letting it catch light and burn. When it is smouldering and grey, carefully transfer it with tongs to a small, heatproof bowl. Nestle the bowl inside the pan with the chicken and drizzle a little oil over the charcoal – it will start smoking immediately. Cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid and leave to smoke for half an hour.
Serve the kuku paka topped with hard-boiled egg halves and scattered with chopped coriander.
Sweetcorn and peanut curry (makai paka)
In east Africa, this is served both as part of a main meal with rice or chapatis, or on its own as a snack. The original uses crushed peanuts, but I use peanut butter to make a thick, funky, creamy sauce spiced with aromatics such as star anise and curry leaves. Always look out for unsweetened peanut butter.
Prep 15 minutes
Cook 40 minutes
Serves six
Five corn on the cob, one left whole, and the rest cut crossways into four chunks
Two tbsp rapeseed oil
One tsp brown mustard seeds
A pinch of asafoetida
20 curry leaves
One cinnamon stick
One star anise
One thumb ginger, peeled and finely grated
Four garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
One red chilli, thinly sliced
200g tinned tomatoes
One heaped tbsp tomato puree
Three tbsp smooth peanut butter
Two tbsp tamarind concentrate
One tbsp soft brown sugar
Sea salt
One handful each toasted desiccated coconut and coriander leaves, to serve.
Heat a grill to medium and toast the whole corn cob, turning it frequently so it chars all over. Leave to cool, then shuck the sweetcorn kernels from the cob and reserve for later. Meanwhile, steam the sweetcorn chunks until tender and set aside.
Pour the oil into a large frying pan and put over a high heat. Add the mustard seeds and, when they pop, follow swiftly with the asafoetida, curry leaves, cinnamon and star anise, and fry briefly. Turn the heat down to low, add the ginger, garlic and chilli and cook until fragrant.
Stir in the tomatoes, tomato puree, peanut butter, tamarind and sugar, and cook for eight to 10 minutes, stirring every so often, until you have a sauce that’s thick enough to cling to the sweetcorn. Add salt to taste. Throw in the sweetcorn chunks and stir to coat thoroughly. Finish with the coconut, coriander and reserved sweetcorn kernels.
Duck rendang
Rendang is an aromatic, dry, braised curry from Malaysia. It is normally made with tough cuts of beef that require lengthy cooking, but I like to use duck legs, which also become luscious with a long, slow braise. The duck is first seared to render any excess fat, then simmered for hours in a lip-tingling, chilli-spiced, coconut sauce that turns the meat into a meltingly tender, flavourful sludge. Serve with steamed rice.
Prep/soak two hours
Cook two hours
Serves four
Four duck legs
400ml coconut milk
Three tsp palm sugar, or to taste
Two tbsp fish sauce
Juice of one lime
For the curry paste
15 dried kashmiri chillies
15 dried bird’s eye chillies
One red onion, peeled and roughly chopped
50g ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
25g galangal, roughly chopped
Four garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
Two stalks lemongrass, roughly chopped
Eight g fresh turmeric, peeled and roughly chopped
Three tsp shrimp paste
Two tbsp rapeseed oil
First, make the curry paste. Break up the chillies and soak in hot water for two hours, then drain. Roughly chop the chillies and put into a small food processor or blender, along with the onion, ginger, galangal, garlic, lemongrass, turmeric, shrimp paste and oil. Process to a coarse paste.
Heat a large, deep non-stick frying pan over medium–high heat. Add the duck legs, skin side down, and fry, without turning, until the fat renders and the skin is golden brown – two to four minutes.
Set the duck legs aside, reserving a tablespoon of the fat in the pan. Add the curry paste and fry over a medium heat, stirring constantly, until the colour deepens and the onion becomes fragrant – it will take around 10 minutes to cook out the rawness and to tease out all the flavours. Add the coconut milk and 375ml water and bring to a simmer. Add the duck legs, return to a simmer, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer gently for one and a half hours, stirring occasionally, until the duck is very tender and the sauce is thick and deepened in colour.
Finally, add the palm sugar to the sauce, stirring to make sure it all dissolves, then stir in the fish sauce and lime juice.
