Okay, here's what I ended up with:
Balti Chicken in a Thick Creamy Coconut Sauce
1 T ground almonds, dry roasted to toast them.
Toss the almonds into a bowl and add:
1/3 c coconut milk
2/3 cup cream cheese
1 1/2 t ground coriander seeds
1 1/2 t ground cardamom
1 t chili powder
1 t garlic pulp
1 1/2 t ginger pulp
salt
Mix it until smooth. Mine looked a lot thicker than the photo in the
cookbook, so I added another splash of coconut milk.
Add 1 T oil to wok, add 1/2 lb cubed raw chicken, and 1 bay leaf. Stir-fry
2 minutes. Pour the previous mixture into the wok, add 2 T chopped fresh
cilantro, cover and cook 10-12 minutes, stirring now and then. Uncover, stir
and cook another 2 minutes. Make sure chicken is cooked through and serve.
I served it with rice cooked in coconut milk.
The original recipe called for low-fat fresh cheese. Fresh mozzarella was
what I was thinking of using, but I didn't have any on hand, but I did have
the cream cheese. It also asked for green cardamom pods to be added with the
bay leaf, but I didn't have any, so I used the ground in the mixture
instead.
It also called for 1 T of dried coconut to be toasted with the almonds, but
I didn't add that.
Thus ends the Great Coconut Experiment. I no longer hate coconut, but I
still don't like the texture of the coconut meat.
--
D.Currie