Indian dishes don’t photograph very well. Okay, let me rephrase that, I don’t know how to make Indian dishes look good in pictures. I had about 30 pictures of this dish, but didn’t really like any, spent about an hour trying to find a decent one, and finally here is one I hope at least look appetizing enough. Let me know if you have any tips on taking better curry pictures. I didn’t want to not publish this recipe just because the picture wasn’t up to my standards.
The Green curry chicken (I know it looks kind of yellow in the picture, but trust me, it was really green) gets it color from a paste made of Cilantro leaves and Jalapeno peppers. Cilantro is not a common ingredient in Kerala cuisine. In fact I don’t think my mom ever used it in her cooking. As a kid, I got exposed to cilantro on our out of state summer vacations, and I hated the smell of it! I would refuse to touch a dish if it had even a single cilantro leaf in it. But then I grew up and moved to Bangalore for work, and got exposed to more cilantro, it was everywhere, the unavoidable evil! After meeting Siv who is a Tamilian, somehow I got a little more tolerant to the smell. But only after I got married that I started fully appreciating these leaves, Tamilians don’t cook anything without Kothamalli as Cilantro is known in Tamil. They use it as garnish, they chop it up and put it in Rasam and Sambar, and they even have a kothamalli chutney! Siv introduced Kothamalli little by little in his cooking and somewhere along the line I became a fan.
Last week I picked up some fresh cilantro leaves which looked so healthy and green, I thought of doing some experiments with ingredients, and tried a new base for chicken curry with the whole intention of making a green color curry. This curry turned out very tasty, we had it with Idiyappam (string hoppers) (instant ones, I am too lazy to make those from scratch) and was a very good combo. This will go very well with Appams or plain white rice too. I had to note down the recipe immediately since I was just throwing some ingredients together, and this one was a definite keeper.
Ingredients
- 1 large skinless chicken breast with bones
- 2 green jalapeno peppers
- 2 cups fresh cilantro
- 1 tbsp ginger
- 1 medium sized shallot
- 1 large shallot chopped
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 small can coconut milk (~2 cups)
- 2 medium tomatoes quartered
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- 2 cardamom pods
- 2 cloves
- 1 star anise
- salt to taste
Method
Cut the chicken into small pieces.
Grind jalapeno, coriander leaves, medium sized shallot and ginger with a little water in a mixer to form a smooth green paste.
Heat oil in a deep pan and add the mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds splutter, add the chopped shallot, cardamom, cloves and star anise and saute till the shallots start to brown. Add chicken pieces to the pan and saute till the chicken pieces turn white (these will be pink to start with). Add coriander and turmeric powder and saute for another 2 minutes or so.
Add the green paste and 1 cup of water to the chicken and cook for 10 minutes covered.
Add the cut tomato pieces, coconut milk and vinegar, cover and cook on medium heat till the chicken pieces are cooked through and soft.
Serve hot.
Comments
33 Responses to “Green Curry Chicken”
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sig, if it’s any consolation there is a greenish tinge to the curry:). don’t worry. did you try fixing the color? color doesn’t matter your curry looks yummm….i like spicy curries.
i used to love cilantro while growing up though my mom couldn’t stand the smell but she used it for me. i wanted cilantro floating in all dishes:)):)).
Hey cutie!
First, I agree that Indian dishes are not easy to photograph.
In this case maybe I would have taken away too much of the liquid and tried making it look chunkier by showing more of the meat pieces. Something similar to what I tried to do in my chicken curry recipe. What always works nice is adding the condiment (rice roti) to the pic too. It looks appetizing and balances the photo a bit more.
As for playing around with Photoshop, I normally try to keep my photo as “pure” as I can. I mostly use iPhoto and just adjust color contrasts, sharpness and brightening the photo up a bit. That would be my advice to you too. I think your pictures are lovely and tell a great story. I like them because they are “pure” and have not been over-Photoshopped! What’s the artistic value in Photography when I go into a software and change almost everything I shot? It’s just the opionion I go by when I take photos. Sorry if I treaded on anyone’s feet!
Thanks Meeta, great pointers… I love your pictures, just checked out your chicken curry picture, so yummy!!!
Totally agree with not doing much digital fix up, I too adjust the sharpness and brightness and sometimes do some background cleanup, but try to keep the dish itself pure and show the true form…
Sig, I agree with Meeta…where’s your talent if you are going to change everything you shoot…just leave it as it is…at least that’s what I do…and moreover it would be artificial and misleading as well.
So, don’t worry…you are doing a great job and don’t need any fixing at all!The dish looks and sounds great…
hey sig,
you are one of the photographers that I look up to, I really mean it! Your pictures are very good as is. I would not bother fixing it too much, the warmth & love that goes into cooking brings out the best. Keep up the great work.
(just a friendly note, hope you don’t mind my frank comments)
BTW, coriander is such a loved herb in desi cuisine, can’t imagine food without it.
Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Hi Sweetie,
I understand what you mean, even in daylight my curry pics don’t look green enough. Meeta is our best best for photo tips, but I love the au naturelle look of this curry, will try your gravy for a veggie based dish!
The lamb chops look wonderfully bright and fiery!
Hi Sig,
Wow!!! Green curry Chicken looks yummy…Hey even i have this problem many time..i take some 10-15snaps..but hardly only one would compromise my eye some times…
Thanks Sunita, I totally agree, photoshopping food won’t do much justice to the readers… I keep my fix-up work to the minimum.
Richa,
I always love your comments, very encouraging and always brightens up my day! So thanks girl, keep’em coming :D. Yeah, now I get the greatness of coriander, never used to though…
Nandita, thanks sweety, good to know it is not just me. I never even get to take my pics in daylight, since I do most of my cooking in the night, or the days have been too gloomy for the past three months
Usha, thanks. Yes, I always click away a lot of pictures average of 30 :). But the problem is I will only go back and check the pictures after the dish is completely gone, so I have no choice but pick one from that or cook it again another time… Man, foodblogging is tough
Sig, I read the entire recipe and am sure with that green paste and the coconut milk, the curry is deft’ly an accompaniment to appam and idiyappams. Must give it a try sometime soon.
And as for the pictures, I feel its ok to keep the original shot since its a food blog and not a restaurant menu shot. And as Meeta suggested, I have noticed if you present it with some other food, it gets visually more appetizing. In this case, probably a bunch of cilantro on a side plate, might have been a good trick to project the colour of your dish. I am NOT AT all an expert, but this is what I feel from a layman’s visual perspective!
I will be deft’ly trying your dish one day and will let you know my comments then
Enjoy ur day!
Shn
Haryali Murgh!! YUMMY!!! Photo looks great to me.I have hard time photographing the drinks!!
Dish looks and sounds great,I will try.Thanks Sig.Hugs:)
Shn, thanks, now I think adding some cilantro leaves to the picture would have brought out the color! Thanks girl, will try that next time.
Asha, thanks.. Haryali Murgh is a nicer name. But you are the queen of great dish names. :). Yeah drinks are another hard thing to photograph, all the good cocktail pictures I have seen have some really nice funky background to go with the color of the cocktail, I don’t really know how to reproduce that at home.
Hey Sig, I was all eyes to read the recipe when I saw coriander!! I love coriander, I can use it in just about any dish! ya, sambhar and kothamalli chutney too
My Mumbai based malu family use it liberally ! I’m going to try that curry soon, can’t wait! As for the photos, well I try putting something else along with the pic to make it look presentable. It’s worked for me.
hey sig!!!
very nice recipe!!
and don’t worry about the picture.
There is no point changing the picture by different softwares u get.
I feel the basic essence of home cooking and natural cooking will be lost.
So u’r look yummy as it is!!!
your picture looks good. try photographing white dishes like kerala stew. they look horrendous.
Another classic Sig. I love your chicken recipes. I will comeback later to read more.
jyothsna, looks like I might be the only mallu who didn’t like coriander leaves
hi padmaja, thanks for ur kind words.
bee, I went back and checked out your stew pic, it looks great to me, the borders and the bowl adds the color! I got some ideas for next time.
Shilpa, thanks so much, this is by far my favorite chicken recipe with coconut base…
Sig, this is a nice recipe. I will try it out with mushrooms :). i am a vegetarian…..so “Adapt a recipe” is my rule :).
I agree with you on the photography bit :). Ah, each time pick up the camera to photograph the daal, kadhi or any gravied dish! Paranthas, in comparison, are so much easier to photograph ;). and yes, i never photoshop my pictures except cropping ‘em. and since i do most of my cooking in the night in that lil’ kitchen, you can imagine the fun :)). i agree with Meeta, Richa, Sunita and Shn.
Hey sig, I love coriander and coriander compliments chicken very well.
I would suggest just as mishmash suggested to place some coriander in the side…or you could lightly fry some chopped coriander and garnish the curry as final touch.
Hey musical,
yeah I do my cooking in the night too… it is definitely FUN 
Pravs, thanks… yeah next time I’ll add some more noise to the picture.:)
Sig, the color looks fine. photo looks great. Some good suggestions up above on composition etc. But just to focus on the color aspect for a sec - think about what is actually happening when you photograph. Light enters your lens and falls on a sensor. Sensor has pixels (typically RGB) and this light is then converted to voltages. RGB voltages are collapsed to create composite color. Now think about your eye - light enters the lens falls on rods and cones and electrical signals are generated, neurons fire and your perceive color. Your green is certainly not my green or anybody else’s green. Its just perception. Coming back to the camera - if it uses jpeg compression for example, there is a built in program (usually crappy) which converts your analog voltage signal to a scale of 256 colors per pixel while the human eye can perceive millions. We have not even started talking about distortions, resolution, s/w issues etc. So to say that a picture is pure if it is not photoshopped (or adjusted by any program) is incomplete ‘cos the camera already does it for you. The only place a picture is pure is in the mind [maybe in your heart too if you liked the recipe
]
That said we don’t like to photoshop beyond cropping and try to take things in natural light as much as possible.
Jai
Hi Jai, Yes, I get your point. I never get to take a picture in natural light, so normally I have to adjust the brightness and contrast of a picture ,I just use the auto-fix function. But doing that is different from replacing an entire color (in this case yellow with green) in a picture, that really takes away the authenticity of the dish itself I would think.
But about the whole color perception, I always wonder if the way a color looks to me is the same as it looks to anyone else, I wonder this about smell too, guess it is something we can never really prove! Just like the proverbial fallen tree in the forest
Sig, I’m so glad you did this sorta curry for a change
It’s always been the red but not the green. Your pix. turns out great, I did once b4 w/a paste mixture of cilantro, anaheim and serrano chilies with some turmeric and other spices, hehe, no doubt, the pix. is not so desirable for me to post. I think I’ll have to rethink now, thx 
Agree with you that wholesale change of color gets into the artistic realm and not a depiction of reality…unless your eye perceived it as green and the camera perceived as yellow. So do you want to depict what your eye perceived or what the camera did…that is the question. These situations typically arise due to lighting conditions and its pretty much impossible to get the “natural” look by editing the picture.
You are right about not being able to prove these things at an individual level. Have had some interesting discussions with my brother (who works on taste).
Melting Wok, You have to post your chicken recipe, I’ve been drooling over your spicy chili chicken recipe for a while, haven’t gotten around to cooking it yet, but it is in my to-try list. :).
Jai, yes that is an interesting perspective, if it looked green in real life, and camera screwed up, should I fix it? Guess if I could get it to look as natural as it did to my eyes using photoshop, may be I would have, I tried, but it looked really bad, guess my photoshop skills need to be improved along with my photography skills
hey sig,
just when you think the LIST is done, here comes one more for broccoli & chocolate lovers, thot u might enjoy
http://health.msn.com/dietfitness/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=100159206&;GT1=9303
ps. fried broccoli recipe coming up on my blog
Wow Richa, did you have to do that? I eat 9 out of 10 (not a big fan of beans) of those regularly!!!!!!
Wow! Sig ,that’s a great looking curry! Love to have this one for weekend brunch with pooris.:)Happy easter!
Yumm… pooris and chicken curry, another great combo. Happy Easter to you too Lera, hope you cook up a storm for Easter brunch!
Hi Sig, if it means anything, I really like the photo. All I would have done to play with it is to brigten it up a bit in Photoshop. Although I usually don’t like to photoshop my pics, I do find that adjusting the contrast/brightness sometimes does wonders to the photograph!
Also, try using a white plate/bowl to photograpgh food. It definitely brings out the colour of the dish. A contrasting colour could then be added by any condiments on the side, or even as a background. Hope that helps!
Hi Meena, it does mean a lot :)Thanks a lot for the tips…
very nice recipes…excellent ….
I tried ur green chicken curry yesterday and it came out well inspite of replacing jalapeno peppers with green chillies, shallots with regular onions. Bye and Keep blogging. Fun to read all ur posts.