Carrie w'Riz

recipe by Abdul Rahman...via Umm Ramy

It may seem a little odd to have a curry recipe among our family recipes, but we adopted it as our own. A personal chef, and family friend, named Abdul Rahman shared this recipe with my mom in 1975, and she's been making it ever since. He was working for a Saudi family at the time and modified a traditional Indian curry stew to fit the Arabic palette. Even the name has been Arabfied a bit, calling it "carrie" rather than curry. It is a curry-based sauce, with meatballs and vegetables, that is served with rice that is topped with shredded chicken. Be warned, like all my mother's recipes, it is quite a few steps and could feed an army......but, well worth the effort.

Ingredients
1 whole chicken (quartered) PLUS 1 whole chicken breast (2 split)
2 pounds ground beef
5-6 Yukon Gold potatoes (diced, 1-inch cubes)
3 cups onions (small dice)
1 16-ounce package defrosted, frozen sliced carrots (I use crinkle-cut)
1 16-ounce package defrosted, frozen peas (I use petite)
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup curry powder
3/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons samneh, butter, or olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1 teaspoon allspice

1/2 cup slivered almonds and/or pine nuts, toasted

vegetable oil for deep frying

olive oil for pan frying

Cooked white rice (2-3 cups uncooked)

Directions

Place chicken in large stock pot and cover with cold water, bring chicken to a boil and skim surface periodically to remove any residue. When chicken is fully cooked remove to a plate and reserve boiling liquid to use as broth for the stew. Remove chicken from bone and shred into small pieces, set aside. Return chicken carcass to broth and continue to simmer on low heat until needed. Strain before adding to the stew.

Cut-up potatoes into a 1-inch dice and deep fry until light golden brown, drain on paper towels and reserve for stew.

Season ground beef and roll into approximately 2-inch meatballs. Pan-fry in olive oil until cooked through, set aside.

In a stew pot heat olive oil and add diced onions. Cook until translucent. Add flour and cook for a few more minutes to remove raw taste, until light golden brown. Add curry powder to flour mixture and stir until well combined. Add broth until soupy, sauce will thicken as it cooks. Bring to a boil, add defrosted peas and carrots. Continue to simmer on medium-low heat for 20-30 minutes or until thickened. Add heavy cream, meatballs and fried potatoes. Allow flavors to combine, simmering for 5-10 more minutes only. Do not over-cook at this point, the potatoes will become mushy.

Spoon prepared rice onto serving platter, top with reserved shredded chicken, garnish with toasted almonds/pine nuts.

Serve warm stew alongside rice or with bread and enjoy!

Step-by-step

Wash raw chicken really well and throw into a large stock pot. Cover with cold water and bring to a bowl. Once it's boiling, reduce heat to medium-low and continue to simmer until the chicken is completely cooked through.

Periodically skim any foam that develops on the surface of the chicken broth while it simmers.

Once the chicken is completely cooked, pull it out onto a plate or pan to cool.

When it is cooled down a bit, pull the chicken off the bone and shred into bite-sized pieces (watch out for small bones and cartilage). Set aside for later.

Keep chicken bones and skin to return to the broth.

This broth is going to be the liquid you later add to the rue to make the stew.

Return carcass to the broth.

Let it simmer on low until needed later.

Wash potatoes well and pre-heat the vegetable oil for frying.

Peel the potatoes.

Slice potatoes lengthwise.

Then slice those slices lengthwise.

Then cut those across.

Until all the potatoes are cubed.

Once all the potatoes are cubed check that the oil is ready for frying.

Fry the cubed potatoes in batches until golden brown.

Drain on paper towels.

Set aside fried potatoes until ready to use.

Throw the ground beef into a large bowl.

Season with salt, pepper, and allspice...about 1/2 teaspoon each.

Lightly mix the spices into the meat and start rolling into about a 2-inch meatballs.

They came out to be about 36 meatballs, just FYI...it doesn't have to be an exact number.

Once all the meatballs are rolled, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a sauté pan.

Throw in some meatballs, without crowding the pan so they brown nicely.

Flip meatballs to brown on all sides.

Cook meatballs until they are juuuuuust about done, they will continue to cook after you pull them out.

Drain on paper towels.

Set aside until ready to use.

Chop up 1-2 large onions.

It should be about 3 cups of diced onions.

Throw them in a large pot with a few tablespoons of heated samneh, butter, or olive oil. Cook until translucent on medium heat, about 10-15 minutes.

Add 3/4 cup of flour to cooked onions.

Stir around for a few minutes to cook off the flour taste and combine well.

Pull out your super ethnic-looking curry tin.

Add 1/2 cup curry powder to the onion mixture.

Stir in for a minute to cook off raw taste and combine well.

Strain warm chicken broth and add to onion mixture. Keep stirring and adding until it becomes a soupy consistency...it ended up being around 6 cups of broth that I added, and I had 2 cups left over to use later if I needed to thin it out.

It will thicken as it cooks, but don't make it too thin.

Grab your bags of defrosted carrots and peas.

Throw the carrots into the pot.

Throw the peas in there too. Let this medley simmer for about 20-30 minutes, or until the flavors meld together well and the soup thickens.

Then stir in about a cup of heavy cream. Gently stir in the fried potatoes and meatballs. Simmer on low heat for 5-10 minutes, don't overheat at this point, the potatoes will get mushy.

Spread out prepared rice on a serving platter. Top with reserved shredded chicken and toasted pine nuts/almonds.

To serve, ladle some stew onto the chicken and rice on individual plates or bowls...enjoy!