The chicken curry that put my broken family back together again.
They belong to my father. I think of them often—children picking mangoes straight off the tree, chickens running free around the house, men measuring their wealth by the cows they own, and a village taking care of its many, many children—but I think of them most when I braise chicken in curry.
My ada, father in Chichewa, grew up in Chituka, a farming village in Malawi. The middle of five children, he was 15 when my diplomat grandfather moved his family of seven to the suburbs of New York City. My parents met while attending college in the same town I was born and raised in, and while a few of my aunts and uncles moved back home to raise families, my parents chose to stay on in the States, and my African father took on the task of raising American children.
Nsima, a staple in Malawian cuisine, is essentially cornmeal mixed with hot water to make a thick paste, and then formed into balls or patties that firm as they cool. While I enjoyed the taste of nsima, it was the ritual of eating as a family that I enjoyed more. Even more exciting in my young mind, it meant we would be eating like they did in the village—sans silverware.
The meat would be left for hours to slowly braise in a pot with tomatoes, carrots, celery, onions, and curry powder, the chicken turning so tender that it would eventually self-shred and fall off the bone. The two got served separately, but came together in the sauce. We’d rip pieces of nsima with our fingers and use them as a utensil, dipping them in the stew, trying to soak up the liquid while also scooping up chunks of meat.
It was during a holiday break about four years after the divorce that my siblings and I found ourselves staying with my father at his new home—a one-bedroom apartment that felt sad and lonely compared to the home we had shared as a family. It was during this visit that my father returned from the grocery store one day and asked me if I wanted to learn how to make his chicken. By then I had been working in kitchens for a few years and was always eager to learn a new recipe.
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