Mom's sauce

My mom grew up unspoiled from foreign influences, and she enjoyed a steady Norwegian diet containing few spices except from salt and pepper. Still, as a grown lady, she sometimes throws together really oriental-tasting dishes, mostly from what she finds in the local supermarket. It might be hard to decipher some of the dishes, but she taught me this one that's surprisingly simple and so good that just thinking of it makes me salivate. I might have morphed the receipt over the years, but the base is hers.

Feeds about 4.

What you'll need:

• Two cans (400g each) coconut milk.
• Two cans crushed tomatoes.
• 1 whole garlic.
• 2-3 tsp ginger.
• 2 tsp coriander.
• Chili to taste. Mine is 2-3 fresh chilies.
• Salt to taste (maybe 2 tsp).
• A bit of lemon balm gives the finishing touch.

• 800g diced chicken.
• Spring onion, chopped.
• Carrots, sliced to thin stripes.
• Rice or pasta.

The process.

What to do:

• Put a pot on the stove and turn on the heat.
• Mix coconut milk and tomatoes in the pot.
• Add the spices. By all means, peel the garlic.
• Use a hand blender in the pot until the sauce is quite smooth.
• The tastes are freed when the sauce becomes warm. It's not of much use to taste the cold sauce. Check that the spice mix is right and add what you miss.
• The sauce can now be stowed away in the fridge or freezer, or you can use it right away. 

• Fry the chicken. Feel free to let ghee, garlic and a chopped onion accompany the chicken in the skillet.
• Add the spring onion, carrots and other extras if you want to.
• Serve with rice or pasta. Boil the rice with some chopped spring onion if you like.

The meal.

For the health freaks:

• Use brown rice or pasta.