Yellow Chicken Curry

Ok, so this looks like a pile of dog sick, but it's actually a really great dish and one of my favourite chicken curries. Adapted from a Delia recipe, it's quick, easy and delicious, and I make it all the time. We had it on Wednesday, when Steve came for dinner and to play board games - it went down very well, but I was still able to snatch one portion away to freeze before it was all gobbled up.

Yellow Chicken Curry
(serves 2 people - easily multipliable for more)

Chicken pieces (I use chicken breast meat, skinless and boneless and cut into bite-size pieces, but you can make it with bigger pieces, pieces on the bone, etc - you just cook it for longer when you first put it in the oven) - enough for 2 people
1 large red pepper, roughly chopped
1 large green chilli, finely chopped
2 onions, finely chopped or blended in a food processor
2-3 cloves garlic
Large knob of ginger
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
8 cardamom pods
1 tbsp turmeric
approx 200ml soy cream
salt and pepper
oil

Choose an oven-proof dish that is big enough to fit all the chicken pieces in a single layer. In this dish, grate the ginger, crush the garlic, add 1-2 teasps oil, the turmeric, salt and pepper. Mix together, and then add the chicken to this dish and coat the chicken in the mix. You can put this straight into the oven if you're in a rush, otherwise, leave this to marinade.

If you are using skinless boneless meat as I did, put it in the oven uncovered and start doing the following steps straight away. If the meat has bones, you will need to cook it for at least 30 minutes before starting on the rest of the recipe.

In a frying pan with no oil, heat the cardamon, cumin and coriander seeds, tossing them for a few minutes until you can really smell them and they turn a shade or two darker. Tip them into a pestle and mortar and grind to a fine powder.

Put the finely chopped or ground onions into the frying pan with a little oil, and fry until they turn golden. Add the red pepper and green chilli with some salt, and then add the ground spices. Cook for a few minutes until the pepper has softened, and then take the frying pan off the heat. Add the soy cream and stir until you have a thick, brownish sauce. Remove the chicken from the oven, and pour the sauce over the chicken. Cover the chicken with foil and return to the oven. Cook for at least 15 minutes like this (probably longer if your chicken has bones).

In the meantime prepare your rice or whatever accompaniment. About 10 minutes before you are ready to eat, remove the foil from the chicken and stir. The sauce should now look yellow as you mix in the marinade from the chicken into the sauce. Cook uncovered for 10 minutes and then serve.

Chicken Dhansak

There's no picture today as the battery in my camera died before I could take it, although this isn't a particularly photogenic dish anyway. Sorry - you'll just have to imagine this one - it's a greenish-brown curry with quite a thick sauce which is served with caramelised onion brown rice.

This is a Parsi dish from Mumbai, something I've been wanting to try for a while as vegetable dhansak is my brother's favourite curry in his favourite Indian restaurant. I had looked online in the past for a dhansak recipe but never found anything very appealing, and I was also put off by the description of dhansak curries as "sweet and sour" - in Chinese food that is my worst flavour combination.

Anyway, for our anniversary a couple of weeks ago, my mum bought us Camilla Panjabi's 50 Great Curries of India, and there was a recipe for Chicken Dhansak that looked very appealing. I made quite a few changes and substitutions but it turned out beautifully - it's spicy and tangy and has a really unusual flavour that is very different to the curries I usually make. The sauce is thick and creamy, but not made with dairy (or dairy substitutes) but with lentils and vegetables, so it is a really nutritious dish. I will definitely be making it again, it is yum!

Chicken Dhansak
(serves 2)

1 large chicken breast or enough chicken for 2 people, cut into chunks
100g toor dal (these are yellow lentils)
1 inch piece of ginger
2 cloves garlic
3oz red pumpkin (I substituted a courgette for this)
2oz aubergine (this is about 1/2 an aubergine)
1 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 1/2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
7 fresh mint leaves
1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves or fresh fenugreek (I couldn't find this so left it out)
1 tsp Parsi sambar marsala (I couldn't find this so I used 3/4 tsp fenugreek seeds, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp red chilli, 1/2 tsp ground pepper)
1 tsp dhansak marsala (I did find this but if you can't, mix 1 1/2 tsp garam marsala, 1/2 tsp star anise, 1/4 tsp nutmeg)
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tomato
2 green chillies
1 tsp jaggery/palm sugar (I substituted dark brown muscovado sugar for this)
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 tsp tamarind paste

Brown pulao rice

6 fl oz brown basmati rice (I use 3 fl oz per person - always measure rice by volume, not by weight)
1 small/medium onion, finely chopped
Cinammon stick, bay leaf and some whole cloves (or some garam marsala instead)

Start by soaking the dal, and leave for 30 minutes. While it is soaking, prepare all the vegetables: chop the aubergine and courgette (or squash or pumpkin or whatever you can find) into 1cm cubes and put it in a large saucepan with a quarter of the ginger, 1 garlic clove, the fresh dill, 1/2 tablespoon of fresh coriander, 3 of the mint leaves and the turmeric. Add 1/3 pint of water and when the dal has soaked, drain the water and add it to the saucepan. Simmer until cooked and soft (should take 15-20 minutes).

While this is happening, toast any of the whole spices in a dry frying pan (you can use ground spices for everything but I prefer whole spices, so I put cumin seeds, coriander seeds and the fenugreek seeds and mustard seeds which are part of the Parsi sambar marsala into the pan). After a few minutes, tip these together with all of the ground spices into a pestle and mortar, and grind and blend together. Even if you are only using ground spices, blend them together before cooking with them.

Drop the tomato into some boiling water for 1 minute and then remove, slipping the skin off. Chop the tomato and the 2 chillies (remove their seeds unless you like a REALLY hot curry), and then heat a tablespoon of flavourless oil (I like rapeseed) in the frying pan and add the tomato, chillies, the remaining fresh coriander, the remaining mint leaves and all the spices, and fry for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Then add the cut up chicken and fry for another few minutes, making sure it is browned on all sides. It doesn't matter if the chicken isn't totally cooked through at this point because it will continue to cook in the sauce.

When the dal is cooked (this should hopefully happen at about the same time as the chicken is browning), use a stick blender or pour the contents of the saucepan into a blender and blend until smooth. Then add the chicken and any of the spicy mix in the frying pan to the saucepan together with 1/3 pint of water and let it simmer, covered.

While it cooks, start making the rice, as it will take about 20 minutes to cook. Start by frying the onion in a saucepan until it is lightly golden. Then add the (dry uncooked) rice to the saucepan, and fry the rice for a minute or so. Add 12 fl oz water (or twice the volume of the rice), some salt and the cinammon, bay leaf and cloves. Cover and let it simmer slowly.

After about 15 minutes, uncover the chicken and see how liquidy the sauce is, as you may want to reduce it. Add the lime juice and tamarind and salt to taste. Let it simmer until the rice is ready, and serve.

Starting out as a food blogger...

I'm starting my life as a foodie blogger with tales of my weekend's cooking. We had people for lunch so I decided to make a selection of Indian vegetarian dishes - saag dal (lentils with spinach), chole masala (chickpea curry), and baingan bartha (an aubergine curry), with rice and chapatis. All were yummy (except that I burned the dal on reheating it and it took on a slightly bizarre, smoky flavour. People didn't seem to notice though - or perhaps they thought that was how it was meant to taste). Most of my Indian recipes are currently coming from the "Delia" of India (according to my Indian friend) - Tarla Dalal. I bought one of her many books, apparently one of her earliest, simplest ones, called Desi Khana (Indian Food), and this also gave me 30 days free access to the recipes on the website so I've been a downloading and printing machine.
The chole recipe, though, is from the Times, by Sybil Kapoor.

Spinach Dal
Cooking Time : 25 minutes.
Preparation Time : 10 minutes.
Serves 8 (if eaten with other things - on it's own I don't think this is enough for 8 people)

6 cloves garlic
3 green chillies
25 mm. piece ginger
3/4 teacup uncooked moong dal or masoor dal (I used red lentils - masoor dal)
1 chopped onion
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teacup chopped spinach (I can't really work out how much "I teacup" of chopped spinach is, so I just use a whole bag of spinach)
2 teaspoons amchur powder (the first time I made this I didn't have any amchur (dried unripe mango) powder so I added a couple of teaspoons of tamarind paste which was also nice)
1 large chopped tomato
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
4 teaspoons oil
salt to taste

Put the dal in a saucepan with 3 teacups of water and bring to the boil - watch it carefully as it tends to boil over and create a mess that's hard to clean. It's ready when the dal has become yellow and fluffy and most of the water has gone.

While it cooks, blend the garlic, chillies and ginger into a paste. Chop the onion finely and fry with the cumin seeds in either a bigger saucepan or a deep frying pan (eventually the dal and all the ingredients will go in here so it needs to be big). When the onions are translucent, add the garlic/chilli/ginger paste and continue to fry for a few minutes. Add the turmeric, amchur and spinach (chop but don't worry about getting it too finely chopped as it obviously shrinks a lot), then chop the tomato and add it. Cook for a while, and then when the dal is ready add it (together with whatever water is left in the dal saucepan) to the mix. Simmer and add salt to taste.


Baingan Bartha
Cooking Time : 30 mins.
Preparation Time : 5 mins.
Serves 4.

750g of aubergine (this usually seems to be about 3)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 onion
1 1/2 teaspoons ginger, grated
1 teaspoon garlic, grated
1 teaspoon green chillies, finely chopped
1 or 2 tomatoes, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 tablespoon coriander-cumin seed powder
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1 tablespoon ghee (I never use ghee and always fry in vegetable oil but this is a personal preference)
salt to taste

Cut the green tops off the aubergines and prick all over with a fork. Put them in the oven (on a tray to minimise oven mess) on a high heat - they will need around half an hour until they become wrinkly and quite soft. When they are done, leave to cool until you can handle them and peel the skins off. Mash the pulp (I tried this with a potato masher and it was extremely labour intensive and didn't work very well - now I just shove it in the food processor. If you don't have one you could probably use a blender too).

Fry the onions together with the cumin seeds and when translucent add the garlic, ginger and chillies. As I was making this at the same time as the spinach dal, I made more of the garlic/chilli/ginger paste and added that and I would do that again as it is much quicker. Add the chopped tomatoes and the other spices, and cook until the oil separates from the vegetables. Add the mashed aubergines, cook for a few minutes and add salt to taste.


Chole
Serves 4

250g dried chickpeas (or you can use 1 can)
2 tsp ginger, finely chopped/grated
¾ tsp turmeric
½ tsp cayenne pepper
3 tbsp sunflower oil
2 small onions, finely chopped
1 fat clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 fresh chilli, split at the tip
2 cloves (optional - I usually leave these out)
½ tsp garam masala
6 or 7 fresh tomatoes, peeled and chopped
Some tomato puree if you want
Salt
Handful of fresh coriander (optional, for garnish)

If you're using dried chickpeas, you need to soak them overnight, and then cook either in a pressure cooker or a saucepan until tender (around 2.5 hours in a saucepan or 45 minutes in a pressure cooker). I almost always make this with tinned chickpeas because it takes too long and too much forward planning to use dried chickpeas. With tinned chickpeas, wash them and bring them to the boil and then simmer while making the sauce. Add to the saucepan of chickpeas (whichever method is used) the grated ginger, cayenne pepper and turmeric.

Make the sauce by finely chopping the onion and garlic (or blending it into a paste, which is my preferred method). Fry this with the whole chilli, split at the tip. Put the tomatoes into a bowl and cover with boiling water. Take out after one minute and slip the skins off. Finely chop the tomatoes (or food process them) and add them to the onion/garlic mix. Fry for a few minutes and then add the spices and salt as needed, and the tomato puree if used (I find that it sometimes helps to add a stronger tomato flavour, particularly as fresh tomatoes are often quite tasteless). Pour most of the water out of the chickpea saucepan and add the chickpeas and some of the water to the masala. If you add too much water, don't worry as you can just keep cooking the chole with uncovered to reduce. I think it's better to have too much water than too little as you can always reduce and the longer it cooks the better it will taste. Keep tasting and add more cayenne pepper if it's not spicy enough for you.


Chapatis

No recipe here - I just add equal parts white and wholewheat flour, add about a teaspoon of oil, salt and some spices (i usually go for ground cumin and/or coriander) and enough water to make a dough. Roll out into thin circles. Heat a frying pan with no oil until very hot and throw the flat circle of dough onto it. It should puff up in places. After a couple of minutes, flip it over and cook for another minute on the other side. To keep them warm and stop them from going hard while you are making the rest, put them in teacloth and store them wrapped in a warm oven.