Fruity and intense chicken, sweet potato & cauliflower curry

Now I know I have both a chicken & sweet potato and a chicken & cauliflower curry on the blog here, but honest injun, this one is different.  It makes no pretence of being related to any authentic Indian curries but is purely of my own making and, in particular, to my hubby's taste.  You see, for ages he complained about my making curries that "didn't taste of curry".  Well, I tried this way and tried that way, tried this recipe and that recipe but nothing did the trick.  Right up until Asda started selling their Medium curry powder which contains the following : Coriander Seeds, Garlic Powder (12%), Cumin Seeds (8.0%), Onion Powder, Paprika (8.0%), Turmeric, Ginger, Salt, Chilli Powder (5.0%), Cinnamon, Fenugreek Seeds, Fennel Seeds, Black Pepper, Cloves and Cardamom.  Suddenly, curries tasted of curry for him.  So you might want to find a curry powder that sounds very similar in its ingredients, to get close to the right flavour for this curry.  Alternatively, just use your favourite curry powder, because maybe my favourite won't taste of curry to you!

I recommend that you par-boil the cauliflower while you are cooking the sauce, as that puts you in far better control over how tender it is by the end.  It would be so easy for the curry to be the right texture, but the cauliflower to be too hard - or even worse, utterly fallen apart to mush.

I always include the sweet potato pieces (cut into half inch or smaller dice) from the beginning and they seem to have just cooked to perfection by the end.  However, if you're dubious about that, feel free to par-boil those with the cauliflower.

We've become quite accomplished at eating some fairly fierce curries, of which this was one.  However, there's no need for you to suffer the pain if you're not so keen on the hot'n'spicy, just leave out the raw chilli and if necessary, substitute one or more teaspoonfuls of medium curry powder for a mild version.

As for accompaniments, well the Indian world is your oyster.  We always have plain Basmati rice alongside the curry because it helps to cool the tongue.  However, you could make a pilau rice, or have chapattis, naan bread, raita (which is also great for cooling), onion bhaji's, pakoras - whatever you fancy.  Right at the moment, I'm trying to lose weight, so I've cut down on the accompaniments but the menfolk still had a couple of onion bhaji's, just so that they don't feel too hard done by.

Here's the recipe, don't be scared by the list of ingredients as it is a simple matter of putting them all in the one pan in order.  As such, I recommend you get everything ready before you start to cook, otherwise you could find yourself dashing around the kitchen getting a bit stressed - and we don't want that!  Oh and if you cook for just one person and have a freezer, I can recommend freezing the leftovers as it only gets better for keeping and defrosts perfectly.

Maggi Tamarind Sauce - to help you find it, if you're new to it.

FRUITY AND INTENSE CHICKEN, SWEET POTATO & CAULIFLOWER CURRY   (serves 3)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp coconut oil
300g boneless, skinless chicken breast cut across the grain into small chunks
sea salt
50g or thereabouts of small cauliflower pieces
1 large onion, diced finely
2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
1 fresh red chilli, chopped finely (save a little back for garnish)
half a tsp ground black pepper
half a tsp ground cinnamon
25g salted butter
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cut into half inch dice
2 medium sized ripe tomatoes, finely diced
4 heaped tsp medium curry powder
1 flat tsp ground turmeric
2 tbsp Maggi tamarind sauce (or 1 tbsp lemon juice)
500ml cold water
a small handful of sultanas or raisins
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander (save a little back for garnish)
25g creamed coconut
1 tsp honey.

Method :

Heat the coconut oil in a deep frying pan and, once sizzling hot, add the chicken breast pieces and sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt.  Leave them to turn golden on two sides, then remove from the pan using a slotted spoon and reserve.  The chicken doesn't need to be cooked through at this stage.

While the chicken is cooking, bring a pan of water to the boil and add the cauliflower pieces to par-boil for 5-10 minutes.  You want them to be just off being fork tender, as they will finish cooking in the curry sauce.

Add the onion, garlic, red chilli, a pinch of sea salt & the black pepper to the frying pan (using the oil that remains from the chicken) and cook for some 10-15 minutes until the onion is softened and transparent.  Add the cinnamon and stir through.

Add the salted butter and while that is melting, add the sweet potato pieces.  Stir everything together and cook on for another 5 or so minutes, until the sweet potato is heated through and beginning to cook.

Add the diced tomatoes and stir through.  Cook on for another 15 minutes or so, until the tomato has begun to break down and the oil is separating from the mixture.

Don't forget to drain the cauliflower and reserve it for use later!

Sprinkle in the curry powder and turmeric and stir through.  Cook on, to ensure that the spices are cooked through and lose their raw taste, for another 5-10 minutes, stirring often to ensure they don't catch on the bottom of the pan.

Add the tamarind sauce (or lemon juice) and cold water, along with the sultanas and coriander and stir through.  Bring the contents of the pan to a lively simmer and cover with a lid.  Cook until the sweet potato is just off being fork tender, then remove the lid.

Add the cauliflower and chicken and simmer for another 10 minutes during which time the sauce will reduce.  Continue the lively simmer (add a little water if the sauce becomes too reduced) and add the creamed coconut.  This will have the effect of thickening and sweetening the sauce so once the coconut is stirred in well, taste for sweetness and if your preference is for the mix to be a little sweeter, then add the tsp of honey.  It is quite okay to omit the honey, if the mix is sweet enough already.

When the sauce is at your preferred consistency, serve onto warmed plates with the reserved coriander and red chilli sprinkled over and accompaniments of your choice.

Printable version

Grilled Curry Chicken Skewers (well, they almost made it onto the skewers!)

Isn't it funny how I go for weeks not blogging a thing, then all of a sudden I have a mad rush of blood to the head and bingo, there's three blog posts in quick succession.  I have no idea why it happens, but it certainly seems to!

Now, these almost kebabs were so blinking tasty that they just had to be committed to blogdom straight away.  You won't have any idea the tussles I have had with yoghurt marinated chicken, but they have been almost on an epic scale of disappointment.  Hence, having had a taste of these little babies and realised that I'd reached nirvana, I just knew I had to write down the recipe and write it down fast - before it sank without a trace.

Now by rights, I should have laced these pieces of chicken onto kebab skewers and grilled them that way.  However, I discovered at the last minute that the majority of my little wooden skewers had left home, so they just went onto the baking tray and were grilled like that.  I don't think it harmed them any - in fact, I know it didn't.

Usually - and by "usually" I mean "in the past" - my attempts at yoghurt marinated chicken have been pallid at best and watery at worst.  However, in this new and exciting dawn, I am so excited to report that they were neither pallid, oh no, nor were they watery!  Well, they did exude a little water when being cooked, but that soon burned off.

They were deliciously spicy hot, with the warm curry spices singing along in harmony with the tang of lime juice and intense fruitiness of the tamarind.  The acidity of both yoghurt and lime juice had tenderised the chicken and the use of garlic granules meant there were no horrid lumps of half cooked garlic in the mix.  The slight charring on each piece brought out the best in the Tandoori spices and that spoonful of hot curry powder meant you were left in no doubt as to the worth of the sweet & fruity salad, along with the buttery rice.

I am seriously chuffed - maybe even "chuffed as nuts" as Dave Myers (he of Hairy Bikers fame) often says - with this recipe.  I might even need to cook it again, just to make sure it wasn't a fluke.  LOL  So if you give the recipe a whirl, do let me know how you get on with it!

Oh and incidentally - if you put your chicken onto the skewers, they'd be just brilliant cooked on a barbecue!

GRILLED CURRY CHICKEN SKEWERS   (serves 2)

Ingredients :

4 dessert spoonfuls of full fat unflavoured Greek yoghurt
juice of half a lime
2 tsp rapeseed oil
1 tbsp tamarind sauce
4 heaped tsp tandoori curry powder
1 heaped tsp hot curry powder
half a tsp of ground turmeric
1 tsp of dried garlic granules
a pinch of sea salt
pinch of ground black pepper
2 large skinless and boneless chicken breasts, sliced across the grain.

Method :

Firstly, in a large bowl, make up the marinade by stirring together all the ingredients except the chicken breast slices.

Add the chicken slices and stir gently, ensuring that the marinade reaches every piece.

Cover with cling wrap and set aside in the fridge for a minimum of 4-5 hours.

To cook, cover a baking tray with silver foil and spray with a little cooking spray.

Using tongs, remove each piece of chicken from the marinade (taking as much of the marinade with each piece as wants to come) and lay it in a blob on the baking tray, leaving a little space in between each piece.  Alternatively, lace each piece onto a bamboo skewer that has been previously soaked in water (to stop it going up in flames) - not too tightly - and lay the skewer on the baking tray.

Distribute any leftover marinade over the pieces that need a little more coverage.

Grill, under a hot grill (or a hot broiler, if you're American), until each piece has begun to char slightly.  You don't want to have a lot of charring, just a few spots on each piece's high points.  Turn the pieces and grill again.

Serve with buttery savoury rice and a fresh, fruity salad.

Printable version

Chicken Mulligatawny soup - with thanks to Jo Cooks

I was recently introduced to the terrific recipe blog "Jo Cooks" by another cooking friend.  He certainly is absolutely right about the wealth of interesting recipes on there - and lots that fit within my favourite type of "sit and put things in the pot in order" one pot dinners.

As a first foray, I immediately decided upon giving a go to Jo's recipe for Chicken Mulligatawny soup.  Mainly because it looked so good, but also because I've been looking for a great Mulligatawny recipe for the longest time.  So many Mulligatawny recipes are thin, brothy type of soups and to my mind, a good Mulligatawny needs some body.  I'm sure that back in the days of the British Raj - when the soup first found favour - it wasn't light and brothy, but rich and hearty.  Oh and speaking of the British Raj, the origins of the name are interesting (thanks, Wikipedia!), as the name apparently originates from the Tamil words "millagai"/"milagu" and "thanni" and can be translated as "pepper-water".  Ha!  Cute.  

Everything about Jo's recipe said "yum!" to me.  The fact that it was made with chicken appealed very much as I now have to be careful over my red meat consumption owing to a marked tendency towards gout.  So chicken ticked that box.  The use of the apple cubes appealed, too.  I like a fruity, milder, coconut flavoured curry and one turned into a soup could only be good in these colder early autumnal days.  I loved the simplicity of the cooking method, as well.  None of this "cook this, take it out, cook that, take it out and bring it all together at the end" malarky.  Nope.  Just chuck it into the pan in the right order and cook as described.  Lovely.

I made a few changes to Jo's original recipe - the first being that as I was making just half the original quantity, yet had to buy a 400ml can of coconut milk, was that I used the whole can and reduced the quantity of the chicken stock (broth).  I countered that by using an extra amount of chicken stock powder, so that the chickeny flavour was right up there and not compromised at all.

Secondly, I added a half a large potato, diced.  I just love potato in curry and as I was after a good, thick, hearty Mulligatawny I figured if some dissolved and added to the thick texture of the soup that could also only be good.  It certainly was - good, that is!

Aside from that, I made just small changes such as using 50:50 butter and coconut oil to start with, I used a red onion for its antioxidant properties, I used the full amount of turmeric for the health benefits and the full amount of curry powder because if it's supposed to be curried, let's taste it!  I  also backed off from some of the seasoning as my chicken stock is low salt, but it's worthwhile being cautious and adjusting the salt at the end.  You can't take it away once it's been added!

So I have detailed my version of Jo's recipe below - but my advice to you is to take a look at Jo's original recipe - here - and decide for yourself which recipe to follow.  Oh and for people who don't use cup measurements, mine is expressed in metric.  I know some of you have problems with cup measures!

Personally, I can't wait until tomorrow lunchtime because the leftovers of that soup are MINE, all MINE!  *chuckle*

CHICKEN MULLIGATAWNY SOUP   (serves 2-3)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp butter 

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 large red onion, chopped finely
1 medium carrot, diced finely

1 stalk of celery, diced finely
1 clove of garlic, chopped finely

1 medium potato, peeled and diced finely

sea salt and black pepper to taste
4 boneless and skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite sized chunks
half a tsp dried oregano
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
500ml chicken stock, made with 1.5 tsp chicken stock powder
150g dry basmati rice
400ml unsweetened coconut milk (1 can)
1 medium Braeburn apple peeled, cored and diced small
1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped.

Method :

Using a large saucepan, soup pot, or as I did - a wok -  melt the butter and coconut oil over a medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery, garlic and potato to the pot, season with a pinch of salt and pepper, stir and cook for about 5-10 minutes or until the onion and carrot softens and the garlic becomes aromatic.

Add the chicken thigh pieces to the pot and cook for around 10 minutes, or until the chicken is no longer pink. Don't worry if it's not cooked through - it will finish cooking once the liquid is added.

Add the oregano, turmeric, curry powder and stir well to combine.  Sprinkle with the flour and stir again.

Add the chicken stock, rice and coconut milk, lower the heat to a medium-low and stir through well.  Let the soup simmer for about 10-20 minutes or until the rice is cooked through and you can be sure the chicken is fully cooked.

You may find that you need to add a little hot water every so often to maintain the soupy texture.  It is worthwhile having a little on hand in a jug so that you aren't tempted to swamp the soup!  Just add a small amount and stir through until the texture returns back to being soupy.

Add the apples and simmer for a couple more minutes, to heat them through and bring everything up to a piping hot temperature.

Garnish with fresh parsley and serve in warm bowls with crusty bread for dipping.

Printable version

Quick Chicken Biryani - an "after the style of" recipe

No, this recipe is very definitely not culturally correct.  So before people go shooting me down in flames for it not being X, Y or Z, please note that I make no claim that it is correct for a Biryani.  In fact, I think it is probably closer to a Pilaff, but as "Biryani" is what we've been calling it for years, that's what it shall stay.

So, having said that, if you've ever made my Kedgeree you'll no doubt notice similarities in the way the making of this recipe is approached.  It's basically a chicken Kedgeree with just a few differences.

Incidentally, it's worth noting that if you've got the other half of a roasted chicken with no job to do - it works very well in this recipe.  Just add the chicken after the curry paste & spices and don't bash it about with a wooden spoon too much, to keep the pieces whole.

Oh, and prawns work well here too!  If they're defrosted ex-frozen prawns, make sure to squeeze them between two sheets of kitchen paper to remove any excess water, then add them just before the rice etc.  Just give them time enough to heat through but no longer and they won't turn all hard and rubbery.

As you can see, I served ours with a few Indian style snacks from the supermarket - samosas, pakoras and bhajis.  This recipe has always worked well for us as a midweek dinner, I hope it can do the same for you!

QUICK CHICKEN BIRYANI   (serves 4)

Ingredients :

4 eggs
1 tbsp coconut oil (groundnut oil works well here too)
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 red chilli, chopped (remove the seeds if you want)
pinch of sea salt
pinch of black pepper
half a tsp of ground cinnamon
25g salted butter
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced small
2 tbsp Patak's korma curry paste
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp garam masala
200ml hot water
2 tbsp flaked almonds
1 tbsp sultanas
1 flat tsp turmeric
250g cooked white basmati rice, hot
1 large tbsp fresh coriander, chopped - saving some for garnish.

Method :

Place the eggs into a pan of boiling water and cook until hard boiled.  Set aside in cold water, to prevent the yolk turning grey around the outside.

Heat the coconut oil in a pan and add the onion, garlic and red chilli.  Cook on a moderate heat until the onion is softened, transparent and just beginning to caramelise.  Part way through the cooking, add the sea salt, black pepper and cinnamon.

Add the butter and allow it to melt, then turn up the heat to maximum and add the sliced raw chicken.  Cook, stirring to prevent the onions and garlic from burning, until the chicken is all opaque and no pink areas are left.

Add the curry paste, ground coriander and garam masala and stir through.  Cook on a moderate heat, again stirring to prevent it catching on the bottom of the pan, until the curry paste has released its oils.  This should take around 4-5 minutes.

Add the hot water and stir through, creating a thick curry sauce.  Now you will need to keep a close eye on the consistency until you combine it with the cooked rice and add a tiny amount of water each time it appears to be becoming too dry.

Add the flaked almonds and sultanas and cook on, gently simmering, for another 10-15 minutes, during which time you can peel the hard boiled eggs and quarter them.

Add the turmeric, cooked rice and three quarters of the chopped fresh coriander and stir through.

Serve onto warmed plates, with a quartered hard boiled egg on top and a sprinkle of fresh chopped coriander over everything.  If you like that kind of thing, Mango chutney goes well by the side.

Printable version

Persian lamb & vegetable stew - worth every second it is in the oven!

The blame for this recipe lies fairly and squarely with my birthday.  You see, I was lucky enough to be given "The Saffron Tales" by Yasmin Khan, which fired up my already well established liking for and curiosity about Persian - or Iranian - cuisine.  As you'll probably have gathered, I really like lamb and saffron and pomegranate molasses is no stranger to my ingredients cupboard, plus I love using fresh herbs in my cooking, so I was part way there already.

Having lapped up every word of the recipe book, my imagination had been captured.  I wanted to make something for dinner that would encapsulate some of the cooking techniques and flavours I had read about.  Right up there on that list was lamb, which was a fine if somewhat expensive place to start.  However, I discovered that Asda do a bag of frozen diced lamb which gave sufficient quantity for the right price.  I just hoped that the quality would be good enough!  (Which, as it turned out, it was!).

Dried limes at a market in Bahrain c/o Wikipedia

The second essential was that this dish should include Iranian dried limes.  I was SO curious about these little black apparently hollow little ping-pong-ball-alikes.  I really like lime - which helps - and using these odd little creatures was a curiosity all of its own. What would they smell like? (Vaguely liquorice-like).  What do they taste like?  (Aside from the obvious citrus effect, I have never tasted anything quite like them to be able to give you a "tastes like" point of reference).  What effect would they have on a stew?  (A quite incredible and delicious effect, as it happens!).  So they had to be done.

The third essential was that this stew had to use fresh herbs and lots of them.  I'd seen the Gormeh Sabzi, which is a stew made almost exclusively from an assortment of herbs such as parsley, leek, coriander and fenugreek which looked great, but I was a bit nervous about diving straight into a herb stew.  I felt that something a bit more familiar - meat with vegetables and herbs - would be a little less of a challenge to the family.

As a result, I incorporated the best bits of two recipes in order to make this one.  I took the cooking instructions for the lamb from this recipe from House to Home and took the vegetable and herb influences, along with the dried lime cooking advice, from this Ottolenghi recipe.

My only regret was that they both used turmeric instead of saffron, but hey - you can't have it all and turmeric is so good for you!

So it turned into a three stage, three hour process.  Oh boy but it was worth it, though. Each stage is achieved relatively easily and if you do all your chopping and peeling to begin with, that makes the process a whole lot easier.

I was so curious to taste the gravy at the end of the first hour and a half of cooking, as the soft herbs had all gone into the pot for this stage.  Mmmmnn, I could easily have just thickened that gravy and eaten the lamb as it was.  It was tender, the gravy was delicious and the herbs had amalgamated with the spices (turmeric, cumin, chilli) into incredible layers of exotic flavour.  You can only imagine how butter soft the lamb was by the end of three hours!  I had to resist though, as the dried limes had yet to be included.

Now nobody had mentioned how, even though you poke a thousand holes into each dried lime - to let the gravy in and the flavour out - they insist on bobbing about on the top of the casserole's contents and will NOT submit to being submerged.  In the end, I decided to give the contents a stir at 45 minutes, in the hope that they would have softened enough to sink.  They did - so there's a tip for you!

With the addition of the vegetables - and most especially the butternut squash - the gravy began to sweeten somewhat.  (Yes, I did have a taste at the 45 minute mark - well, it was for research purposes as much as anything).  Now the interesting thing is that with the addition of the lime juice (you squeeze each lime against the side of the casserole dish before removing it) which is gloriously flavoured and mahogany coloured, it doesn't wipe out that sweetness.  Yes, there is a citrussy element to the flavour of the dried lime, but it just adds another layer to an already multi-flavour layered concoction, without knocking any particular flavour out of the melange.  Their astringency also has the effect of cutting through the richness of the fatty (no matter how hard you trim it, it's still fatty) lamb.  I am seriously impressed with these dried Iranian limes and can't wait to use them again - perhaps in some rice to accompany a curry.

The final three flourishes - some chopped fresh tomato, currants soaked in lemon juice (I hadn't been able to source any barberries) and the very last minute addition of spinach leaves - were sufficient to just add a freshness to the dish.  So often, casseroles cooked long and slow can become a little muddy-flavoured as they progress.  Not this one - and with the last minute additions, it makes sure of it.

Tasting the stew as it progressed through all the different stages was a real education in flavour development and I encourage you to do the same.  I think by doing so, you will understand how each ingredient is working with the others a lot better than just sampling the end result.

I wasn't brave enough to attempt the traditional Tahdig (golden saffron flavoured rice that forms a crisp crust in the making), I'll leave that for another day.  Instead, I served the stew with simply cooked white basmati rice and a hearty dollop of plain yoghurt.

It really doesn't describe the dish sufficiently to call it a simple "stew", as being English that evokes thoughts of thick gravy and dumplings.  However, I'm hoping that the "Persian" in the name will stop such thoughts in their tracks and send you down more exotic lines of thought!

As my first even half-serious voyage into Persian (Iranian) cuisine, I'm feeling quite satisfied that I did it some justice.  I just hope you will feel the same way.

I have linked up this recipe with the excellent Sneaky Veg Blog

where you can find other interesting recipes.

PERSIAN LAMB & VEGETABLE STEW   (serves 3-4)

Ingredients :

2 tbsp vegetable oil (I used rapeseed)
500g diced lamb
1 large onion, diced
pinch of sea salt
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
half a tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp tomato puree
20g fresh coriander, roughly chopped
10g fresh dill, roughly chopped
10g fresh tarragon, roughly chopped
1 litre of lamb stock, made using two stock cubes
1 whole red chilli, pierced all over
4 dried limes, pierced all over
1 large waxy potato, peeled and diced very small
1 small butternut squash, peeled and diced
4-5 mushrooms, quartered
3 vine ripened tomatoes, pips removed and chopped
15g barberries or alternatively currants soaked in lemon juice
a large handful of baby spinach leaves.

Method :

Pre-heat your oven to 140degC/275degF/Gas 1.

Heat the vegetable oil (I used rapeseed) over a high heat in a large frying pan until almost smoky hot.  Add the lamb (gently!) and sear on at least two sides.  Using a slotted spoon remove the lamb to a lidded casserole dish.

Reduce the heat under the frying pan to moderate and add the onion, sea salt, garlic, turmeric and cumin seeds.  Fry until the onion is transparent and just beginning to caramelise but stir often to prevent the turmeric from burning on the bottom of the pan.

Add the tomato puree and stir through.  Cook on for another 3-4 minutes, until the ingredients are well combined.

Gently stir in the lamb stock and add the three fresh herbs.

Decant the mixture into the casserole dish, give everything a stir, whisper some words of encouragement and put the lid on.  Place the casserole dish into the oven and forget about it for the next hour and a half.

Remove the casserole dish from the oven and remove the lid.  Give the contents a stir and have a taste of the cooking liquid, to check for seasoning and to admire how it tastes at this early stage - seriously lovely.

Add the red chilli, the dried limes (which will insist on bobbing around on the surface, because they're so light), potato, butternut squash and mushrooms and stir through.

Replace the lid and put the casserole dish back into the oven for another hour.

At the end of that hour, retrieve the casserole dish and remove the lid.  Stir in the tomatoes and barberries or currants.  Replace, uncovered, in the oven for the remaining half an hour.  (The sauce is fairly thin and of a broth-like consistency, but amazingly flavoured.  If you prefer your sauce thicker, simply stir in a little cornflour mixed with water at this stage, which will thicken the sauce).

Ultimately, once you have finally removed the casserole dish from the oven (and cooked some white rice to go with it), stir in a big handful of baby spinach leaves and serve along with the cooked white rice and a healthy big dollop of plain yoghurt.

Tuck in!

Printable version

Hot Punjabi King Prawn Curry - and it is hot, too!

Sometimes, a recipe just works so well and is so tasty, that it needs to be blogged ahead of the queue.  This is one such.

I found this recipe in the latest BBC Good Food magazine and you can find the original recipe - which deals with raw King Prawns as opposed to cooked King Prawns - if you click here.  The recipe apparently comes from a lady called Jagdish Kaur who hails from the Punjab'n de Rasoi cafe in Edinburgh.  I liked the recipe as it looked awfully easy to make (which is always a good thing) and had interestingly few ingredients.  So many curry recipes have ingredient lists as long as your two arms, that it was intriguing to find one working along such minimalist lines.

I won't deny that the notion of using three live chillis and some dried chilli flakes caused several ominous gyrations of my stomach, but the "Taste Team Comment" indicated that the heat was agreeable.  However, in the interest of self preservation I changed one of the chillis to a milder red version and removed all the seeds from it.

I also included a little fish stock - in my case, the lovely Essential Cuisine fish stock and have reflected these changes in the recipe below.  I think that adding just water to a recipe is often missing a golden opportunity to inject a little more flavour.  I accept that, in some curry recipes, the addition of stock would be inconsistent with the integrity of the style.  However, in this instance it worked very well.

In fact, we very nearly didn't have the curry at all.  I completely forgot about marinating the prawns on the night before and again first thing the next morning.  Even worse, we had a breakdown in communications and only got one bag of prawns out of the freezer, needing to defrost the remaining pack at the last minute, in a sieve, under the tap!  So, it may be worth bearing in mind that the marination of my prawns only took place for around a half an hour!  Oops!

The actual cooking of the recipe lived up to my expectation and was easy peasy.  I think it took longer to chop up the onions, tomatoes and coriander, than it took to do the cooking.

One cook's note that is worth bearing in mind, is that once the water is added it is worthwhile cooking the sauce until all the water has evaporated and the sauce is really thick - which is contrary to how the original recipe goes.  The reason for this is because as soon as you add the yoghurt and prawns, the yoghurt is going to melt to a certain degree and - no matter how well you've dried the prawns - they're going to release moisture.  If you haven't reduced the sauce to begin with, you're going to land up with a really dilute sauce which if you then try to reduce, you'll end up with rubbery prawns and split yoghurt.  Not good!  So make sure your sauce is reduced as far as it can go, before you add the marinated prawns.

Very definitely a hit with the family, I'll be making this again - perhaps with chicken next time.  Hubby declared it the best curry he'd had in many a long year (which is enormous praise, especially considering he was concerned about it turning to "pond water").  Son and heir didn't say anything, just sat stolidly moving his spoon from plate to mouth until it was all gone.  I think he liked it.  For me, I loved the flavours that were bright and fresh - and although the chilli effect made my nose run and the tip of my tongue hurt, I'd have it again tomorrow - and you don't get to say that about every recipe you make!

HOT PUNJABI KING PRAWN CURRY   (serves 3-4)

Ingredients :

For the marinade

600g cooked, peeled king prawns
6 tbsp full fat natural yoghurt
2 green chillies, finely sliced, with seeds
half a tsp of sea salt. 

For the curry

2 tbsp sunflower oil plus 2 tbsp rapeseed oil
half a tsp of cumin seeds
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped garlic
1 tsp turmeric
1 red chilli, finely sliced
2 tsp Garam masala
2 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped
half a tsp of sea salt
half a tsp of fish stock powder, or half a fish stock cube
half a tsp of dried red chilli flakes
2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped.

Method :

1. For the marinade: Rinse and drain the prawns.  Pat them dry and put into a non-reactive bowl.  Add the yogurt, chillies and ½ teaspoon of salt.  Mix well, cover and marinate overnight in the fridge.

2. For the curry: Pour the oil into a deep sided wok or frying pan and set it over a medium heat.

3. Once the oil is hot, spoon in the cumin seeds, swirl and brown for 10 seconds.  Add the onions and sauté for about 10 minutes, or until golden all over.

4. Add the garlic, reduce the heat to low and stir and fry for 2 minutes.  Mix in the turmeric and stir for 1 minute.

5. Add the red chilli, increase the heat to medium and stir for 1 minute.  Mix in 1½ teaspoons of the Garam masala and stir for 1 minute.

6. Add all of the tomatoes, a pinch of sea salt and the chilli flakes.  Cook until the tomatoes have broken down, then add 120ml boiling water and the fish stock powder or cube.  Stir to combine.  Allow the curry to boil and reduce until all the extra liquid has gone and the sauce is really thick.

7. Stir in the prawns and their marinade plus the chopped coriander and cook over a high heat until they are heated through.

8. Sprinkle the remaining Garam masala over the top and stir.

Serve.

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Tamil Coconut Chilli Chicken - a revelation!

Prior to cooking this recipe, I've not had a great deal of cause to pay much attention to the Tamil Nadu area of Southern India.  However, since tasting this amazingly gorgeous dish, I've been on a bit of a "seek and ye shall find" exercise.  So now I still don't know much about the place - as there is just so much to know - but I know a bit more than I did and can at least picture its wonderful carvings and temples!

I was attracted to this recipe because it struck me as having all the hallmarks of an interestingly flavoured dish as it contained chicken, onion, garlic, ginger, chilli etc., all the traditional base flavours to a curry.  However, thereafter it went off on a different tangent, involving black peppercorns, coconut milk and lime juice.  In fact, there was no mention of curry powder or curry leaves and although the spices included coriander, cumin and turmeric, it still wasn't saying "curry" to me.

In addition, the recipe spoke of using two tablespoonfuls of flour mixed with some of the coconut milk, as a thickener at the end of the dish's cooking time.  Well, of course, I've used flour as a thickener at the beginning of a recipe (as in a beef stew) for the same reason, plus I've used cornflour at the end of a recipe as a thickener (although I'm not keen on the texture of cornflour).  I was a bit concerned that the flour wouldn't cook out in the time it had available and the sauce would wind up being quite floury tasting.  However, it was quite the opposite.  The mix was bubbling away in the pan - quite obviously requiring thickening - and so (being on the cautious side) I added half the mixture and stirred like crazy.  Wowser - instant thickening.  I gave it a couple of minutes to cook out and tasted the sauce - as gorgeous as it had been and with no sign of any flouriness.  What magic was this?  As the sauce still wasn't thick enough, I added the last spoonful.  Again, instant thickening and no trace of flouriness.  Well.  You learn something new every day!

Now I've seen a technique where a very thick roux (just the butter/flour mixture - no milk) is made and stored in the fridge.  Pieces are broken off and used to thicken gravies and soups, so I assume this is very much along the same lines, except that the flour isn't cooked out until it hits the wet sauce.  In my head, this uncooked flour method shouldn't work - but it quite categorically did.  I've tucked the method behind my ear and shall try it out on other sauces that require thickening.  If it works on an assortment of different sauces, then it might be the key to hubby's "pond water" problem with sauces!

As for the method of making this wonderful revelation of a dish, it doesn't get a lot easier.  Hubby very kindly acted as my sous chef on the day, however, it really only requires you to chop three or four ingredients.  After that, it's just an assembly job accompanied by varying degrees of heat!  For me, that equates to a perfect recipe.  I'm not required to move around the kitchen much (as I can really only stand for 2-3 minutes at a time) and I can just park my chair by the cooker and get cracking.  Perfect.

Oh yes, there's a difference in the cooking method for the spices too.  Every other "curry type" dish I've made involved your frying off the onion, followed by the garlic and ginger, then adding the toasted spices, whatever meat you're using, followed by the liquid.  This one did everything the other way around!

You begin by toasting off the spices in a dry frying pan, which is usual, except for the fact that you include the ground turmeric - which has always previously been added at the stage when you add some liquid to the pan.  In this instance, the toasted turmeric changed colour to a much deeper gold and tasted amazing.  Cooking the onions in butter that is mixed with the toasted spices created such a mouthwatering aroma, too.  In fact, the dish just went on getting better and better the more stages you followed.

One point that is well worth making, is the decision to use butter, ghee or peanut oil.  I wound up using 50:50 butter and peanut oil.  I reckoned that the onions would be lovely cooked in butter and it would give the dish a nice richness.  After that, I used the peanut oil, which will give the dish a subtle sweetness and the nuttiness of the oil will only blend well with the coconut milk.

I was very curious as to how to the lime juice would interact with the sauce and - long before the lime juice was due to be added, I cheated and put a little sauce on a teaspoon, along with a teensy tiny bit of the lime juice.  Oh yes!  I understood where the entire dish was going, after that - and felt much more confident about it.

You know, there are recipes that are successful in that they deliver what you are anticipating.  Then there are recipes that are successful because everyone enjoys them.  Then, there are recipes that deliver something so delightfully surprising - and everyone loves it - that they just transcend successful.  This is one of those.  If you can cope with curry spices (and the dish wasn't so spicy hot, not even with black peppercorns, ginger and two green chillies in it.  Although, having said that, I only put 1 tsp of ginger in, as hubby can be sensitive to ginger), then please give this recipe a go.  I promise you, you won't regret it.

TAMIL COC0NUT CHILLI CHICKEN   (serves 3)

Ingredients :

4-6 tbsp butter or peanut oil (I used 50:50 butter and peanut oil)
2 onions, sliced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
5 cm fresh ginger, peeled and grated (I used ready prepared ginger - 1tsp)
2 green chillies, deseeded and chopped
3 skinless chicken breasts, diced into chunks
250ml boiling chicken stock or water
450ml canned coconut milk
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tbsp plain flour
a large bunch of fresh coriander, chopped
salt

Roasted spices:
1 tsp crushed dried chillies, bruised
1 tbsp coriander seeds, bruised
1 tsp black peppercorns, bruised
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp ground turmeric.

Method :

1.  To roast the spices, put the dried chillies, coriander seeds, peppercorns, cumin seeds and turmeric in a dry frying pan and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes until aromatic.

2.  Push the spices to one side.  Add a good knob of butter to the frying pan and as that melts, add the onions and sauté for 4-5 minutes, mixing in the spices as you go.

3.  Add a little peanut oil to lubricate the mix, then add the garlic, ginger, the green chillies and the chicken. Stir-fry for about 8-10 minutes on a high heat - alternately stirring and resting to allow the chicken to brown - until the chicken is nicely golden.

4.  Put the flour into a small bowl and add around 5ml of the coconut milk to it.  Stir to make sure all the lumps are gone, then set aside.

5.  Add the stock and the bulk of the coconut milk to the pan.  Bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer and cook until tender, about about 20-30 minutes, depending on how big you've cut the chicken.

6.  Stir in the lime juice, then add salt to taste.

7.  Stir a good teaspoonful of the flour mixture into the sauce and stir like crazy, increasing the heat if necessary, until the sauce thickens evenly.  If the sauce needs more thickening, just repeat with the remaining flour mixture.

8.  Stir in the chopped coriander leaves and serve with other Indian dishes such as coconut rice or chapatis.

Source: Chicken from Maryland to Kiev by Clare Ferguson (Ryland, Peters & Small)

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Lemony Prawn & Chorizo Rice - a fab quick one pot supper

Just before Christmas I took out a subscription (very nearly put "prescription" - totally different thing!) with the BBC's Good Food Magazine.

Now I know that the majority of the recipes that appear in the magazine also appear online, but I just enjoy having the pictures right there - up close and in front of me - when I am sitting in the living room and there's something dull on the t.v. (or there's nothing on the t.v. - which is more like it, these days!).  No, I'm afraid I don't possess a laptop - it's a desktop or nothing, for me.  Comes of being a very swift touch typist - I really hate the restriction of a laptop's keyboard.  Either that or I'm just plain old fashioned - which could easily be it, I'll admit.

Anyway, back to the magazine.  To save having great teetering piles of magazines lurking around the flat, I've taken to cutting out the recipes that attract my attention and keeping them in a concertina file.  I'll then consult the file when I'm putting together the week's menu's - and a very good system it has proven to be.

All of which was a fairly long-winded way of saying that this recipe originated in the BBC Good Food magazine for February!

Hubby loves chorizo, all of us love prawns and son & heir particularly enjoys one pot, no side dishes, type meals.  Add to those good points the extra positive point that it is relatively low in fat, which is something I'm very keen on, these days and you've got a winner of a dish.

Mmmn, yummy! Who'd have thought it'd be good for you?

I tweaked the original recipe a little, adding twice the amount of chorizo (which apparently still wasn't enough - hubby could have had lots more!) and using vegetable stock instead of just water for the rice.  I also used cooked peeled prawns instead of raw, basically because they're easier to get hold of and cheaper.

I also tweaked it slightly in retrospect, as both chaps found the lemon to be too dominant.  Now I like lemon in this context, but it must be a girl thing, as neither of the chaps do.  Hence, if your family like lemon then add the zest as well as the juice and maybe increase it back to the one lemon in the original recipe.

I found the dish to be lovely and light, with plenty of interest from the mix of chorizo and prawn.  It also contains turmeric - and any dish that does that, is immediately in my good books.  Son & heir completely cleared his plate, which was something of a surprise as I'd expected to at least find strips of red pepper left.  From that, I'd say that you could class this dish as being "teenager friendly", if nothing else!

Edited to say : time has moved on and it's now 10 April 2013.  I've just made this recipe (see photo above) and swapped out the vegetable stock for the beautiful Essential Cuisine fish stock.  I also added two chestnut mushrooms, sliced.  The end result was really, really good and I recommend it to you. 

LEMONY PRAWN & CHORIZO RICE    (feeds 3)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, sliced

2 small red peppers, deseeded and sliced

100g chorizo, thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 red chilli, chopped & deseeded if you don’t like it too hot

½ tsp turmeric

250g long grain rice (I used Basmati)

500ml boiling low salt vegetable or fish stock (I use Essential Cuisine stock)

200g cooked peeled prawns, defrosted if frozen

100g frozen peas

juice of ½ lemon.

Method :

1.  Heat the oil in a shallow pan (or frying pan) with a lid.  Add the onion, peppers, chorizo, garlic and chilli and fry over a high heat for 3 minutes.

2.  Reduce the heat to medium, and add the turmeric and rice, stirring to ensure the rice is coated in the cooking juices.

3.  Pour in the stock, stir then cover and cook for 12 minutes or until the rice is nicely al dente.

4.  Uncover and stir in the prawns and peas.  Add a splash more water if the mix is looking a little dry and cook for as long as it takes for the peas to defrost and cook and the prawns to be heated through – around 2 minutes or so.

5.  The rice should now be tender, so stir in the lemon juice and serve.

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