Curries are one of our favourite dishes either a lovely fragrant Thai curry or an Indian/Indonesian Curry…we love all cuisines. I always grind my own spices and make enough for a couple of curries and I always use fresh ginger and garlic although you can use ready-made pastes. So again tweak your recipes to suit you and your taste as I believe that is what cooking is about..no hard and fast rules …just put love and taste into your dishes and all will be well.

For my Garam Masala mix, I grind the following ingredients together: Any mix I don’t use I store in a small pot for next time.

Ingredients;

• 3tsp cumin seeds.
• 3 tsp coriander seeds.
• 1 1/2 tsp black peppercorns.
• 4 cloves.
• 1 piece of cinnamon stick.
• 3 brown cardamom.
• 2 tsp fennel seeds.
• 1-star anise
• 2 dry red chillies.

Ingredients for Curry:

• 4 chicken breasts, cut into cubes.
• 3 large tomatoes skinned and diced.
• 2 medium onions chopped roughly.
• 4tbsp Natural Yoghurt.
• 1 tsp turmeric powder.
• 1 tsp red chilli powder.
• Salt to taste.
• 3-4 tbsp oil/ghee
• 2-3 tsp of prepared garam masala spices.
• Fresh, chopped coriander for garnish…I also add some into my curry whilst cooking it.

Let’s Cook!

Put cubed chicken in a large bowl and add yoghurt and masala spices. Leave to one side.

Heat oil in a heavy-bottomed pan and add chopped onions cook until soft about 4-5 mins..take care not to burn, add garlic and ginger and cook for a further 2 mins, Then add turmeric chilli powder and salt cook for a further 1-2 mins.

Add chicken and stir to combine.

Add tomatoes and stir bring to a soft boil and turn to simmer. Add some coriander (my choice)

Cook for a further 45 minutes until the sauce has slightly reduced and thickened a little.

This is a lovely family curry…not too hot but flavoursome.

Serve with Rice, mango chutney, Nan bread. or other condiments of your choice.

My recipe for Mango Chutney

Ingredients:

• 4 Green under-ripe Mangoes.
• 3cm Fresh ginger finely diced.
• 3 cloves garlic finely diced.
• 500 gm sugar.
• 1tsp salt.
• 1/2 tsp dried chilli.
• 1tsp cumin seeds.
• 2 cardamom plus 4 cardamom seeds.
• 7cm cinnamon stick.
• 5 whole cloves.
• 250 ml vinegar I use Apple cider but have used white vinegar and malt.
• 5 black peppercorns crushed.

Let’s Cook!

Peel mangoes and cut them into small strips.

Place mangoes in a large pot. Crush diced ginger and garlic in pestle and mortar and stir into the mangoes.

   

Stir in sugar,salt,chilli,cumin,cardamom,cinnamon and cloves.Stir to blend. Cover and leave overnight at room temp. N.B. We are prone to ants here so put water into a shallow tray and put the bowl in the centre the ants won’t swim the moat..haha

Next day place mangoes in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Cook stirring occasionally until the mix starts to thicken about 30-45 mins. Stir in vinegar and crushed peppercorns and cook for a further 3 minutes.

Put into warm sterilised jars. Once cooled I keep it in the fridge where if you live in cooler climes a cool larder will be fine. This makes 3 medium-sized jars.

Enjoy!  It goes well with my Indian curry recipes.

Thank you for reading I hope you enjoyed my curry recipes!