Hello and welcome to my kitchen which at the moment is very hot…our high season has nearly arrived come next month it will be even hotter…but we still love our curries both Thai and Indian…

Last week I shared with you my two favourite curry mixes…Just in case you missed it here is the link…

This week I will take you through the process of how we make our curries…as I said before I do not profess to be an expert but I try to use as many authentic ingredients as I can…

We either use chicken or pork for our curries if using chicken I normally use either thighs or the chicken leg and cut it in two which gives us the thigh and the chicken drumstick. Sometimes I use chicken breasts but we find meat on the bone is far tastier…

When using pork we prefer to use pork hip but sometimes use shoulder if it is not too fatty.

Ingredients: Serves 3/4 depending on appetite…

• 500gm Chicken or pork
• 2 tbsp Ghee but oil is fine.
• 1 large Onion roughly chopped
• 2 Large tomatoes pureed.
• 1-2 sprigs Curry Leaves.
• 1 Bay Leaf( Optional)

Marinade:

• 1/4/1/2 tsp Turmeric.
• 2 tbsp  Natural Yoghurt.
• 1 tbsp  of my spice mix

Marinade the chicken.

Add ghee to the pan and cook onions until golden to this I add minced garlic(3/4) cloves and fresh ginger( thumb size), this adds more flavour.

Add  3 tbsp of 2/3 tbsp of my spice mix and stir.

Add chicken, curry leaves and tomatoes.

Add little water, bring to a slow boil and reduce heat to simmer until chicken/ pork is cooked.

Serve with steamed rice, Mango Chutney and or nan bread.

This is a lovely curry well-flavoured and as spicy as you like…Your choice.

Cooks Note…Most of the time now I omit the yoghurt and increase the tomatoes as we prefer a more tomato-based curry…when I do this I add the meat to the onion and garlic/ginger mix rather than marinate the meat the turmeric then goes in with the spice mix…

Any questions I am happy to help .. 

Serve with Nan bread and/or mango chutney and steamed rice.

Mango Chutney… Mangoes of all varieties are so plentiful here it would really be remiss of me to not make my own and it tastes so much better than some of the sweet sugary varieties which are in the supermarkets…

Ingredients:

• 4 under-ripe Mangoes.
• 3cm Fresh ginger finely diced.
• 3 cloves garlic finely diced.
• 500 gm sugar.
• 1tsp salt.
• 1/2-1 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 vinegar.
• 5 black peppercorns crushed.

Let’s Cook!

Peel mangoes and cut into small strips.

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

That’s all for today...another easy to make at home dinner which also freezes well an Indian Curry…it saves you money and cuts the chemicals and fillers.

Thank you for reading this post I hope you enjoy this new series…if you cook from scratch and have some tips to share please leave a comment I would love to hear from you…Love Carol x