by Anne Stone

Created on: September 08, 2009

Currys do not have to be complicated and take all day to prepare, this recipe will show you just how easy it can be to make a tasty meal for a family of 3 to 4 people.

I find that tasting as you cook is the way to go when cooking Indian meals. You can add or reduce ingredients according to your likings. The chilli can be left out if you like a milder curry, or you can add more if you like it hot. You can add a little tomato puree if you like it too. For a creamier texture you can swirl in a tablespoon of plain yoghurt once cooked.

Ingredients:

2tbs butter or ghee
700g chicken cubed
1 inch ginger, grated
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 white onion, finely chopped
1 red chilli pepper, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp ground garam masala
400g chopped tomatoes
350ml chicken stock
salt and pepper to season

Method:

1) Heat the butter/ghee in a large pan until melted
add onion garlic and ginger and fry until soft but not brown.

2) Add chilli, cumin, coriander, turmeric and garam masala to the pan and mix well.

3) Add the chicken and fry in the spices for 5 mins or until chicken is sealed, maybe adding a little more butter if too dry.

4) Pour in the chopped tomatoes with their juices and stir well bringing the mix to the boil and then add the chicken stock.

5) Reduce pan to simmer and cook for 30 mins, stirring often, until the curry is reduced and thickened.

6) Add salt and pepper to season just before serving.

The curry can be served with rice, we like basmati rice which is easy to cook in about 10 minutes and difficult to get wrong if you follow the instruction on the packet.

You can also add naan bread or chapatis, or indeed use these instead of the rice. Where I live it's quite common for Indian restuarants to serve their curries without rice.

A nice starter would be poppadums served with a small onion salad and a cucumber raita (yoghurt dip)

An ideal dessert would be ice cream, especially if you add too many chillis!

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