Chicken Chilli Massala *


Greds:

500ml curry gravy
2 chicken breasts chunked and cooked in salted water.
1 dessert spoon of ginger/garlic puree
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves finely chopped
Half a green pepper cut into chunks
10-20 small green chillies
4 tablespoons curry oil
1 teaspoon curry powder
3 teaspoon chilli powder (or to taste)
Pinch of cumin seeds
Pinch fenugreek leaves
1 dessert spoons tom puree
Zest of half a lemon cut in to fine slithers
1 teaspoon sugar
1 large tomato sliced
Salt to taste
Fresh coriander


Method.

Heat half the oil over a medium heat and fry the pepper and onion until onion beginning to brown. Remove and set aside.           Add remaining oil over high heat, then add garlic and ginger puree. Fry until the colour of brown envelopes.  Add a third of the curry sauce/gravy here and the cumin seeds and fenugreek. Fry down (scraping) until almost dry. Now add the remaining gravy. (It will spit here and possibly flare up ? so be careful). Turn the heat down and add all the other ingredients (including the cooked veg) apart from the tomato and a pinch of the coriander. Once the chicken is heated through add the toms and salt. Stir for a minute then garnish with the remaining coriander.

* Of course the chicken could be substituted with whatever you like.

Good idea to wash your hands afterwards too (or wear rubber gloves). I have a friend who got all amorous with his wife not long after preparing chillies. Needless to say, his affections were cut short.

Chicken Patia*

Greds:
500ml curry gravy
2 chicken breasts chunked and cooked in salted water.
1 dessert spoon of ginger/garlic puree
3 tablespoons curry oil
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon chilli powder (or to taste)
Pinch of cumin seeds
Pinch fenugreek leaves
1 dessert spoon of tom ketchup
2 dessert spoons tom puree
Juice and zest of one lemon blended in a little water
1 desert spoon sugar
Seeded quarters of a large tomato
Salt to taste
Fresh coriander


Method.

Heat in the oil over a high heat, then add the garlic ginger puree. Stir fry until the light brown colour. Add a third of the curry sauce/gravy here and the cumin seeds and fenugreek. Fry down (scraping) until almost dry. Now add the remaining gravy. (It will spit here and possibly flare up ? so be careful). Turn the heat down and add all the other ingredients apart from the salt and a pinch of the coriander. Once the chicken is heated through and the toms beginning to ?melt?, add the salt. Finish with the remaining coriander.

* Of course the chicken could be substituted with whatever you like.

Does anyone know how long a restaurant might cook its base sauce for (i.e. do they leave it simmering all day or overnight)? I made a batch yesterday, similar to Pete's recipe but tried cooking it very gently for about 8hrs. Though I haven't tried it yet with a finished dish the results seem promising - there seemed more of a depth of flavour than usual and the spices had completely lost that raw, powdery taste they can sometimes have. It'd also become quite sweet and the layer of oil floating on top had become a rich ruby red (much darker than usual).

Whatever some restaurants do, I would be wary of reusing oil that'd been heated several times because it has been linked to carcinogens

Speedy jalfrezi. (Not exactly a restaurant recipe, but a handy quickie if you've run out of base sauce)


1 medium onion sliced
half a green pepper sliced
2-3 cloves of garlic chopped
2 medium ripe tomatoes roughly chopped
30ml veg oil
precooked pieces of 1 medium chicken breast, lamb or prawns (same quantity as chicken)
teaspoon sugar
squeeze of lemon
1dessert spoon tom ketchup
water

quarter of a teaspoon of whole cumin seeds
quarter of a teaspoon of whole fennel seeds
quarter of a teaspoon of whole onion seeds
half a? teaspoon whole mustard seeds
pinch dried fenugreek leaves
2 teaspoons of curry powder (2 parts coriander, 2 paprika, 2 turmeric, 1 cumin)
1 teaspoon chilli powder
half a teaspoon ground cinnamon
salt to taste
Fresh coriander

Method:
In a frying pan fry the onions and pepper in the oil over a highish heat until beginning to brown, and then add the garlic. When garlic begins to brown at the edges too, add the whole spices and fenugreek. Stir for a few seconds then add the curry powder, the chilli and the cinnamon. Stir for a few more seconds, and then add the tomatoes and the meat or prawns. Add a little water to moisten the dish (a couple of table spoons), then the sugar, ketchup and lemon. Stir for a minute or two until a nice thickish consistency. Add salt to taste and finish with the fresh coriander.

I have to confess I've never tried reheated takeaway. If there are any dregs left the next day I tend to gobble it cold straight from the fridge. I know cold curry might sound a bit horrible, but I think it actually tastes quite good - there seems to be more taste going on.

Glad I'm not alone. I find if I get a premade curry out of the fridge or freezer I'll completely devour it. More often than not, I'll nuke up a second or third helping too. I could never eat this quantity just after initially cooking the dishes.

I believe curries objectively improve if left for a while also, so it might not all be psychological

Chicken Patia - hot, lemony and tomatoey

I cooked a batch of curries a few days' back - a couple of veggy dishes and a couple of chicken. When I'd finished, the last thing I really wanted to eat was curry! All I fancied was a sandwich. I pushed it around the plate but hardly ate anything. Alright, I had picked a bit (or tested) when I was cooking them but this couldn't account for my lack of appertite. Does anyone else get this?
I know it's documented that cooks often don't feel like eating thier own food. I think this phenomenom could be exacipated with curry because the flavour is so much stronger than most foods (especially if you cook a lot of dishes in one go). It might explain why we often judge our creations secondary to a genuine restaurant counterpart: it's because we cooked them!
My answer: dont eat then on the day of creation. Keep them in the fridge for a couple of days then reheat them (finishing with some fresh coriander, of course).

Am I alone in experiencing "all curried out" after just cooking the dishes?