Curry Favour

My husband is obsessed with curry. Totally obsessed. And the hotter, the better. He would be happy to eat it every day I think, provided I serve it with a variety of vegetables.

Since this is one of his favourite meals, I've tried to come up with my own curry recipe, one as tasty as his favourite from the local Indian takeaway. It's taken a good few months of trial and error and reliance on ready-made curry pastes but I think I've finally come up with a recipe of my own that I am happy to serve whenever his curry mood strikes.

And as a result, I've fallen very much in love with my spice rack! It's amazing what you can do with 5 or 6 spices and a few handfuls of red lentils.

I wish I could claim that this curry recipe is the real deal, but truth be told, I know precious little about authentic Indian cuisine. So while I have no idea what category of curry this would fall into, (probably not any!), what I can say is it's hot, it's tastes pretty good and it's cheap to make. And that can never be a bad thing.

I've tried this recipe with a variety of meats, and some vegetarian soya, meat substitues but I think chicken works best.

The quantities of the spices used here are all estimates, nothing exact, and they can all be altered according to taste. This just happens to be a combination we like.

Curry Recipe: Serves 4 adults...or 1 adult plus a very hungry husband!

500 g chicken fillets, or chicken breasts, roughly chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 large handfuls split red lentils, rinsed with cold water
2 fresh chillis (I use 1 red, 1 green), finely chopped
1 tbsp tomato paste/puree
1 tspb white sugar
1 tspb soft brown sugar
1 tbsp turmeric
1 tspb ginger
1 tspb garam marsala
1 tspb cumin
1 tbsp paprika
1/2 tspb cayenne pepper
1 tbsp soured cream

Before starting, fill the kettle and boil.

1. In a large saucepan, lightly saute the onion and garlic in a little olive oil until onions are translucent.
2. Add the chicken and cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring frequently. If the chicken becomes too dry, add a little more olive oil
3. Add the lentils and cook for a further minute.
4. Add the tomato paste and roughly a ladel-ful of hot water and stir thoroughly. The water should cover the lentils completely.
5. Add the chopped chillis and another few ladel-fuls of water.
6. Add all the spices plus the sugar and stir.
7. Reduce heat, cover the pan and leave to simmer until the lentils and the chicken are thoroughly cooked. Add more water as required.
8. Before serving, add the soured cream and mix in thoroughly.