Resisting the lure of the Curry House: Chicken Lahori

 

 

Friday night is curry night. And Friday night is THE night of the week that I am utterly banjaxed and grateful that the day after is Saturday and I can choose to do absolutely zilch (yeh right, I start the washing and clear all the crap I have been unable to shift all week because I have been a) taking an interest in my children b) generally distracted and c) marking something or other) and for some reason Friday night feels like a take away night. It's like a reward for getting to the end of another week without telling someone to stick it where the sun doesn't shine. This week, I evidently wasn't knackered enough to tell Phill to find the menu for the Indian takeaway; I volunteered to cook one. I had the ingredients, I could have wine whilst I was doing it, Finn's football on the Saturday was a later kick off.... why shouldn't I?  And I am glad I did because this recipe is, frankly, glorious. Punchy spice with a languid kick of chilli right at the finish, it was made for the bottle of Riesling that I had opened and half consumed by the time I actually got round to serving this.

 

A Google search consisting of 'Atul Kochhar, curry and chicken' threw up the frankly amazing Chicken Lahori. It was very easy to make, low maintenance and after half an hour or so cooking away whilst I was rounding up washing and threatening my kids with violence if they didn't get their uniforms off THIS MINUTE, this was ready to be served. It filled the kitchen with the heady smells that I normally associate with Phill bringing in a Friday takeaway. Thank God it's Friday and for once, I cooked it all myself...

 

Chicken Lahori adapted from the recipe by Atul Kochhar in the Daily Telegraph

 

Serves 4 in the original recipe: I approximately halved the ingredients below to create a hearty meal for two.

 

Ingredients:

 

5 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 black cardamom pods

4 green cardamom pods  

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

2 bay leaves

3 onions, chopped

1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste*

3 tomatoes, chopped

2 teaspoons red chilli powder

2 tablespoons ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

4 green chillies, chopped

800g chicken thighs, skinless and

boneless cut into small pieces

2 tablespoons plain yoghurt (You can add more if you find this too spicy for your palate)

400ml chicken stock or water (I used chicken stock)

2 tablespoons finely chopped coriander

1 teaspoon garam masala

Salt

 

*Ginger-garlic paste: Blend equal quantities of peeled garlic and fresh ginger with 10 per cent of their total weight in water, using a blender or mini food processor. Store in a sealed container in the fridge. If you want to keep this for longer than a few days, add 5 per cent vegetable oil and 2 per cent lemon juice when you blend. Or you can freeze this in ice-cube trays.

 

Method:

 

 

 

Heat the oil in a wok and sauté the whole spices with the bay leaves until they crackle. Add the onions and sauté until lightly browned. Add the ginger-garlic paste and sauté for a minute, stirring well, then add the ground spices (except the garam masala) and the green chillies and tomatoes. Cook for 5–8 minutes or until the tomatoes soften.

 

 

 

Add the chicken pieces with the yogurt, stock and salt to taste, and mix in well. Simmer gently for 20-25 minutes until the chicken is cooked. If the sauce is too thick, add more stock. I found that after the recommended cooking time the sauce was still a bit loose for my taste, so I increased the temperature and reduced the sauce further.

 

 

 

Stir in the chopped coriander leaves and garam masala, then serve.

Bonfire Fodder - Buffalo Chilli

 

If I was having one of those bonfire type gatherings, this would be my food of choice, because it is easy to scale up or down, looks as well atop a jacket potato as it does on some fluffy rice, and warms your bones as you stand out watching hundreds of thousands of pretty sparks shoot across an inky sky. Of course, some carefully chosen alcohol would also keep you warm against the cold, but it doesn't keep your hands warm as you wrap your hand around the glass, whereas a bowl of this stuff warms you inside and out, and tastes splendid.

 

Buffalo. I am not deliberately trying to be fancy. The fact is, it was at the back of the freezer, almost in the permafrost (I need to defrost the freezer) and I bought it because it was cheap. In reality, this is how I acquire the vast majority of some of the weirder ingredients in my freezer - if it has a yellow sticker, then it will be bought for some point in the future, and as far as the buffalo is concerned, that point has now been reached. You could obviously use diced beef; It would still be tremendous.

 

I kept the chilli reasonably tame because of Lola and Finn who aren't fond of eating anything which feels like it should be on fire. You should be far more liberal if fire eating happens to be your thing.

 

If you cook this really slow, you should produce unctuous chunks of beef which you theoretically cut with a spoon, and like most dishes of this nature, it is amazingly good the day after. And if you really go for it you could freeze vats of the stuff to be eaten on another random winter night, minus fireworks, when you need something to defrost your bones.

 

 

Buffalo Chilli, loosely based on any recipe or any version of chilli or a stew that I have ever made.

 

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum and Dad, plus 1 other, generously

 

Ingredients:

 

1 chipotle chilli

4 tbsp. olive oil

3 peppers - I went for all red - diced

1 onion, diced

2 sticks celery, finely chopped

1 fresh green chilli, deseeded if you like, finely chopped

800g diced buffalo (or diced beef)

3 garlic cloves

250ml beef stock

1/4 tsp dried chilli flakes

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp dried oregano

2 x 400g tinned tomatoes

3 x 400g tins of kidney beans

1 tbsp. fresh coriander stalks

 

Method:

 

 

 

Soak the chipotle chilli in a few tablespoons of water until it is soft. Whilst this is happening, you should crack on with the rest of the method.

 

Heat 2 of the tbsp. of oil in a suitable pot/pan that will be big enough to take all the ingredients later on.

 

 

 

Add the onion, the peppers, the chilli, the coriander stalks and the celery with some salt and saute until soft but not coloured.  Remove from the pan and set aside.

 

 

 

Put the rest of the oil into the pan and then add the meat. You should cook the buffalo until it is well browned; consider doing this in a couple of batches as you want the beef to brown, not steam. Add the chopped garlic and a little bit of salt and pepper. Cook the garlic only until fragrant and then add the beef stock. Deglaze the pan with the stock and bring it to the boil.

 

Return the pepper mixture to the pan and add the herbs and spices.

 

 

 

Add the tomatoes and the kidney beans and some seasoning. You will need a good amount of seasoning so don't be shy.

 

Lastly, remove the chipotle chilli from the soaking liquid and chop finely. Add this and the soaking liquid to the mixture and stir well.

 

 

 

I simmered this, covered with a tightly fitting lid, on a really low heat for a couple of hours, checking it now and then to ensure it wasn't boiling dry. After a couple of hours gentle simmering, I removed the lid and raised the heat to reduce the sauce to the consistency that I like.