Tonight's Curry

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This is my take on Murgh Masala:

It takes twenty minutes prep and about an hour cooking time. Enough for two.
All of this apart from the chicken is from our pantry, but then we do cook a lot of from scratch and keep plenty of herbs & spices etc., to hand...

Greedyments:

2 Chicken Legs, skinned
2 Fresh Tomatoes cut into quarters
1/2 can Chopped Tomatoes
1 Large Onion, finely chopped
About a mugful of Greek Yoghurt (or other strained yoghurt)
A splash of your usual cooking oil for frying

For the Spice Paste:
1/2 of the chopped Onion
2 Cloves Garlic, crushed
Good thumb-sized piece of Ginger, grated finely
1 teaspoon Chilli Powder of your choice (I use Kashmiri for the colour)
1 teaspoon Coriander Powder
3/4 teaspoon Cumin Powder
1/2 teaspoon Turmeric
Dash of oil or water to loosen the mixture when you blitz it

Whole Spices:
stick Cinnamon
6 Green Cardamoms, bruised
a couple of Indian Bay (Cinnamon) Leaves - not vital, but don't substitute ordinary bay instead
a few Curry Leaves if you have them


Method:

Chop the Onion finely. Put half to one side and mash the Garlic to a fine paste. Grate the piece of Ginger finely. Mix these with the powdered spices and the dash of oil or water and place in a blitzing device of your choice - you can do the whole thing in a mortar & pestle, but it's hard work and takes ages - but it is useful to use one to finish the paste off and make it a bit finer.

Heat the oil in a decently heavy pan on a medium high heat and fry off the whole spices, taking care not to burn them. When the spices start to colour, brown the chicken legs in the pan before taking them out and putting them to one side so you can fry the onions, spice paste and the tomatoes.

Add the remaining chopped onion to the pan and turn down the heat to medium. Fry until soft and lightly browned (don't go too mad here - Madras it ain't), then add the paste and turn the heat back up to fry that off - it doesn't need browning,  but just stir to stop it sticking - if it starts to catch on the pan, add a tablespoon or so of water just to keep it loose.

When the oils in the paste start to come away to the surface, the spices are cooked out and it's time to add the fresh tomato pieces. Fry these off until they've softened and add the canned tomatoes. Cook for another couple of minutes then put the chicken back into the pan. Add the yoghurt to just cover the chicken, stir and turn the heat down to medium low. Simmer gently covered for an hour or until the chicken is cooked through, stirring occasionally.

Serve with whatever you want or have got in - rice, chapattis, naans - chips if you like!


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