Hiya!
I don’t know about you but I just love a good Indian curry.
By Indian curry I mean absolutely nothing like Indian curry and more the British-Indian hybrid curries that have become beloved by many a British person for quite a few years now.
The British were responsible for toting spices all over the world once they found them overseas after all and in fact, India was part of the British Empire for a time.
Along with that and the many Indian people who came to live here it’s easy to see how curry was introduced here and made to suit our palates.
I do have to wonder why they changed their recipes for us though.
Sure the ones usually acquired at the takeaway are delicious but I’m sure even that hybrid curry we order today was considered a scary exotic oddity at one point and lets face it, everyone with a few braincells has a fear of the unknown.
My point is, who was the first British person to try a real Indian curry and say, “My God, that is absolutely hideous!!!!!” and was it really hideous or was it just that they had never eaten something like that before?
If that same guy had said “I could get used to this” or “It’s not bad”, would the Indian takeaway be entirely different? Maybe even authentic?
Maybe it was just assumed by Indians that we wouldn’t like it or that it was too spicy or too new for us to handle?
Who knows?
So today, despite our many philosophical questions on curry, I will show you how to create one to warm up over these long and chilly nights. Notice I didn’t use a chilli pun there, it took strength.
Gordon Ramsay’s Chicken Tikka Masala & Rice.
I have been wanting to make this recipe for quite some time now but a blender was needed and I just didn’t have one, my poor old hand blender died quite a while ago and I hadn’t gotten another since.
As soon as I brought a lovely new blender I was thinking about this recipe and thus, it was made!
Funnily enough, though I’ve been talking about takeaway Indian curry and in fact was hoping for the same taste and style out of this recipe, it isn’t much like an authentic takeaway version at all.
That’s not to say it isn’t delicious, I wouldn’t post it if it wasn’t, it’s just a different animal all together.
The rice to go with this curry is lightly spiced with cardamon and star anise and employs a technique for cooking rice I had never seen before.
Suffice to say I will be using it more often now as it make absolutely perfect rice!
Gordon Ramsay’s Chicken Tikka Masala & Rice
Serves 2
Ingredients
For the curry
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large white onion
2 fresh green chillies (or half of a large red chilli)
1 inch piece of ginger
3 cloves garlic (optional)
1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 teaspoons garam masala
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon tomato purée
400g tin of tomatoes
4 chicken breasts
10 dried curry leaves
4-6 tablespoons natural yoghurt (or cream)
For the rice
200g Basmati rice, fully cleaned
300ml cold water
2 cardamon pods
1 star anise
Salt & pepper
Method
Start by chopping the onion, chilli, ginger and garlic into a small dice, set aside.
Cut the chicken breasts into bite sized pieces.
Add 2 tablespoons of the oil to a frying pan on a medium heat.
Fry the onion, red chilli, garlic and ginger until soft and fragrant.
Add the chilli powder, turmeric, garam masala and brown sugar.
Stir in the tomato purée and fry it for a couple of minutes, then add in the can of tomatoes.
Place the whole mixture into a blender and purée until smooth.
Add another tablespoon of oil to the frying pan and fry the chicken until browned on all sides then add the sauce & curry leaves.
Cover the top and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked.
While the curry is simmering, place the rice in a saucepan, add the cold water and season with salt and pepper.
Lightly crush the cardamon pods and add to the pan with the whole star anise.
Cover with a lid and cook on a medium heat for 10 minutes.
Remove from the heat and without removing the lid, set aside for an extra 5 minutes.
Serve the curry next to the spiced rice, with some poppadoms and flat bread on the side. Enjoy!
