Potato Korma

Part of what I love so intensely about indian cuisine, is their lack of fear at serving carbs with carbs with carbs. I adore carbs, as was illustrated recently when I ordered a jacket potato with a side of chips. My adoration of starch aside though a potato curry served with rice might sound a rather bizarre prospect, in all honestly it is wonderfully comforting.

I've added carrots to this recipe in addition to the traditional potatoes, and I've used a korma curry paste, making this more of a spiced dish than a spicy dish. This dish is also vegan, entirely accidentally, as I used coconut cream instead of dairy cream to make a lighter, less rich curry.

Start by prepping your veg, chop the potatoes and carrots into large chunks and place in a large heavy bottomed saucepan. Salt and cover with water and bring to the boil. Cook for 15 minutes until tender and drain. Put the saucepan back on the heat and add the korma paste. Stir with a wooden spoon to coat the vegetables in the paste, and add the coconut cream. Stir until the cream has combined with the paste and add a large dash of sea salt flakes and some crushed black pepper.

Turn down the heat and simmer the curry until it has reached your desired level of wetness. I enjoy my curries relatively dry. Serve on a bed of cooked brown rice.

Ingredients

250g small potatoes
2 large carrots
250ml coconut cream
2 tablespoons korma paste
salt & pepper

Chicken Masala

I have named this dish Chicken Masala, as it doesn't follow any traditional curry recipe, nonetheless it is delicious and painfully simple to make, containing only six ingredients, one of which is pepper.

Instead of searing the chicken in a frying pan, I prefer to roast it in the oven first, which allows the chicken to be cooked from frozen, finally I have made this as a fairly dry curry, if you prefer a wet curry, then you can add more cream and simmer the sauce for less time.

Start by cooking the frozen chicken breasts, preheat the oven to 200C and brush the chicken with a little vegetable oil, bake for around 40 minutes or until cooked through.

Remove the chicken from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Meanwhile process half a peeled onion in a food processor until fine, and cook with a little oil in a deep saucepan until translucent and soft. Dice the chicken roughly and add to the saucepan, stirring until the chicken has browned slightly.

Add two and a half tablespoons of masala paste to the pan and combine so that the chicken is now coated in the curry paste. Cook for a few minutes and add the cream, stirring so that it has an even colour. Turn down the heat and allow the sauce to simmer until the sauce thickens and coats the chicken, add freshly ground pepper to taste. Serve on a bed of rice with a naan bread or poppadom.

ingredients

2 chicken breasts, frozen
vegetable oil
1/2 white onion, peeled
2 1/2 tablespoons masala curry paste
4 tablespoons cream
black pepper, to taste