Mangoes and Curry Leaves

Mangoes and Curry Leaves, by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

If you ever wanted to make Indian food, but found it daunting, then this is the book for you. I got this as a Christmas gift from the G* and it's a fantastic book. It has recipes from all over the subcontinent, with anecdotes from the authors' travels, great pictures and some delicious, foolproof recipes.

A selection of tried and tested below:

Katchhi Village Potato Curry

Zinet's Chicken with Tomato and Greens
This recipe is fantastic. I wish I could tell you what it involves, but the G* made it, so I have no idea. I can only vouch for the fact that it tastes really good

Aromatic Slow-Cooked Chicken
On the face of it, this recipe looks pretty dubious. Anything that involves boiling chicken for half an hour makes me suspicious, but this is really tender and flavourful. The rice vinegar and fresh coriander make all the difference.

Thai fragrant rice, ginger and garlic chicken pot

1 chicken leg, thigh and drumstick separated
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 cm stem ginger, finely chopped
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 cup Thai fragrant rice
1 and 3/4 cups chicken stock
4 dried shitake mushrooms, soaked and sliced
1 spring onion, sliced

Wash rice and place in heavy-bottomed, non-stick pot. Add all the other ingredients, reserving the green part of the spring onion, and place the chicken pieces on top. Add pepper to taste. Cover and bring stock to boil, simmering over medium heat until rice and chicken are cooked (20-25 mins). Sprinkle the remaining spring onion on top and serve.

Mudéjar

Or, what happened when I tried something out of Claudia Roden's book, Arabesque. I got this as a Christmas present (thanks, Gungush!), and certain people had been bugging me about making something from it. Sadly, I didn't have much of an opportunity to do anything more elaborate than humous, babaganoush and try her method for fool-proof couscous (which involves first soaking it and then sticking it in the oven - it works!). The rest was me dressing up a chicken and making some gazpacho, hence "mudéjar". Anyway, you can see the results below. Oh, the cake was from Sam and Sam Clarke's book, Moro.

Roast chicken

Having just fed four people, I thought I'd share my thoughts on roast chicken. No doubt everyone has their own way of roasting chicken, so here's mine. The worst thing about a roast chicken is dry, bland breast meat (although I don't usually eat chicken breast anyway), so you have to stuff the thing with something to prevent it from drying. Get your preferred choice of chicken (free-range, corn-fed, or whatever works for you). Wash and pat dry. Stuff with: wedges of lemon, small onion, crushed garlic cloves, your choice of herb (mint or thyme work well), butter. Rub olive oil and salt all over skin.

I served roast potatoes with the chicken. Wash and peel the potatoes, and cut into bite-size chunks. Parboil for 5 minutes, drain and shake in the pan to fluff them up. Spread over the bottom of a deep roasting tin lined with aluminium foil. Halve two small onions, and cut each half into quarters. Crush some garlic cloves. Spread evenly among the potato chunks. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and cumin seeds. Place the rack on the roasting tin and set the chicken on top, breast side up. Cook in a pre-heated at 190C (about 75 mins. for a medium-sized chicken). You shouldn't need to baste it, and the fat and juices will be soaked up by the potatoes, giving them extra flavour.

Et voilà: