Quick & Easy Chicken & Potato Curry

When you need curry in a hurry to feed yourself or your unexpected guests, provided you have all the ingredients knocking around in your kitchen somewhere, this is easy peasy and quicker to cook than regular curries. 

 

It’s a recipe I adapted from Rick Stein’s India programme. He was preparing the chicken curry to add to his biryani and made it look so simple. I tried his biryani recipe and thought the curry element could be a dish by itself. So the next time I cooked his biryani I made two helpings of the curry, one for the biryani and one with potato for anyone wanting to try it with plain rice or roti. Got a thumbs up for the biryani AND the chicken & potato curry. Since then, I’ve adapted the recipe a little to make it even simpler to cook.

 

Try it with any veg or plain and enjoy!

Sardine Bazi

A cheap and simple yet delicious dish that my siblings and I grew up on! Even as adults we love it.  This would make a great side dish or main dish, particularly if you don’t have much time to cook or are living a student-budget lifestyle.  So break out your tinned sardines (we all have them in our cupboards don't we?!) and start cooking!

Kabuli Chana Chawal (Chana Dal Pilau Rice)

As a Bangladeshi, I have been used to my rice being accompanied by a gravy laden curry.  The first time my sister-in-law prepared this and brought it to the table with nothing but Hara Chutney (green chutney) and Raita (yoghurt dish), I thought she’d forgotten the curry in the kitchen.  When my in-laws began to tuck in, I realised that this was it – this was the entire meal!  I quietly filled my plate and began eating.  My mind started to think about what I would eat later as this possibly couldn’t satisfy me.

I couldn’t have been more wrong!

This is great when you want a simple dish – no fuss – no fanfare – just a great tasting meal.

Credit to my sister-in-law, Faiza, who taught me how to cook this....

Fish baked in Banana Leaf (with warm spinach, red pepper & onion salad)

The husband and I were watching an episode of MasterChef India on Youtube one evening when he turned to me and said, ‘you’ve never cooked with banana leaves’.  Imagine my surprise and delight when I came across a bundle of banana leaves in the supermarket a few days later.  When he arrived at the dining table that evening he was blown away – but not as much as me! I used the internet to research the bit about soaking the leaves in boiling water and the rest of this recipe was all down to being guided by my gut (as usual)!!

We wiped our leaves clean and there was a bonus - no washing up!

Tandoori Spiced Paneer Curry

I wanted to create a vegetarian version of my Tandoori Spiced Butter Chicken for my lovely friends next door.  They’re also into healthy eating so I took out the butter and chicken and replaced with oil and paneer.

 In Fia’s words – ‘it was delish!’

Chicken Tenga

Sylheti cooking doesn’t require tomatoes - gravy is wholly made up of onions.  However, there is a fish dish (Tematoo Tenga) that we cook using tomatoes – this is my own twist to the recipe using chicken drumsticks and leaving out the onions and spices.  I ended up with tender chicken in a tangy sweet and spicy sauce – delicious!

Roasted Leg of Goat

I like my meat well done – so well done that’s stripping off the bone even before I’ve approached it! If you don’t like your meat as tender as this, use the marinade and adjust the cooking times accordingly.

King Prawn Curry

This is my dad’s recipe.  He’s been cooking this in his restaurants for over 30 years. 

We had a lot of fun cooking this together when I was last in the UK. 

As you can imagine, it didn't last long!!

Tandoori Spiced Butter Chicken

Tandoori Spiced Butter Chicken (without cream)

Tandoori Spiced Butter Chicken (with cream)

I created this dish using the spices I had in my cupboard and made it up as I went along. Unlike traditional Butter Chicken recipes, I didn't use any tomatoes. (Sylheti cooking involves a lot of onions - that's how I create most of my curry gravy.)

Tantalised? Want to create your own version?....

Suto Aloo Bazi (Baby Potatoes Dish)

This is my mum's recipe - a Great Winter Warmer! Tastes even better if you use home grown/organic potatoes.  Add chopped chillies if you like a little heat!