After attending our first wedding for I can’t remember how long, taking advantage of the free drinks plus our first night without children for four years I couldn’t think of anything better to do on a Sunday afternoon than chill out in the kitchen whipping up food, making marinades, base sauce for the week and cleaning up my spices.

First off, find it very relaxing and later rewarding putting the time in to marinade meats. The flavour you get makes the process worth it.

Once the chicken has been roasted in the oven it can be added to any dish or in fact eaten like this just with some mint sauce ❤️.

Whilst the chicken was cooking to chill out I decided to clean out my spice masala dabba. This was a gift from my brother and sister-in-law a few years ago and has been an essential part of my food journey.

At the minute it contains – fenugreek, turmeric, cumin, coriander, chilli powder, garam masala, tandoori masala. Below are other essentials to my cooking journey.

The whole cooking process this weekend has been just what the doctor ordered.

To start the Rezala heat some rapeseed oil in a heavy based pan, I use my karahi pan. Once the oil is hot add an 3 tbsp of ginger & garlic paste, please stir in the hot oil for about 30 seconds. Then add 1 diced onion and fry for 5 minutes or so.

Add two diced chillies and fry for 30 seconds or so.

Stir in 2 tbsp of pre-made powder mix and 2 tsp of chilli powder. Mix well for a minute.

Add 1/4 of a cup of pre-made base sauce and let this reduce down.

Add 1/2 cup of a tomato purée mix which is 1 tbsp of tomato purée and 3 tbsp of water mixed together along with 1/2 of a cup of base sauce.

Let this cook down and add another cup of base sauce. Add the pre-cooked chicken along with any juices from the chicken.

To finish the dish add 1 tsp of garam masala, 100ml of single cream plus 3 tbsp of chopped coriander.

Beautiful dish which was served with steamed rice.