I’ve blogged before about my love for a pathia. Pathia was my first introduction to Indian food aged 19 from a little restaurant in Coleshill. It’s one of those food memories you’ll never forget.

I love this ‘hot, sweet & sour’ dish. A perfect mix of flavours basically created by Kashmiri chill powder, sugar, mango chutney, tamarind paste & lemon juice. The elements that combine amazingly to create the ‘hot, sweet & sour’ flavours.

When I’ve cooked this dish for others it’s the dish that I’ve had amazing feedback on. To the point I’d actually been quite confident cooking it against any Indian restaurant or takeaway!!

This would be my ‘Masterchef’ dish to blow Greg & John’s mind!!! Dreaming of course but that’s how passionate I am about my pathia.

Sorry, I’m rambling. Recipe and method below.

Ingredients-

3 tbsp of rapeseed oil, 2 onions finely diced, 2 tbsp of garlic & ginger paste, 2 tbsp of curry powder (shop bought or homemade), 1 tsp of Kashmiri chilli powder, 4 tbsp of passata, 200g (1/2 a tin) of chopped tomatoes, 2 tbsp of sugar, 1 tbsp of mango chutney, 250ml of chicken stock ( I always use the Knorr stock cubes), standard tray of chicken cut into bite size pieces, handful of dried fenugreek leaves, 1/2 tsp of tamarind paste, touch of red food colouring if required, juice of a large lemon, pinch of salt and coriander to serve.

Method –

Heat the rapeseed oil in a heavy based pan. Once hot add your diced onions and fry for about 5 minutes until nice and translucent.

Once you’re happy with the onions add in the garlic and ginger paste.

Stir this around the pan coating the onions for about 30 seconds or so.

Remove about 4 tbsp of the mixture to a separate bowl and set aside.

Add the curry powder, passata, Kashmiri chilli powder, sugar & mango chutney.

Mix well…..

Then in goes the chopped tomatoes and half of the chicken stock…….

Bring this to a simmer.

Once it comes to a simmer remove the pan from the heat and allow it to cool slightly. Add this to a blender and whiz to create a thin sauce.

Add the sauce mixture back to the pan along with the reserved onions.

Add your chicken to the mixture along with the rest of the chicken stock and allow this to simmer and for the chicken to cook which should take about 5/7 minutes.

The sauce will naturally thicken as it’s cooked down. Remember the scrap any caramelised sauce from the sides of the pan as this contains lots of flavour.

If you’re using food colouring add it to the dish and give it a good stir.

Add the tamarind paste. Please remember, tamarind paste and tamarind sauce are different. You need the paste which is a concentrated version. The sauce is what you have in your authentic Indian restaurants to dip your popadoms in. It’s the tamarind that lifts the dish to give its ‘sweet and sour’ flavour.

Finish the dish with dried fenugreek, lemon juice and coriander.

Give this a good mix, by this stage you have a real flavour party going on!!

Again, when I start any of my cooking I always put the rice on. This then gives it chance to come to a gentle boil, reduce slightly and I can remove it from the heat so it steams itself in the pan then I fluff it up gently with a fork. Perfect basmati rice.

Thank you for reading my ramblings if you have. Again the recipe was inspired by Dan Toombs with my take added.