Who doesn’t love a jalfrezi ?? This cooking method is different from the westernised restaurants and takeaways as I’m using no base sauce. You make and create the sauce as you make the dish. This version was again cooked to celebrate National Curry Week at the start of October.

The beauty of this dish is the cooking time and prep. Prep takes 15 minutes as does the cooking. A beautiful curry cooked and on your plate within 30 minutes.

Ingredients-

3 tbsp rapeseed oil.

1 onion finely diced.

2 tbsp of garlic & ginger paste.

1 tbsp of curry powder.

1 tsp of paprika.

1 tsp of cumin powder.

1 tsp of chill powder.

1 tsp of coriander powder.

125ml of passata.

250ml of chicken stock.

1 tsp of mustard seeds.

20 or so curry leaves.

1 onion thinly sliced.

1/2 a red pepper & 1/2 a green pepper roughly chopped.

2 green finger chillies diced.

600 / 700g of chicken thighs.

3 tomatoes cut into quarters.

1 tsp of fenugreek.

3 tbsp of chopped coriander.

Good pinch of salt.

Method –

As always…..heat half of the oil in the pan. Once the oil is hot add in the finely chopped onion. Fry the onion the 5 minutes or so until it’s nice and translucent.

Once your onion is cooked add the garlic & ginger paste. Cook this for 30 seconds or so ensuring you mix the paste in well.

Follow the paste with all your dry ground spices.

Followed by the passata. Bring the passata to a simmer mixing all the ingredients together around the pan. At this stage the kitchen will smell amazing.

Pour in just half of the chicken stock (125ml). Again bring this to a simmer then remove from the heat.

Blitz the sauce with a hand blender. I have to put the sauce into a bowl as my hand blender has a mind of its own and is scary !!!

Heat the remaining oil in the same pan. Once it’s hot add the mustard seeds and cook into they start to pop and fizz in the oil.

Follow the mustard seeds with the curry leaves. Fry these only for 20 seconds.

Add in your roughly chopped onion, green and red peppers plus the diced chilli. Cook for a few minutes only in the hot oil. You still want a good crunch on the vegetables.

Add back in your blended sauce plus the reserved chicken stock. Bring this to a simmer.

Place your raw chicken evenly in the sauce mix. Coat the chicken and leave to cook for 10 minutes ensuring the chicken is cooked all the way through. The smaller you’ve cut your chicken the quicker it will cook.

Drag the caramelised sauce from the sides of the pan back into the dish. This contains a lot of flavour. Add in the fenugreek and mix well. Then add in your tomato quarters. Cook for two minutes only as you don’t want to over cook them.

To finish the dish add in the chopped coriander and a good pinch of salt.

I served mine with some steamed basmati rice…..oh and beautiful red wine to accompany the curry!!

Thank you for reading my ramblings ❤️