“Peter’s lamb curry” from “The Return of the Naked Chef”

Anna: I think I remember making this curry years ago, and wierdly I think that I didn’t like it that much. But this is delicious!

Peter: Maybe your tastebuds are maturing like this book.

Anna: Hmm. Maybe. What did you think?

Peter: It was very good. You could tell that it was made from scratch, all the flavours were really fresh. If I had one comment it would be that it tasted like it should be a dry curry, but there was quite a lot of sauce.

Anna: Actually the core recipe is just for the sauce. In typical Jamie fashion you can make the dish your own…. bit of chicken, throw in some paneer, chuck in some chickpeas….

Peter: Did you rip in some herbs?

Anna: I didn’t, but I added spinach for greenery. What is it with curry? It’s impossible to take decent photos! Brown sludge. Yummy brown sludge.

Peter: It is brown.

Anna: Despite having 3 Indian cookery books on my bookshelf I think this will be a recipe I will be going back to. I’m glad we tried it again!

“Chicken biryani” from “Easy Meals”

Peter: I liked this more than the one we get from the takeaway. I think it’s better.

Anna: How so?

Peter: It’s not greasy. This was quite spicy I noticed. Did you put something extra in it that you shouldn’t have done?

Anna: No, the recipe calls for half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper, which is all that I put in. But I’m still using the cayenne that we got in Sydney 4 years ago… maybe its heat is increasing with age.

Peter: It must be vintage.

Anna: I liked this a lot. Another win for Rachel. It was truly quick and easy, and she did this interesting thing with the rice which required it to be pre-soaked in boiling water before adding the chicken, spices and stock. This meant that it actually cooked properly.

Peter: Will you make this again then?

Anna: I’m already planning to. Next week.

“Chicken Curry” from “The River Cottage Family Cookbook”

Tom: This smelt amazing as it was cooking.

Kirstin: It was very easy to cook. I used chicken thighs as he suggested.

Ella: But I like chicken breast more than thigh.

Oscar Miaoooooow.

Miles: Oscar likes it!

Kirstin: I also cheated and used a tin of tomatoes. Life is too short to start mucking about with boiling water and seeding tomatoes. I’m not sure I would  make this again because I think I have other favourite chicken curry recipes, but it was a lovely recipe to make mid-week.

“Lime and lemongrass chicken” from “Fast, Fresh, Simple”

Anna: Chef-husband, what did you think about this recipe then?

Peter: The paste was relatively easy to make.  But you thought the chicken needed more time.

Anna: Yes. Only because she called for chicken thighs, cut in half, which are quite big pieces. And they weren’t properly browned before you added the coconut milk.

Peter: I was just following the recipe.

Anna: I know you were. That’s all that’s been asked of you too! But it did mean that I felt we needed to keep them cooking in the sauce for longer than the stated 10 minutes total, just to make sure they were properly cooked.

Peter: The whole recipe was very quick and if the timings had been correct it would have been extremely easy to do.  We used six thighs based on the weight guidelines she gives. She called for four, so there must be some extremely large chickens in Australia…..

Anna: I really liked this, as a quick and fresh alternative to a Thai green curry. The flavours were delicious, and I’m a big fan of spinach which is added at the last minute.  The fact that you found it easy to cook means I love recipe this even more. I can forgive her the timings for the chicken as most cooks would be able to work around that easily.

Peter: I’d be happy to cook it, and eat it, again.

Anna: Hurrah!

“Chicken & Cashew Chicken” from “Bill’s Everyday Asian”

Andrew (11): So what are we eating this month?

Maureen: Asian food.

Andrew: This will be a fun one, then.

Maureen: Are you being sarcastic?

Andrew: Yes. Because the only fun Asian food is chicken curry. And sushi. But that’s it.

Maureen: This is chicken curry, though.

Nicholas (8): I like this, actually!

Maureen: What??? There’s chilli in it, you know.

Nicholas: I like that it’s not spicy. I like the peanuts. It’s simple. I would like you to make this again, very much.

“Chicken Tikka Masala” from I Love Curry and “Mojito Mini Cupcakes” from Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days

Tom: So, what did you all think of the curry? Those were clean plates!

Kate: Completely mopped up. Yup. We were demanding more sauce. You need to triple the quantity of that sauce.

Liam: It doesn’t need rice. The naan bread was great.

Mick: I preferred eating the curry with the bread, rather than using weapons.

Kate: It had a gentle but intense heat that crept up on you. It didn’t overwhelm you, but left you wanting more!

Liam: I second that.

Kate: You just want another hit.

“Creamy Almond Chicken Curry” from “I Love Curry”

Find a copy of the recipe here, courtesy of the good people at Waterstone’s.

Maureen: Tonight we are having almond chicken. [Editor's Note: I employed the oldest mother's trick in the book, which is withholding crucial culinary information from children in order to make them eat something they say they don't like. I don't know why my children don't like curry, but check back with me in 20 years time, when they will acquire a taste for it after a long night at their local pub.]

Andrew (11): This is very good! Why is there a bone in my chicken?

Maureen: You leave the bone in because it’s only a chicken thigh. It’s too small to debone before you cook it, I think.

Nicholas: (7) Can I have your bone, Andrew? I could use it for my bone collection.

Andrew: You could collect more bones and then we could make our very own catacombs, underneath the house! We could charge admission and become rich! rich! rich!

Nicholas: Good idea!

Maureen: Let’s get back to the issue at hand. What did you think Nicholas?

Nicholas: It’s good. I like it.

Maureen: Do you know what this is? It’s curry!

Andrew and Nicholas (simultaneously horrified): CURRY!

“Spicy Andhra Chicken Curry” and “Tarka Dhal” from “I Love Curry”

Anna: It’s time we redressed the balance this month.  It’s all cakes, pies and loaves. Time for curry!

Ian: Did I miss the delivery man coming to the door? This looks very professional.

Anna: I do worry that whenever I cook an Indian meal from scratch, all the dishes are the same colour.

Aine: But there’s fresh coriander on top, that gives it a splash of green!

Anna: Anything to break up the orange/yellow theme…..

Ian: Well it tastes delicious, very fresh.

Anna: That’s the great thing about making a curry from scratch. I’ve got a couple of Anjum’s books and it’s always the same: the layering up of the flavours gives the dishes a really unique taste. The problem, I find, is that it takes so blimmin long to cook the curries that by the time they’re finished I can’t be bothered to eat them.

Peter: Tarka the Dhal? Wasn’t that a character in a Disney film?

Anna: I can’t believe you just said that.

Peter: I thought the chicken curry was very nice. It tasted very different to a takeaway curry. Much lighter. And it has a lovely heat that wasn’t too aggressive. It was a bit like a korahi, but with less tomato.

Anna: And the dhal? What did you think to it? I prefer Vic’s recipe I have to say.

Peter: I’d struggle to tell one dhal from another in all honesty. It went together well, and we didn’t need rice.

Anna: I have to make a special mention for the dessert, which was from “Kitchen”: “Lemon Meringue Fool”. Really delicious and incredibly quick and easy to make.

Peter: It had a nice spring/summer taste, though I’m not a big fan of cream as you know.

Anna: What do you think ice cream is made out of??

“Coconut Chicken & Petit Pois Curry” from “Leon 2″

Maureen: Curry night! We don’t do it very often, but maybe we should. What do you think?

Andrew (11): It’s like the other chicken curry you make, which is very good.

Maureen: What other chicken curry? We never have curry. You both think it’s too spicy.

Nicholas (7): I think it’s good.

“South Indian Pepper Chicken” from “Leon 2″

Tom: I’m really full.

Anna: You don’t get to eat curry very often do you?

Tom: I take every opportunity I can get. I like spicy food, but unfortunately the food decision-maker in the house doesn’t

Katrin: My dislike of curry has been a long-standing thing. I don’t like spicy, I don’t pepper, but I can eat Thai occasionally as long as it has a clean flavour. The flavours of Indian cooking just don’t work for me.

Anna: Do you like chilli con carne?

Katrin: No.

Anna: It must be the cumin. You don’t like cumin. To be fair, cumin does taste a bit like dusty socks…  Anyway, this menu was terrible for you.  Keralan pepper chicken curry, and the Dalston sweet potato curry again.  Genius. I’ve known you  12 years and I didn’t know you didn’t like curry.  I do now.

Katrin: Well, I ate the Dalston / Hoxton curry with lots of rice and it was ok. It would never be my first choice, but it was edible.

Anna: What did you think of the chicken curry?

Tom: I expected it to be more peppery. I love lots of pepper so I could have taken a lot more. But it was very nice. I really liked the vegetarian one, because of the sweet potato. It gave it a nice twist.

Anna: You’re right, the chicken could have had more pepper. The recipe doesn’t say how much to put on, just ‘a lot’, so it’s down to personal choice. If I was making it for you again, I’d know to use more pepper!

Peter: The consistencies and colours of both were relatively similar, so they sort of blended into each other.  Same as Tom, I expected it to taste more of pepper, but it was nice. Fresh flavours. Thighs were the right cut to use.  Nice and tender.

Anna: Well I preferred the Dalston curry tonight, but I’m still bored of cauliflower. I’m not dying to eat the leftovers tomorrow.  The chicken curry was nice. It was easy enough, and I’d consider making it again. Just not for Katrin.