Everybody loves a good curry and our centuries old love affair with Indian food is as strong as ever. I've met quite a few Western trained Indian chefs who have all told me how tricky it is the master the art of great Indian food. Balancing out the flavours requires such skill.

Our friend Monica who makes the Karimix pastes is a real genius at mixing spices and for small brands like hers, it's all about the flavour. These little jars are all you need to make a really quick curry that's worthy of the best Indian takeaways.

If you want to mix it up a little, you can make this same recipe using the Jalfrezi Paste, Tikka Masala Paste or the Tandoori Paste. You could also add in chickpeas, potato, green beans, aubergines, anything you like really.  

Chicken Madras
Serves 4-6
4 x Medium Sized Skinless Chicken Breasts
175g Madras Curry Paste
2 x White Onions, finely diced
2 x Red Peppers, finely diced
2 x 400g Cans of Chopped Tomatoes
250ml Chicken Stock
2tbsp Greek Yoghurt
Salt
Fresh Coriander
Fresh Green Chillis (optional)

1. Dice the chicken breasts into bite sized chunks and massage 75g of the curry paste into them. Stir in two tablespoons of yoghurt and leave to marinade for 20 minutes.

2. Whilst the chicken is marinating, dice up the white onions. Heat up a wok or deep sided frying pan, with a little oil and fry the onions. After 3 or 4 minutes, add in the diced peppers.

3.  Fry the onions and peppers until the onions are lightly golden and the peppers are soft. Add in the rest of the jar of curry paste and continue to fry for a further 2 to 3 minutes.

4. Now add in the 2 cans of chopped tomatoes and the chicken stock. Bring up to a boil and gentle simmer for around 20 minutes. This will give you the chance to prepare any other garnishes that you want. I've served this with basmati rice,  cucumber raita and some pan roasted tender stem broccoli (see the Raita recipe below).

5. You can make the sauce to this point well in advance or even batch cook and freeze it. Also, if you didn't want to use chicken you can cook the sauce to this point and then add in grilled aubergine, chickpeas, roasted cauliflower, potato, squash - their are loads of possibilities.

6. After 20 minutes or so, add in the marinated chicken with all the yoghurt. Stir this through and continue to simmer for 10-15 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

7. Serve with basmati rice and I think it's lovely with some extra sliced green chillies, a sprinkling of fresh coriander and one or two of our wonderful paratha breads.

Ingredients for the Cucumber Raita
Serves 4-6

275g Greek Yoghurt
A little water
1/2 Cucumber, seeds removed and diced finely
1 x Red Onion, finely diced
1tsp Sugar
1tsp Salt
1tsp Cumin Seeds
A small handful of fresh coriander, chopped
A small handful of fresh mint, chopped

If your Greek yoghurt is very thick, loosen it with a little cold water. Then add in the remaining ingredients and stir together.

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