Milly

Learning to cook Indian food is all about 'andaaza' that is a hindi/urdu term for 'estimation'...you have to estimate how much spice you need to put in depending on the amount of food you are cooking. Its easy to say 1tsp of this or that, but Indians are all different and enjoy different levels of spices in different foods that essentially taste the same but vary in how much they can turn your face red. However, if you increase one spice, you must increase all the spices otherwise the taste will mess up..so estimation is key. I found the best way was to start off with the following recipe and then vary the spice to your taste.

So first of all, i cooked a Chicken Curry. I browned the onions in olive oil, but you can use any oil, 1 small onion for 1lb or chicken. The onion should be as finely cut as possible into squares, not strips. Then add 1tsp of mashed up garlic and ginger to the oil and stir, then in a seperate bowl mix up 1/2 tsp of chilli power, tumeric powder, coriander powder, salt and add a little water and make into a paste. Empty the paste into your golden brown onions and stir. Fry for about 2 mins and then add puree tomatoes from a tin, just 1/2 a tin and mix well into a smooth paste. Evaporate excess water from the tomatoes and when you see the oil seperating from the tomatoes its time to add the Chicken, boned or boneless. Stir well, cover and cook for 20mins, stirring occasionally, on a very low heat. Finally evaporate all the excess water that has come out of the chicken and add boiled water after evaporation if you need more curry liquid around the chicken. Let the curry sit for 30mins as this brings the oils to the top which makes the dish look nicer. Sprinkle with chopped fresh coriander and serve either on a bed of rice or with pitta bread from any supermarket.

The spices can be found even in sainsburys, but you can get them cheaper and in a larger quantity from local ethnic shops. Cooking is an art and perfection only comes after plenty of practice, believe me i know!! If you think this is bland, then increase all the spices from 1/2tsp to 1tsp each but never increase the curry powder without increasing the other spices in proportion.