A long time coming

It’s finished; printed, bound and freshly submitted. I’ve handed in my thesis! It’s been a long time coming, and now we’re focusing on celebrating. I’m looking forward to more time spent in the kitchen, experimenting and learning. I’ve joined the Daring Bakers* and, at the end of August, I’ll post my first challenge.

I made this curry a few weekends ago. It’s a morale boosting dinner, pure comfort food for when you’re feeling low. It got me through some of the darkest days of proofreading, and it turned the bitter end into something sweet and spicy.


Chicken masala with sweet potato

2 red onions
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbspns vegetable oil
1-2 tspn curry powder
2 tspn ground coriander
2 tspn cumin
½ tspn ginger
½ tspn turmeric
500 g chicken breast fillets
300 ml natural yoghurt
125 ml chicken stock
2 tspn tamarind paste or 1 tspn sugar
2 large sweet potato or 1 butternut, cut into cubes and par-cooked.
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the onions and garlic into a food processor and process to form a smooth paste.

Heat the oil in a pan, add the onion mixture and sauté over a medium heat for 10 minutes. Sprinkle in the spices and continue cooking for 5 minutes.

Add the chicken to the pan and cook for a further 5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients, turn the heat to low, and simmer for 15 minutes or until the chicken is tender.


*The Daring Bakers is an online baking group. Each month a recipe is chosen by one of the members as the “Daring Bakers Challenge”. Every member follows the identical recipe. I'm sure it will be a fun way of learning new techniques and stretching my baking repertoire…