“This is the kind of dish that you often see being served up at an Indian restaurant and while it may look complicated, it doesn’t have to be at all,” says former Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain.
“This is like the Bengali stir fry you never knew you needed. It’s spiced, fast and a feast for the eyes.”
Saag aloo chicken jalfrezi
Ingredients:
(Serves 4)
oil, for frying
3 dried red chillies
4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
400g tin of cream of tomato soup
1½tsps salt
4tbsps brown sauce
4tbsps art masala mix
2 red onions, quartered
2 red peppers, cut into large chunks
560g tin of potatoes, halved
200g cooked chicken
80g fresh baby spinach
handful of fresh coriander
2 spring onions, thinly sliced
For the art masala mix:
28g cardamom pods
3g bay leaves
34g fennel seeds
100g cumin seeds or ground cumin
38g ground cinnamon
100g ground turmeric
44g chilli powder
200g curry powder
Method:
1. To make the art masala mix, use a spice grinder. Lots of smoothie-makers also come with a milling blade that works well to really crush down these whole spices.
Put the cardamom pods in the grinder, husk and all. Whack them in and blend to a fine powder, then pour out into a large bowl.
Now put your bay leaves, fennel and cumin seeds into the same grinder and blitz to a powder. If your grinder is small, you can do each spice alone, but just note that when doing the bay leaves, always blend them with the fennel seeds. They need the seeds to get them moving enough to crush to a powder. Add to the bowl. Mix thoroughly, being sure to do this after each addition as it’s important to make sure that the mix is well-blended.
Now for the cinnamon. I prefer to use ground cinnamon as it’s readily available and will save you from having to crush something quite hard – why should we if we don’t need to? Add to the bowl and mix.
Chuck in the ground turmeric and mix. Add the chilli powder and mix. Lastly, add the curry powder and give everything a good stir. Transfer into a jar or jars and you are ready to go!
2. Put a large non-stick frying pan or wok over a high heat and drizzle a good amount of oil into the base. Throw in the dried red chillies and toast in the oil until they swell up. Lower the heat, add the garlic and toast till it turns a deep golden brown.
3. Pour in the tin of cream of tomato soup, add the salt, brown sauce and art masala mix and cook till the liquid thickens and is reduced by half.
4. Add the red onion, red pepper, tinned potatoes and cooked chicken and stir in the sauce on a really high heat until everything is coated in the sauce and catching on the base of the pan. Take off the heat and stir in the spinach until just wilted.
5. Serve the curry immediately with the coriander and spring onion sprinkled over.
Nadiya’s Simple Spices by Nadiya Hussain is published by Penguin Michael Joseph, priced £26. Photography by Chris Terry. Available now.
