Balti - Meat or not to Meat

Description

Balti is a great saucy type of curry (named after the dish used to serve it in). You can make it as spicy or as mild as you like but you must use Naan bread to eat it - definitely no spoons or forks allowed !!!

For variation, and actually more often than not, I make this Balti using quorn chicken style pieces rather than chicken. It tastes just as good and is healthier.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion sliced
• 400ml chicken stock
• red and green chillies - the quantity here is up to you. Add as many or as few as you can.
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 4 chicken breasts, skinned and cut into bite-sized pieces (or 1 bag of frozen quorn chicken style pieces)
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• half teaspoon ground cinnamon
• a whole batch of the curry sauce.
• 1 teaspoon tomato purée
• salt to taste

Method

1. Heat a little of the oil in a heavy pan.
2. Cook the chicken (or quorn) until it turns white on all sides. Remove from the pan and set aside.
3. Add a little more oil to the pan and turn the heat to medium.
4. Add the onion, chopped chillies and cumin and fry until the onion is translucent but not brown.
5. Add the paprika, turmeric, cinnamon and tomato puree and fry for 30 seconds to cook out the tomato puree.
6. Return the chicken pieces to the pan along with the curry sauce and the chicken stock.
7. Bring to a simmer then cook on a low heat for 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked. Add a little hot water if the sauce gets too thick.