Yesterday was a day of waiting and then disappointment for me. So to cheer myself up and keep my mind focused and entertained I decided to hit the kitchen and cook a lovely meal and I fancied curry! I love making curry from scratch I find it one of the most satisfying dishes to cook and then eat.

This time I based it on a recipe I’ve never tried before from the Jamie Oliver cookbook, The Return of the Naked Chef – Peter’s lamb curry – only mine was a chicken curry. So this is the recipe with a few of my adjustments:

For the curry paste. 2.5cm of fresh ginger | 1 white onion | 4 gloves of garlic | Red chillies – I chose 3 hot chillies as I knew this suited our taste | 1 tbsp cumin seeds | 1 tbsp coriander seeds | 1 clove | seeds from 1 cardamom pods | sprinkle of pepper and cinnamon

Other ingredients. 1 tbsp butter | 1 tin of chopped tomatoes | ¼ pint of stock | 3 diced chicken breasts | ¼ pint yoghurt

First I finely chopped the ginger, onion, garlic and chillies and popped them into a food processor – and blend. Next I asked my lovely husband to grind the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, clove and cardamom seeds in a mortar and pestle. This was added to the food processor with the pepper and cinnamon – and again, blend!

Next I melted the butter in a non-stick wok and added the curry paste, stirred regularly until golden. Then I added the tin of tomatoes and the ¼ pint of stock, (for which I used homemade gravy left over from the previous night). Brought to the boil and then left to simmer and reduce while I turned my attention to the chicken.

In a separate pan I fried the diced chicken breast in some olive oil. When cooked through this was added to the curry sauce and left for the flavours to combine for approximately 30-40 minutes until consistency was perfect. Just before serving I added the ¼ pint yoghurt just so it warmed through.

Our delicious Jamie Oliver inspired curry was served with mushroom, egg fried rice, which was cooked in the same pan as the chicken so also took on some of the chicken flavours from the olive oil and juices.

Oh yes and before you ask, and in case you thought I had forgotten, it was of course accompanied with a glass of red, a lovely peppery Shiraz – cheers!