Almond Chicken

Born from need, I don’t think this is finished as art. But see feedback.

Ingredients

• Onion

• Garlic

• Thumb of ginger

• Ground coriander

• Saffron essence

• Chicken out of the fridge, probably breast

• Handful of sultanas

• Spoonful of brown sugar

• Half‐bag of ground almonds

• Chicken stock cube

• Pot of yogurt

Tools

A blender, even a hand blender and jug, makes this better than an initial fry.

Make

1. Defrost and/or roast the chicken a bit

2. Onion, garlic and ginger into the blender

3. Tip into a frying pan and fry for a minute, then sling in the powder spices

4. In with the chicken, almonds, sultanas, stock, sugar, and liquid spices. Simmer for two or three songs

5. While doing that, cook the tagliatelle

6. Off the heat then stir in the yogurt

Variations

I think this is close to a very interesting dish. Nobody knew if to call it a curry or not. There’s few ways to go, and they are different,

• The trace of connection to English curry comes from the spices I had on hand (saffron essence, of all things). But there’s no need for them—for example, I was wondering how thyme or mustard might work

• I guess marinade would help. No need for the spice—what about beer, tea or vinegar? For some reason, I kept thinking of ‘essence of oak tree’. Yes, I know no such spice exists :) Whatever you choose, I think you should not try to counter the yogurt and almonds, but work with them

Discussion

The initial plan was Felicity Cloakes Chicken Korma. But less than a minute showed I had no access to the ingredients or time to marinade. So I switched to the BBC recipe, then modified my ingredients. Which is where it stopped being the English form of curry in any sense at all.

As for the tagliatelle, it had to be. Don’t argue.

Feedback

This was a keeper. Everyone wanted it back out of the fridge the next day. Maybe I’ll work on it.