From Curries to Kebabs, recipes from the Indian spice trail by Madhur Jaffrey

My husband and I are very fond of Indian curries so when this book was recommended for the cooking book club, I was delighted. I read up about Madhur Jaffrey and looked up all her books on Amazon. Many are only available as paperbacks which wouldn’t work for me for the challenge as any book I order takes a few weeks to arrive in South Africa from the UK. I found From Curries to Kebabs, which is available as an ebook, and immediately purchased it.

I am very pleased I did as it is full of wonderful recipes. I have tried three recipes so far: Royal Lamb Kaati Kebab (Shahi Kaati Kabab), Cilantro Chicken (Dhania Chicken), and Chicken with Spinach (Saag Murgh). All of the meals were delicious, and even my mom, who is not a curry fan, enjoyed the food.

I will definitely purchase more books by this author and have followed her on Amazon. 

I elected to showcase Chicken with Spinach for this post as it does not require lengthy periods of marinating the meat and is quicker to prepare.

Chicken with Spinach (Saag Murgh)

I am rarely able to purchase the same ingredients as any non-South African recipe calls for, and I also always cook for at least six and not the four that most recipes are designed to cater for. As a result, my quantities and ingredients differ a bit from the recipe in the book, but the gist is the same.

Ingredients

8 chicken legs and 8 chicken thighs with skin on

300 grams spinach, washed and coarsely chopped

Crisply fried onion – I made mine by frying 2 peeled and diced onions in olive oil in a pan

2 onions crushed

5 ml ginger powder

15 ml garlic flakes

Olive oil for frying

5 ml cardamom powder 

2,5 ml cinnamon powder

10 ml ground coriander

5 ml ground cumin 

2,5 ml cayenne pepper

6 tablespoons (90 ml) plain yogurt

3 fresh tomatoes, diced

4 cups chicken stock

Method

Place the chopped spinach with 250 ml water in a pot and bring to a boil. Simmer for 8 minutes and then drain.

While the spinach is cooking, prepare the crisply fried onion.

In a large pot, brown the crushed onions together with the ginger, garlic flakes, cardamom, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, and cayenne pepper powders. Add the chicken pieces and coat them in the onion mixture. Allow to brown for about 5 minutes. I did this in two batches, using half the onion mixture for each batch.

Add the tomato and spinach and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the yogurt, one tablespoon at a time. Finally, add the chicken stock and the crispy fried onions. Allow to simmer for 30 minutes. Serve with rice.