Balti Chicken

Having had a bit of a social life in the last week I haven't had many recipes to post. This curry was cooked for me by Steve last week and it's taken me until now to get the recipe from him. He loosely follows a recipe from 'The Balti Cookbook' by Shehzad Husain, but I find each time he makes it, the flavours are slightly different. Curry is always nicer if it's made for you as your sense of smell has not been saturated in the cooking process. Also if it's made the day before and heated up the following day the flavour will only get better. These ingredients are a rough guide and can be modified to suit your taste

Ingredients
Serves 2 with generous portions
1 Pack of boneless, skinless chicken thighs approx 450g,
or 2 chicken breasts if you prefer
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 or 2 onions, chopped
vegetable or olive oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp fresh ginger, chopped small
3 cloves of garlic chopped small
2 tsp garam masala
1 whole red chilli, chopped or 1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp salt
ground black pepper
2 tbsp of natural yoghurt or cream
juice of 1 lemon
handful of fresh coriander
fresh coriander and a red chill to serve

Method
Fry the onion in the oil in a heavy bottomed dish until golden. Add the garlic, ginger,  chilli and all the spices and fry for a few minutes. Add the chicken and fry until sealed. Add the tin of tomatoes, salt and some black pepper and cook covered for half an hour until the chicken is cooked. 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time add the natural yoghurt or cream and just before serving squeeze in the lemon juice and sprinkle in some fresh coriander, to taste. Serve scattered with fresh coriander on top and chopped chilli if you like a good kick.