Coconut chicken with lemon rice

As far as homemade curries go this was easy to do and doesn't have a huge list of ingredients. I thought it was delicious, quite spicy, I had to make Rachel and her friend an alternative tea. Maybe because I used a red chilli rather than a green. It looked like a bit like a korma curry but it wasn't as sweet. I could imagine adding banana to it to counteract the spiciness or adding a bit of desiccated coconut to the sauce. 

Ingredients
Serves 4
3 cm piece root ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 green chilli, roughly chopped
2 onions, roughly chopped
olive oil
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp turmeric
8 chicken thigh fillets, cut into quarters
400ml tin coconut milk
1 small bunch coriander , chopped

Lemon rice:
1 lemon, zested and juiced
olive oil
3 cardamom pods , bashed
300g basmati rice

Method
Put the ginger, garlic, green chilli, onion and 1/2 tsp salt in a small food processor and whizz to a purée (use a drop of water if you need to bring it together). Heat a tbsp of oil in a large wide pan and fry the purée for 3 minutes. Add the cumin, coriander and turmeric and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the chicken and cook for 3-4 minutes until it starts to colour a little. Stir in the coconut milk and leave to simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in the coriander. 
To make the rice, peel long strips of rind (no pith) from the lemon. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and add the lemon rind and cardamom pods. Cook for 2 minutes then add the rice and stir well. Add 450ml water and bring to a boil. Put on a lid and simmer for 10-12 minutes until all water has absorbed. Turn off the heat and leave for 5 minutes. Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon before serving.