Curry Supper at the Chateau

I love French food with a passion and spend endless hours trying to master century old techniques. The tradition of excellent food at Bardies is, I hope, safe in my hands, especially since I have discovered three ancient hand written exercise books full of lovingly sourced recipes. The previous chatelaines of Bardies certainly knew how to cook and I consider myself privileged to continue this worthy tradition. That said, as a passionate exponent of multi-culturalism, I cannot wean myself off the strong flavours of North Africa, the Middle East and the Indian sub continent. The 'spice trail' is hard wired into my psyche. After a week of cooking traditional native fayre, I am driven by an all-consuming addiction to the heat and vitality of curried foods. I know a French food blog should be about French food, so I beg you to indulge me.

It seems to me that most French people have not allowed their own colonial heritage to enhance their wonderful home food traditions. Of course, in cities like Marseilles, things are very different. As an 'etranger' from a country whose national dish is now chicken tikka masala, I do like to offer up to my guests something other than a traditional French dish which would probably be better constructed at a local restaurant [well, maybe not, but you know what I mean!]. Usually guests are polite but I can see from the rate at which they down iced water and chilled wine that they are unused to the fire of foreign food. Garlic, ginger and chilli peppers seldom make an appearance in native Ariegois cuisine. Fortunately, friends who have spent time in England adore such deviance and the more adventurous 'invitees' love the change.

I restock my spice cupboards every year with our pre- Easter car trip en famille, although there is a very good little shop in St Girons which carries a basic stock. Curry and fenugreek leaves are especially important so I always buy these from specialist Asian shops. I do not like to use supermarket bought 'garum masalas' or curry powders if I can avoid it, so I mix mine from scratch, which I think transforms the flavours from the simply average to the utterly mind blowing. There is such liberation in cooking Indian food. All you need is confidence in your own taste buds.

GARUM MASALA

The meaning is 'hot spices', which are ground together. Recipes vary so you can play around with them to your tastebud's content!

Grind together equal quantities of cloves, cardamon, cumin, peppercorns, cinnamon and dried bay leaves [I find a coffee grinder works really well]. You can add ginger and turmeric for fish dishes, fennel seeds for lamb.

GARLIC AND GINGER PASTE

This is a really useful standby ingredient - I use it more often than anything else for many styles of cooking. It's really great cooked in a little olive oil with some chopped red chilli as a base for spinach, or with chopped green chilli for Thai green curries.

Peel equal quantities of garlic and ginger and whizz through the food processor until finely chopped. Store in a jar in the fridge. I keep a few plastic pots of this in the freezer too - you can use it straight away.

PUNJABI PRAWN SALAD

500g raw prawns, de-veined, shells removed but tails left on
salt
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander seeds
2 tbs olive oil

2 large pieces ginger, cut into fine strips
1 or 2 [depending on taste] medium green chillies, finely chopped
2 red onions finely sliced
3 ripe tomatoes, finely sliced
large bunch fresh coriander leaves, chopped

DRESSING

3 tbs good olive oil
juice of 1 lemon or lime [you can also finely grate in the peel for extra citrus 'zing']
1 tsp chat masala
small bunch fresh mint leaves, chopped

Mix together the salt, turmeric, chilli powder, ground cumin and ground coriander with a little oil and toss the prawns until coated. Heat the remainder of the oil in a large non-stick frying pan and cook the prawns until they are just pink and translucent. Remove from the heat, cool and chill for 1 hour.

When you are ready to assemble the salad, put the red onions, tomato, ginger, chopped chillis and coriander into a large salad bowl with the cooled prawns. Season to taste. Mix the dressing ingredients together in a jar and pour over the salad. Mix together with your hands and serve on individual plates.

CHICKEN TIKKA MASALA

Sorry, but it had to be done!

MARINADE

100g plain yoghurt [preferably pro-biotic]
juice of 1 lime
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp Tikka Massala
2 tbs garlic and ginger paste
4 organic chicken breasts, cut into large chunks

Mix all the marinade ingredients in a mixing bowl with the chicken, making sure that all the chicken is well coated. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

TIKKA MASALA

3 tbs olive oil
2 large Spanish onions, finely chopped
3 tsp garlic and ginger paste
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
3 tomatoes, finely chopped
1 tbs tomato paste
3 tbs coconut powder
50 mls single cream
1 tbs fenugreek leaves
2 tsp butter [to finish]
1 tbs honey
2 tsp sugar
2 tbs lemon juice
salt to taste

Remove chicken from fridge. Preheat oven to 200 C and bake the chicken for 5 minutes on each side.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan or casserole dish and add the onion and garlic and ginger paste. Cook for at least 25 minutes until the onion has caramelised. Add a little water if necessary. When the onion is caramelised [very important] add the cumin seeds and tomato and cook for 2 minutes. Reduce the heat and add the turmeric, chilli powder and sugar and cook for 1 minute. Add the coconut powder and allow the flavour of the coconut to be released in the oils, before adding the lemon juice and fenugreek leaves. Add the cooked chicken and stir for 1 minute. Add the tomato puree and 3 tablespoons of water and cook for 1 minute [I add the remainder of the marinade ingredients at this point too]. Add the honey and cream and leave on a low heat for a further 3-5 minutes until the chicken is fully cooked through. Finally, add the butter and stir before serving.

I find that plain boiled basmati rice is perfect with such strong but subtle and delicate flavours. A simple salad is the perfect accompaniment, but a spinach dahl or vegetable curry would also be delicious.

YOGHURT CAKE

This is not an Indian dessert but I find that it works really well, especially after a long respite and with a good strong after dinner coffee and a digestif. This is a take on a classic French cake but the addition of rosewater gives it a slightly exotic feel. You could also sustitute 1 tsp caraway seeds for the vanilla seeds and add 1 tsp vanilla extract. For an after dinner dessert, I like it garnished with a little more natural yoghurt and some slivered almonds, pistachios, raisins and sultanas.

75 mls groundnut oil
250 g Greek style yoghurt
180 g organic caster sugar
2 large organic eggs
seeds from 1 vanilla pod
1-2 tsp rosewater
240g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/8 tsp finely ground sea salt

Pre-heat oven to 180 C. Line and oil a 23cm springform cake tin.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, beat the sugar and eggs together with an electric whisk or mixer until light and fluffy. Add the yoghurt, oil, vanilla seeds and rosewater and mix together well.

Carefully sieve the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and combine well using a palette knife. Put into the cake tin and bake for approximately 30 -35 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Cool on a cooling rack and decorate or garnish as your fancy takes you.

As Julia Child always exited with, 'Bon Appetit!'