I don't normally do recipes on here, but have woken up this morning with this meal in my mind... My mother is Indian, lived in Central India until she was about 11 years old, when her parents decided to move to the UK, where just a few years later, she met my father, who had moved from St Lucia to the UK with his family. 

One of the many amazing plus sides to having mixed/dual heritage, is the amazing foods I have been introduced to and taught to cook. 

The Daal, the accompaniment to the main dish, is a family favourite but the Chicken Dhania is one I have adapted and changed over the years, I think originally getting it from a Madhur Jaffrey cookbook.

I hope you enjoy it as much as me. 

Chicken Dhania

Ingredients

4-6 pieces of skinless and boneless chicken thighs

A large bunch of coriander or 4 shop packets

4 inches ginger

Half an onion

2 lemons

1 tomato

Tomato puree

Salt

Olive oil

Plain yoghurt

Method

Squeeze lemons and roughly chop the ginger - peeling it first. Pulverise in the blender and marinate chicken while you do the next step.

Roughly chop the coriander, and the onion.

Put those in the blender with a pinch of salt, 50mls water, a slop of olive oil, the tomato chopped up and a good squeeze of tomato puree. Pulverise that mixture until fairly smooth - doesn't need to look like baby food but no big chunks.

Pick the bits of chicken out of marinade and flash fry until sealed, then add the coriander mixture and the rest of the lemony ginger juice.  Add another pinch of salt.

Cover the pan and leave to simmer for 40 mins.

Taste, add more salt if required and also add 3 tbsp of yoghurt.

Leave for a further 10-15.

Daal

Ingredients

Red lentils

Half an onion

Bulb of garlic

1 tin of plum peeled tomatoes

Small amount of fresh coriander

Curry leaves

Tumeric

Garam masala

Cumin seeds

Salt

Method

Boil up 2-3 cup fulls of red lentils with 2 -3 tsp of tumeric and the same amount of garam masala

Whilst that is doing, cut up half an onion, 8 cloves of garlic and fry them in some olive oil, adding in another tsp of tumeric and garam masala, until soft and brown. When complete, add this mixture to the lentils. Add half a tin of plum peeled tomatoes.

Simmer on a low heat until the lentils have started breaking down and the consistency is not dissimilar to pease pudding. You may have to add bits of water along the way, keep an eye on it basically. Taste to check for salt, add to taste, I don't tend to use much.

Have pre prepared; another 4-6 cloves of garlic, 1-2 chillis, some chopped coriander, curry leaves (a handful) and some cumin seeds.

Fry up all (except for the coriander) in olive oil - Add the fried mixture to the daal, along with the freshly chopped coriander, a few tbsp of it.

Serve both with plain basmati rice and salad. 

If you are uncertain how to cook rice properly, I usually go half a cup of rice (washed first) to 1.25 cups of water with a pinch of salt. Bring to boil, turn heat down, cover and cook till water is gone. 

Here is me about to devour, hope you enjoy too!