The Glory Of Chicken Curry

Here is a recipe for Chicken Rogan Josh you may like to try. I have added my own refinements to the basic dish and the product is lip-smackingly good, though I say so myself. If you don't like chicken you can substitute lamb fillet and I dare say it would work with beef or pork as well though I haven't tried these so they're on your own head.

Ingredients - should serve four easily, may stretch to six.

About 900 grams chicken breast/pieces.
1 decent-sized onion, finely chopped.
250 ml natural yoghurt - plain.
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt.
4 garlic cloves (crushed).
1" piece of fresh ginger. (Use a bit more if you like.)
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
Half teaspoon cumin seeds. (You can use a bit more if you want.)
3 bay leaves.
4 green cardamom pods.
2 teaspoons ground coriander.
2 teaspoons ground cumin.
1 or 2 teaspoons of ground turmeric. (This is mainly to improve the colour.)
1 teaspoon fenugreek. (Reduce or omit if you dislike fenugreek.)
1 teaspoon cinnamon.
1 teaspoon hot chilli powder OR 1 red chilli pepper sliced. (The latter makes it hotter.)
1 can (400g) chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato puree
About two thirds a cup of water.
Plain boiled rice - or basmati if you prefer
Optional extras - small tin of baked beans or chickpeas; sliced mushrooms; 1 sliced pepper.

Method.

1. The night before - mix the yoghurt, salt, two garlic cloves, and the ginger which you should grate. Stir in the chicken - or other meat. Leave in fridge until ready for preparation.

2. Slice your onion and add the remaining garlic. Extract the contents of the cardamon pods, set aside and discard husks.

3. Heat the oil in a large pan until hot enough for frying then add cumin seeds. When they start to splutter add the bay leaves and the contents of the cardamom pods and fry for 2 minutes.

4. Add the onion and garlic and fry for about 4-5 minutes. Then add turmeric, fenugreek, coriander, cumin, chilli powder (or sliced chilli - preferred by me) and cinnamon. It may look pretty horrible at this point but it should smell OK. Fry for about 2 minutes.

5. Add the marinated chicken to the mixture and give it a good stir. Keep on stirring for about five minutes.

6. Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and water. Also add small tin of baked beans or chickpeas; sliced mushrooms; 1 sliced pepper if you are including these extras.

7. Cover and simmer for one and a half hours. Note - do not go away and do something else. The curry needs an eye kept on it and regular stirring to prevent it from sticking and burning. If it gets too dry, add a cup or so of water.

8. Serve with rice, naans, and whatever other adjuncts you fancy.

Enjoy!

Acknowledgement - modified from an original recipe in Curries of the World by Mridula Baljekar, an excellent book which I recommend.

Book Review - In A Dark Wood Wandering by Hella S Haasse

I have been re-reading this wonderful book lately, and it reminded me what a quality historical novel looks like. It is the story of Charles, Duke of Orleans, literally from his birth to his death. The Orleans presented here is scarcely a conventional hero at all, and has some pretty obvious character faults, and yet he's somehow endearing and fascinating as well as a real human being.

Historical accuracy is generally very good - a couple of English titles are wrong, but apart from that nothing leapt out. (There are also a few cases of what I suspect to be dodgy translation - the book was originally written in Dutch.)

It's interesting to read of Agincourt from a French point of view, and the descriptions of the extraordinary 'court' of Charles VI are quite wonderful and, I suspect, close to reality.

I cannot praise this book too highly, and if you are at all interested in reading about the fifteenth century from a French viewpoint this novel cannot be bettered.

Poetry Corner - The Inchcape Rock

One I remember from school! Oh, and by the way 'Aberbrothok' = Arbroath, Scotland

No stir in the air, no stir in the sea,

The ship was still as she could be,

Her sails from heaven received no motion,

Her keel was steady in the ocean.

Without either sign or sound of their shock

The waves flow’d over the Inchcape Rock;

So little they rose, so little they fell,

They did not move the Inchcape Bell.

The Abbot of Aberbrothok

Had placed that bell on the Inchcape Rock;

On a buoy in the storm it floated and swung,

And over the waves its warning rung.

When the Rock was hid by the surge’s swell,

The mariners heard the warning bell;

And then they knew the perilous Rock,

And blest the Abbot of Aberbrothok.

The Sun in heaven was shining gay,

All things were joyful on that day;

The sea-birds scream’d as they wheel’d round,

And there was joyaunce in their sound.

The buoy of the Inchcape Bell was seen

A darker speck on the ocean green;

Sir Ralph the Rover walk’d his deck,

And he fix’d his eye on the darker speck.

He felt the cheering power of spring,

It made his whistle, it made him sing;

His heart was mirthful to excess,

But the Rover’s mirth was wickedness.

His eye was on the Inchcape float;

Quoth he, ‘My men, put out the boat,

And row me to the Inchcape Rock,

And I’ll plague the Abbot of Aberbrothok.’

The boat is lower’d, the boatmen row,

And to the Inchcape Rock they go;

Sir Ralph bent over from the boat,

And he cut the Bell from the Inchcape float.

Down sunk the Bell with a gurgling sound,

The bubbles rose and burst around;

Quoth Sir Ralph, ‘The next who comes to the Rock

Won't bless the Abbot of Aberbrothok.'

Sir Ralph the Rover sail’d away,

He scour’d the seas for many a day;

And now grown rich with plunder’d store,

He steers his course for Scotland’s shore.

So thick a haze o’erspreads the sky

They cannot see the Sun on high;

The wind hath blown a gale all day,

At evening it hath died away.

On the deck the Rover takes his stand,

So dark it is they see no land.

Quoth Sir Ralph, ‘It will be lighter soon,

For there is the dawn of the rising Moon.’

‘Canst hear,’ said one, ‘the breakers roar?

For methinks we should be near the shore.’

‘Now where we are I cannot tell,

But I wish I could hear the Inchcape Bell.’

They hear no sound, the swell is strong;

Though the wind hath fallen they drift along,

Till the vessel strikes with a shivering shock,―

‘Oh Christ! It is the Inchcape Rock!’

Sit Ralph the Rover tore his hair;

He curst himself in his despair;

The waves rush in on every side,

The ship is sinking beneath the tide.

But even in his dying fear

One dreadful sound could the Rover hear,

A sound as if with the Inchcape Bell,

The Devil below was ringing his knell.

Robert Southey 1802

Let it (not) snow

OK, it's a boring topic. The TV is full of it now some snow has landed on London and the South and is no longer a regional curiousity suffered by those of us living north of Watford.

But I am freaking sick of it! Can we have an early Spring please? Pretty please!

Helping Racing Greyhounds

If you are a UK resident or citizen please consider signing this petition to help racing greyhounds.

In principle there is nothing wrong with the sport of greyhound racing. Unfortunately, utterly selfish tossers seem to be disproportionately represented among greyhound owners and these people bring the sport and themselves into disrepute.

If you want an example of what is wrong check out this article on the Tia Greyhound Lurcher and Rescue Site.

By the way if you are looking for a good cause in which to invest your spare Christmas cash, you could do a lot worse than donate to Tia.

Hostage to Fortune Time

I am making good progress with the Richard III novel; in fact I think the hard work is done and all I need to finish it is write the other half and edit the thing. This latter task, because of the fragmented method of working I'm experimenting with, may take some time.

Anyroad, as we say in Lancashire, I reckon the manuscript will be finished in 2010, and that is the target I'm setting myself. I'm keeping the exact target month to myself.

Next project up is likely to be my long-projected work on Richard II and Anne of Bohemia, which has the working title of This New Spring of Time. I have started research on this - you could say I started about 35 years ago - and my current bedside reading is The Westminster Chronicle. I did make a start of the writing a bit back, but that proved abortive.

Bookies are offering very short prices on guest appearances by Constance of York and her family, while Philippa Mohun will almost certainly return by public demand.

In case anyone is wondering

what I am doing these days, given the long gap between posts...

It's OK, I'm not ill or anything, there is no domestic crisis, and the house hasn't fallen down. I'm writing, albeit not as productively as I should be, and trying to avoid temptation to start even more stories. (I don't lack for ideas, just the persistence to turn them into MSS.)

I have just submitted an article about Constance of York which will be published in The Katherine Wheel, the journal of the Katherine Swynford Society. While I was at it I gave them a second one about the fate of Richard II.

I'm also awaiting more feed-back in relation to The Arrivall, the short story that appeared in the Ricardian Bulletin. I know from the letters published in the same issue that some members are horrified by the idea of historical fiction polluting the sacred pages of their journal, so it may not all be sweetness and light! You know, it's a funny thing. I'm a member of various societies and often find some of the contributions in the publications (or even whole publications) pretty uninteresting. However I've never been moved to complain, as I appreciate that the said societies are not just run for me, but for their membership as a whole. Ah well, I suppose it wouldn't do for us all to be the same!