Serves: 4 – 6

Nat and I landed from 10 nights in Japan this morning.

Talk about a foodie destination. My god: street-food, Egg-sandwiches at 7Eleven, Michelin Starred restaurants. It honestly doesn’t matter.

The Japanese care about food at every level, at every moment. From a broth at breakfast to tuna belly sashimi at the Tokyo Fish Markets, it literally doesn’t matter.

I kid you not, the fried chicken at the every-corner corner-store Lawsons is hands down better than the best KFC here in Sydney.

We even had an Indian meal in Kyoto in the smallest restaurant you could imagine (well, every restaurant in small) and wasn’t it a complete win on a level you’d almost never find in Sydney?! Cheap, cheerful, completely authentic – a total slam dunk.

You cannot go wrong no matter how much you might try.

But this isn’t a Japan post (which I will do) but a post because we are back and of course, drowning our sorrows with a wine, we return to a curry at the start of a cold, gloomy Sydney winter.

Nat wanted a tomato based curry and who was I to argue?

This relatively simple Ajoy Joshi number absolutely hits the note.

I added a little more Garam Marsala at the end, though do your thing.

Just make sure you slowly cook it down to reduce almost all the liquid.

A beautiful heat, wonderful spinach, just bloody lovely with a red on the couch ready to catch up on whatever Netflix we’ve missed.

(I have slightly adapted this recipe.)

Ingredients

1kg chicken thigh cut into 4cm pieces
1 tsp Garam Marsala
500gm baby spinach
3 mild green chilies, split lengthways
2 brown onions, roughly chopped
1/2 c vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp crushed ginger
1/4 c full-fat yoghurt
1/2 tsp chilli powder
3 ripe tomatoes, finely chopped

Method

1. Marinate the chicken pieces in the Garam Marsala and set aside.
2. In a food processor, process the spinach and chillies until a paste forms. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
3. Clean and dry the food processor and process the onions until finely ground. Set aside.
4. In a large, heavy-based frying pan, heat the oil. Add onions and salt and cook, uncovered, until lightly golden. Stir in garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant. Add the yoghurt and cook for 5 minutes further.
5. Raise heat to high, add the chicken and cook until browned. Stir in chilli powder and cook until all moisture evaporates and oil separates.
6. Stir in spinach purée and tomatoes. Cover, reduce heat and cook until the chicken is cooked through and tender. Uncover and if any liquid remains, cook over a medium heat until the liquid has evaporated. Serve immediately with rice. (And chutney is my strong recommendation!)