Curry #1: Chicken and Mango

A couple of weeks ago, I said I'd never tried to make curry before and probably wouldn't because it had so many ingredients. A bit of a defeatist attitude - and the scientist in me loves an experiment. So here's my first attempt at making curry, from a recipe on BBC Good Food with a couple of tweaks.

 And yes, it was delicious (sorry to ruin the ending)! As a novice I made it look harder work than it really was - not substantially more difficult than spaghetti bolognese.

Ingredients:
6 boneless and skinless chicken thighs, chopped (I had to de-bone mine, started cooking it and then realised the skin was still attached and had to fish it off. D'oh!)
1tbsp oil
2tsp turmeric
2 brown onions
2 mangoes
6tbsp korma paste (will be quite dominant in the finished product so pick a good one)
Lump of ginger
2tsp cumin
200g coconut milk (half a can - and half what the recipe suggested it, but it's high in fat)
500ml chicken stock

200g rice

Serves 6

Method:
1) Fry the chicken in the oil and 1tsp of the turmeric until cooked (25 mins) in an enormous casserole dish
2) Whilst the chicken is cooking, chop one of the onions into quarters. Peel one of the mangoes, and hack off as much flesh from the stone as possible. Tip the mango and onion into a food processor, and whizz with the korma paste, cumin and the rest of the turmeric
3) Cut the brown outside off the ginger, slice, add to the food processor and blend
4) Chop the other onion finely, and add to the chicken. Fry until soft
5) Then add the mango/ginger/korma mixture to the dish and stir
6) Heat on medium for 5mins and boil the kettle for the stock. Start boiling the water in a new pan for the rice
7) Make up the stock. Stir in the coconut milk to the dish, then add the stock with stirring
8) Add the rice to the boiling water and heat on low
8) Cook the curry for 25 mins on low-medium heat
9) While it's cooking, peel the remaining mango and slice it (no. 5 on this website). Tip the slices in for the last 5 mins of cooking
10) Drain the rice and serve

*Great with naan bread and mango chutney

Budget:
Chicken = £4
Oil = 2p
Spices = 6p
Mangoes = £2
Onions = 30p
Korma paste = 70p
Ginger = 15p
Coconut milk = 75p
Stock = 7p
Rice = 25p
Total = £8.30, £1.38/ person (more than usual, but it was a treat)