Friday night. The life is drained from you. Unhooking your bra strap is just about all you can manage – and you only do so in order to exhale as long and as hard as you can muster up the strength to do.
Somewhere in between forcing the washing machine door closed on Friday’s uniforms and fishing for missing lunchbox lids at the bottom part of 3rd borns school bag, you remember dinner. And your heart sinks. The kids are, of course, thrilled with their beige food Friday offerings from the freezer, but you? Not so much. My nuggets ship has sailed. Plus we’ve all been working hard all week. Surely we deserve a take away?
I love a good take-away. However let’s face it – get one weekly for a family of 6 (or less!), add up the monetary damage and there’s your summer holiday spending money. I am beginning to sound like fast food’s version of the Grinch I fear. Look I do believe in Santa Claus and what’s more – I do order take away from time to time.
But I like to fake it too. Mind out of the gutter please people. It’s really easy nowadays to whip up a tasty home cooked version of your favourite weekend dish with little trouble. And what’s more is that you get to feel a little smug that you know exactly what has gone into it, it’s cost effective & you might even have some leftover for the freezer.
One of my favourite fake away dishes to literally fling together is my Curry. Commit to 10 minutes of preparation and you will be so happy you did a few hours later.
A few simple readily available ingredients thrown into a pot, add some rice, a peswarhi naan bread (the holy grail of naan bread in my humble opinion), some spicy mango chutney for those who dare and some great Friday or Saturday night TV. Bliss.
Fakeaway Curry for Cook Kids of All Ages.
Ingredients
2 tbsp of curry powder of choice – some times I use Korma and other times I use a regular curry powder.
2 tbsp tomato pureé
1 tin of coconut milk
1 sachet of coconut cream (or you can use a tin)
1tbsp honey (this is supposed to stop the coconut milk from splitting in the cooker)
2 onions
2 cloves of garlic
100mls chicken stock – alternatively sometimes I just put in a stock pot dissolved in minimum water. Leave out the salt if so.
6 chicken breasts (of the best quality you can afford). You can also us chicken thighs or stewing lamb or beef here.
2 tins of chickpeas
salt & pepper
Method:
Turn on your slow cooker to LOW to warm it.
Fry your chopped onions on a medium heat in olive oil for 5 minutes until they are soft. Don’t let them go brown. Add your garlic and fry for another 2 minutes.
Add curry powder, tomato pureé, honey, stock pot, coconut milk, coconut cream & salt and pepper to your slow cooker and mix. I use a hand whisk for this.
Add the onion and garlic and mix again.
Add the raw chicken breasts – I add them whole. Add the chickpeas and mix so everything is coated in sauce.
Put the lid on your slow cooker and leave it for 5 hours. Do not stir it and this may cause the coconut milk to split. The honey is supposed to prevent this. This is also why you cook it on low.
Stir once cooked and serve with rice, naan bread, spicy mango chutney and a great movie.
This recipe freezes really well also. I am the biggest batch cooking fan! Anything for the easy life.
Feel free to add chilli or whatever vegetables you fancy here too. For me this is a chuck and run kinda’ dish. For those weekends that used to be leisurely but are not more full on than the week such is your kids social lives. Look we made them….we gotta’ look after them huh?
Yours, all set for the long winter ahead,
Cli xx
