Chicken And Walnut Curry

Chicken and walnut curry

Bit of an oddball, this one.

The dish came about because I had to re-plan at very short notice.

Generally speaking, for me, at least, when I’m placed in a situation like this things either turn out exceptionally well, or I end up sobbing over inedible slop.

Thankfully, this dish fell into the “Hallelujah, a triumph!” category.

If It Ain’t Broke…

Paprika Bacon Chicken

…then don’t try to fix it, baby.

Automagic Chicken

Honey lemon chicken

I was going to cook a French fish dish today, “Poisson D’avril“, but the Swedish Pescetarian Society are having their annual conference in town, and to ensure they don’t run out of grub they’ve bought every single fillet of fish, fresh or frozen, in a twenty mile radius.

Fourth Floor Scooters And The Big Game

Chicken and vegetable stir fry with cashews

All things considered, Winter could have been a lot worse.

The frozen season was, even by the relatively gentle standards of Southern Sweden, a mild one.

Dark, short, days, as always, but very little of what my pa-in-law poetically referred to as “The White Crap”.

Chicken In Satay Sauce

Chicken In Satay Sauce

For quite some time this recipe was stuck in what the movie people call development hell.

The concept was simple enough – chicken pieces simmered in a nut butter and coconut milk based sauce, but the devil, as always, was in the detail, which is kind of ironic, seeing as 2 different spell checkers have suggested that I change “satay” to “Satan“.

Chicken And Apricot Curry

Chicken and apricot curry

Indiska is a chain of Swedish shops, founded way back in 1901, selling all sorts of things made in India, including incense, furniture, tea, clothes, and a lot more besides.

In the early 1990s they decided to produce an Indian cookbook, the aptly named “Indiska Kokboken” ( literally, The Indiska Cookbook ). Despite being only sold in-house at Indiska stores, it went on to become one of the country’s most popular cookbooks.

I received my copy as a Christmas present, in 1998.

Triple Chilli Chicken With Mango

Triple Chilli Chicken With Mango

The idea behind this dish was rather simple.

I could feel whatever lurgy had attacked my womenfolk recently trying to do dastardly things to me, too, so I decided to head it off at the pass, stop it making a beachhead, and other similar military-themed clichés.

Smoky Leek And Mushroom Chicken

Smoky Leek And Mushroom Chicken

When I was younger, I was a keen skateboarder.

This was during the tail-end of the 70s craze period, and I only really stopped skating after my head was turned by a Honda SS50 moped.

Jeera Chicken

Jeera Chicken

Jeera is Hindi for cumin, and so this dish, as you can probably guess, makes extensive use of that spice.

I first came across the recipe in Pat Chapman’s “The New Curry Bible”, where he in turn credits Jeera Chicken as the signature dish of the Anand family, owners of the “Brilliant” restaurant.

Chicken With Apricots, Bacon, And Pistachios

Chicken with apricots, bacon, and pistachios

Sometimes inspiration arrives via the most tortuous of routes.

I’d been indecisive about what to cook for dinner the whole day. I’d tried all the usual tricks to un-block the idea jam  – going for a walk, drinking a nice pot of Pu-Erh, chasing the cat, gazing out to sea, plane spotting, being chased by the cat – but nothing could start the old creative juices pumping.