Mulligatawny

I admit we’re making a lot of soup these days. It’s the time of year. I have a fondness for this colonial dish from the days of the raj. It’s adapted from an elegant Madhur Jaffrey recipe.

3 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

½ tsp salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1tsp grated ginger

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 ½ tsp ground coriander

1tsp ground cumin

½  tsp cayenne pepper

¼ tsp turmeric

1tsp Madras curry powder

1 1/5 litres chicken stock

4tbsp oil

115g gram flour (chickpea flour)

3tbsp lemon juice

Basmati rice to serve

Cut the chicken up into small enough pieces for soup. This means tiny. Put it in a bowl with the salt, pepper, ginger, garlic, cumin, cayenne, turmeric and curry powder. Mix well. Put it in the fridge while we go to work. I rarely cook with curry powder, but as this is more English than Indian, I’m going for it.

The boy is home before me and has put some rice in the rice cooker, along with a thick slice of lemon and a few cardamom pods. This is because I have left a note on the kitchen table saying “cook some rice. Put a thick slice of lemon in it and a few cardamom pods. xx”

Fry the chicken mix in the oil, scraping in all the spice remnants from the bowl for a few minutes.  Add the flour, stirring constantly, for about two minutes.

Stir in the stock and give the bottom of the pan a good scrape with a wooden spoon. The gram flour will have stuck to the bottom. Simmer for 20 minutes. The boy has fished the lemon and cardamom out of the rice and spooned it into a nice bowl. He’s dressed it with a few wafer thin red onion rings and coriander leaves. He’s getting the idea that good food is in the detail.

Add a little more salt to the soup if it needs it, and the lemon juice. We have this at the kitchen table, adding a few spoonfuls of rice to each bowl first. I have put a few tablespoons of mango chutney and hot Indian mixed vegetable pickle on a side plate. It’s good with the rice.