Yes it's true Britain's national dish is the Chicken Tikka which supplanted Fish and Chips as the nation's favourite meal.
Unlike The Balti which who's origins can be traced to the Sparkbrook district of Birmingham in 1968 the Chicken Tikka's roots are harder to find but we have it on leading authority that it can be counted amongst the many inventions and discoveries that have been made in The British Isles over the centuries but has it shut the French up ? Somehow I doubt it.
You can get them in motorway service stations, pubs and even in pre packed sandwiches. It's become as much a part of modern British life as driving on the left and rowdy parliamentarians.
Anecdotal evidence puts the curry house density in the populated regions at a staggering one curry house per 10, 000 population which can be annoying if you pull off the motorway looking for a nice little Italian restaurant. Still we are in a free market economy so there's no complaining.
Real curries take time and experience but fortunately the ever adaptable curry market has modified the tried and trusted formula for the demands of today's busy bright young things and a company called Pataks has produced a range of curry pastes that enable an excellent Indian meal to be cooked in around 20 minutes and thanks to the Single European Act they are available here in Holland at larger supermarkets. As you know we don't normally advertise on the site but we should say that these and similar products from Sharwoods are far superior to the many authentic packages of foreign meals currently available.
So with a view to showcasing our new unit conversion software Ladies and Gentlemen we give you The Chicken Tikka.
Here are our ingredients - two chicken breasts a couple of onions and some rice. Add some peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes if you have any in - these should be added in the 5 minutes or so. There is some debate on how much meat to eat but say between 100 g and 250 g per person.
Warm the pan on a high heat and put a small amount of oil in - we have run out so have to make do with margarine which is fine in small quantities.
Dice the onion and fry on a high heat until golden brown.
Add the chicken and stir quickly so nothing sticks to the pan.
Pour in the sauce according to taste say about one third to a half a jar per person. A tip here - I allow the sauce to cook on a high heat for around a minute to "release the spices"
Add the water slowly stirring as you go with the other hand (mine was on the camera by the way.) This is to ensure smooth mixing of the thick sauce. Add around 300 ml of water in total though this is dependent on the size of the pan and the number of servings. Try three times and you will get it right on the third. The crucial thing is the timing of the rice so if the meat looks to be drying out you can always add a small amount of water half way through - once again experience helps here.
Give everything a good stir once the water is in and bring to the boil stirring as you go.
Not for the purists but here we see a small jar of Sambal Olek - an Indonesian chili based hot spice. I use this to regulate the hotness of the curry as it is convenient. Readily available in Holland it can now be bought from the big UK supermarkets (that's if you can find it of course.) Treat it with respect and mix well tasting as you go adding say a knife's worth at a time.
Here we see our curry boiling nicely - one of the benefits of gas is of course you can turn the heat down quickly and get the perfect simmer - one or tow bubbles coming up. With an electric hob it's much harder - you get to know which is the final resting setting i.e once the hot plate has cooled down the one that will make it bubble nicely. It takes around 5 minutes for this to happen so keep lifting the pan off for short amounts of time if the curry bubbles too much.
Cook's privilege as they say here we see a couple of light beers from two of Holland's leading brewers. A good time to check on your guests and give them a quick report as hopefully mouth watering cooking smells will be wafting round by now.
There's great debate on how to cook rice of course - we find boiling the water then adding the rice keeping it boiling for around 10 minutes fine.
Add the rice - the water stops boiling as it had been cooled by the rice but keep the heat on full.
Boiling away nicely.
The meat is ready - plenty of sauce but not so much that it just runs around in the pan.
Drain the water using a colander then fluff up the rice with a fork.
Leave a circle in the middle of the plate for the meat.
Place the meat on top of the rice bed and enjoy. Vary our simple meal by adding chopped vegetables such as peppers, tomatoes and mushrooms.
The traditional acompaniament is lager of course and for some reason it is more gassy than the pub next door. There is Indian beer available now and at one time Midlands baaed Wolverhampton and Dudley breweries offered a special beer with a strong flavour geared up for the GBP 5 billion a year curry market. Total cost in Holland - around EUR 5 per person and that's with very generous portions. Add more for things like poppadoms and naan bread but even if you do the cost will still be around EUR 10 per person and it is an ideal start for those embarking on a culinary career in that once you have mastered the basics it's easy to scale the quantities for larger groups and the meal tends to create an informality which helps everything run smoothly.
