Post-Christmas Curry

 Having spent the last few days eating rich and traditional food, my taste buds were more than ready for a change of scenery!  In comes the curry...but not, I hasten to add, a turkey curry.  The turkey left-overs went in a risotto with bacon and peas and the left-overs of that went into a leek and turkey soup.  Anyway, one of my resolutions during my long summer break was to attempt to learn to cook some proper Indian curries.  For a variety of reasons that didn't come to pass, so, I was chuffed to be given Rick Stein's India as a Christmas present.  I spent a very hungry hour browsing through the recipes and decided as I'm a bit of a curry novice, I'd start with something very easy - a chickpea curry, or as it's more properly known, Chana Masala.  It was quite easy, it's time-consuming, more just because you have to measure out lots of spices etc.  I substituted the two green chillies for two red ones and maybe that was a mistake (although it was all I had!) because it was blisteringly hot to eat, so I'll go a bit more cautiously next time.  Anyway, it was delicious despite that and had a cleansing effect on the palate after Christmas dinner et al!  However, the best bit of the meal was the basmati rice!  That's because I always have problems cooking it and usually end up with a plate of stodge.  Not so following Rick's instructions; now I can cook a proper pilau rice that doesn't need to be used in place of grout for the bathroom tiles!  Anyway, here are some pics, they aren't that great as I took them on the iphone, in the evening!

The raita was a last-minute addition to attempt to take away the heat of the two chillies!  Anyway, it's back to the left-over, left-over turkey for tonight's supper...what to cook...?