Main: Aromatic chicken curry with basmati rice, cucumber raita and fresh roti (Patricia Carter)

Published: Friday, 19 October 2007, 5:23PM

INGREDIENTS
• 1 boiling chicken
• white vinegar
• 1 bunch spring onions
• 1 whole garlic
• salt
• 2 tsp roasted geera/cumin
• 2 tsp dry thyme
• garlic powder
• 3 bay leaves
• half tsp haldi/turmeric
• pinch of chicken seasoning
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 75g Mild Madras curry powder, mixed with a little water
• 3 potatoes
• 2 maggi cubes/African Seasoning cubes
• a small splash of coconut cream

• basmati rice x tea cup full

ROTI
• 500 g bread flour, for rolling
• 250g  self raising flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt 
• vegetable oil

RAITA
• ½ cucumber
• onion
• natural yoghurt

TO SERVE
• iceberg lettuce, to serve
• spring onion

For the semi final, Patricia left out the flavoured roti she had added in the Friday final and served it just with the plain roti.

METHOD

1. Chop the chicken into pieces and soak the chicken with vinegar and salt for 10 minutes.
2. Chop the spring onions and garlic.
3. In a bowl, mix together the curry powder, salt, roasted geera, thyme, spring onions, garlic powder, some of the fresh garlic, bay leaf, haldi, chicken seasoning and lemon juice and marinate the chicken in the mixture for 10-15 minutes
4. In a another bowl, mix the flours 1 tsp salt and 1 tbsp baking powder with warm water and form a dough. Then cover with a tea-towel and leave to rise for 10-15 minutes. 
5. Peel and slice the potatoes.
6. Heat the oil in a large pan, then add the cumin seeds, the remaining fresh garlic and madras powder paste. Then cover and cook for 2-3 minutes. Then add the chicken. Replace the lid and reduce the heat. Possibly add water and cook for 20 minutes.
7. Add the potato and add more curry powder if needed. Then add the coconut cream and maggi cubes, cover and cook for a further 20 minutes.
8. For the raita, slice the onions, cube the cucumber. Mix the onions, cucumber and yoghurt together in a bowl.
9. In a saucepan of boiling water, cook the rice for 10 minutes then drain.
10.  Cut the dough, dip in bread flour and roll into bread roll shapes. Roll out the dough to form a circle.
11. Put some oil on the roti pan and let it get very hot.
12. Heat the roti circle for 2 seconds and then turn it. Transfer the roti to grease proof paper. Repeat until you have enough roti.
13. To serve, place a spoonful of curry on a plate with a mound of rice.  Serve the raita in a bowl, fold the roti into triangles and place on the side then garnish with lettuce and spring onions.