Ingredients

Lots of garlic (chopped, crushed or sliced)
Lots of fresh root ginger (chopped or sliced)
1 Large Onion, diced very finely
Handful of fresh chopped coriander
Lots of chillies (fresh or dried - up to you)
Half a tube of tomato puree
5 Tablespoons of curry paste (Pataks Korma is good)
1 Large Onion, halved and sliced thinly
1 Large Onion, roughly chopped
4 Chicken Breasts, as big as you like them (but more than a handful's a waste!), diced
Some brown or white sugar (3 or 4 of those free sachets should be enough)
1tbsp garam masalla (optional)
Some ghee or oil (ground nut is best but any veggie oil will do as long as you don't heat it up too much!!)

Serves 4 as a main dish or 1 as a starter for PhilS.

Directions

1. Heat the oil and fry the garlic and ginger for about a minute then add the finely diced onion and fry for another 5 minutes or so.

2. Add the chillies (if dried), coriander, curry paste, two thirds of the tomato puree and half a cup of water and simmer it all for about 15 minutes.

3. During the meanwhile, briskly fry the other onions and add to the simmering gravy at the last minute and stir it all up. If you used fresh chillies add them now.

4. Chuck all the chicken in a casserole dish and mix in the gravy mixture.

5. Put the lid on and shove the dish in a pre-heated oven (190'C) for 15 minutes.

6. Add the sugar, garam masalla and the rest of the tomato puree. If it's looking dry add a bit more water.

7. Shove it back in the oven for another 20 minutes.

Serve immediately on some plates with rice or naan bread.

Variations:

If you don't like chillies, leave them out and call the finished dish chicken dopiaza. Use lamb or turkey (amending the name of the dish as appropriate!) but increase the oven times to 25 and 30 minutes for lamb or 20 and 25 minutes for turkey. Add a sliced banana 5 minutes before the end - this would make a sort of kashmiri chicken/lamb/turkey chilli (if using) dopiaza. You could use tikkaed meat BUT as the meat is already cooked, simmer it in the gravy for about 15 minutes instead of placing it in the oven. If all of these variations are applied the dish would have the satisfyingly long name of kashmiri chicken/lamb/turkey tikka chilli dopiaza.