Chicken in Fried Onion Sauce with Mustard and Fennel Cauliflower

It’s been so long that I’m not sure anyone is still reading, if you are then thanks for being so patient while we’ve been off enjoying ourselves. The Summer has been brilliant fun but not much of it has been spent in the kitchen. We have of course been eating and, as is now second nature, photographing our food but we’ve been sticking to old favourites and not quite getting round to writing about them. There’s quite a backlog to get through and I wondered about giving up altogether but I can’t imagine a life without Dinner Diary so we’re back. I suspect things will change slightly since although we don’t have quite so much planned for Autumn, we’re still much busier than we have been in the past but, for now, we’re going to try and catch up and then see what happens after that.

I was going to start yesterday but we had roast chicken for lunch which is probably the dish we eat most often and neither of us could get excited about photographing or writing about that. Although we’ve cooked this before, we used the leftover chicken from yesterday instead of the raw chicken in the recipe and it worked well. Curry is one of my favourite ways to use up leftovers and this is a quick recipe that does just that, the dark browned onions add a depth of flavour that suggest a longer cooking time and the tomatoes and coriander lend fragrant notes which are just right for the last of the warmer weather.

To go alongside the leftovers, Stephen suggested the cauliflower dish which meant things took a little longer but it was a good way to turn something we’ve eaten before into a new and more interesting dish.

Cauliflower with Fennel and Mustard Seeds from Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery
Serves Two

1 cauliflower
Oil
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 tablespoon black mustard seeds
1/2 tablespoon garlic, chopped
1/8 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons water

Cut the cauliflower into florets and soak for 30 minutes.

Heat the oil and then add the fennel and mustard seeds. As they start to pop, add the garlic and cook until light brown.

Add the turmeric and cayenne pepper, stir and then add the cauliflower, salt and water. Stir and cook on a medium heat for 6-7 minutes.