SIMON

Chicken Methi

[wcm_nonmember]<!– –><div style="text-align: center"><!– –><img src="https://cdn.sorted.club/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Bucket-List-graphic.png" alt="" scale="0" style="max-width: 30%; margin-top: 20px"><!– –><!– –><h2><!– –>Unlock this Story<!– –></h2><!– –><p style="padding-bottom:25px"><!– –>Stories from the 'Bucket List' book are only available to members<!– –></p><!– –><a class="et_pb_button" background-color: #ffffff"<!– –>href="/product/digital-club-membership/">join the club</a><!– –></div><!– –><!– –>[/wcm_nonmember]<!– –><!– –>[wcm_restrict]<!– –><!– –><div class="page" title="Page 54"><!– –><div class="section"><!– –><div class="layoutArea"><!– –><div class="column"><!– –><!– –><p>Picture this: a guy growing up in rural England, both parents working and all his meals were cooked from frozen straight out of the huge chest freezer. His dad couldn't cook and his mother chose not to as she worked full time. Simon grew up in the 70s and remembers being the first household in his neighbourhood to own a microwave. <b>There wasn’t the same buzz around cooking at home </b>at that time; there weren’t hundreds of food blogs or the endless stream of beautiful looking Instagram food.</p><!– –><!– –><p>In the early 80s a new prime-time cookery show started on the BBC. It was the first time Simon had seen a woman portrayed as a strong, authoritative figure with her own show. She cooked <b>proper Indian food</b>, using herbs and spices that he had never heard of and he remembers being fascinated by it.</p><!– –><!– –><p>The woman on TV was <b>Madhur Jaffrey</b>, now well known as a hugely influential Indian cookery writer and presenter. Simon remembers the third episode he watched, where he <b>copied the recipe word for word</b>, scoured the supermarkets and used his pocket money to buy what he could find. Cooking the recipe took him about 2 hours from start to finish and he loved every minute of it. His parents loved it too. Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cookery became an absolute must-watch TV show for the family and there began Simon’s love affair with Indian food. <b>She taught him to cook and be interested in food .</b></p><!– –><!– –><p>Fast forward 30 years and Simon got a job in Oman. Although it’s a Middle Eastern country, it has a massive Indian population and there are a huge number of Indian restaurants and fast food stalls. It was here that Simon really refined his knowledge of Indian food and where he first tried chicken methi. It arrived bright green with a thick sauce and served with paratha. It was fresh, light and the taste of fenugreek leaves was a revelation. It became his go-to curry and as he became a regular, one of the chefs explained the recipe and he started cooking it at home.<!– –><!– –>Chicken methi always takes Simon back to the lifelong friends that he made in Oman and the area of Muscat with the smells of spice and shisha. The recipe is a simple one. You have to trust the amount of fenugreek leaves that go into it because it seems like a lot. In fact, Simon suggests using a little more than this in the recipe. It’s absolutely delicious and if you make it once you’re sure to make it again.<!– –><!– –></div><!– –></div><!– –></div><!– –></div><!– –><!– –>[/wcm_restrict]