This recipe literally took me 45 minutes to prepare! It is one of those fast and delicious one pot wonders, perfect for a mid-week meal.

I like using chicken thighs for curry. They have excellent flavour and are more succulent than breasts. But if you want to avoid extra fat, you can use breast meat.

Heat a pot or frying pan, preferably using one that has a lid. I used a non-stick pan so I use very little oil, but if you need to use oil, add about 30ml to the pan.

I always cut a slit into the flesh of the thigh so that the flavour can penetrate and it speeds up the cooking time.  Place the thighs skin side down to brown. I really dislike flabby white chicken skin, so this stage is important. Once the surface is golden I toss in the remaining ingredients.

You will see I use a generous amount of ginger in the recipe as I just love the bright flavour with chicken, but feel free to reduce it if you are not as keen on using ginger.

This curry only uses fresh seasoning ingredients: garlic, ginger, onions, chillies and curry leaves.

I did not add salt or pepper and we found we did not to add any when enjoying the dish.

If you really dislike brinjals, then you can use cauliflower or courgettes, and / or green beans, but the brinjal adds a lovely texture.

If I have ripe tomatoes I peel and grate them. In India and North Africa, they always grate the onions to form a coarse pulp for their Tagines and Curries. At this time if the year, I had no lovely ripe tomatoes, so I had to use tinned tomatoes. About 4-6 (500g) fresh tomatoes are equivalent to one 210g can.

Recipe: Chicken and Bringal Curry using no dry spices.

Storage hint

I always buy fresh curry leaves when I get to an Asian supermarket and pop them in a ‘ziplock’ bag in the freezer, so I always have them at hand for a curry. I do the same with lemon grass and chillies

Serving suggestion: serve with a good quality brown rice. I like buying blends of brown and wild rice or sometimes a blend of rice, dried peas and lentils.

Accompany with a green vegetable based salsa.

This time I used cubed cucumber, cubed green apple, avocado, coriander leaf, green chilli (deseeded & sliced) and the juice of half a lemon