26 June - chicken curry outdoors

Today was a proper hot, summer's day and it was mostly spent out on the roof terrace. We watched the F1 grand prix sat outside with the TV in the doorway and a sausage sandwich halfway through for lunch. Then after the race, we set about finishing off some kind of 'raised beds' to go around my French beans, which do at last seem to be growing and are twisting their way up their poles.

I'd got some chicken in to make curry for dinner. I was going to try something different, but the day ran away with me and all of a sudden it was getting late and we were hungry, so I went for an old favourite: Madhur Jaffrey's chicken with cream - but as I didn't have any cream, it was chicken without cream!!

• Sprinkle four chicken thigh fillets (I usually use breast fillets, but picked up the wrong thing and they actually worked really well), cut into chunks with 1/2 tsp ground cumin, 1/4 tsp ground coriander, 1/4 tsp turmeric, a pinch of cayenne pepper and some salt and set aside for as long as possible.
• Put 3 cloves of garlic and the same amount of fresh ginger into a belnd with 60ml water and blend to a paste.
• Fry the chicken pieces in vegetable oil to brown and remove.
• Fry a chopped onion in the same oil until soft, then add the garlic and ginger paste and stir until the water has gone.
• Stir in another 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp coriander, 1/4 tsp turmeric and a pinch of cayenne, then add about 1/3 tin chopped tomatoes. Stir and cook for a couple of minutes.
• Remove the pan from the heat and stir in a good couple of teaspoons of natural yoghurt gradually, so that it makes a creamy sauce.
• Return to the heat, add the chicken with any collected juices and about 100ml water. Add salt and bring to the boil.
• Turn low, cover and leave to simmer for 20 mins.
• Remove the lid towards the end, stir in half a teaspoon of garam masala, turn up the heat and let the whole thing bubble a bit until the sauce is nice and thick.

Served with boiled rice and some fresh peas cooked with garlic and spring onion in a bit of butter, then a splash of water and some chopped mint and coriander, we ate out in the terrace enjoying the last of the evening sun.