1 April - green coriander chicken

I wanted to make a chicken curry this evening, but thought I'd go for a new recipe. I flicked through Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible and settled on a recipe for green coriander chicken. Apparently, it's a Kenyan recipe and it doesn't include any of the traditional curry spices - no ground cumin, coriander or turmeric here - but relies instead on just a basic combination of garlic, ginger, chilli and lots of fresh coriander. It came out wonderfully creamy and absolutely packed with flavour, definitely one to do again.

22 March - microwave curry

Today's been another fairly full-on day. I was giving a presentation this morning, then just grabbed a jacket potato for lunch. By the time I left the conference around 6.30, I was absolutely shattered so was quite happy to just head back to the apartment for an evening in and an early night. I didn't have the energy to think very far about supper, so I popped into M&S again and picked up another microwave meal - this time a chicken curry. It wasn't bad with a glass of wine, although the whole apartment now smells of it!

12 February - curry twice

For lunch, I used the giant parsnip from the vegbox to make some Thai-spiced parsnip soup. It's always a good recipe (from Sophie Grigson), but today it came out just spot-on - just the right consistency, the right blend of flavours, the right amount of chilli hum.

It was curry again for dinner, but this time of an Indian leaning. I did Madhur Jaffrey's chicken in red pepper sauce, which is always delicious and to go with it tried out her Gujerati cabbage with carrots - strips of cabbage and grated carrot, lightly stir-fried with subtle spices (asafetida, black mustard seeds and just a few chilli flakes), lemon and fresh coriander - crunchy and delicious.

22 October - lunch in the sun and a chicken curry

It was one of those fantastically bright, sunny autumnal days, so we wandered down to the harbourside for lunch at Mud Dock. It was so lovely and sunny, we were able to eat outside - I even had to peel off a few layers the sun was so warm! I had some really nice fishcakes with chilli dipping sauce, followed by a long, lingering coffee just to make the most of those rays! Then we headed over to visit mshed, Bristol's new museum - it's a cool building with great views.

There was a big bag of spinach in yesterday's vegbox which I know won't keep long, so tonight I made chicken and spinach curry. It wasn't as creamy and delicious as some curries can be, but tasty nonetheless.

16 July - scrambled eggs and lemon and coriander chicken

After a grey, drizzly start to a Saturday morning, a comforting brunch of scrambled eggs with a few chunks of hot-smoked salmon mixed in, piled on a delicious thick slice of toasted sourdough bread was just perfect.

For dinner I fancied a curry, but something light and fresh. I tried out a Madhur Jaffrey recipe for lemon and coriander chicken which fitted the bill just perfectly.

• Brown four boneless chicken thighs in oil and remove.
• Fry 3 finely chopped cloves of garlic and add a good dollop of grated ginger mixed with a tablespoon of water.
• Stir in a large bunch of chopped coriander (about 100g, which is a very large bunch), plus 1/2 a chopped green chilli, a pinch of cayenne pepper, 1tsp ground cumin, 1/2tsp ground coriander, 1/2tsp turmeric and some salt.
• Return the chicken to the pan with about 150ml water and a good squeeze of fresh lemon juice (c. 1-2 tbsp).
• Cover the pan, turn low and simmer for 30 minutes+, turning the chicken over halfway.

Served with some spiced rice and peas, it was delicious; tangy, green and with just the right amount of kick.

For pudding, I tried to recreate something like the fabulous 'savoury' dessert I had at Opus last weekend with some mini goats cheese and gooseberry cheesecakes. Sadly, the cheesecake mix came out slightly curdled and the (supermarket) gooseberries just weren't as tart as I'd hoped. All a bit disappointing, maybe one to come back to another time when better gooseberries are available.

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.

15 June - chicken and spinach curry

The salad the other day doesn't seem to have made much of a dent in the spinach on the terrace, so this evening, I went for a chicken and spinach curry recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible to use up more spinach and the chicken breast in the fridge. Tris is out for the evening, so the below is curry-for-one.

• Cook a big handful of spinach in a pan with a couple of tablespoons of water until wilted, then chop.
• Blend together a small chopped onion, a couple of cloves of garlic, about the same quantity of fresh ginger and a couple of tbsps of water to make a paste.
• Heat some oil in a frying pan, add a small cinnamon stick and a couple of cardamom pods, then add the onion mixture and stir and fry for a few minutes.
• Stir in 3/4 tsp ground coriander, 1/2 tsp ground cumin and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
• Add the chicken, cut into cubes and stir for a minute or two.
• Gradually add 2 tbsp natural yoghurt, a chopped tomato and the spinach.
• Add 75ml water and some salt. Cover, turn low and simmer for about 20 mins.

The result was really tasty and with no one else eating, I was able to play around a bit more than usual taking photos, playing with some lighting ideas from one of the tutors on my photography trip, Lone, who happens to be a professional food photographer. I've brought down my daylight lamp, that usually sits on my desk through the winter, to create a slightly more natural light in the evening rather than resorting to a flash. It's quite difficult to make a sludgy green curry look attractive, but I quite like the black background.

8 May - home-grown veg and a creamy chicken curry with a kick

Most of today was spent out on our roof terrace planting up this year's 'crops'! Last year, I made a rather tentative start at growing my own veg, but most things were a bit disappointing, I think partly just because I didn't grow enough of anything to yield enough worth eating. This year I'm being a bit more adventurous with French beans, mange touts, tomatoes, courgettes, spinach and a chilli plant, as well as all the herbs that are already thriving.

I think I'm a bit of a supertaster - that is, stronger flavours strike me as even more intense than for most. So I've never been good with anything very hot. I love 'spicy' Indian food, but I prefer it when I cook it myself and can control the amount of chilli that goes in. Today I cooked one of my favourite Madhur Jaffrey curry recipes which is usually relatively mild, with lots of flavour and just a bit of background hum from some cayenne pepper. A little while ago though, I got a new jar of cayenne pepper which is clearly much punchier than what I'd had before and which I haven't quite got used to yet. So today's gentle-looking creamy chicken curry had a bit more of a kick to it than I'd intended!

Madhur Jaffrey's Chicken with cream

• Sprinkle a couple of chicken breasts cut into chunks with some salt, 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp coriander, 1/4 tsp turmeric and 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper - less with hindsight! Mix and leave for about an hour.
• Fry the chicken pieces in some vegetable oil to brown, then remove with a slotted spoon.
• In the same pan, fry a chopped onion, then add a paste comprised of two crushed garlic cloves, the same amount of grated fresh ginger and a splash of water.
• Stir in 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp coriander, 1/4 tsp turmeric and 1/4 tsp (?) cayenne.
• Add a chopped tomato and stir and mush to a paste.
• Take the pan off the heat to stir in 2 tbsp natural yoghurt - too much heat at this point will make the yoghurt split. Then add 100ml water, some salt and the chicken.
• Bring back to the boil, turn low, cover and simmer for 20 mins.
• Remove the cover, add 1/2 tsp garam masala and 2 tbsp cream and bubble until the sauce is thick and creamy.