NEW SERIES. EPISODE 5. Poet Lemn Sissay cooks Butter Chicken

Lemn Sissay is a lifeforce. A poet, three times Sunday Times bestselling author, memoirist playwright curator and broadcaster. Lemn also has some of his poems embedded as landmarks in the physical architecture of Manchester, London and the British Council Offices in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Brought up in care homes Makerfield, at 17 he lived alone and worked as a gutter cleaner, personalising his gutter cleaning leaflets with his poetry. Sometime later, his ladder stolen, Lemn moved to Manchester and worked for a publishing house as an Asian & Afro-Caribbean writers development worker. The 1990s saw the city of Manchester, and Lemn Sissay, gain a global celebrity, with both the Manchester scene and Lemn’s poetry reaping widespread acclaim.

Claire has wanted to cook with Lemn since the very first series of 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast after reading his book My Name is Why. The Guardian newspaper writes; “Lemn Sissay has success written on his forehead” and Claire could not agree more, Lemn radiates with a positivity that is infectious. Unusually for this recording, Claire and Lemn cook together in a friend of Claire’s flat in Hackney. Claire arrives at the recording with ingredients that Lemn has requested and together the pair cook butter chicken, a Pakistani version, taught to Lemn by a close friend.

This episode, the penultimate in the series, is a joy to listen to. Claire and Lemn discuss a childhood in care and its profound impact, there is also a moment when Lemn drops curry sauce all over his brand-new trainers, expletives are used. The butter chicken is delicious, one of the best Claire has ever cooked and eaten and, quite honestly, the fact that Lemn is also a phenomenal cook, as well as an astonishing poet and writer, makes Lemn such impressive human being to spend time with. Is there anything this man can’t do? And do extraordinarily well?

This new series of the podcast is proudly sponsored by Tims Dairy Yogurt and Kefir.

Listen to the new series.

THE RECIPE:

Lemn’s recipe via Sobia Bashir @sobiasspice

serves 4

800g boned, diced chicken thigh, skin removed

60g butter, ½ to cook the onion, ½ to add to the rice to steam

2 onions, finely sliced

3 garlic, finely chopped

Thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped

1 tsp ground fennel

1 heaped tsp of garam masala

2 heaped tsp of garam masala

½ tsp ground cardamon

1 tsp unsmoked or smoked paprika

1 tsp salt

Plenty of freshly ground black pepper

300ml tomato passata

1 cup of plain Yogurt, about 150ml

80 - 100ml of double cream

Bunch of coriander, roughly chopped

Rice, as much as you like, to serve

method

1. Add ½ the butter to a pan and cook the onion until golden brown and beginning to caramelise, at least 10 - 15 mins over a moderate heat. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for 3 - 4 mins more, until fragrant. Add the passata, bring the pan to a simmer, add the spices, salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper, and cook for a couple more minutes.

2. Add the yogurt, keep stirring and mixing briskly, keeping the yogurt moving in the pan for a minute or two, until the colour of the mixture deepens in the pan.

3. Add the diced chicken and mix well to coat, cook for around 5 mins, mixing well all the while.

4. Add the cream, lid on and reduce the heat to moderate / low and cook for around 30 - 35 minutes, stirring every now and then to stop the mixture from sticking, cook until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is rich and thick. Remove from the heat and cool for 5 - 10 minutes before serving. Add the chopped coriander to serve.

5. For the rice: Lemn insists on washing your rice for x3, until the water comes clear. cook as much rice as you like to eat in a big saucepan of boiling, salted water. Drain the rice when the rice is cooked firmly al dente and give it a very thorough shake in a colander to remove excess moisture. Put the drained rice back in the saucepan with the remaining butter and lid on, steam to rice with the butter off the heat for at least another 5 minutes to finish cooking through. Fluff with a fork to serve.