Traditional Indian Sunday Roast Dinner Recipe

Traditional Indian Sunday Roast Dinner Recipe

Sunday’s at ‘chez JP’ usually involves a traditional Sunday roast dinner with the usual trimmings – and whilst you can’t beat a Sunday roast dinner, the other day I did a little experiment with an ‘Indian Sunday Roast Dinner’. Indian does still appear to be the UK’s favourite food (and when I am away doing snowboard seasons, Indian takeaway is the thing I miss the most), so bringing together England’s two favourite meals makes sense.

Traditional Indian Sunday Roast Dinner Recipe

One of the best things about this version of the Sunday roast dinner is that it is easier and faster to make than the traditional Sunday roast dinner. It usually take around 1 hr of preparation and 1.5 hrs of cooking when preparing a Sunday roast for 6 people but this Indian version can be prepared in 20 minutes and cooked in just over an hour.

You can experiment with different kinds of curry powders or pastes, but I find that a medium, general curry paste works well. Curry powders are not reflective of any specific Indian dishes or regional cooking, having gained general popularity in the UK as expats returning from journeys to India during the 19th century, sought to bring home the unique flavours they had experienced. And of course, as seen in our interesting facts section, chillies are not a native ingredient in Indian cooking but rather are a European export to India! Maybe that explains our love of strangely hot food (or not).

Traditional Indian Sunday Roast Dinner Ingredients

1 roasting chicken – (chopped into 8 pieces or use chicken thighs)
2 large onions (roughly chopped)
1 red pepper (roughly chopped)
2 tablespoons of curry powder
1 tablespoon of pureed fresh ginger (either pre-made & made in blender)
4 cloves of garlic (peeled & halved)
6 roasting potatoes (if large, chopped in quarters, if smaller, chopped in half)
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 small can of coconut milk
Handful of fresh coriander

How to cook a Indian Sunday Roast Dinner

This really is incredibly simple to make.

1. Add the chicken, onions & potatoes to a mixing bowl.
2. Add the curry powder (or paste), olive oil, sugar, ginger & garlic.
3. Mix the ingredients till all coated.
4. Place the mixture into a pre-heated oven at 190 degrees & roast for 60 minutes.
5. Add the chopped red peppers & coconut milk.
6. Roast for a further 15 minutes or until chicken completely cooked.
7. Remove & serve with chopped coriander on top – the coconut milk will form a delicious gravy.

Interesting facts: In Southern Indian cuisine, the curry is considered to be a side dish to a main consisting of rice or naan bread.

More interesting facts: The first curry recipe in Britain appeared in The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse in 1747, although the first edition used just pepper & coriander seeds for flavour. Later editions of the book included the more the common ingredients of turmeric and ginger.

A MOST interesting fact: Chillies were not a part of native Indian cooking culture until Europeans (the Spanish or Portuguese) introduced chilli plants into India in the late 15th century. Research seems to indicate that consumption of hotter ingredients, such as chillies in curry, lead to the release of endorphins, which combined with the unique spices in curries, lead to a type of ‘high’, encouraging eater to move to hotter and hotter curries.