Commercial Feature

Cooking inspiration tends to come from books, television programmes and films, but according to chicken recipes pioneer Heston Blumenthal, it can just about stem from anywhere.

In his column in The Times, the celebrity chef and presenter of Heston’s Feasts wrote about growing up in the 1970s, a decade generally considered to be a period of stagnation in Britain’s culinary progression.

While remembered for prawn cocktails, Angel Delight and Smash instant mash potato, Blumenthal recalled the “exciting” Pot Noodle, which first arrived in the UK in 1977.

Stopping short at praising Pot Noodle’s flavours, the chef said they were inspiring because of how instant they were: “It was the prospect of pouring hot water into a pot and magically transforming the contents into a soup. We’d never seen anything like it,” he reminisced in the newspaper.

Perhaps it was the humble Pot Noodle that inspired Blumenthal’s quest for the best chicken tikka masala recipe as part of his 2006 TV series, In Search of Perfection. In the first episode, the culinary alchemist began his journey at his local Indian restaurant on Cookham, Berkshire, but he soon discovered that some of the best chicken recipes were to be found in the Indian capital, Delhi.

After a journey of discovery to determine the chicken tikka masala’s evolution, Blumenthal returned to his restaurant in Bray and attempted to build his own tandoor, which consisted of a brick-lined five-feet-deep hole in the ground.

Realising this was impractical, the chef instead decided to cook the chicken on a barbeque, although he utilised a few specialist alterations.

Keen to develop the best masala taste possible, Blumenthal put a chicken breast through a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan to understand how a marinade affects the meat’s flavour ahead of the cooking process.

Budding chefs wanting to recreate Heston Blumenthal’s perfect chicken masala will need a few items of special equipment, namely a kettle barbeque, six bricks, two bags of lumpwood charcoal, a pressure cooker, a square of muslin, 16 long metal tandoor skewers, tongs, a spice grinder, a food processor and two square pizza stones.

Garlic gloves and ginger are crucial in complementing the chicken’s flavour, while the process for creating the masala sauce base can begin by toasting the coriander and cumin seeds. These toasted spices should be bagged in a square of muslin and then placed in the pressure cooker with water and tomatoes on a medium heat.

After 20 minutes, this mixture should be set aside to cool and placed back on the hob on a high temperature until the sauce has reduced by half. The bag of spices should then be discarded before straining the tomatoes through a sieve.

The next step is to melt the ghee in a large saucepan using a medium heat, which should be fried for between two and three minutes after adding some chilli powder. The heat should then be turned down and onions, garlic and salt should be added and cooked for ten minutes until the onions soften.

Tomato puree and roasted garlic can be added after the heat is turned back to medium and cooked for a further five minutes, at which point it is time to add the strained tomato sauce, with this mixture needing to be cooked for a further ten minutes.

After turning the heat down to low, the garam masala, fenugreek seeds and turmeric can be added, and after simmering for five minutes, the sauce base can be allowed to cool while the chicken is cooked.

Once this has been cooked on the barbeque and cut into large chunks, it is time to assemble the finished dish. The masala sauce should be re-heated in the same pan it was cooked in, provided it is large enough to accommodate the chicken, and mixed with yoghurt and coconut milk for between one and two minutes.

The pieces of cut chicken can then be added and simmered for about ten minutes before the mixture is cooled. At this point a degree of patience is required, as the perfect chicken masala should not be eaten immediately after its preparation. Blumenthal recommends storing the mixture in the fridge for between six and 12 hours, which will enhance both the flavour and texture.

If the waiting gets too much, however, then butter can be folded in to finish the sauce, as can cashew nut butter to taste. Now comes the really exciting part – the chicken masala can now be served with a sprinkling of melon seeds and chopped chilli – providing either a naan bread or rice has been prepared.

While Blumenthal is considered something of a whizz in terms of cooking meat, he also has an impressive repertoire of vegetarian recipes. One of best known, and also among his most simple, is the ultimate mashed potato, which may have been inspired as an antidote to his memories of Smash growing up in the 1970s.

Approximately 1kg of Charlotte potatoes are needed, which need to be peeled and cut into 2.5 cm slices. After running these under cold water to remove any surface starch, a large pan of water should be heated until it reaches 80 degrees C, at which point the potatoes should be added and simmered for half an hour.

The sliced should then be drained and run under cold water before being re-cooked in salted water, after which they should be drained, placed back in the pan and heated gently to remove any remaining water.

At this point, the potatoes can be poured into a ricer, where it is possible to rice the slices over a bowl containing cold butter. The potatoes should then be pushed through a fine-meshed drum sieve to achieve a light, silky texture. When ready to serve, they should be re-heated gently while whisking in small quantities of warm milk.

Heston Blumenthal is currently presenting his second series of Feasts on Channel 4, which he believes is a “definitive step up” from the first series.

The chef told 4Food that he hopes the series will inspire budding chefs and that, while some dishes seen on the show cannot be prepared at home, a selection of recipes are being published to encourage people to be experimental in the kitchen.