The title is a bit odd, I know. I tried to present this dish to the family with a more formal title, but as soon as the son and heir spied it, he dubbed it Chicken Ball Curry and it’s hard to call it anything else now. We like this dish because it is warm and feels generous. The combination of tomato, pumpkin, chicken and coriander just works and the conversations around the table will be suspended until most of the plates are clean.

Serves 6

Tomato and Pumpkin Sauce
400g tin of tomatoes in juice
140g tub tomato paste
That tub filled with boiling water, hold for a minute to dissolve the remaining tomato paste
Pinch of salt and sugar
Pinch of turmeric
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
½ teaspoon red chilli powder
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 cups butternut pumpkin, roughly cubed
½ Lavender’s Green Preserved Lemon, skin and flesh finely chopped; discard any pips
1 cup coriander and mint, roughly chopped and added at the end of cooking

Put all the ingredients except the coriander and mint into a pot and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 -20 minutes until the pumpkin is tender and the sauce has thickened. Turn off the heat, add the chopped herbs, cover and keep warm.

Chicken Balls
1kg free-range chicken mince
2 teaspoons of both garlic and ginger paste
1 teaspoon red chilli paste
1 teaspoon red chilli powder
Pinch of turmeric
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 small onion grated on a microplane grater
2 heaped tablespoons of Lavender’s Green Roast Lemon Chutney
Extra coriander and mint, roughly chopped, to serve.

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and then form into balls with two dessert spoons as it’s quite a sloppy mixture. Heat a large lidded frying pan and fry the balls gently in olive oil until golden. You will have to do this in batches. When all the balls have been cooked, return them to the fry pan and cover with the tomato and pumpkin sauce. Pop the lid on the frying pan and simmer for 10 minutes. Garnish with extra chopped coriander and mint and serve over Basmati rice.

The sweet corn is crisp and fresh in the wayside stores this month. I like it barely cooked. Either microwave it on high in its husk for three minutes or char grill it on the BBQ for five – or until the outer leaves are black and smokey. Once it’s cooked I slather it with preserved lemon, lime and chipotle chilli butter.

Here’s how to make it:

100g salted butter, softened
1/4 Lavender’s Green Preserved Lemon, the flesh and the skin, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon chipotle chilli powder
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
zest and juice of one lime.

Mix the ingredients all together and slather the butter over hot vegetables or steak. Chill the remainder for next time…