Classic northern chicken curry
Serves 6-8
To Indians, a curry simply implies a gravid dish. The actual flavours will reflect the region in which you eat it. This one is from Punjab and for an Indian this would be enough of a description. We know to expect the robust flavours of onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic and garam masala. In the old days, when I was still living at home, a night out generally ended with my girlfriends coming back to my place and ransacking the fridge to find leftovers of this curry (for some unknown reason there was always, always some lying around). We would then polish off every last scrap with rounds of hot buttered toast to mop up the flavourful gravy as we meticulously dissected the evening as only women can.
Heat the oil in a large non-stick saucepan. Add the whole spices and fry until aromatic, around 20 seconds. Add the onion and cook until a rich golden brown, stirring often, around 10 minutes over a moderate flame. Stir in the ginger and garlic and cook for s further 40 seconds before adding the salt and powdered spices, stir for a further 10 seconds. Pour in the tomatoes and cook over a moderate flame until the liquid in the pan has dried off and the oil leaves the sides of the dry masala, around 10 minutes.
Add the chicken and brown over moderate to high flame for 3-4 minutes. Add enough water to almost cover the chicken, bring to a boil and then cook over a slow to moderate flame until the chicken is cooked through. The slower it cooks the better it tastes. This takes about 15-20 minutes for small joints and up to 25-30 minutes for larger ones.
Stir in the garam masala and coriander leaves.
900g small chicken or 2 poussins, skinned and jointed
4 medium cooking tomatoes, pureed
2 small-medium onions, finely chopped
4 tbs. Oil
700ml water or more
7 cloves
3 shards cinnamon
7 green cardamom pods
8 fat cloves of garlic, finely chopped
3 tbs. finely chopped ginger
1 tsp. each turmeric and red chilli powder
2 scant tbs. coriander powder
salt to taste
1 tsp. garam masala
handful of coriander leaves