[Mirabelle]

These main course recipes are family favourites gathered over time, often enjoyed every week. With any of these, please post your comments because it's always nice getting feedback.

The first of our favourites is Chettinad Chicken, a fine recipe from Rick Stein's India.



This recipe by Rick Stein is as good as it gets for home cooking, but originated from the Taj Gateway hotel in Madurai where he was filming. This recipe has one of those ingredients that is transformational but quite hard to get hold of. It’s the lichen off a tree, known as dagarful, kalpasi or stone flower, with a flavour like cinnamon. Locally you may be able to find it in a good Asian grocery shop, but if it proves elusive, just add a little more cinnamon.

Notes: for spices and herbs, a mortar and pestle is more gentle than an electric grinder. A good way with garlic I find is mashing it under a fork. Its skin slips off more easily. If using dagarful, sort through it and remove and discard any pieces of bark first.

Recipe serves 4

For the spice blend
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp black peppercorns
1 tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder

For the chicken
50ml vegetable oil
1 tsp fennel seeds
5cm piece cinnamon bark
1 tbsp very roughly chopped dagarful or an extra 3cm piece cinnamon stick
150g shallots, diced
Handful of curry leaves
700g skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into 5cm pieces
20g/4 cloves garlic, finely crushed
20g/4cm ginger, finely grated
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
100ml water
Boiled basmati rice to serve

Grind the spices down and process to a powder.

For the chicken, heat the oil in a sturdy frying pan or karahi over a medium heat, add the fennel, cinnamon and dagarful and fry for 1 minute. Add the shallots and curry leaves and fry for 10 minutes until the shallots are softened and golden.

Add the chicken and stir around for 1-2 minutes, then stir in the garlic, ginger, sugar, salt and all of the spice blend, and fry for 2 minutes.

Add the water, and cook for about 10–15 minutes, stirring often and adding more splashes of water if needed to stop it sticking to the pan, until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce thick and reduced and clinging to the chicken. Serve with boiled rice.