‘Ordinary’ kodi koora (chicken koora)

This is for Sham and Ro – in memory of something I (apparently) used to cook a lot at home. This was in the days before I kind of ‘developed’!

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1 kg Chicken pieces on the bone, with or without skin

Handful of kothmir leaves, chopped or shredded

Small handful of pudina leaves, chopped or shredded

2 tablespoons of Ginger garlic paste

1 large onion, diced or sliced thinnish

2 fresh chillies, chopped fine

1 can tomatoes

2 tablespoons of Khaju (optional)

2 x 2 inch sticks of cinnamon stick

8 cardamoms and 6 cloves, bashed up

2 teaspoons of shahjeera (black cumin)

Couple of bay leaves

3 tablespoons ish of sunflower oil (not too much cos the chicken might ooze fat anyway)

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Put a large kadai on the fire, when hot, add the oil, and when that’s hot, put in the shahjeera (black cumin), watch it crackle, add the cinnamon, cardamoms, cloves, bay leaves, khaju if you are using them, let it all sizzle a bit. Then put in the onions and chillies and let it all fry gently until onions translucent (you could let them get brown if you wish – the darker they get, the darker the end result of the shorva (the wet, juicy bit), but for a wet dish I usually don’t let them go dark; if you want a slightly drier fried dish, then you can brown the onions well). Now put in the chicken pieces, stir them all around well with a highish heat. Let it all fry – for ten or fifteen minutes. Don’t put the lid on as yet. You want the chicken to pick up some colour – get brown a bit and that won’t happen if the lid is on. When fried nicely, put in the ginger garlic paste (you could also put this in earlier – along with the chicken pieces) put in some turmeric, salt, add the kothmir (coriander) and pudina (mint), the tomatoes, stir it all in and put the lid on with a slow heat for another fifteen minutes or so. And that’s it. Check salt at the end.