Chicken Pepper Fry

This dish comes from Tamil Nadu in South india where it is cooked for special occasions

Ingredients

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

10 curry leaves (I left this out)

2.5cm piece fresh ginger (i used 1tsp gorund)

3 cloves garlic, chopped

3 green chillies (i used chilli powder)

2 onions, chopped

2 tomatoes diced

salt (grey organinc or pink murray river)

500g diced chicken breast

large pinch black peppercorns

Spice Paste:

100g freshly grated or organinc dessicated coconut

2 cloves

2 cardamom pods

3 black peppercorns

1cm cinnamon stick (I used 1/2 tsp ground)

1/2 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp ground tumeric

1 tsp coriander (I used bashed up seeds)

Method:

1) Make the spice paste - heat some oil in a frying pan, roast the cocnut with the cloves, cardamom pods, peppercorns, and cinnamon until the cocnut is browned. Add the ground spices and saute for 1 min. Leave to cool then blend with 200ml water

2) Heat some oil in a saucepan, add the mustard seeds. As they begin to pop, add the curry leaves, ginger, garlic and green chillies.Cook for 3 minutes. Add the onions and cook until they are golden brown. Add the tomatoes and cook for another minute. Pour in the spice paste, add some salt, stir.

3) Add the chicken and 250 ml water. Bring to the boil, cook for 20 mins or until the chicken is cooked.