Work in progress

This is an attempt to create a Moghul-style dish with Indian spices, nuts and saffron. It's a distillation of a number of different recipes that I have seen, avoiding some things that seem dubious to me, such as copious amounts of cream.

Unfortunately, I'm not very happy with this recipe either. I first cooked it on 9 January 2007, and then again on 9 November 2015. The second time it was definitely too watery, and it occurs to me that some of the ingredients, such as curry leaves, are not exactly Moghul ingredients. I'll need to do some more research before cooking it again.

Ingredients

quantity		ingredient		step
0.5 g		saffron, strands or powder		1
25 g		coriander seed		2
10 g		cumminseed		2
3 g (1 stick)		cinnamon		2
1 g		cloves		2
1 kg		chicken thighs, deboned		3
250 g		onion		4
100 g		ghee		4
30 g		peeled pistachios		5
50 g		almonds		6
15 g		ginger		6
20 g		garlic		6
30 g		poppy seeds		6
2.5 g		cardamom seeds, without husk		6
10 g		black mustard seeds		6
0.5 g		curry leaves		6
300 g		yoghurt		8
18 g		salt		8
10 g		coriander leaf		9
10 g		mint leaf		9
1 g		garam masala		10

Preparation

1. If saffron is in strands, put in a small quantity of boiling water for several minutes.

2. Dry fry coriander, cumminseed, cinnamon and cloves, and grind to a powder.

3. Cut the chicken thighs into about 3 pieces each. If they're small, 2 is probably enough. Mix in the spice powder to cover.

4. Mince the onions and fry slowly in 40 g of the ghee until the butter separates.

5. Chop the pistachios finely, but do not blend.

6. Blanche and peel almonds if they still have the skin on. Blend almonds, ginger and garlic in as little water as needed to blend them properly. Add poppy seeds, black mustard seed and curry leaves without blending. When onions are ready, add the mixture and fry again until relatively dry. Place in a cooking pot.

7. Add the remaining 60 g ghee to the frying pan, heat, add the chicken mixture and cook until the surface is cooked and the aroma of the spices becomes noticeable.

8. Place in the pot with the onion mix, add yoghurt and water to almost cover the meat (it will give up a lot of liquid), and saffron, cardamoms and salt. Mix well, bring to the boil and simmer on a low flame for 30 minutes.

9. Add pistachios, coriander and mint and bring back to the boil.

10. Sprinkle with garam masala and serve with ghee rice.