C46 Chicken Kesar

The resulting curry is mild and lightly spiced but with an unusual and hard to describe flavour that is very seductive. At the time of writing the cost of the illustrated saffron spice jar was £4.00 but it is sufficient for several portions of curry. This is not a curry you will find on any restaurant menu but I would encourage you to try it. I was very pleasantly surprised.

Ingredients

For 1	Continued...
2 tbspn oil	¼ tspn saffron (see note 1)
30 gm onion (prepared weight)	2 tspn milk
¼ tspn ginger	300 ml c46 curry base sauce (see note 2)
½ tspn garlic	1 portion c41 pre-cooked chicken
¼ tspn ground coriander	¼ tspn salt
¼ tspn chilli powder	1 tbspn (heaped) cashew nuts
¼ tspn garam masala	2 tbspn yogurt

Preparation

Place the saffron threads in a small dish and crush with the back of a spoon, then add the warmed milk and mix well, then set aside for about 1 - 2 hours.
Finely chop the onion.
Grate the ginger, crush the garlic and mix together with a little water to make a paste.
Crush the cashew nuts to a powder in a pestle and mortar.

Cooking - 8½ min

Heat the oil in a suitable pan and cook the onions, stirring regularly, for 2 min.
Add the ginger/garlic paste and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds.
Add the ground coriander, chilli powder, garam masala and saffron (with milk) and cook, stirring, for 1 min, adding a little c46 base sauce if needed to prevent drying and burning.
Add the chicken, salt and 80 ml of c46 base sauce and cook, stirring regularly, for 3 min, adding c46 base sauce as needed to maintain the desired sauce consistency.
Add the crushed cashew nuts and cook, stirring, for 1 min, adding c46 base sauce as needed to maintain the desired sauce consistency.
Reduce the heat and stir in the yogurt and cook for 1 min.

Serving

Serve with chapatti and garnish with a little freshly chopped coriander.

Notes

(1) Saffron is very expensive for the quantity you can purchase but only a relatively small amount is used. I suggest ¼ tspn but it is difficult to judge as the spice is a collection of crocus stamens rather than powder. I simply put sufficient stamens in a ¼ tspn measuring spoon to be about level with the spoon, but you can use a little more. You may need to experiment with this. Saffron has very little aroma or flavour in its raw or 'steeped' state (I can best describe it as being faintly reminiscent of rust or iron filings but with a bitter/sweet undertone) but it seems to 'come alive' when cooked in the manor described here.
(2) Dilute the 300 ml of c46 base sauce with 200 ml of water and heat before use. If defrosted from frozen the base sauce can be warmed and briefly blended to reconstitute the colour and consistency.

The main ingredients

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The finished meal

Saffron

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