Parsee Red Chicken Curry

Who doens't love a good curry especially the one who has this beautiful color.
Don't be shocked by the number of chillies in the recipe. They are Kashmiri chillies which are milder and give this beautiful color to the chicken curry and if you dont like the heat you can always remove the seeds from half of the chillies.
I love Camellia panjabi's book 50 Great curris of India.
I have the book for few years, I remember when i got the book I fell in love with it , if you look throught the book and see the beautifulpictures you will directly run to your kitchen and start making the dishes, that is if you have all the indridients :-)

Acoording to her The secret of the red colour id to use good quality dried Kashmiri chillies.

Ofcourse she has writeen if you cant get them use red fresh red chillies. But then she has written remove the seeds from the half of the fresh chillies if you dont want it to be too hot.

10 Kashmiri chillies ( or fresh red chillies)
1 1/4 cup grated coconut , this is for making coconut milk ( I aded tinned coconut milk)
1/2 tsp cummin seeds ( I added 1 tsp)
1 Tso corriander seed.
1 teaspoon sesame seeds ( she had written it is difficult to grind them smooth so her tip was to use tahini) and I used 2 tbsp of tahini.
3 cloves
6 pepercorn
1 inch cinamon
3 cardamoms
1 tbp ginger peeled and chopped
4 large garlic cloves chopped
3/4 cup onions coarsly chopped
65 ml oil
800 gm chicken cut into pieces, preferably with bones that give a wonderful taste.
2 tomatoes finley chopped
Salt to taste
1 tsp can or apple vinegar,
1 tsp garam masala



1. Soak theKashmiri chillies in a little warm water for 15 minutes to soften.
If you are using fresh coconut, soak the grated coconut in a bowl of 400 ml warm water for 15 to 20 minutes. Then squeeze out ans strain to make coconut milk.

2. Put the cumin, coroander and seasame seeds ( i used tahini) the cloves, pepercorns, cinamon, cadamoms, ginger, garlic and onione into a food processor and blend ti a very smooth paste, adding a little wateer if necessary.

3. Heat the oil in a cooking pot. When hot , add the spice paste and stir fry for 5 minutes.
Add the chicken and fry it in the paste fir 5 minutes. The add the tomatoes  and the salt and fry the chiciken for 5 minutes.
Add a little water abd tge coconut milk and leave it to simmer untill the chicken is cooked.
Add the vinegar and garam masala. Taste for salt.
When you add the coconut milk you might think the dish is too wattery dont worry when the chicken gets cooked in the sauce it will get thicker.
I do have step by step pictures, will add them later.

The above picture, this one I made with chicken breast cut into small cubes, the curry was really yumm, but I think with bones the curry taste much better.