Bangladeshi Style Chicken Curry

When I posted the pictures of this dish on a food forum, the first question was how different is Bangladeshi cuisine from Indian or, more specifically, Bengali cuisine. Well, to start with, we must not forget that Bangladesh used to be a part of India and hence its cuisine cannot be vastly different from what we eat in India. However, bengalis and bangladeshis, specially, believe in home ground spices and its just a combination of different spices which makes all the difference. Having said that, I am no expert in Bengali cooking and this is just my observation. Coming back to the point, today's recipe has been adapted from a series of bangladeshi recipes for chicken and since in every recipe, I was falling short of one ingredient or the other, I decided to put together all the recipes and make something of my own. While traditionally all the spices would be ground on a pestle and mortar, modern homes do not have that luxury of space and time and hence the shortcut methods of electronic grinding come into play. However, given a chance, I would definitely love to grind my spices the traditional way!

Ingredients

For the paste

1 tbsp coriander seeds

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1/2 piece of nutmeg

1 piece of mace

10-12 black peppercorns

1 bay leaf

4-5 cloves

5-6 green cardamom

1 inch piece cinnamon

1 tbsp chopped garlic

1 tsp mustard oil

4-5 dry red chillies

Other ingredients

1/2 kg chicken washed and cut

3 medium onions, thinly sliced

1 inch piece ginger, grated

3 medium tomatoes, chopped (if the tomatoes aren't too red and ripe, you can use 2 tomatoes and 1 tbsp tomato puree)

2 medium potatoes, halved and fried

Fresh coriander leaves for garnishing

1 tsp salt plus as per taste

1 tsp turmeric powder

2 tbsp mustard oil

Direction

Marinate the chicken pieces with salt and turmeric and keep aside for 1 hour. Meanwhile, dry roast all the ingredients for the paste except the garlic and let it cool. Now, grind to a fine paste with the garlic,  oil, and a dash of water. 

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and fry the potato pieces until golden and keep aside. The potatoes need not be cooked at this time. Now in the same oil, fry the chicken pieces until golden. Make sure not to over fry the pieces. You just need to get a light golden film on top. Adding the remaining 1 tbsp oil, bring it to smoking hot and add the sliced onions. Fry till translucent and then add the grated ginger. Continue frying until raw smell disappears, about 2-3 minutes. Now add the ground paste and fry on medium flame till oil starts appearing on the sides. Add the tomatoes (and the puree, if using) and fry till the tomatoes are mushy but not completely cooked. Now add the potatoes and the fried chicken and stir. Coat the chicken pieces well with the masala and then add 1 cup warm water from the sides. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes until the potatoes and chicken are tender. By now, a thin film of oil would start appearing on the top, which means your gravy is well cooked. Check the seasoning and garnish with fresh coriander leaves. Serve hot with plain rice or roti/paratha.