CHICKEN SHATKORA

 

East Dulwich is on the other side of Peckham Rye from us - when we moved here 10 years ago we were very much on the 'wrong' side of the Rye, the Peckham side, the dodgy side.  Nowadays we are on the hip side, the groovy side, the oh so achingly let's have another upmarket barbers to look after all of those beards side.  Whatever. Lordship Lane is the main drag in East Dulwich and has a surprising number of restaurants - and a lot of them are Indian.  Our favourite is Jaflong, it has a few things on the menu you don't see elsewhere, the cooking is great and the staff are lovely.  It is also BYOB with no corkage which always goes down well.

It was at Jaflong I first encountered shatkora - or satkora, spellings vary - an Indian citrus fruit which seems to be a bit like a lemon, a bit like a lime, and has very thick peel and pith.  I have hunted far and wide for this and finally tracked down both fresh and frozen versions - in Taj Stores in Brick Lane - where else?   I bought a bag of frozen and this is my first experiment using it.  I think the delicate citrus flavour is very well suited to chicken so I have used chicken thighs for this.  A mound of fragrant basmati and maybe some bhindi would go well with this.

Ingredients

I tblsp. vegetable oil
4 black cardamom
I tblsp. grated ginger
1 tblsp. grated garlic
1 large onion very finely diced
1/2 tblsp. tomato puree
1 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. chilli powder
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. garam masala
5 slices of satkora
500g boneless chicken thighs, cut into chunks

Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the cardamom pods.  Sizzle for a minute or so then add the onions. Fry gently for about five minutes until soft then add the ginger and garlic, fry for another couple of minutes.

Add the tomato puree and spices and cook out gently for a another minute then add the chicken.  Continue frying for another couple of minutes then add the satkora and a mug of water, turn down the heat and let it all simmer for 40 minutes.  Taste, adjust seasoning if it needs a touch of salt, and serve.