Cuisine of Punjab: Chicken Saag

Ingredients:

• One 3 lb. chicken cut into pieces
• 1 lb fresh spinach
• 2 medium onions sliced thinly
• 5 tablespoons cooking oil, or 200 g (7 oz) butter
• 2 large bay leaves
• 4 seeds cardamom (black or green) 4 cloves
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
• ½ cup water
• 4 cloves garlic chopped finely
• ginger about the same amount as the garlic finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 2 teaspoons coriander powder
• l½ teaspoons turmeric
• 2 teaspoons sweet paprika
• salt to taste

METHOD

Heat the oil or butter in a saucepan and fry the onions, bay leaves, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves for 2/3mins. until golden brown. Now add the garlic, ginger and fry one minute more before adding the water, and stirring in the chilli, cumin, coriander, paprika and turmeric. Then add the chicken pieces and fry for a further 2/3 minutes.

Add the spinach and cook on a low heat for a further 15/20 minutes stirring occasionally, add salt to taste.

Serve straight away with basmati rice. Serves four