Recipe Chicken and sweet potato curry

[Morning Glory]

Complex curry spices work well with sweet potato and the addition of the sour flavours of mango powder and tamarind counteract their sweetness in this hot curry. If you want a milder curry, reduce the amount of chillies and peppercorns. The pan roasted spice mix makes enough for two curries.

Ingredients (serves 2)
8 green cardamom pods
1 tsp each of cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, brown mustard seeds, black peppercorns, coriander seeds
1 heaped tsp dried Kashmiri chillies
A blade of mace
1/2 a medium onion, chopped
1 tbsp oil (I use rapeseed oil)1 heaped tbsp ginger and garlic paste
1/2 a 400g can of crushed tomatoes
200ml water
1 tsp mango powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 medium chicken breasts
175g sweet potato
1 heaped tsp tamarind paste
Coriander leaves to garnish

Method

1. Crush the cardamom pods and extract the seeds.
2. Add all the whole dried spices including the dried chillies, mace and cardamom seeds to a dry non stick pan and dry roast over a medium heat for a few minutes until they release their aroma. Be careful not to burn.
3. Place the roasted spices in a spice grinder and grind to a fine powder.
4. Add the oil to a pan and cook the onions until softened. Add the garlic and ginger paste and cook for a further few minutes.
5. Add the tomatoes, roasted ground spices, mango powder and turmeric powder to the pan together with 200ml water.
6. Mix well and simmer for 15 minutes. Add salt to taste At this point you can blend the mixture to a smooth sauce (optional). I used a stick blender.
7. Chop the chicken and sweet potato into chunky bite sized pieces and add potato to the sauce. Simmer gently for 35 to 40 mins or until the chicken and potatoes are cooked through.
8. 10 minutes before the end of cooking add the tamarind paste and stir through.
9. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves