Chicken Karahi (''Karai'')

I was introduced to this tasty Pakistani dish at a cafe near my place. I usually had it with Cumin Rice and some salad. When the cafe was no longer in business, I searched for the recipe and tried it a couple of times. It was a success and one of our guests, a Pakistani guy, said it reminded him of what was cooked at home. He brought home some leftover... and yes, I prepared an almost salad too!

You can find a lot of recipes on Chicken Karahi (if I am not mistaken ''Karahi'' means wok). A lot of diffrent ingredients but the basic one would be as follows (I improvise a little from time to time):

Ingredients:

• Some chicken pieces
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• About 1 inch of ginger, peeled and cut into small sticks
• 1 tablespoon of chopped ginger (you can use ginger powder but where possible use fresh ingredient)
• 4 - 5 green chillies, cut into half
• 2 green chillies, chopped
• 3 tomatoes, finely chopped
• 2 tsp ground black pepper
• A small bunch of coriander leaves, finely chopped (divide into the stems and leaves)
• A cup of natural yoghurt
• 1 tsp of cumin seeds

And then....

• Heat oil in a wok.
• Add chopped ginger, the half-cut green chillies and cumin seeds. Fry till fragrant. Set aside for garnishing.
• In the same wok, add minced garlic and chopped ginger. Fry till fragrant.
• Add chopped tomatoes and you can sprinkle a little bit of tumeric powder.
• Stir fry until the tomatoes evaporates.
• Add chicken pieces and chopped chillies. Continue to stir fry for about 10 mins.
• Cover for a while.
• When the gravy starts to thicken, add the natural yoghurt. Stir fry for a while.
• Add the stems of coriander leaves.
• Salt to taste.
• Before serving, garnish with coriander leaves, the earlier stir-fried chillies and ginger.
• Best serve with hot Basmati rice/Naan bread or Cumin Rice