Where it comes from
The Chettiar merchant community traded across Burma and Malaya and brought spices home. Their cooking uses black pepper as the primary heat, with kalpasi (stone flower) giving a smoky, almost mushroomy depth found nowhere else.
Method
- 1
Dry roast the masala
12:00Roast pepper, coriander, chilli, kalpasi and coconut separately until each smells toasted, then grind.
- 2
Marinate
15:00Rub the chicken with turmeric, salt and half the masala. Rest.
- 3
Fry the base
10:00Brown shallots and curry leaves in sesame oil until sweet and collapsing.
- 4
Cook down
20:00Add chicken and remaining masala, cover and cook in its own moisture, then uncover and fry until the masala coats and darkens.
Cook's notes
- Grind the pepper coarsely — fine pepper turns acrid.
- Sesame oil (gingelly), not refined oil, is what makes it taste Chettinad.
