Gongura Chicken - Chicken cooked in sorrel leaves!

There is always this quandry, particularly if you like to take food pictures between what looks good and tastes good...

Now in winter, I am doing what most people who conserved during summer do - I am reclaiming my refridgerator! Lots of frozen herbs, frozen chopped tomatoes, frozen tomato paste and such. The tomatoes are an interesting story, we probably had beginers luck this year, but Anshul had to do a lot of work to make sure we did not waste this years bounty! So the debate of the year (well, we still have 6 months to resolve this, is whether to plant fewer plants this year!). So among everything were these sorrel leaves called Gogura leaves - lovely bold lemony leaves. I guess I had picked them up and frozen some.

This is what I made, a nicely spiced chicken recipe that we enjoyed over saffron rice.

Gongura Chicken - Spicy Chicken in sorrel leaves

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 cornish hen, skinned and jointed (1.5 lbs)

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon red chili powder

3-4 tablespoons oil

1 onion, very thinly sliced

1-2 cloved garlic, chopped

2-3 pods cardamom

1 stick cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cumin powder

1/2 teaspoon coriander powder

2 tomatoes, chopped

1 cup chopped gongura or sorrell leaves

Chopped cilantro leaves to garnish

Method of Preparation

1. Rub the chicken with the salt, turmeric and chili powder and set aside.

2. Heat the oil and add the onion and cook for about 5-7 minutes, the onions, wilt soften and then turn golden brown.

3. Add the chicken, cardamom, cinnamon, cumin and coriander powder and cook stirring occasionally for 5-7 minutes.

4. Add the tomatoes and cook for another 10 minutes, until the chicken is fairly soft.

5. Add in the gongura leaves, cover and cook on low for 10 minutes, until the chicken is soft and dry and covered with cooked gongura leaves.

6. Serve with rice or chapatis!