Tamarind chicken curry recipe

I can't remember where I first came across this Tamarind Chicken Curry

Tamarind Chicken Curry 

recipe. My notes have changed a little during its various cookings and I think I can say that this is now the definitive version! It's another meal, like the Lamb Saag I blogged recently, which smells wonderful whilst cooking and this one takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours from start to finish. For today's dinner, we bought Blue Dragon coconut cream and also their tamarind paste. I have used supermarket own brand products before and they were ok, but I can appreciate the higher quality of the Blue Dragon ones - both are much thicker and richer. I saved a couple of delicious organic vine tomatoes too - if you can only find bland fresh tomatoes locally, use tinned plum tomatoes instead. This meal is all about flavour.

Ingredients:
1 small onion, finely sliced
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp ground ginger
1 chicken breast, diced
2 ripe tomatoes, quartered
200ml coconut cream
3 tsp tamarind paste

Fry the onion in oil in a covered saucepan with the cinnamon until the onion has softened but not browned.

Stir in the garlic, chilli powder and ginger. When combined, add the diced chicken, raise the heat a little and cook until lightly browned.

Add the tomatoes, coconut cream and 2 tsp of the tamarind paste. Bring to just simmering, then continue to simmer gently, uncovered, for about an hour, stirring occasionally. By this point, the chicken should be easy to pull apart and the sauce should be thick and just catching on the pan.

Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Taste again once the seasoning has been stirred in and add the third tsp of tamarind paste if you like the stronger flavour. We do but it might be too much for some palates.

Serve with steamed rice.

I cooked tonight's meal while listening to Danny Schmidt's new album, Owls. I already have a copy as a Kickstarter reward and I think it is a really strong body of work. Perhaps his best yet! Official launch date on the 19th of May - that's a week today - so here's a taster for you to hear while you're cooking too!