Curry chicken (kari ayam)

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg of chicken, cut into bite sized pieces
• 3 4 potatoes, cut into medium size cubes
• 3 4 tablespoons of oil
• 2 cups of santan (thick coconut milk or you may substitute with full cream milk)
• 1 litre of water

Spices (A) ground :

• 5 shallots
• 5 onions
• 4 candlenuts (you may substitute this with macadamia nuts)
• 3 tablespoons chilli paste (you may omit with 5 tablespoons of meat curry powder this if you can't get chilli paste)
• 2½ tablespoons meat curry powder

Spices (B):

• 4cm piece cinnamon stick
• 3 star anise
• 8 cloves
• 1 stalk of curry leaves
• 12-15 cardamom pods
• for the spices you don?t have to get exactly the amount stated here, it?s merely an estimation
• salt and sugar to season

Chilli Paste :

• 200 g dried chillies, soaked in hot water for an hour
• 100 g red chillies seeded