Murg malaikari (chicken curry with coconut milk)

This dish can be called "niraamish"[1] in a sense because it is cooked without onions or garlic.

Ingredients:

1. Chicken - 1 kg
2. Potatoes - 250 g 
3. Coconut milk - 1 cup
4. Ginger - 2" stick (made into paste)
5. Green chili - 4 (slit into two halves)
6. Dried red chili - 2
7. Bay leaves - 4
8. Cinnamon - 2" stick
9. Cardamom - 3-4
10. Cloves - 3-4
11. Pepper corn - 1/2 tsp
12. Turmeric powder - 2 tsp
13. Coriander powder - 2 tsp
14. Cumin powder -  2 tsp
15. Coriander/parsley leaves (chopped)
16. Sugar - 1/2 tsp
17. Oil - 1/2 cup
18. Salt - 2 tbsp

Procedure:

1. Clean the chicken and drain out any water. Add 2 tbsp oil, 1" of cinnamon stick (crushed), 1 tbsp salt,  1 tsp each of coriander powder, cumin powder and turmeric powder. Mix well and keep aside.
2. Peel and quarter the potatoes and add 1/2 tbsp salt, 1/2 tsp turmeric powder and marinate for 10 minutes.
3. Heat oil and fry the potatoes until they start getting a red tinge.
4. After taking the potatoes out, add half the bay leaves, the red chilies and the sugar.
5. Add the green chilies, 1/2 of the ginger paste and keep stirring.
6. As the chilies and the bay leaves get darker, add the chicken and mix.
7. Cook at medium heat and stir occasionally. The meat will release a lot of water. When the water starts to reduce, add two cups of water and let it cook with the lid on.
8. When the water starts boiling again, add the rest of the coriander, cumin and turmeric powder, put the lid again and cook until almost done (use your judgment here, checking the chicken occasionally).
9. Add the potatoes and cook with lid on until both the chicken and the potatoes are cooked. If you add the potatoes too early, they will get overcooked by the time the chicken is done. If you put them too late, the chicken will be overcooked by the time the potatoes are cooked. 
10. Now crush the pepper corns, rest of the cinnamon stick, the cardamoms and the cloves and add. Crush the rest of the bay leaves in your hand and add. Squeeze out the juice from the rest of the ginger paste into the chicken. Add the coconut milk. Mix well and let it cook for another couple of minutes.
11. Sprinkle the chopped coriander leaves and the dish is ready.

Footnote

Narkel chingri (Prawns cooked in coconut milk also called prawn malai curry)

Ingredients:
Prawns - 250 g (medium sized - 2-3 inches long)
Coconut - 1(or coconut milk - 1.5 cup)
Chili powder - 1/2 teaspoonful
Green chili - 2
Turmeric powder 1/2 teaspoonful
Salt - according to taste
Cooking oil - 3 tablespoonfuls
Tejpatta - 2-3
Sugar  - 1 pinch
Cumin powder - 1/2 teaspoonful (optional)
Coriander powder - 1 pinch (optional)
Ginger paste - 1 teaspoonful (optional)
Coriander leaves - 10-20 (optional)

Procedure:

1. Extract the milk from the coconut. You can buy packed coconut milk (powder) in the market but that lacks the flavour of fresh coconut. To extract milk from the coconut, first break it and then grate the kernel. Next take a handful of the grated kernel and squeeze out the milk into a container. You can also take it in a piece of clean cloth and squeeze. Usually not all the milk comes out in the first go. Mix a little warm water (~1/4 cup) into the grated kernel and squeeze it again to extract the remaining milk.
2. Clean the prawns if necessary: remove the shell (leave the bit over tail - which is hard to remove anyway) and the legs and the eyes and the antennae. You can soak them in a little warm water to ease the cleaning. The shell is tightly connected to the flesh in fresh prawns, and the staler it gets the looser the shell becomes. Next, devein the prawns: make a slit on the back of each prawn to reach the blue/black-ish vein (which is the animals gut) and pull it out. You can find videos in youtube showing how to do it.
3. Mix turmeric powder, 1 tablespoonful of oil, chili powder and salt with the prawns and let it marinate for 10-15 minutes.
4. Heat 2 tablespoonfuls of oil in a pan and lightly fry the prawns. They will turn golden brown, the shells turning orange/red. Take them out of the pan and keep aside.
5. Add the sugar and the tejpatta into the same pan (hopefully with some oil left in it, add more if you want).
6. Slit the green chilies into two halves and put them into the pan. Add the ginger paste (optional).
7. After stir-frying for about 20-30 seconds (as the chilies fade in colour and become soft and the ginger paste turns brown), pour the coconut milk. Bring it to boil.
8. Add the coriander and cumin powder and mix it into the coconut milk. Add salt according to taste.
9. Add the prawns and cover the pan. Cook until the prawns are done. Prawns take really short time to cook (5-10 minutes of boiling, and they are already half cooked by frying). If you cook them for too long they become rubbery. Break a piece after about 7 minutes and see if the inside has turned opaque white. That is an indicator of being cooked enough. Correctly cooked fresh prawns will be soft and juicy.
10. Remove the pan from heat, garnish with chopped coriander leaves before serving.