8th April 2026

The sun is shining and it is so warm and lovely. Has spring arrived? Finally? We cleaned out the kamado joe, burnt it and then decided to make kokur masala from Romy Gill's On the Himalayan Trail by Romy Gill 

The butcher had the plumpest nicest looking wings so it was time to fire up the Braai (BBQ) and enjoy the weather before it goes.

I had tagged this dish some time ago and thought it could be adapted to wings.  The sauce with the wings was very nice even though the sauce looked absolutely nothing like the picture in terms of colour, I have read up a lot on kashmiri chilli powder since, this is meant to provide the red colour, I think maybe I just need a new kashmiri chilli powder.  It is also possible I did not take the onions as far as I should have and I did change the recipe a bit so I am not upset, just an observation as to what made the sauce in the picture so red.  I reduced the oil too and this most likely also affected the colour.

I cooked the sauce earlier in the day because I knew I was not adding the chicken to the pot.  5 tbsps of oil for 400g shallots felt really excessive for us so I reduced it to 2 tbsps (which I do know would change the sauce overall).  Otherwise I carried on as per the recipe, adding 2 tsps of chilli powder (as the chicken was not going in).  I also put in chicken stock rather than water because I wanted some chicken flavour in the sauce.  I found that the sauce needed around 300mls liquid rather than the 100mls specified as there was no ‘sauce’ to speak of, just reduced sticky onions. Having made Colu’s caramelised onions, I do actually think these shallots just needed more time to go darker, after 20 minutes they were only brown in places but because I had been cooking them longer than the recipe I stopped (fool).

I did put the chilli powder and salt on the wings but I did not deep fry them, we cooked them outside over charcoal.  I usually toss my wings in the sauce but they were so cripsy I wanted them to stay that way so just poured a bit over.

This was really nice, not in the least bit spicy (I forgot to scatter the mint and fresh chillies over) but very nice nonetheless.  If I made this again, I would cook the shallots longer and add a touch more spice.  Otherwise yum! I served with freshly cooked naan and raita.