Lichen the taste – Black Stone Flower delivers a punch in Chettinad Chicken

When you’ve created the Sri Lankan restaurant flagship that is Hoppers the world assumes your roots are in that beautiful but troubled island. Not the case. Karan Gokani hails from Mumbai and his latest cookbook addresses the multifarious cuisines of his native sub-continent. India 101 (Bluebird, £28) lacks the aesthetic edge of Hoppers: The Cookbook, the Hardie Grant/Quadrille production that sprang from the success of Gokan’s three eponymous London restaurants, but it did introduce me to an ingredient I’d missed out on across decades of cooking Indian regional cuisine from a host of cookbooks.

I’m likely to add to my collection with a sudden spurt of authoritative tomes being published, notably Mayfair Michelin chef Chet Sharma’s Bibi The Cookbook (I’m a fan; check out my Bibi review) and Vegetables The Indian Way from Camellia Panjabi, whose 2006 50 Great Curries of India has sold over 800,000 copies. 

I’d be surprised if ‘Bibi’ or ‘Veg’ showcases the lichen known by many names – Black Stone Flower, Kalpasi, Dagad Phool, Parmotrema perlatum. With both medicinal and kitchen uses, it can be found across the globe but only in an obscure corner of Tamil Nadu does it attain its culinary apogee. Chettinad is an umbrella term for 56 villages in the deep south of the region that gives its name to one of India’s great dishes – Chettinad Chicken.

To tackle it I ordered a bag of ‘dagad phool’ via Amazon but delivery was delayed, so I ploughed on without, rather than let my free range chicken thighs pass their sell-by-date. By this time I had found a CC recipe that mentioned this ingredient. Rick Stein’s India suggested, in its absence, replacing it with extra cinnamon.I just followed Karan Gokani’s version (see below). The result a slightly peppery, moderately fiery dry curry. My addition of locally grown (Todmorden, not Chettinad) blue oyster mushrooms didn’t feel a positive in retrospect.

Cue the arrival of a large plastic bag of what resembled mottled fungi shavings with surprisingly little scent and I had to go again. This time a triumph, the whole dish lifted into something rich and strange. I hesitate to use the word earthy but can’t find an alternative. With it I served it a chickpea and chard side, date chutney and store-bought paratha.

A perfect primer, India 101 is subtitled Real Indian Dishes Made Simple and ranges widely across multiple cuisines. Taking it one step further is veteran India hand Roopa Gulati with her Indian Kitchens: Treasured Family Recipes from across the Land (Bloomsbury, £26). The Cumbria-raised writer and broadcaster has cheffed in top Indian hotels, including the fabled Taj Mumbai, but for this book she explores domestic kitchens over there, travelling far and wide to coax treasured recipes out of home cooks. This home cook expects the pages of his new copy soon to be as stained as his treasured Meera Sodhas. The first spatters are on page 213. The culprit? Goan short-ribs in Tamarind Masala.

Black Stone Flower – my surprise package

I’m still seeking alternative dishes to showcase my lichen gift horse. Ideally I should take a leaf out of Roopa’s book and roam Chettinad but the budget doesn’t run to that. It seems a perfect fit for a biryani and, of course, tempering, where a whole spice/curry leaf mix is flash-fried to add a final heady flavour to dals and the like. Professionals add to garam masala mixes.

In the wild it is an invasive plant, its black-purple flowers thriving rocks and trees only at a certain altitude at lower temperatures. In its dried form it is hailed for medicinal properties by Ayurvedic practitioners. What attracts me in particular is its ability to lower cholesterol, but maybe the tempering in ghee negates that plus!

Chettinad Chicken – the Gokani way

1kg chicken thighs, skinless on the bone cut into 5cm pieces

¼ tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp garlic paste

½ tsp each salt and pepper

For the Chettinad Masala

3 dried red chillies, stems and seeds removed

4 green cardamom pods

3-4 pieces black stone flower

1 tsp black peppercorns

1 tsp fennel seeds

½ tsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp coriander seeds

1 cinnamon stick

4 cloves

1 bay leaf

3 tbsp desiccated coconut

For the curry

2 tbsp coconut oil

1 medium red onion

2 tsp salt

2 tsp ginger paste

2 tsp garlic paste

10-12 curry leaves

200g tinned chopped tomatoes

green chillies split in half lengthways, to garnish

re onion rings, to garnish

1 Mix together the chicken, turmeric, garlic and ginger pastes, and salt and pepper. Let it marinate for 30 minutes; better still overnight in the fridge.

2 To make the Chettinad masala toast all the spices in a dry pan for 3-4 minutes until they darken slightly and become aromatic. Transfer to a large bowl to cool. In the same pan roast the coconut until it turns golden and aromatic, being careful not to burn it. Once cooled mu the coconut with the toasted spices and grind everything to a fine powder.

3 For the curry heat the coconut oil in a heavy pan over a medium heat. Add the onion with ½ tsp of salt and cook for 4-5 minutes until light brown.

4 Add the ginger and garlic pastes, cook for another two minutes, then add the curry leaves and the marinated chicken. Increase the temperature to high and cook until the chicken caramelises, about 5-6 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and add the Chettinad Masala. Cook for a minute, then add the tomatoes and 1½ teaspoons of salt. Continue cooking until the curry thickens and darkens, about 12-15 minutes, adding a splash of water every now and then if the spices begin to stick to the pan.

5 Serve garnished with slit green chillies and red onion rings.