Ayam buah keluak

Step 1: Before you start, the nuts need days of soaking. Even ready-to-cook 18 buah keluak nuts must be soaked as the packet says, usually for several days, in plenty of cold water in the fridge, with the water changed every day; never shorten this, because raw nuts contain hydrogen cyanide. Scrub the shells clean when the soaking is done.

Step 2: Using a cleaver or the back of a heavy knife, chip open the flat end of each nut to make a hole about 1.5 cm wide. Smell and look inside: the flesh should be soft, black and smell earthy. Discard any nut whose flesh is pale, dry, hard, mouldy or smells sour or rancid.

Step 3: Scoop the flesh out of the good nuts with a small teaspoon into a bowl, keeping the shells. Mash the flesh with 1 tsp sugar and ½ tsp salt.

Step 4: Blend the drained 20 dried red chillies, 4 fresh red chillies, 10 ½ oz shallots, 4 garlic cloves, 1 ⅜ oz galangal, 3 lemongrass stalks, 6 candlenuts, ½ oz fresh turmeric and 1 tbsp shrimp paste (belacan) to a fine paste, adding a little water if needed.

Step 5: Heat ¾ cup neutral oil in a large, heavy pot over a medium-low heat and fry the rempah, stirring often and scraping the bottom, until it turns a deep brick red, smells sweet and the oil separates and pools on top. This takes patience and is the base of the whole dish.

Step 6: Mix 3 tablespoons of the fried rempah into the mashed keluak flesh, then pack the mixture back into the shells.

Step 7: Add 2 ⅝ lb chicken pieces on the bone to the pot and turn it in the rempah over a medium heat for 5 minutes, until the pieces are coated and lightly sealed.

Step 8: Pour in the strained 3 ½ oz tamarind pulp water, add 2 tbsp palm sugar (gula melaka), 2 tsp salt and 4 makrut lime leaves and bring to the boil.

Step 9: Add the stuffed nuts, open side up, lower the heat and simmer, partly covered, stirring gently now and then, until the chicken is tender, reaches 165°F at the bone and the gravy is dark and slightly thickened.

Step 10: Taste the gravy: it should be clearly sour from the tamarind, rounded by sugar, rich and spicy. Adjust with salt or sugar and simmer for 10 minutes more.

Step 11: For the best flavour, cool the pot, cover and refrigerate overnight, then reheat gently until bubbling before serving.

Step 12: Serve with plenty of steamed rice and small spoons so everyone can dig the black paste out of the nuts and mix it into their rice.