Hot, Sweet & Sour Chicken with Apricots from Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cookery by Madhur Jaffrey

Ingredients

• ½–1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or Kashmiri chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon homemade Garam masala
• 9 tablespoons sugar
• 110 ml/4 fl oz red wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• ¼ teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
• 5 x 2.5 cm/2 x 1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated to a pulp
• 3 large garlic cloves, peeled and grated or crushed to a pulp
• 8 smallish skinless chicken thighs, weighing about 1.3 kg/3 lb
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 24 dried apricot halves (use the orange-coloured Californian apricot halves or Turkish varieties apricot halves)
• 500 ml/18 fl oz water