Ashok showed me this dish today... not sure what it's called.
Start off with a 1/4 cup each of cashew nuts and sliced almonds in a food processor. Add just enough milk to grind the nuts into a paste.
Heat up a frying pan with some oil, toast some cumin seeds in the pan, toss in a little garlic, then a tiny bit of diced onions and sautee briefly. Add 2 diced chicken breasts, and fry for a few minutes until coloured. Add some onion sauce*, milk, and whipping cream (1.5 to 2 cups of milk + cream in total), and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, a few minutes.
Now stir in the nut paste. Sprinkle on a few dashes of dried menthi (funugreek leaves - very different flavor from fenugreek - aromatic, sweet, rich, slightly bitter aftertaste). Add a few slices each of canned mango, canned pineapple, and canned lychee, as well as a little bit of juice from the cans. Salt and pepper to taste.
Most of this dish is pretty standard Indian curried chicken. What really sets it apart is the nut paste, giving the sauce a truly interesting and delectable texture. Those who sampled (including head Chef) were blown away.
*I'm still honing in on Ashok's "onion sauce." It normally takes a day's worth of cooking down onions in our kitchen (hundreds of pounds worth) to make it. He also adds all kinds of spices to it. But, he says that I can just make a simple quick version at home by pureeing pan-browned onions.
Side Note 1: I've come to realize that cream, aside from adding richness to a dish, plays a key role in carrying flavors. What I mean is that the cream keeps the flavors on the tongue, thereby allowing many waves of flavor notes.
Side Note 2: While making pakoras today, Ashok sliced a chili pepper lengthwise in 4 (leaving it adjoined at the stem), dipped it into the pakora batter, and demanded that I deep fry it. With a sprinkle of chana masala (which is sweet, sour, and salty all at once) it was quite good, but obviously very hot... much like jalepino poppers.