Javanese Spices Chicken Stew

Basically just a chicken stew a la Javanese, without any special cooking technique. However, it is interesting to note that it involves various ingredients (herbs and spices). To me personally, the technique lays on the preparation of the spices. For example, the candlenut need to be roasted first. Then, along with the nutmeg, they were shredded manually in order to get the special aroma that we want. Also took quite some times and energy to grind the coriander and other spices e.g. cumin, pepper, shallots, cayenne, garlic etc. Grinding the ingredients altogether is important to ensure that the ingredients are blended and perfectly smooth - measuring is so important. We may have our own preference of ingredients for this kind of stew. But never forget that one of the essential things in most stew is bay leaf. Put some bay leaf and we're done. So good for a rainy day.