Levengi

Instructions

1. Peel and coarsely grate 1 small onion into a bowl, scatter over 0.25 tsp of the salt and leave to stand for 10 minutes. Take the onion up in your hands and squeeze it hard over a second bowl until it is almost dry; keep the sharp juice for the braise.
2. Pound 50 g of shelled walnuts in a mortar, or pulse briefly, to coarse gritty crumbs rather than a smooth butter. Put 1 tbsp of sour plum paste in a small bowl with 1 tbsp hot water and mash with a spoon for 2 minutes until it loosens into a dark, thick purée.
3. Combine the walnuts, squeezed onion and plum purée with 0.25 tsp of turmeric, 0.25 tsp of black pepper and 0.25 tsp of the salt. Work it with a spoon into a stiff, moist stuffing that holds its shape; it should taste emphatically sour and lightly salty.
4. Lay the 1 chicken leg skin-side down and, with a small sharp knife, free the thigh bone and the top of the drumstick bone from the inside, keeping the skin unbroken so you have a deep pocket. Season the cut flesh lightly with pepper from the pan side only if needed.