Curry

[Tony]

Who likes a good curry?

I do!

I have perfected my indian curry recipe and am now game to post it. You can make it as mild or as hot as you like by adjusting the chilli but the flavour will be the same. Sensational!

I like it fairly warm but not to hot. If you go over board with the chilli..... which i have done and melted SS forks...... it kills your taste buds and you dont enjoy it as much.

I use half a Bhut Jalokia in the recipe that is a good sized meal for 2. It gets the sweat running but my 14 year old step sun hooks into it as well..... with a glass of milk

Recipe:

The Curry Paste:

1 clove garlic
1 thumb sized piece fresh ginger
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1.5 tablespoons coriander seeds
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
3 whole cloves
8 to 10 black pepper corns
salt to taste
1 teaspoon ground tumeric
1/2 teaspoon praprika..... smoked is best
Chilli to taste, fresh is best.
1 tablespoon olive oil

you will also need:

1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 kilo diced Lamb leg roast (i buy a half leg roast from supermarket)
3 tablespoons plain flour
1 small red onion, finly chopped
3 roma tomatoes, skinned and de seeded
1/3 cup beef stock
10 fresh curry leaves (i got them from Woolworths where they sell the fresh herb bunches. Store them in the freezer and they dry and last for ever)

Method:

Prepare the paste first by grinding all the whole spice in a morter and pestle, add the garlic, chilli and ginger and grind that in too. Add all the pre ground spice and the oil. Mix it up and it chould make a paste like ball of spice.

Next drop the toms in boiling water for 30 seconds or so to loosen up the skin. tip out the hot water and soak them in cool water so you can handle them. Chuck the skin and halve them and roughly de seed......... I just run my finger gently to remove all the watery seed stuff but leave all the flesh inside. chop them up and set aside.

finly chop the onion and set aside

coat the lamb in all the flour and keep tossing it now and then while you do all the rest above to make sure all the flour sticks. This will thicken the sauce.

heat a large pan on medium heat and add the oil. It should just start to smoke a bit...... that kind of heat. If it smokes a lot it is too hot for the next step.

toss the mustard seeds in the pan and get the lid on ASAP as they pop like popcorn and burn like hell if they get you. 10 seconds should see them all popped and get the onions in quick to cool the pan and stop the mustard seeds burning. toss them non stop for 15 seconds or so to just quickly brown the onion.

now in with the meat and the paste. Mix it all up for 30 seconds or so to just brown the meat off ect. You dont need to cook the meat! If the paste starts to burn a bit on the bottom, add a dash of the beef stock to loosen it up.

now add the tomatoe flesh, beef stock and curry leaves, mix it all up and simmer gently on low heat for half an hour to an hour. It should go nice and thick and saucy. the long slow cook will make the meat really tender and help meld all the flavours.

Serve with rice and enjoy an authentic curry!

cheers

 

[Polar Beer]

that looks sensational Tony. Nothing I like more then beer, but Indian food is a very very close second.

When I was in Christchurch last month, I went to a NZ craft brew bar with 80 NZ beers. Good enough, but they also had a curry house upstairs and offered a craft pint + main curry, rice & bread for $25 kiwi. Heaven.

What beers do you match to your curries? For me it has to be a pilners type lagers earley, followed by ales or good stoutly stouts for afters. Definitely no Weizens or Wits.

 

[manticle]

Nice to see someone making their own paste. I used to make all of mine until my spice grinder broke. I bought a new one the other day as a cheap way of cracking grains but it made me think about homemade tasty pastes. I may need a second one (or a grain mill thankyou father christmas who comes several months too early ever year).

Just a tip from me (hope it's not patronising) - a lot of dried spices release a lot of beautiful flavour if toasted first. Cumin and turmeric are two of those - simply heat a dry pan or saucepan (ie no oil) on the stove. When it's hot (but not smoking hot) quickly throw in ground spice, remove immediately from heat and stir through so it doesn't stick or burn. If it does burn you will have a very stinky mess but if it doesn't you will have a lovely fragrance wafting through your kitchen and making all and sundry very, very hungry. As soon as you can smell it, it's ready.

Also if you cut a small cross in the bottom of the romas with a sharp knife before blanching, it makes skin removal super simple.

 

[Supra-Jim]

Love a good curry, I have the benefit of an indian father-in-law, so i hit him up for a cooking lesson a couple of times a year. This year they gave me Madhur Jaffrey's Curry Bible for my B'day ( http://www.amazon.com/Madhur-Jaffreys-Ulti...e/dp/0091874157 ). If you like your curries, get a copy. It's like Palmer's How to Brew rolled in with Jamil's Brewing Classic Styles, for curries. Highly recommended.

Made a fantastic Kenyan chicken curry the other week.

Any you've got to make your pastes from scratch, no jars of goop.

Nothing like a good curry, nice fluffy rice, some warm bread and a few pints of brew!

:icon_cheers: SJ

 

[Franko]

Nice recipe there Tony I'll be sure to give it a go


Franko

 

[Katherine]

I make my own pastes.... but I do disagree with you there are some really good pastes around. You just need to be creative with them and not rely on them alone.

 

[drsmurto]

As always Tony, you have me salivating at work hours before lunch.

I have spent 5+ years perfecting thai curries from scratch but have only just started to dabble in the indian curries.

I find beating the snot out of fresh herbs and spices in a mortar very therapeutic!

Printed this recipe out and already have all the ingredients at home!

 

[Katherine]

Tony you have missed out on one ingredient that is a must in Indian cooking....

Add to taste at end... salt...is a flavour enhancer it will bring out the flavours of the curry!

Hey has any body had any luck growing a curry tree?????

 

[warra48]

Thank goodness you lot like curry.

Leaves none for me to endure and suffer.

I do love beer !

 

[Katherine]

Thank goodness you lot like curry.

Leaves none for me to endure and suffer.

I do love beer !

WHAT... they dont have to be hot!

 

[raven19]

As always Tony, you have me salivating at work hours before lunch.

+1. Recipe looks great, I dont have too many of those ingredients though...

 

[Airgead]

Hey has any body had any luck growing a curry tree?????

Mine grows very nicely in a pot. Apparently they will grow just about anywhere. Diggers had them as seedlings a year or so ago (www.diggers.com.au) and I think they still stock them.

I do a lot of Indian cooking. mostly based on my well thumbed Madhur Jaffrey books and some lessons from Indian neighbours.

I also do S/E Asian curries (thai, vietnamese, malay, etc).

Cheers
Dave

 

[Katherine]

Yeah I have had no lucky with curry plants... though as Tony said the leaves keep so well in the freezer.

I love southern Indian cooking the most... Das Sreedharan is my hero. Southern Indian cooking suits our environment with the abundance of fresh herbs.

Im keen of Burmese Curry's and pretty much any thing from the SE region, espeacially Thai and Vietnamese.

 

[Airgead]

Yeah I have had no lucky with curry plants... though as Tony said the leaves keep so well in the freezer.

According to the diggers climate map there should be nothing climate wise stopping you. They do like a bit of water and some good soil...How are the soild round your way? I've heard they are pretty sandy which may be a problem.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Katherine]

Last time I tried it was very sandy.... but I should try were I am know as its old market garden... my whole garden is herbs... Our Lemon Vebena is going very well...

 

[Tony]

Wow lots of curry heads out there.

Katie.... i put the salt in the paste...... just the way i do it but yes, salt is an important ingredient.

I have also thought about a curry tree and may look into it. They are best fresh. The leaves are not essential but they make that difference that makes the curry exceptional and taste authentic.

Now that i have my Indian curry sown pay im going to start work on a green and red thai curry as i love these also!

cheers

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Yes..another curry fan

SWMBO allways goes on about how to do decent curry in the wok...hot oil, add chilli for more heat...blah..blah...blah..


I will show her the recipie, and cop months of flack from the " I told you so" book

 

[sinkas]

my curry tree is about 6ft tall, and has overgrown my pathetic coffee tree

Its also got seed pod s on it at the moment so If you want seeds KAtie, I'll harvest

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

If i send a SAE envelope, con you give me some to..

Should grow well up here on the Nth coast

 

[browndog]

I love a good Malaysian red curry. I have a few packets of Alagappa's curry powder at the moment and they make a great curry. The missus lived in Malaysia for 5 years and does a fanstastic laksa.

cheers

Browndog