How to cook a curry?

Dave,
The best restaurant-type curry book i have bought in the last ten years has been "The curry secret" by
Kris Dhillon. i have seen it on ebay for under £4 new.I hope this is of some help!

Dave.

I think this is what you might need ISBN 0-86188-378-0 Sometimes ring burning hot, sometimes not you buys your spices and makes your choices.

You need to buy a good spice grinder. Use nice fresh herbs and spices, seek out Asian supermarkets (much cheaper, far bigger range). Grind your spices to a powder then add some water, garlic, salt and fresh chilli to make a nice smooth paste, use this as a base. Cardamom, cinnamon, coriander seeds and cumin seeds are the most common. I find Madhur Jaffrey's books indispensible. Try a couple of recipes to get the feel, then try improvising with whatever ingredients take your fancy

The chap who rents a room from us is from the Punjab area and owns an Indian Takeaway (a very tasty circumstance when we're having house meals). The shop opens at 4pm but they start preparation at 11.30am and one of the jobs, apparently, is making their own tomato paste from scratch. He says the bought stuff just doesn't impart a good/fresh enough flavour to the relevant dishes.

Deane

Do you mean meat Karai (<--type of wok)?
Unfortunately, if you were to go to the subcontinent and ask for a UK curry dish (eg madrassa), people wouldn't understand as most were made/invented/altered here.
The best trick in the book imo is to use fresh raw ingrediants as Malky suggested, and make your own masala powder - keeping it sealed/airtight in a cupboard - and follow the instructions of a decent curry recipe book (I myself am a bit spoiled here as I just go home and get some from mum )

But seeing as she's not here right now, here's a recipe for you:
Cooks for about 3-4 people:

pre-made garam masala (see above)
1-1.5 Kg boneless lamb, cut into chunks
black peppercorns 1 teaspoon
chilli powder 1-2-3-4 etc teaspoons (how adventurous are you feeling? )
1 whole, finely chopped onion
fresh coriander leaves
1 tablespoon cardemoms
1 stick cinnamon
two "Motee lachees" (sorry, don't know the english word for it and I was born here - it looks like a dry dark prune about the size of your thumb, your asian grocers will know what i mean)
3 cloves of fresh garlic, finely chopped
small knob of fresh ginger from a stem, peeled and grated
salt
Yoghurt if wanted


Pre-marinate boneless lamb in the masala powder + chilli powder to taste + black peppercorns (crushed if wanted) - enough to coat all pieces - for overnight (keep in fridge). If you want a mellower taste, add 2-3 tablespoons of yoghurt to the masala to make a masala paste and use that to marinade.
On the day - preheat an oven to about 200 deg C
Heat 2-3 tablespoons of sunflower oil (ghee is best but VERY fattening) until it is very "thin" and just smoking.
Add the onions, cardemoms, cinnamon stick, motee lachees, salt, chopped garlic and ginger until the onions are soft and light brown.
Now add the marinated meat into the frying pan / wok and fry for about 5-10 minutes (add about 1/4 glass of water - just enough to allow the meat to cook rather than dry out)
Now take off heat, and cover with tin foil to make fairly airtight and place in the oven for 1-1.5 hours until meat is tender / cooked (keep checking every 20min or so).
Once cooked, take out and garnish with a healthy dose of fresh coriander leaves - smells great with this.

Sorry there's no precise measurements, but I have a Jamie Oliver approach to cooking and tend to just chuck things in until they "taste about right"

happy eating

(now I'm dribbling again)

quote:

Originally posted by dave d:
The best restaurant-type curry book i have bought in the last ten years has been "The curry secret" by
Kris Dhillon.

The only problem with this book is that it involves boiling up huge quantities of onion and garlic in order to make the curry base or gravy - this tends to make your house stink for weeks!

Better perhaps to try something of Pat Chapman's - he fries the onions and garlic, making the odour a lot less intrusive....

quote:

Originally posted by Malky:
Grind your spices to a powder then add some water, garlic, salt and fresh chilli to make a nice smooth paste,

I now use white wine vinegar instead of water to make the paste, and then fry it off for a minute before adding anything else.
Gaffer - Next time you are doing a veggie one, me & Malky are coming round; we're only just around the corner.
(My wife is quarter Indian, but she has no culinary skills at all )

Don't forget yer Sudan 1 now, innit.


Fritz Von It's got to look good too

Guys,

Thanks for all your advice - I've managed to get a copy of "The curry secret" by
Kris Dhillon from a self confessed curry holic and gafer74 - tomorrow I am going to try out your recommendation - but still not sure of the dark prune Motee lachees, but we shall see.

Cheers, Dave

My favourite ever curry recipe is a Madhur Jaffrey one for "Goan Style Hot & Sour Pork - Vindaloo" try this link

I'm making one tonight and it is truly wonderful. It takes a little effort to make - lots of grinding spices and stuff, but I cannot recommend it strongly enough.

Kevin

quote:

Originally posted by Rasher:
Gaffer - Next time you are doing a veggie one, me & Malky are coming round; we're only just around the corner.
(My wife is quarter Indian, but she has no culinary skills at all )

You're quite welcome of course
I'm getting more and more practiced at daal and at bhindia).

quote:

Originally posted by David Greenwood:
but still not sure of the dark prune Motee lachees

It's not actually a fruit/sweet/prune, it just looks like one...more of a type of spice i think.