2012 Cooking Club Week 2b: Indian Resturant curries

Muahahaha wrote: »

Hey Curry Addict, I'm having another jalfrezi weekend here, can't get enough of the stuff:)

Was just wondering when you precook your meats and you've got that liquid stock leftover afterwards have you ever done anything with it like make some sort of sauce or gravy that might go well with another dish ?

I have though about it but never done it. It could be used to cook rice in it by absorption, for tasty rice. Or maybe strain it and bring it up to heat in a pan and simply add some cream for a nice cream sauce.

Muahahaha wrote: »

Rice idea sounds great, must give that a try. I suppose it would work great as a gravy with just plain chicken & chips, give it a bit if curry flavour. I might give that a try and just add another tbs of the masala mix to refresh the flavour a bit and maybe thicken it with some corn flour.

I'm gonna try out your Madras recipe tomorrow, it'll be hard pulling away from the jalfrezi though:)

the madras is better imho

hdowney wrote: »

Couple questions. How much garlic/ginger paste is made - I also presume they are seperate pastes? - cos you use them in the gravy but also seperate from it.
How do you store the pastes and the gravy?
I NEED time to make these. Gonna try perhaps Wednesday

make a combined 50%garlic/50%ginger paste as this is whats used to make the base and the individual curries. 6tbs total should be enough to make the base, cook the meats and make a couple of curries. It keeps in the fridge for a week. I never bother to freeze it.

I put the base in freezer bags and portion it 6 ladles in each one(enough to make 2 curries at a time).

It isn't labour intensive to make the base. You just need to be there to tip it along.

good luck with it!

a large pot etc is a good investment. your likely to get a lot of use out it.

the base is all made in the 1 pot, no need for a second one.

Muahahaha wrote: »

Will be defrosting the last three portions of curry base later in the week so keen to hear about this other Madras recipe with southern masala if you get the chance to dig it out.

Also Curry Addict when you make various curries these days is it always by the curry base method you do so? If you were to come across a curry recipe in a cook book that was more of a one pot curry from scratch would you just take the ingredients and adapt it to mix with your base?

Here is the alternative Madras. Unusual complex flavors and might taste a bit odd at first but gets better and better as you go

1 chef spoon veg oil
1tsp mustard seed.
12 curry leaves.
2 dried long red chillies.
1tsp ginger/garlic paste.

1tsp tomato puree.
1 level tbs "South Indian masala"
1tsp chilli powder.
0.75tsp salt.

1 ladle of curry base
Add your meat.
1.5 ladles of base
Tamarind to taste or 1tbs lime juice or 1 tbs lemon juice.
6tbs coconut milk
1-2tbs chopped coriander leaf

add oil, mustard seed, curry leaves, ginger/garlic paste and the red chillies to the pan and bring up the heat. bring it to a sizzle and add the tomato puree, the masala and chili powder. Within 20 secs add the 1st ladle of base. Stir/scrape and reduce it down until the oil separates. Then add the meats and the rest of the base and reduce to the desired consistency. Add the coconut milk, coriander leaf and sour to taste.

South indian masala
10 curry leaves
1tsp ground turmeric
2tsp coriander seed
1tsp cumin seed.
2.5cm piece of cinnamon.
3 cloves.
1 dried red chilli.
0.5 a bay leaf.
0.25tsp fenugreek seeds.
0.5tsp allspice berries.
0.5tsp black peppercorns.

Roast in a dry pan and then grind to a fine powder for best results.

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I do adapt curries from books. usually taking a spice blend and main ingredients from a region. like vindaloo using goan spices and ingredients(garlic and vinegar) and adapt them to use with curry base.
I find it works very well and usually a nice discovery. you cant go far wrong, using the basic same amounts as normal with the base. I do always like to make it the way a book says first so i can try and understand the flavors before i mess around with them!

I like curry in all forms, using the base is not necessarily always best. It limits things too much imho. We eat the Surinamese curry a lot these days its just so great and it doesn't use the base. I really recommend you try that one.

I made a Laal mass a few times recently with chicken instead of lamb. that was a revelation, it was just - chicken thighs, 60 long dried red chillies(deseeded), salt and water. Really spicy but so satisfying lol :pac:

Muahahaha wrote: »

Thanks for that CA, I'm missing a couple of the ingredients like curry leaves for that South Indian masala mix so as my curry base defrosted yesterday and I'm not near an Asian shop I reckon I'll go with the regular madras recipe for now but on the next run of curry base the first few portions are getting done south Madras style for sure.

Defintely will try your Surinamese in due course too. I remember you mentioned earlier in the thread that you're a big fan of Indonesian food, have you ever heard or come across a dish called chabay hijau at all? I was down in Sumatra last year and this homecook in the guest house I was staying in cooked it for me, two nights in a row it was that good. Defintely shrimp and chilli in it but I've no idea what the paste could be made of. I took down the spelling exactly as it was on the menu with the intention of re-creating it when I got home but when I did and Googled it.....nada, either a mis-spelling or some kind of local dialet spelling (I was in Medan in northern Sumatra so its very different to Java and the other main islands). Anyway just thought I'd ask if you've ever come across the term.

Oh and one other Q, if you wanted to make your curry ahem, shall we say a little less gassy what ingredient would be best to add? I've heard fennel seeds are supposed to help but not sure if their flavour would throw things off too much or get disguised by the other spices.

better wait for the curry leaves then i guess

i never heard of that Indonesian recipe. They do use regional spice pastes called "bumbu" as a base to many recipes. So its probably based around a Sumatran Bumbu.

not quite sure what you mean by gassy I would only add fennel seed to a fish curry.

ok i promise I will do it soon, before Christmas for sure.