2012 Cooking Club Week 2b: Indian Resturant curries

Mellor

Finally getting around to give this a go.
I love thai curry in all it's forms. The rate time I cook something different, it's a Malay curry with a tomato base (slow cooked the pan).

I do to have room to store 7 litres of curry base, I scaled down by a factor of 5 to get 5 portions. Near disaster when the scale down water boiled off when sweating the onions. But the whole-ish onions saved them being burnt to the pot. So managed to save the lot -well bare a tiny amount.

Base made, cooked the meat, was going to go with Madras. But realised I had the perfect amount if almond meal to use up so went for the korma.
...then realised I'd no creamed coconut or cream in the house. So improvised with some coconut cream (also left over - homemade bounty/snickers bars).

So some variation from the recipe. Hope you won't hold it against me Curry Addict. About to plate up...

Curry Addict

ouch sounds like you had a difficult time. All that work seems a lot for so little. The base in such small amount has its problems i guess. I have made 1/2 batches before and that does work fine and yields about 10 portions which is an ok return for the time spent.

I have used coconut milk to make korma before and it works great imho. I havent used snicker or bounty bars yet though

I hope your korma was at least decent

Mellor

Curry Addict wrote: »

ouch sounds like you had a difficult time. All that work seems a lot for so little. The base in such small amount has its problems i guess. I have made 1/2 batches before and that does work fine and yields about 10 portions which is an ok return for the time spent.

TBH it wasn't that much work. Mostly on auto pilot, and time was reduced due to lower volume. The base was simmering away after saving it as I did some meat (4 portions). Took half out, and them did the korma in the same pan. A but of time, but I just did some reading/writ as I waited. 1 for dinner, one for lunch.

I tend to eat pretty 6 times a day, so my portions would be smaller than somebody eating 3 square meals, lunch portions slightly smaller than dinner too.
I used 3 ladles, for 2 portions, and had 9 left over. So I'll get 8 portions out of the lot or so.

I have used coconut milk to make korma before and it works great imho. I havent used snicker or bounty bars yet though

I hope your korma was at least decent

Korma was great. Coconut cream was a good replacement for separate coconut and cream. I'll prob do it like that in future.
Almond meal was a new curry ingredient for me, definitely keeping that in mind as a thickener.

Madras next.

Curry Addict

Mellor wrote: »

TBH it wasn't that much work. Mostly on auto pilot, and time was reduced due to lower volume. The base was simmering away after saving it as I did some meat (4 portions). Took half out, and them did the korma in the same pan. A but of time, but I just did some reading/writ as I waited. 1 for dinner, one for lunch.

I tend to eat pretty 6 times a day, so my portions would be smaller than somebody eating 3 square meals, lunch portions slightly smaller than dinner too.
I used 3 ladles, for 2 portions, and had 9 left over. So I'll get 8 portions out of the lot or so.


Korma was great. Coconut cream was a good replacement for separate coconut and cream. I'll prob do it like that in future.
Almond meal was a new curry ingredient for me, definitely keeping that in mind as a thickener.

Madras next.

i guess once your home all day its a doddle to just tip it along. I havent heard of almond meal, i guess its similar to ground almond?
I'm glad it work out well and you had a nice korma in the end.
Coconut milk does work great but a bit expensive. I also use it in another style of madras, i like to make, with curry leaves, mustard seeds and a south Indian spice mix.
Good luck with the Madras

Muahahaha

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?

Mellor

Curry 2, Madras. nyom nyom nyom.
Nice and spicy.


Have another couple of portions of curry base in the freezer. Suggestions to try nest? (after korma and ,madras)

Curry Addict

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.

---

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:

Curry Addict

Mellor wrote: »

Curry 2, Madras. nyom nyom nyom.
Nice and spicy.


Have another couple of portions of curry base in the freezer. Suggestions to try nest? (after korma and ,madras)

The vindaloo if you like it spicey. The Saag is an awesome variation also so satisfying

Mellor

Curry Addict wrote: »

The vindaloo if you like it spicey. The Saag is an awesome variation also so satisfying

I like curry hot. With the madras I was quite liberal with the spices. So I think I'll try vindaloo soon. But I think I'll try the dash next.

glic83

Did you ever get around to doing the videos Curry Addict?

Muahahaha

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.

Curry Addict

glic83 wrote: »

Did you ever get around to doing the videos Curry Addict?

no not yet just so buy lately sorry

Curry Addict

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.

glic83

Curry Addict wrote: »

no not yet just so buy lately sorry

No need to be sorry, you have already given so much within this thread alone, was just wondering as I'm sure most people would love to see a video/videos of you making the curries if you get the time

Curry Addict

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

gagomes

I've been cooking restaurant style since for over 1.5 years now and I love it. I had a chance to be trained by some balti/non-balti chefs in Birmingham, both of them Bengali. I am these days more interested in traditional food. Here are some pictures of past curries I cooked at home

Chicken Bhuna


Veg Bhaji


Chicken Madras


Chicken Jalfrezi


Chicken Tikka Massalah

gagomes

apologies for the messy size of the pictures -):

Curry Addict

o that made me hungry, they look amazing. I would happily dive in to any of those.

Any tips you picked up that you could share with us? I would love to see your curry base recipe...

gerrybbadd

I'd second the request for tips!

Mr. CooL ICE

gerrybbadd wrote:

Location: Tubbercurry

I'm very easily amused :pac:

gagomes

I'm more than happy to share everything I know. If needed, I wouldn't even mind spending time showing some of this in person. Perhaps someone with a large kitchen could host a few of us and we could get together to get some curry/cheffing tips exchange :-)

I've developed my own base sauce and I have also used one from the bengali chef that taught me. I am currently short for time due to a demanding project at work, but feel free to ask any questions you would like to know and I will try to answer as many as possible.

Goncalo

gerrybbadd

Nicolas Cage wrote: »

I'm very easily amused :pac:

There's actually a place in Tubbercurry that's just called Curry!

IvyTheTerrible

gerrybbadd wrote: »

There's actually a place in Tubbercurry that's just called Curry!

It's actually a village that's not far from Tubbercurry, not in it.

Muahahaha

Those pics have me famished Gagomes, defo gonna be another curry weekend=)

Mrs Fox

On an Indian restaurant curry mission here - curry base simmering away, now prepping the chicken. Not sure what to cook yet, maybe luminous chicken tikka and chicken rogan josh. Don't have fenugreek leaves though. Can I replace it with curry leaves?

gerrybbadd

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

It's actually a village that's not far from Tubbercurry, not in it.

Had to get in there with the correction huh? It's not big deal for the matter of a few miles.

Goncalo - Would you have any recipes / tips for Lamb Biryani?

Mrs Fox

I finally made your curries, CA 😃
Man alive!

Curry Addict

O they look amazing thats a great result for first time. I hope they tasted as good as they look. I had a madras myself today a nice oily fat one like yours lol.

Funnily enough, your soup in on the menu tomorrow. Looking forward to that!

Mrs Fox

Curry Addict wrote: »

O they look amazing thats a great result for first time. I hope they tasted as good as they look. I had a madras myself today a nice oily fat one like yours lol.

Funnily enough, your soup in on the menu tomorrow. Looking forward to that!

They were very tasty indeed. I didn't get the chance to do Naan to mop the sauce, maybe tomorrow for lunch.

Oh I hope you'll like the soup. It's not massively big flavours, just in case you're expecting. It's clean crisp flavour with a zing from the condiments. I suppose you can adjust it whichever way you wish to suit, extra spice, Etc.

Curry Addict

"clean crisp flavour" does it for me :pac: