2012 Cooking Club Week 2b: Indian Resturant curries

Mellifera

bren2001 wrote: »

Just looking at attempting the Tikka Masala on page one but where do you buy the ingredients such as mace powder, cardamom powder etc? I'm assuming my local Tesco won't have such things.

Started making these curries a few weeks ago...
Spent ages going through a 'flagship' Tesco and Dunnes in the city looking for Mace Powder. Went to my local health food shop (in my local town) the following weekend and spotted it! They also had other difficult to locate items like fenugreek leaves.
Made the Tikka Masala yesterday actually. I would say that it's a little different from the Masalas i've had before but still well worth the effort! Went down a treat in our house.

Curry Addict

Mellifera wrote: »

Started making these curries a few weeks ago...
Spent ages going through a 'flagship' Tesco and Dunnes in the city looking for Mace Powder. Went to my local health food shop (in my local town) the following weekend and spotted it! They also had other difficult to locate items like fenugreek leaves.
Made the Tikka Masala yesterday actually. I would say that it's a little different from the Masalas i've had before but still well worth the effort! Went down a treat in our house.

glad you enjoyed. Mace power is almost impossible to get here. I buy it whole and grind it. You will find all the ingredients in asian shops, they will also be cheaper.

Mellifera

Yeah would definitely be cheaper but unfortunately i don't get to visit them at the weekends and don't have access during the week. Now that i'm making your curries though, i'm beginning to run out of my stash of ingredients and am going to have to go on an expedition...delightful!! :-)

IvyTheTerrible

Strange that mace has become difficult to find, my mother used to buy it when we were young for baking.

Phantom99

I found it in one of my local Dunnes but not the other.

Also found it in a couple of local Asian stores

eisenberg1

bren2001 wrote: »

Just looking at attempting the Tikka Masala on page one but where do you buy the ingredients such as mace powder, cardamom powder etc? I'm assuming my local Tesco won't have such things.

If you are still having trouble sourcing ingredients locally and cannot get to any of the asian foodstores, you could use Spices of India UK, they have everything you will need and they deliver.

Gbear

eisenberg1 wrote: »

If you are still having trouble sourcing ingredients locally and cannot get to any of the asian foodstores, you could use Spices of India UK, they have everything you will need and they deliver.

My brother has used them in Ireland and the UK.

We also get mexican dried chillies off them - chipotles, anchos and the like.

They're an absolute dog to get in Ireland as well but vital for doing serious mexican stuff.

bren2001

eisenberg1 wrote: »

If you are still having trouble sourcing ingredients locally and cannot get to any of the asian foodstores, you could use Spices of India UK, they have everything you will need and they deliver.

Cheers, there is an Asian Bombay Bazar on my way home from work. They have a website but don't have everything I need on it. I'll use Spices of India UK if the shop doesn't stock it when I drop in.

Curry Addict

gagomes wrote: »

It's a dish that's characterized by intense heat (madras level and above), a thick tomato sauce, some notes of coconut and lemon which make it sweet and sour. It's sri lankan as Curry Addict mentioned.




You are very right. It is commonly found on menus in britain, where I found my love for curry. I described my base recipe in post 462#



Ceylon Chicken

350 ml of base
2 tbsp of oil
1 tsp of garlic paste
1 tsp of ginger paste (optional)
1 hpd tsp of mix powder
1.5 tsp of dry methi leaves
3 tbsp of tom puree (watered down 50/50)
.5 tsp of salt
1 tbsp of deggi mirch chilli powder (n.b: adjust depending on which chilli powder you choose. Deggi mirch is in my book a 4/10 hot variety)
1 fresh green chilli
1/4 a coconut creamed block (try breaking it into small pieces, so ti cooks/melts faster)
2 tsp of lemon juice (I prefer fresh, but bottled is fine)
1 tsp of brown sugar (or to taste, you need to balance the acidity)
1 tsp of finely chopped coriander
1 portion of chicken (~160g aka a regular chicken breast)

Method:

Heat a pan for 30 secs, then add the oil and let it come to heat (5-15 secs).
Add chillies
Add the 2 spoons of separate g&g, stir until the sizzling stops
Add mix powder, methi and stir.
Add lemon and the tomato puree, stir and let the tomato sauce reduce a little
Add first ladle of base and stir and let it come to temperature.
Add the coconut creamed block and stir.
Once it starts bubbling and the coconut is starting to melt and form a creamy texture in your dish, add the chicken.
Reduce the base, scrape well the sides and bottom to avoid burning/sticking.
Add coriander
Add second ladle
Add sugar, taste for salt/sweetness and serve.

If balanced well, the dish will be covering quite a few spots. Apologies if I missed something in the recipe. I just wrote it on the spot

i finally got around to trying this one. I found it very hard to chose any curry over the chilli masala for a long time now hence why it took so long.

Its a really tasty curry, the sweet, sour, tomato, coconut combination is delicious. It was a touch rich and maybe a little less tomato puree and coconut will work better. My fist time cooking it so probably my fault!

When i was eating it, i was thinking, damn i wish i had this with tilapia or prawns instead of chicken. I think it suits seafood much better than meat.

Phantom99

Hi Guys,

Given that you probably use cinammon/cassia bark in preparing your meats/pilau rice etc I said I'd mention the articles below.

Be careful what cinammon you use in curries particularly if you are cooking for kids. Ideally you should use ceylon cinnamon or true cinnamon as cassia bark is quite toxic.

The article below will tell you the difference between the 2.

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/poison-in-disguise-40912

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/323339


Cassia bark contains coumarin:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coumarin


Coumarin is moderately toxic to the liver and kidneys, with a median lethal dose (LD50) of 275 mg/kg, a low toxicity compared to related compounds. Though it is only somewhat dangerous to humans, coumarin is hepatotoxic in rats, but less so in mice. Rodents metabolize it mostly to 3,4-coumarin epoxide, a toxic, unstable compound that on further differential metabolism may cause liver cancer in rats and lung tumors in mice.[23][24] Humans metabolize it mainly to 7-hydroxycoumarin, a compound of lower toxicity. The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment has established a tolerable daily intake (TDI) of 0.1 mg coumarin per kg body weight, but also advises that higher intake for a short time is not dangerous.[25] The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the United States does not classify coumarin as a carcinogen for humans.[26]

European health agencies have warned against consuming high amounts of cassia bark, one of the four main species of cinnamon, because of its coumarin content.[27][28] According to the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BFR), 1 kg of (cassia) cinnamon powder contains about 2.1 to 4.4 g of coumarin.[29] Powdered cassia cinnamon weighs 0.56 g/cm3,[30] so a kilogram of cassia cinnamon powder equals 362.29 teaspoons. One teaspoon of cassia cinnamon powder therefore contains 5.8 to 12.1 mg of coumarin, which may be above the tolerable daily intake value for smaller individuals.[29] However, the BFR only cautions against high daily intake of foods containing coumarin. Its report[29] specifically states that Ceylon cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) contains "hardly any" coumarin.

Gbear

Any mulligatawny soup recipes going? Been meaning to expand my soup repertoire.

Curry Addict

Gbear wrote: »

Any mulligatawny soup recipes going? Been meaning to expand my soup repertoire.

never heard of it i see its an english derivative of an indian sauce.

I am on the lookout for a killer Rasam recipe btw.

Curry Addict

Phantom99 wrote: »

Hi Guys,

Given that you probably use cinammon/cassia bark in preparing your meats/pilau rice etc I said I'd mention the articles below.

Be careful what cinammon you use in curries particularly if you are cooking for kids.

scary stuff i use a lot of the bark. i will reduce the amount i use after reading this.

Phantom99

I was using a lot too. I'm gonna try and cut it out altogether. We would have 2 curries a week so I'd like to try and keep them as healthy as possible without losing the taste.

Cassia bark or cinammon is in garam masala also so I think I'll make my own from now on. I have a few recipies

BaZmO*

Gbear wrote: »

Any mulligatawny soup recipes going? Been meaning to expand my soup repertoire.

I've only seen it on an episode of Rick Stein's India. It was cooked by an Indian chef in a fancy hotel. Looked really nice, although I think it was very green in colour? (from all the herbs, mint?)

I'm sure you'd find a video online if you looked around.

Dizzyblonde

Gbear wrote: »

Any mulligatawny soup recipes going? Been meaning to expand my soup repertoire.

Someone posted a couple of links in the Souper Soup thread a while back:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=68968998&postcount=33

Curry Addict

BaZmO* wrote: »

I've only seen it on an episode of Rick Stein's India. It was cooked by an Indian chef in a fancy hotel. Looked really nice, although I think it was very green in colour? (from all the herbs, mint?)

I'm sure you'd find a video online if you looked around.

i think that book might be in my christmas stocking this year. If it is ill post the recipe.

Gbear

Doing some back of the envelope calculations, (so they could be quite wrong) assuming you eat 5g of cassia, or about 2tsp, you'd get about 1.5g of coumarin, of the 5-10g you're allowed.

Heroditas

Utterly exhausted! Had some family over for dinner after a trip to the zoo this afternoon and I served up the following:

Seekh kebabs for starters

Main course:
Chicken tikka massala
Lamb rogan Josh
Chicken chilli massala (using Carolina Reaper chilli powder)
Rice
Plain and garlic naan

All made from scratch
Bloody fantastic and very tasty!

I had run out of vegetable oil during the week and had forgotten go top up.
I used ghee instead - may as well lorry on the calories one last time at the end of Christmas

Phantom99

Came across a great recipe for making naan bread. Made some last night. It calls for a gas hob and a tawa but I had to make do with an induction hob and frying pan but it still worked out really well - see pic

I added some melted butter with garlic powder on top

postsnthing

Phantom99 wrote: »

Came across a great recipe for making naan bread. Made some last night. It calls for a gas hob and a tawa but I had to make do with an induction hob and frying pan but it still worked out really well - see pic

I added some melted butter with garlic powder on top

http://i66.tinypic.com/b71c3r.jpg[/IMG]

You may need to copy and paste into address bar to see the picture.

well what's the recipe

gerrybbadd

Phantom99 wrote: »

Came across a great recipe for making naan bread. Made some last night. It calls for a gas hob and a tawa but I had to make do with an induction hob and frying pan but it still worked out really well - see pic

I added some melted butter with garlic powder on top

http://i66.tinypic.com/b71c3r.jpg[/IMG]

You may need to copy and paste into address bar to see the picture.

Looks lovely. Any chance of sharing this recipe of yours?

Phantom99

These are the ingredients. Below makes 10 bubbly restaurant quality naans. No need for a tandoor, can be frozen etc. The technique used replicates a tandoor and worked with my non stick frying pan and induction hob.

200g Milk
320g Water
100g Sugar
50g Egg
8g Baking powder
2g Onion seeds
1kg Self-raising flour
vegetable oil
water

Note water, milk, egg is weighed and is in grams ie 200g milk is not 200ml milk. It is 200g weight of milk.

Follow h4ppyleaders video and you can't go wrong. Great detailed video on how to do it - see link below. I used 70g sugar instead of 100g per recipe and they were spot on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nypVcrfz6dk

He has some very good videos on naan, chapatis and indian curries, techniques etc too. Goes into detail.

Dizzyblonde

That naan looks amazing.

The Black Oil

Misread and thought it said 50 eggs.

Curry Addict

Curry Addict wrote: »

I
Curry base gravy
200ml Vegetable oil
2tbs ginger and garlic paste
7 medium onions
1tsp salt
2 medium carrots
1 green pepper
2 green chillies
Water
2tbs curry masala
½ can of plumb tomatoes

Stick my name on the list of always wanted to, but only getting around to it now. I note that the original base recipe above calls for as much water as necessary to cover the onions, while the new one, below, uses only 150ml, with 200ml of oil in both.

Curry Addict wrote: »

New base recipe

16 medium onions (skin and put into the pot whole)
2 carrots (roughly chopped)
1inch piece of ginger sliced
1tbs ginger and garlic paste
½ a bunch of coriander
½ a green bell pepper
150ml water
200ml vegetable oil

I've had the new base recipe on the go for about 2.5 hours now and have had to top up the level of water twice, to save the pot from burning. Is "150ml" a typo that i missed being corrected somewhere or am i just doing it wrong? I haven't gotten to the second stage using the chilli, ginger and paste part yet, but the pot would definitely have burned if i'd just left it, even on the lowest setting on the cooker.

Curry Addict

The 150ml water is correct. The base is cooked at a low heat with the Lid on the pot. As it cooks the onions release a lot of juices. So over 2.5 hours the amount of liquid in the pot should increase a lot. Maybe you didn't have a Lid on the pot. Maybe the heat was too high. Hope this helps...

jimfinoc

Hi Guys. You know when you are watching currys or indian food been prepaired they put the spices out in small round plastic dishes. I am looking for some and don't know what they are called.
Or can someone forward me a link.

Thanks

marklazarcovic

ramekins will do the job,most euro shops or dealz

Even those foil bun cases are good

Heroditas

Get one of THESE