eG Cook-Off #80: The Aromatic, Exotic Flavors of Curry

[Okanagancook]

Made my Rendang Daging for my Indonesian Dinner on Saturday.  I like to let curries sit in the fridge a few days to develop flavour.

 

First deboned the lamb legs and cut into 2" x 1" pieces.  You can use beef also.  Next onions, garlic, ginger root, chilies and a little thick coconut milk is blended until smooth.  It all goes into a sauce pan with the rest of the coconut milk, turmeric, chili powder, ground coriander, dawn salam leaves, lemon grass laos powder or galangal powder.  This is stirred with the meat and then tamarind liquid is added.  The whole thing simmers without a lid for 2 1/2 hours until the liquid is very reduced and oil from the coconut comes to surface and the meat is fried in this oil.  So, it is like a reverse curry because usually you fry the spices at the beginning but here it is done at the end.  Palm sugar is added at the end also.  I forgot to take a picture of the curry at the end in the pan so just a shot of it in it's container.  I will reheat it at dinner time and do the frying part of the procedure.

[rotuts]

@Okanagancook

 

Nice Nice Nice

 

just to ask :

 

what's under that copper pan you have

 

on that nice gas stove ?

[Okanagancook]

Thanks @rotuts.  It's a Mauviel large sautéed pan that I bought myself for my 60th birthday...sadly awhile back.  I use it with a diffuser on top of my Wolf six burner gas range.  Very even heat and low temps.  It is a beast to maneuver.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

If an Indian curry recipe calls for yams, is the ingredient genus Dioscorea, or what we in the US call sweet potatoes?  Wkipedia tells me yams are eaten in Asia.  Yams here are hard to come by but they are available.

 

Unrelated to the above I made a batch of "Simple Curry" from The Yogi Cook Book by Yogi Vithaldas and Susan Roberts.  I've been making this recipe for close to fifty years.  My rice ended up rather dry and this time it was not the greatest.

 

[KennethT]

@Okanagancook Looks great!  Where do you get the salam leaves?

[David Ross]

14 hours ago, Okanagancook said:

Made my Rendang Daging for my Indonesian Dinner on Saturday.  I like to let curries sit in the fridge a few days to develop flavour.

 

First deboned the lamb legs and cut into 2" x 1" pieces.  You can use beef also.  Next onions, garlic, ginger root, chilies and a little thick coconut milk is blended until smooth.  It all goes into a sauce pan with the rest of the coconut milk, turmeric, chili powder, ground coriander, dawn salam leaves, lemon grass laos powder or galangal powder.  This is stirred with the meat and then tamarind liquid is added.  The whole thing simmers without a lid for 2 1/2 hours until the liquid is very reduced and oil from the coconut comes to surface and the meat is fried in this oil.  So, it is like a reverse curry because usually you fry the spices at the beginning but here it is done at the end.  Palm sugar is added at the end also.  I forgot to take a picture of the curry at the end in the pan so just a shot of it in it's container.  I will reheat it at dinner time and do the frying part of the procedure.

Thanks for posting your step-by-step.  Since you mentioned the dish earlier I've been intrigued by it and I can't wait to see how it looks when finished.  And then of course I'll take a try at it.

[Okanagancook]

1 hour ago, KennethT said:

@Okanagancook Looks great!  Where do you get the salam leaves?

I got them in Edmonton at one of the little Asian shops in Chinatown....that was a few years ago.  The recipe said one could use curry leaves instead.

[Okanagancook]

Made some Keema Mattar with some of the lamb leftover from my other curry.

Ingredients are ground lamb, onion, garlic, ginger, turmeric, chili, salt, garam masala, diced tomatoes, green split peas and chopped cilantro.

The onions, garlic, ginger, turmeric, chili and salt are sautéed until soft.  The meat is added and sautéed until a little browned then the tomatoes and split peas go and simmered until everything is tender.  The garam masala and cilantro go in and it is done.  One of my favourite curries.

 

[blue_dolphin]

Mixed up some masala so I can contribute something to this thread

The recipe is from a former colleague from India - Uttar Pradesh. She mixes up a big batch and used to replenish my own stock whenever I asked.  When I moved, she scaled the recipe down for me.

I managed to crop out a few items - saffron, salt, sugar and turmeric

[TicTac]

20 hours ago, Okanagancook said:

 

Slightly off topic - sorry - this pic appears to be a Wolf range (like mine!) - however I am curious what that metal plate your pot is sitting on (and what value it offers)?

 

 

[Okanagancook]

It is a heat diffuser.  I like to use it when I want a low simmer and an even distribution of heat.  On the Wolf range the little flame on Simmer seems to make stuff stick in the middle of the pan.  Here, and you can also get cheaper ones like the second one.  I also use it when I cook with my ceramic tagine and clay pots.

https://www.amazon.ca/Asixx-Stainless-Converter-Induction-Household/dp/B07GZN61RJ/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1538080291&sr=8-18&keywords=heat+diffuser+for+gas+stove

https://www.amazon.ca/Faringdon-20cm-Handle-Heavy-Diffuser/dp/B0000BVFE7/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1538080484&sr=8-12&keywords=heat+diffuser+for+gas+stove

 

[David Ross]

I remembered a little more about the green curry I used for the prawn dish.  I also made the green curry as a dipping sauce for fried prawn balls when we did our Meatball Cook-Off.  Does anyone know if meatballs are used in curries in some cultures?  I have a recipe for lamb meatballs with North African spices, but I know lamb or beef would not be used in some cultures.

[KennethT]

Most meatballs I have seen in SE Asian curries have either been fish ball, or pork, and both are the bouncy kind, not the typical western meatball texture.

[Okanagancook]

Charmaine Solomon has recipes for "kaftas" or meatballs.  Page 65 or The Complete Asian Cookbook has "Kashmiri style" or Keema Seekh Kebab or minced meat on skewers.  I have a number of other East Indian books which have recipes for minced kebabs.  If that helps.

[kayb]

9 hours ago, David Ross said:

I remembered a little more about the green curry I used for the prawn dish.  I also made the green curry as a dipping sauce for fried prawn balls when we did our Meatball Cook-Off.  Does anyone know if meatballs are used in curries in some cultures?  I have a recipe for lamb meatballs with North African spices, but I know lamb or beef would not be used in some cultures.

 

Here's a site I like that offers a meatball/kofta curry. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

This morning (OK, granted I keep oddish hours) another Simple Curry -- Yogi Vithaldas' term.  As I was enjoying my dinner I was perusing VIJ'S at Home.  Wherein I stumbled upon Yogurt Curry (pp 92-93).  Same recipe, except Dhalwala and Vij grind their fenugreek and Vithaldas omits the garlic and onion.

 

 

 

For most of my life this was the only curry that I knew.

 

 

[KennethT]

Last night, we had the last portion of the Singapore style curry with roti prata, recipe here:

 

I think I've gotten much better at cooking the prata - while it looked the same as in previous posts, it was flakier.

[David Ross]

This is a special cookbook of mine, "Ooh Lala, Delicious Punjabi Food, Simplified."  It's by my friend Lala Rukh.  We met back in 2001 on the set of MasterChef USA on PBS.  (No, not that dreadful Gordon Ramsay shill "MasterChef.").  The program was the American version of MasterChef on the BBC which still runs today with MasterChef (Amateurs), MasterChef The Professionals and MasterChef UK Celebrity.

 

Lala and I competed with another gentleman as the top 3 home cooks in America.  She and her husband are from Pakistan so it's interesting to see her versions of curry.  Her Cauliflower and Potato Curry calls for onions, garlic, ground coriander, ground red pepper, cumin seeds, turmeric, red potatoes, cauliflower cilantro and ginger.  She's got another 20 curries and turmeric is used in most of the recipes.  She suggests serving the Cauliflower and Potato Curry with flatbread as traditionally in her region of Pakistan rice is not eaten with cauliflower.

 

 

[heidih]

Curry being being such a broad term I think @Shelby did an amazing eggplant dish I would consider "curried" - a sectacular and brave attempt for someone new to all the spices.  

 

Edited September 29, 2018 by heidih (log)

[blue_dolphin]

Building on the broadness of the term "curry," I'll share this most inauthentic contribution - Curry chicken salad with apples and cashews

I used the spice mixture I posted about the other day, Trader Joe's mango & ginger chutney subbing for my usual Major Grey and a handy sous vide chicken breast from the freezer.

To compound the inauthenticity, I enjoyed this with some Pão de Queijo (Brazilian cheese bread made with cassava flour) that I bought at the farmers market 

On the more authentic side, my Indian friend taught me the flavor enhancing power of toasting spices so even here, I lightly toast the spice mixture before adding it to the dressing. 

[heidih]

Yes that spice toasting is such a significant easy add-on. Much like blooming spices. 

[KennethT]

OK, I know this is a "cook-off", but we ordered Thai food from one of my favorite Thai restaurants in NY - their green curry is the closest I've tasted to what I've had in Thailand... in addition to their green curry paste, there are kaffir lime leaves, thai apple eggplants (my favorite eggplant aubergine), and something I've never seen anywhere else outside of Thailand, slivers of krachai, aka lesser ginger.  Not pictured, and technically not a curry, we got some nam prik ong - which is a relish made with pork, shrimp paste and tomato served with crudite and pork rinds for dipping, and one of my favorite vegetables, pak boong aka morning glory aka kangkung aka ong choy.

Edited September 30, 2018 by KennethT (log)

[sartoric]

One of the things I like about our almost exclusively Indian diet is how the various dishes work so well together, and therein lies the ability to make a quick meal out of leftovers. I always cook a dish in quantity to serve  4 or more and keep the remainder in the fridge for up to four days. So when things get hectic and you’re scrambling to get a meal ready in short order, it’s easy peasy. This one took maybe 15 minutes....mostly spent frying rice and manning the microwave.

 

The rice was cooked yesterday, in a rice cooker with just a few cardamom pods and cloves. Tonight I spluttered some mustard seeds in ghee, then added urad dal and curry leaves, diced onion, green chilli, and a pinch of turmeric, the cooked rice and stirred for several minutes to break up any lumps, then defrosted peas stirring until hot, and finished with chopped fresh coriander. 

 

It’s served with chicken and fenugreek curry from a few days ago, mallum made with Tuscan cabbage, also from a couple days ago,  Kali dal (a black lentil dish) made yesterday and paratha cooked on a tawa. I buy the paratha frozen in a 20 pack, they’re handy when I can’t be bothered or don’t have time for making chapatis.  Tawa (pronounced tava) is a fry pan, flat with a tiny lip and very useful for breads like chapatis, paratha and also dosa. 

Edited September 30, 2018 by sartoric (log)

[kayb]

13 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

Building on the broadness of the term "curry," I'll share this most inauthentic contribution - Curry chicken salad with apples and cashews

I used the spice mixture I posted about the other day, Trader Joe's mango & ginger chutney subbing for my usual Major Grey and a handy sous vide chicken breast from the freezer.

To compound the inauthenticity, I enjoyed this with some Pão de Queijo (Brazilian cheese bread made with cassava flour) that I bought at the farmers market 

On the more authentic side, my Indian friend taught me the flavor enhancing power of toasting spices so even here, I lightly toast the spice mixture before adding it to the dressing. 

 

I've had chicken salad like that. Wonderful!

 

[Shelby]

16 hours ago, heidih said:

Curry being being such a broad term I think @Shelby did an amazing eggplant dish I would consider "curried" - a sectacular and brave attempt for someone new to all the spices.  

 

 

Aw, thank you Heidi!  I had a good time trying something new.  I'm going to definitely need one of those cool spice holders.