Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Food glorious food!





Whilst searching the BBC web site for the weather forecast (in the vain hope of finding that it will be sunny for the foreseeable future - not looking great by the way, but we live in hope) - I came across the following link.

I love curry and would like to be able to cook it better than I do (in fact I would like to be able to cook anything better than I do) so am going to have a go at some of these recipes and tips.

If you have the chance to have a go and have some successes - do let me know! Marvelous.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/mostof_indianessentials1.shtml

8 comments:

Leigh P said...

Emma - you could cheat and use a pre-made sauce which is a nice way to start out. Korma or Thai Green are good if you like a mild curry but remember they contain coconut.

My recipe:

Radioman's Thai Green Treat for 3/4 people. About 25 mins required.

Ingredients:

1 x Sainsbury's So Organic Thai Green Sauce.

1 x Sainsbury's Turkey Mince or 2 or 3 Chicken Breasts, cut into small pieces.

1 x Red Onion.

Cooked Rice, any variety though we prefer brown or basmati.

Small carton of Natural Yoghurt

(Option 1: Pataks Korma paste)
(Option 2: Replace meat with soft-cooked green lentils)

Method:

Really easy - take a good sized non-stick frying pan or wok and dry-fry the turkey mince or chicken pieces. (Use a wooden spatula)

Dry frying is easy - no oil in the pan - so you have to keep turning and moving the meat around to stop it from sticking and burning. If you wish, take Option 1 above and add a few teaspoons of pataks korma paste to 'pep' things up a touch.

Cook thoroughly until meat browned slightly or chicken no longer 'red' inside. Remove from heat and leave to rest a while.

Put your rice on at this point.

Peel and chop red onion and again dry fry in another pan until cooked but stays slightly firm. You could also add red or yellow pepper, etc, that takes the same time to cook as onion - just fry and leave slightly firm - not sloppy.

Return to the meat pan and drain any excess liquid from the pan. This stops the final curry being too wet.

Then add the onion, etc, to the meat and mix.

Finally add the Thai green sauce and stir together.

To get the remaining sauce from the jar, add a little of the natural yoghurt to the jar, put lid on and shake, then pour the rest of the sauce into the pan. (You can use a little milk if you don't use yoghurt.)

Finally cook for about 10 to 15 minutes with a lid or some form of cover over a low to moderate heat, stirring occasionally.

If you wish, add a small amount of yoghurt once removed from the heat to make the curry milder - but don't put back onto heat as it 'curdles' and tastes yuck.

Serve on a bed of rice immediately.

Naan breads are a nice addition.

Enjoy!

Leigh.....

klahanie said...

Hi Emma-
Right then, what's for dessert? (a bucket of ice cold water dumped on my head after a hot curry is not what I would consider dessert!)
So just what is a good, refreshing dessert after a curry?

Jack said...

I am not a very good cook but I wish you all the best in your endeavours to create currys that you will really enjoy.

Garfield said...

Hello!
I like curry too and I think its really hard to cook as well.
I'm not gd at cooking by the way so I always use curry soup or paste!(cheat)lol
Sorry for I can't give u any gd information about curry but just wanted to say I love curry too!

Garfield

purkul said...

hi m,

curry, well its as important & essential to my being as water!

i love love love it,

i especially like thai green curry (with out peppers!)

my tip to thee with cooking would be
if you like what you put in it
you'll like what you get out of it!

& specifically to your culinary skills i think a major bonus would be actually taking the time to cook and just cook until its done rather than doing a million and one things whilst cooking just happens to be going on!

purkul
x

Leigh P said...

Did you make it?

Did it turn out ok?

Are you still all alive from trying my recipe?

Leigh.....

Leigh P said...

I know you are still alive as I saw you in Hanley.

This means (a) you haven't made it yet or (b) you survived.

I'm happy either way. ;-)

Leigh....

Anonymous said...

i consider it a serious matter when it comes to food, and to eat well as well as eat some lusios morsels. i love gastro food, particularly indian and thai.

when i went to Nats leaving do at the fat cats, there was a suplement in tuesdays sentinel featuring the finest restaurants/eatouts in North Stafordshire. i had to put it down cos i was geting severe hunger pangs reading it.

Nat reckons the best place to go for indian is Shaffers in Dresden, i havent been to that 1 but i did go to the cultural quarter branch in Hanly when it was open (it closed down now)

In London, there are a million and 1 places, but is considerd a kinda minefield cos you will find some places with 3 michelin stars but will find some places considerd red herrings, horible qualty and so on. (be careful).

i can cook for myself but forgot some of the stuff i learnd and producd at school and will be good to refresh my memory on some of these