Curry (Korma)

I realized after Jimmy commented on my rabbit curry, that I've never posted the recipe here.  Since I was gathering some of my favorite recipes for a potential church cookbook, I decided it was high time I added it to the blog!

Picture credit goes to Jimmy - Cause I almost always forget to take one!

Ingredients

-          2 tablespoons vegetable oil

-          2 teaspoons curry powder

-          1 pound boneless beef or lamb (you can also use venison or rabbit) – cut into one inch cubes

-          ½ large yellow onion – peeled and chopped

-          3 large potatoes – peeled and cut into one inch pieces

-          1 green bell pepper (optional) – chopped

-          Frozen broccoli (as much or as little as you’d like)

-          1 teaspoon salt

-          1 teaspoon paprika

-          1 teaspoon garlic powder

-          ½ teaspoon chili powder (more or less to taste - depending on how spicy your family likes things...I keep it really mild and let people spice it up at the table since two of us are not fans of spicy things)

-          1 can of chopped tomatoes

-          1 cup sour cream (or to taste)

Directions

Heat oil in a large skillet or soup pot (depending on how much you’re making).  Add the curry powder, meat, and onions.  Cook 3 or 4 minutes, stirring frequently, until the meat has browned.  Add the potatoes, bell pepper, broccoli, salt, and spices, with only enough water to cook the vegetables.  (I normally splash in an inch or so of water and then add more if it boils off.  Better to need to add more then to have too much water!!)  Cook over medium heat 15 to 20 minutes, stirring from time to time, until the vegetables are cooked.  Just before serving, add tomatoes and sour cream.  Cook over low heat just until heated through. 

Serve over rice.

Optional: top with your favorite chutney, chopped peanuts, French fried onions, and/or chopped hard-boiled eggs.

Garam Masala

Making homemade Garam Masala!

1 cinnamon stick, broken into pieces

2 bay leaves

1/4 cup cumin seeds

1/3 cup corinader seeds

1 rounded tablespoon green cardamom pods

1 rounded tablespoon black peppercorns

2 teaspoons whole cloves

1 whole dried red chilie

1/8 teaspoon ground mace

Combine the cinnamon, bay leaves, cumin, coriander, cardamom, peppercorns, cloves, and red chilie in a frying pan and toast over medium heat. Stir constantly until cumin turns brown. Around 5 minutes.

Grind in a spice grinder (or cleaned out coffee grinder) and grind to a powder. Stir in mace (we have been known to leave out this ingredient...) and store in airtight container.  For up to 4 months...

Jono Makes Butter Chicken w/Saffron Rice

Jono LOVES butter chicken.
On his night to cook a couple weeks ago he requested that we try making it at home !
We found these recipes in a cookbook that was my Grandma's.
It is called Indian Food and Folklore.

We modified their recipes to look like this ...

For the butter chicken ....

1 kg chicken breast, cubed
7 tablespoons vinegar

Put the chicken and vinegar in a bowl for an hour or two. Mix the following ingredients in a food processor and let rest while the chicken is doing whatever it's doing in the vinegar.

4 garlic cloves
2 inch piece of fresh ginger
2 tablespoons of a mild curry paste. We used a green curry paste.
a big handful of chopped fresh coriander
1 teaspoon dried mint
150ml greek yogurt
1/2 teaspoon salt

Pour this luscious green mixture onto the chicken (after it's hour or two in the vinegar) and let marinate in the fridge overnight !

Preheat oven to 160c/325f

To cook, pour all of that chicken ... including the marinade ... into a roasting tin. (I lined mine with baking paper so the chicken wouldn't stick to the pan.) Bake for 20 minutes ... or until chicken is cooked through.

While that's cooking you'll need to get these ingredients together and make your sauce:

6 tablespoons ghee
2 tablespoons cumin seeds
1 small onion, thinly sliced
7 tablespoons thickened cream
1 tablespoon garam masala

Heat the ghee in a wok, add cumin and fry for one minute. Add onion. The original recipe said to fry til crisp and golden. Mine never crisped nor golden-ed. So ...whatever. Add the cream and garam masala and simmer gently. Once the chicken is cooked, pour it into this sauce and mix it all together. Serve with saffron rice and top with a bit of fresh coriander.

For the rice ...

375g basmati rice
50g ghee
1/2 a cinnamon stick
6 cardamom pods
6 cloves
1 red onion, sliced
1 teaspoon saffron threads
2 tablespoons boiling water
450 ml water

Put the saffron threads into the boiling water and let set at least 10 minutes.

Wash the rice. Soak in cold water for 30 minutes. Drain.

Melt the ghee and fry the spices in it. Add onion. Fry to desired onion consistency. Add rice. Fry 2 minutes. Add saffron water & the 450ml water. Stir. Bring to the boil. Cover. Cook gently ... about 20 minutes ... til liquid is absorbed and rice is tender.

The Most Amazing Beef Curry

My husband loooooves curry ! I could take it or leave it. This one though ... I'd definitely take. It was delicious ! I found the recipe here. I made it exactly as the recipe said and am just cutting and pasting the recipe here. All the credit goes to them ....

For the Beef :
1 tablespoon Homemade Curry Powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
3 1/2 pounds beef stew meat, trimmed and cut into bite-sized pieces

Toasted spices:
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
2 teaspoons fenugreek seeds
3 whole cloves
1 (1-inch) cinnamon stick, broken
2 dried hot red chiles
3 bay leaves
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon salt

Remaining ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
3 cups vertically sliced onion
3 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
1/4 cup minced garlic
2 tablespoons Hungarian sweet paprika
2 cups plain low-fat yogurt
1 1/2 cups low-salt beef broth
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro stems
1/2 cup tomato puree

Preparation

To prepare beef, combine first 3 ingredients; rub evenly over beef. Cover and chill 2 hours, tossing occasionally.

To prepare toasted spices, heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add coriander and next 6 ingredients (coriander through bay leaves); cook 1 minute or until fragrant, shaking pan constantly. Place coriander mixture, sugar, cardamom, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a spice or coffee grinder, and process until finely ground.

Heat 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add half of beef mixture; sauté 5 minutes or until browned on all sides. Remove from pan with a slotted spoon. Repeat procedure with remaining oil and beef mixture; remove from pan. Reduce heat to medium. Add onion and ginger to pan; cook 6 minutes or until onion is tender, stirring occasionally. Add the toasted spice mixture, garlic, and paprika; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add beef, yogurt, and remaining ingredients; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 hour and 30 minutes or until the beef is tender.

Channa Dal (Curried Chickpeas)

The recipe in the book was much more labor intensive. It involved dried chickpeas, toasting several different spices and whatnot. I simplified it a lot by using canned chickpeas and my nice curry powder - it had all of the spices the recipe called for and then some. Anyway, this is SO simple and quick to make and YUMMY!

1 14oz can chickpeas
4 tsp curry powder
1 cup chopped onion
2-3 cloves pressed garlic
1 T grated ginger
3 T butter
1-2 T chopped fresh coriander leaves (cilantro)

Melt butter in a small saucepan. Add onion, garlic and ginger and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, or until onions are soft and golden. Add curry.

Add chickpeas and a 1/2 cup of water. Bring to a boil, then simmer on low until liquid is reduced to a nice sauce (feel free to turn up the heat if you get impatient!).

Place chickpeas in a serving dish and sprinkle with chopped coriander leaves.

Murg Dahi (Yogurt Chicken)

Important! Chicken needs to marinate, plan ahead accordingly.



Despite the rather bland and boring name, this chicken dish is spicy and delicious! The chicken is super tender and bursting with the flavors of northern India.

3 1/2 to 4 lbs chicken pieces, skinned
1 tsp salt
1 green chili, finely chopped (I used a Serrano)
1 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cups fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves, chopped
1 T fresh ginger, chopped
3 or 4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cups (1/2 stick) butter, melted

Prick chicken pieces all over with a fork and place in a large bowl. In a small bowl, combine salt, chili, yogurt, cilantro, ginger and garlic and mix well. Pour over chicken, cover bowl, and refrigerate for six hours to overnight.

To cook chicken, preheat over to 400F. Pour half the melted butter into a roasting pan. Put the chicken into pan and pour yogurt mixture on top. Place pan in middle of oven and roast for about 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350F and continue roasting, basting frequently with remaining butter and pan juices, for about 30 minutes, or until chicken is done.

Remove chicken and place on a serving platter. Pour sauce over chicken and serve immediately.

Spicy Potatoes

I can't believe I have never posted this recipe before. It is a favorite around here.

900g / 2lb potatoes

1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp salt

2 tbls oil
1/4 tsp black mustard seeds
1 green chilli, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tbls sesame seeds

So ... I never measure the potatoes for this. I just get out a big baking dish, line it with baking paper, fill it with chopped potatoes, cover with oil and bake in hot oven .... 200C. I stir them a couple of times so that they all get done and not just the top ones. It takes a while ... maybe 30 minutes ? Maybe longer ? Just keep tasting testing them ...

In the meantime. Get yourself a little bowl and mix up the turmeric, chilli powder and salt. Set aside.

Also in the meantime ... chop up the garlic and chilli. I don't always have a chilli. So, sometimes I don't use one. The time I took the photo, I had a red chilli ... used that. Makes no difference. I like the garlic chopped fine, rather than crushed but you can do what you like. I also use a fair bit more than one garlic clove like the original recipe called for !!

Ok ... get your smallest frying pan and heat the oil. Add the mustard seeds. I use more than 1/4 tsp and I use a combination of black and yellow seeds. Fry the mustard seeds a couple minutes ~ til they splutter. Add the chilli and garlic. Fry for a couple of minutes. I like the garlic to begin to turn brown. Then add the sesame seeds. Fry for a couple of minutes ~ til they begin to turn brown. Remove from heat.

When the potatoes are done, pour into serving bowl. Sprinkle the spice mixture on the potatoes and toss to coat. Then add the chilli/garlic mixture.

Voila !

Serve straight away. They are best piping hot !!

PS ... I pull out the servings of potatoes for the kids before I put the spices on. They prefer them that way ... just a bit too spicy for their little taste buds !

Vegetarian Curry

I was watching my favorite cooking show the other day (America's Test Kitchen) and they made the yummiest looking vegetarian curry. So I pulled out my notebook and a pen and wrote down what they did as they did it. We made it last night and it was amazing! Enjoy!

Vegetarian Curry

1 or 2 T curry powder
1 T garam masala
Oil
1 med onion, chopped
3 or 4 medium potatoes
2 cloves of garlic, pressed
1 serrano chili, seeded and finely diced
1 T fresh ginger, grated fine
1 T tomato paste
1/2 head of cauliflower, in bite sized pieces
14 oz. can of diced or crushed tomatoes, run through a blender (I guess you could sub tomato sauce)
1 can chick peas (garbanzo beans)
1 t salt
1 1/2 cups frozen peas
1/4 c. heavy cream

Toast the curry powder and the garam masala in a dry pan on high heat for a minute or two until it smokes. Remove from pan and set aside.
Heat some oil over medium heat and add the onions and potatoes. Let fry for about 10 minutes until they get some nice color.
Add in a little more oil. Throw in the ginger, garlic, chili, tomato paste and the toasted spices. Let the spices bloom for a bit in the oil then add in the cauliflower. Made sure the cauliflower gets coated with the spices. Add in the blended tomatoes, about 3/4 cup of water (more or less depending on how much sauce you like and how thick you prefer it to be), the chick peas, and the salt.
Cook for 15 minutes over medium heat until the veggies are done.
Add the frozen peas and the cream.
Take off heat.
Done.

Serving suggestions: Serve with basmati rice and your favorite chutneys or relishes. We had sag paneer and nan with our curry and rice.

Naan

This was sooooo easy.
I wasn't convinced until it came out of the oven but now ... totally convinced !!

I found this recipe at Souvlaki For The Soul.
I'm sure I've mentioned that blog here before, right ?
Anyway ...
He got the recipe from a great site called Anjum's Food.

I am going to repost the recipe here ... only because when I'm in a hurry I like to make one stop ... not be clicking all over world-wide-webdom !

Here's it is ... as posted on Anjum's Food.

250g plain flour
2 tbs. vegetable oil
110-130 ml milk
1 tbs. butter, melted for serving
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
Nigella seeds, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, chopped garlic and fresh coriander or a mixture of healthy pumpkin and sunflower seeds

Sift together dry ingredients. Mix together the milk and oil.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the liquids.

Slowly mix together the dough by working from the centre and incorporating the flour from the edges of the “well” so that you have a smooth, soft dough. Knead well for 8-10 minutes, adding a little flour if the dough is too sticky.

Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a damp tea-towel and leave in a warm place to double in size, at least an hour. Then punch out and form into 5 balls.

Preheat the grill to its highest setting and put a heavy baking pan on the upper shelf.

Meanwhile, start to roll out the naan into tear drop or oval shapes. Sprinkle over the topping and press into the dough. Place the naan on the hot baking sheet and grill until there are nice brown spots on the surface, around 1-2 minutes. Brush with butter and serve hot.

~~~

Ok ... this is me again.

I was a bit worried as there is no yeast in the recipe.

BUT ... I'm not a good baker and I rarely make bread without the assistance of my breadmaker, so what do I know about it, really ?

But, the recipe is right. No yeast necessary.

Also ... it said to leave it an hour and it should double in size.

I left it a good hour and a half ... maybe longer, and while I didn't measure before hand, I'm sure that little ball of dough was the EXACT same size as when I finished kneading it !

Rory and I were set to make pappadams as a backup but didn't need to ...

These are perfect, easy, DELICIOUS and will be made time and time again in this household !

Rory made a yummy Madras Beef Curry tonight.

That recipe is up next !!

Madras Beef Curry

This recipe came from Taste.com.au

Rory halved the amount of chilli powder this time as it was quite hot last time !

2 tablespoons ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon chilli powder (optional) - we only used 1/2 tsp this time
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 teaspoons grated ginger
2 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1kg chuck steak, cut into 2.5cm cubes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup beef stock
steamed basmati rice, raita and mint leaves, to serve (we skipped the mint leaves)

Combine coriander, cumin, turmeric, pepper, chilli, garlic, ginger and lemon juice in a bowl to form a paste. Set aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large saucepan over high heat. Add half the beef. Cook, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes, or until browned. Transfer to a bowl. Repeat with remaining oil and beef.

Reduce heat to medium. Add spice paste. Cook for 1 minute. Return beef to saucepan. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute, or until meat is coated with paste. Add tomato paste and stock. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover. Cook for 1 hour 15 minutes, or until beef is tender.

Remove lid. Cook, uncovered, for a further 15 minutes, or until sauce has reduced and thickened slightly. Serve with rice and raita. Top with mint leaves.

~~

And this is the recipe for the Cucumber Raita. It made heaps.
I will only use a small yoghurt next time !!

Natural yoghurt - 500 ml
1 Lebanese cucumber - diced
1 tsp cumin
Pinch Salt
Fresh Coriander

Whisk the yoghurt.
Add the cucumber, salt and cumin powder.
Mix well with the chopped coriander leaves.

~~

Served as well with Naan ... homemade ! ( our first attempt !! ) You can find that recipe here.

Pappadams

Khrista asked what Pappadams were. Figured since she didn't know there are probably others who haven't discovered this culinary treat !! I have never made them myself but one day I will try. Any of you ever done it ? Got a good recipe ??

~

I looked up Pappadams for a definition ... Here's what I found.
~
Pappadams
(poppadum, paparh, papad, papadum )
An Indian flat bread made with lentil flour.

The pappadam are fried or grilled.

You can purchase papadam in packages and lightly fry them before use.
~

(I got this photo here)

This is how I buy Pappadams. They last forever in the pantry. We have cooked them two ways. 1. In Hot Oil. 2. In The Microwave. Easy Easy Easy ... both ways.

(I got this photo here)

Hope that helps ...