“The Big 8 - The only curry recipes you’ll ever need!” - Part 5/8
Vindaloo has a pretty bad rep, being the lager louts favourite, but it’s actually a very traditional dish and a great example of early fusion cookery. It originated in Portugal - the Portuguese spice traders brought their traditional pork dish “vin des alhos” to the sub-continent, where the meat is braised in wine and garlic. The Indians substituted wine for wine vinegar and added lots of chilli and a little spice. This traditional recipe has a fantastic flavour.
It might look a little strange to see beef in a curry as it’s not often seen in Indian restaurants here. But many Indians, such as Parsees, Muslims and Christians regularly eat beef and many traditional recipes exist for beef. Even some Hindus will eat “bull” beef or buffalo, only omitting the cow from their diet for religious reasons. Vindaloo is more commonly prepared with diced pork so you can easily substitute the beef.
Vindaloo should taste sour and pungent from the chillies and red wine vinegar. It’s for serious curry aficionados only, but you could try reducing the amount of chilli if you want a milder dish.
I love that this dish is so vastly different from the Kashmiri Lamb Rogan Josh and South Indian Lamb Curry that I cook. I think the important thing for us Westerners cooking Indian food is to embrace the differences between all of these dishes. It’s all too easy to expect every curry to taste the same, as it does in a bog-standard curry house.
Ingredients
- 1.2kg stewing beef
- 2-3 tbsp sunflower/groundnut oil
- 500g onions, chopped (about 3 large onions)
- 15 cloves garlic, peeled
- 50g root ginger, peeled and chopped roughly (about the size of a golf ball)
- 1 tbsp of each of the following: cumin seeds, poppy seeds, garam masala
- 20 curry leaves (fresh, if possible)
- 5 cloves
- 400g canned tomatoes
- 3 tbsp concentrated tomato pureé
- 500ml chicken stock
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 2 tbsp red chilli flakes
- ½ tbsp each of the following: paprika, turmeric
- 1½ tbsp red wine/cider vinegar
- 1 tsp light muscovado sugar
- handful of fresh coriander leaves, chopped (optional)
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 160°C.
- Prepare two masalas - one with the ground spices (chilli flakes, garam masala, paprika, turmeric) and one with the whole spices (cumin seeds, cloves, curry leaves, poppy seeds). Set aside.
- Place a deep cast-iron casserole on the hob and heat the oil. Add the onions and cook them gently for around 30 minutes until soft and light brown in colour.
- In the meantime, blitz the garlic, root ginger, tomatoes and water in a blender until smooth. Remove the browned onions from the casserole using a slotted spoon and add to the blender. Blend again until very smooth.
- Put the casserole back on the heat. There should be a little residual oil, but you can add a little extra. Add the masala made from whole spices and stir fry for a minute to release the flavours.
- Add the onion/tomato mixture to the casserole, then add the diced beef and the ground spice masala. Add the chicken stock, salt, vinegar, sugar and tomato pureé, then stir to combine. Cover the casserole and transfer to the oven and cook for about 2-2½ hours until the meat is very tender.
- At this point, you can spoon off some of the fat which has risen to the top of the sauce, if you wish. This is great with a pilau or plain basmati rice.
Serves 6.
Notes
- Lamb curries are best, in my opinion, because the meat gives a deep flavour to the gravy. Chicken gravies can be good too, but need a little extra help. If you want to make this into a chicken curry, make the sauce as normal and cook in a low oven for 1 hour and turn the oven off. Leave the casserole to cool in the oven overnight. This will really develop the flavour of the gravy. When ready to cook, add cubed chicken or bone-in chicken breasts and cook for about an hour, or until the chicken is well cooked through.
- Restaurant vindaloo invariably contains potato, seemingly caused by some confusion over the fact that potatoes are called “aloo” in Hindi. Potatoes are not found in a traditional vindaloo, but it is not uncommon to find potatoes in other meat curries. If you wish to add some potato to this dish, pre-boil some peeled potatoes in salted water and allow to cool. Fry the potatoes in hot oil with a little salt and a pinch of ground cumin until light golden. Add the potatoes to the curry a few minutes before serving to warm through.
“The Big 8 - The only curry recipes you’ll ever need!” - Part 4/8
This has become my “default” curry recipe and with good reason. It’s best made with lamb, but also good with chicken (see notes below). It’s essentially a “copy-cat” recipe of Bombay Pantry’s excellent curry, of which I’m a big fan. I think it’s pretty close to the original, in both flavour and texture. I call this “South Indian” curry because it includes many ingredients indicative of the region: curry leaves, mustard seeds and coconut.
Incidentally, I recently bought a bag of fresh curry leaves to see if they made a difference to this dish (I normally use the dried variety). I was very pleased with the result. They cost me about a euro in the Asia Market (on Drury Street) for a large bag of leaves. I just rinsed them well, let them dry completely, and froze in a ziplock bag.
Ingredients
- 1.2kg diced lamb (shoulder or leg is good)
- 2-3 tbsp sunflower/groundnut oil
- 500g onions, chopped (about 3 large onions)
- 10 cloves garlic, peeled
- 50g root ginger, peeled and chopped roughly (about the size of a golf ball)
- 1 tbsp of each of the following: cumin seeds, black/brown mustard seeds
- 15 curry leaves (fresh, if possible)
- 400g canned tomatoes
- 2 tbsp concentrated tomato pureé
- 2 tbsp dessicated coconut
- 500ml chicken stock
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 1 tbsp each of the following: red chilli flakes, ground coriander, garam masala
- ½ tbsp each of the following: paprika, turmeric, dried fenugreek leaves
- 2 tsp light muscovado sugar
- handful of fresh coriander leaves, chopped
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 160°C.
- Prepare two masalas - one with the ground spices (chilli flakes, ground coriander, garam masala, paprika, turmeric, fenugreek) and one with the whole spices (cumin seeds, mustard seeds, curry leaves). Set aside.
- Place a deep cast-iron casserole on the hob and heat the oil. Add the onions and cook them gently for around 30 minutes until soft and light brown in colour.
- In the meantime, blitz the garlic, root ginger, tomatoes and water in a blender until smooth. Remove the browned onions from the casserole using a slotted spoon and add to the blender. Blend again until very smooth.
- Put the casserole back on the heat. There should be a little residual oil, but you can add a little extra. Add the masala made from whole spices and stir fry for a minute to release the flavours.
- Add the onion/tomato mixture to the casserole, then add the diced lamb and the ground spice masala. Add the chicken stock, coconut, salt, sugar and tomato pureé, then stir to combine. Cover the casserole and transfer to the oven and cook for about 2-2½ hours until the meat is very tender.
- At this point, you can spoon off some of the fat which has risen to the top of the sauce, if you wish. This is good with plain basmati rice or lemon rice.
Serves 6.
Notes
- Lamb curries are best, in my opinion, because the meat gives a deep flavour to the gravy. Chicken gravies can be good too, but need a little extra help. If you want to make this into a chicken curry, make the sauce as normal and cook in a low oven for 1 hour and turn the oven off. Leave the casserole to cool in the oven overnight. This will really develop the flavour of the gravy. When ready to cook, add cubed chicken or bone-in chicken breasts and cook for about an hour, or until the chicken is well cooked through.
“The Big 8 - The only curry recipes you’ll ever need!” - Part 3/8
Rogan Josh, when done well, is one of my favourite Indian dishes. Traditional Rogan Josh is miles apart from the restaurant version you may be familiar with. According to Camellia Panjabi, “rogan” is Hindi for “red”, referring to the deep red colour imparted by the use of mild Kashmiri chillies. “Josh” means “fat”, referring to the fat which melts out of the meat during braising. This recipe uses my standard base curry recipe and traditional Rogan Josh spices such as cardamom, fennel and saffron. The result is a dark, highly aromatic gravy - my trick is to lightly crush some of the green cardamoms to release lots of flavour.
A word on the spicing. Most traditional recipes specify fennel powder instead of fennel seeds - if you can’t find it and don’t have an electric spice grinder, just add the whole fennel seeds. The saffron can be optional as a lot of people don’t like it, but for me it’s indispensable in this dish. Use just a small pinch of saffron threads so that you don’t overpower the rest of the spices. Leave to infuse a little warm water before adding to the gravy. Finally, if you can source dried Kashmiri chillies mentioned above, use those instead of the chilli powder specified below. I add a tablespoon of sweet paprika to boost the red colour instead.
Ingredients
- 1.2kg diced lamb (shoulder or leg is good)
- 3 tbsp sunflower/groundnut oil
- 500g onions, chopped (about 3 large onions)
- 8 cloves garlic, peeled
- 50g root ginger, peeled and chopped roughly (about the size of a golf ball)
- 400g canned tomatoes
- 600ml chicken stock
- 1 cup yoghurt
- 2 tsp sea salt
- 1 tbsp each of the following: red chilli powder, sweet paprika, ground coriander
- 1 tsp each of the following: turmeric, fennel powder
- 6 green cardamoms
- 1 large black cardamom
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 5 cloves
- 2 bay leaves
- pinch of saffron threads, soaked in warm water for a few minutes
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 160°C.
- First off, prepare all the ingredients above. Prepare two masalas - one with the ground spices (cayenne, paprika, ground coriander, salt) and one with the whole spices (bay, cardamom, cloves, fennel seeds, pepper corns). Crack the black cardamom and peppercorns using a mortar and pestle. The green cardamoms should be crushed a little more vigorously, making sure at least some of the black seeds within are crushed to a powder. Set the masalas aside.
- Place a cast-iron casserole on the hob and heat the oil. Add the onions and cook the onions gently for around 30 minutes until soft and light brown in colour.
- Blitz the garlic, root ginger, tomatoes and water in a blender until smooth. Remove the browned onions from the casserole using a slotted spoon and add to the blender. Blend again until very smooth.
- Put the casserole back on the heat. There should be a little residual oil, but you can add a little extra. Add the masala made from whole spices and stir fry for a minute to release the flavours.
- Add the onion/tomato mixture to the casserole, then add the diced lamb and the ground spice masala. Pour in the chicken stock, yoghurt and saffron mixture, then stir to combine. Transfer to the oven and cook for about 2-2½ hours until the meat is very tender.
- At this point, you can spoon off some of the fat which has risen to the top of the sauce, if you wish. Garnish with some julienned fresh ginger. Best served with plain basmati rice.
Serves 4-6.
Notes
- This recipe also works fantastically well with lamb shanks. Brown 4 shanks on all sides in a separate frying pan before adding to the gravy at Stage 5, in place of the stewing lamb. The shanks will take a little longer to cook, at least 3 hours. This is called “Nalli Rogan Josh” and would make an impressive dinner party dish for fans of Indian food.
Been a bit quiet on the blogging front lately… I really must get more “Oirish” recipes on here, but I’ve been on a serious Indian buzz lately. Cooking Rick Stein/Mumrez Khan’s Lamb Karahi has taught me some great lessons about making curries. It’s taught me that if you have a good base recipe of onions, garlic, ginger and tomatoes, you can create many different Indian dishes. Using the “Rick Stein” base, I’ve been reading up and experimenting with many different dishes, tweaking ingredients along the way.
I’ve come up with a “Big 8″ list of curries - all the curry recipes you’ll ever need. I’ll post each of the following dishes over the next few weeks. These are all dishes which I’ve cooked many times over, all of the time making improvements here and there.
I don’t strive for complete authenticity with these recipes, but these recipes are close enough to what you might find on the sub-continent. Believe me, these recipes are vastly superior to most of the rubbish you get in Indian restaurants - pre-cooked meat swimming in oil and vast pots of “base” sauce which they ladle with abandon into nearly all of their dishes. This “base” is the reason nearly all of their dishes taste the same. Forget them - once you see how easy it is to cook delicious Indian curries at home, you’ll never visit the “Star of Bengal” again.
Here are the recipes, stay tuned over the coming weeks:
- Tadka Dal - buttery and delicately-spiced lentils with tomato, lemon and fresh coriander.
- Chicken Korma - a rich curry with dried fruits, toasted nuts and lots of fresh green chillies.
- Kashmiri Lamb Rogan Josh - a traditional gravy with highly aromatic spicing - cardamom, fennel and saffron.
- South Indian Lamb Curry - robustly flavoured with mustard seeds, fresh curry leaves and coconut. If you only try one of these dishes, make it this one.
- Goan Beef Vindaloo - a traditional Goan specialty - sour & fiery hot - for chilli aficionados only!
- Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani) - based on a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe, this is a rich and spicy sauce enriched with butter, honey and cream.
- Chicken Saag - chicken cooked in a lightly-spiced spinach sauce, makes a great contrast to tomato-based curries.
- Vegetable Makhanwala - a rich, creamy gravy flavoured with kasoori methi, similar in flavour to the Butter Chicken recipe.
Here are some general curry-making tips you might find useful:
- Casserole - I treat all my curries like stews or casseroles - long, slow braising in the oven. I cook all meat curries in a large, deep cast-iron casserole (Le Creuset). This means I can use one pot for frying onions and spices, then I can transfer the entire dish to a low-moderate oven (about 160°C) where it cooks slowly. Cooking in the oven gives a more even result and reduces the risk of burning or boiling over.
- Meat - When cooking lamb curries, I nearly always use shoulder cut. I find it takes about 2½ hours cooking to achieve the texture I want - very tender, able to break a cube of meat with a spoon.
- Masala - I prepare all masalas/ingredients in advance. These curries take very little time to prepare so it’s best to have everything ready to hand. I generally mix two masalas for each curry - one made from whole spices and one comprising ground spices. The whole spice masala requires prior frying in oil, the ground spice masalas can be added directly to the gravy.
- Caramelised Onions - I start off each of my sauces in the same way. Fry onions. Whizz browned onions along with garlic, ginger and tomatoes. Fry whole spices before adding gravy. Add ground spices and meat along with any other flavourings.
- Sugar - tinned tomatoes (and some fresh varieties) tend to be rather sour, so I like to sweeten the dishes slights with a little palm sugar (available from Asian food stores). Light muscovado sugar would make an acceptable substitute if palm sugar is unavailable.
- Oil - ignore any assertions that you have to use huge quantities of oil or ghee (an Indian clarified butter). While not exactly health food, these recipes contain relatively small amounts of oil and taste great.
