Diary Of An ADI

If you want to make a decent curry in the restaurant style you need to do it in stages and use a good technique. You need to make up a batch of basic curry gravy, and (optionally – you can also just buy it in packs) a suitable spice mix otherwise known as curry powder, before you can actually make your curry.

Let me clarify what I mean by restaurant-style: I do not mean that this is exactly how they make it - I mean that it tastes like one you’d buy from the restaurant. That’s not to say that some elements of the preparation aren’t similar to those they use in some takeaways, however.

Some of this recipe is my own, built on one given to me by a pupil.

Basic Curry Gravy

Peel and quarter the onions, shred the cabbage, roughly chop the celery (including leaves) and carrots, slice the peppers, and put them all into a large stockpot. Add the stock cubes*, and fill with water to just below the level of the contents. Bring to the boil and simmer for 1.5-2 hours until the onions are very soft, stirring occasionally.

Add the tomatoes (2 x 400g tins) and the salt, and stir them in. Cook for another 15-20 minutes.

Add the curry powder** , garam masala***, and turmeric but leave them on top and don’t stir them in.

Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the garlic/ginger paste¤ until it goes golden brown (be careful as it will stick easily). Pour it on to the spices in the stockpot – be very careful as it will sizzle a lot.

Mix everything in again and cook for a further 15-20 minutes. Then add the fresh coriander (coarsely chopped, including stalks) and cook for a final 10-15 minutes.

Puree the entire batch (and sieve it if you can). Freeze in portions – I do it in 150-200g lots, and the batch here will make about 50 portions.

* Stock Cubes are ‘Knorr’ brand from any large supermarket.

**  Curry Powder is ‘King Of Spice’ brand Traditional Kashmiri Curry Masala (Basaar) bought from a local Pakistani supermarket, but I know it is available in most Indian stores. The actual brand doesn’t  matter, though – this one was recommended to me by one of my pupils.

*** Garam Masala is East End brand available from any Indian supermarket.

¤ Garlic/ginger paste consists of 2 parts garlic to 1 part ginger – I usually use 100g of peeled fresh garlic, 50-60g of fresh chopped ginger, and puree this with oil.

Curry Powder

This is the curry powder/spice mix one of my Pakistani pupils gave me.  It’s based on the Kashmiri Basaar used to make the gravy, but I have to admit it adds a nice dimension to the curries I make – but you can just use the Basaar or any curry powder on its own….

Aaargh! It will have to wait a bit because I’ve mislaid the sheet I wrote it on and will need to get hold of the info again!

The Main Dish

Make sure you prepare everything in advance. It only takes about 20 minutes to make the curry – just about the time you wait when you go and get one from a takeaway – but that means you can ruin it if you try to prepare as you go along.

Chop the onion and red pepper and keep them separate so you can add them when needed. Dice the chicken into approximately 1.5cm pieces. Finely chop the fresh methi and coriander and keep them separate.

You need to use oil and salt. If you’re one of those people who thinks that even being in the same room with oil and salt makes you unhealthy, go away now and play with your muesli! And you must keep stirring – the amount of oil helps it not to stick, but it will if you leave it.

1. Put about 6-10 tbsp of oil in a wok and heat on high heat. Add the onions and fry until golden and still soft.
2. Add the red pepper and fry for a few minutes.
3. Add about a half of the garlic/ginger and fry until it goes golden brown and smells a bit like toffee – it will start to stick, so keep stirring and scraping so it doesn’t burn.
4. Add the chicken and stir, stir, stir. Keep it moving for about 4-5 minutes until the chicken is completely sealed.
5. Add the curry powder and stir, stir, double stir for a minute or two. This really will stick if you aren’t careful.
6. Add the tomatoes and stir for about 3 minutes. It’ll be less likely to stick now, but don’t leave it.
7. Add the curry gravy and salt to taste (you’ll need around 1 tsp) and stir for about 3 minutes.
8. Add the rest of the garlic/ginger.
9. Add the chopped and dried methi and stir in. Cook for a few minutes with lots of stirring.
10. If you’re going to add mint sauce, add it now (you won’t need more than about 1 tsp).
11. Finally, add the chopped coriander. After a few minutes that’s it.

Oil and salt make it taste better, so don’t start messing about trying to make it fat and salt free until you’ve tried it this way. If there’s too much oil you can just pour it off at the end, but it is supposed to be a fried dish and the muesli-lovers might be shocked to discover that you cannot fry without oil. Yes, I know you can pretend you can, but you can’t, all right?

Pilau Rice

Wash the rice under cold running water until the water runs clear. Set the rice to drain. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 1 (275ºF).

Heat the oil in an ovenproof saucepan or pot and add the cardamoms, cloves, cassia bark, and bayleaf. Cook until the oil sizzles but don’t allow the bayleaf to burn. Add the salt.

Add the garlic/ginger paste. Cook for about 30 seconds, then pour the rice into the pot and stir to coat all the grains.

Add the water and bring to the boil. Simmer covered for as long as it takes for all the water to be absorbed – stir carefully three or four times during this to help stop grains sticking together.

Put the covered pan in the oven (low shelf) and leave for 30-45 minutes.

Note that a reader submitted a Pilau Rice recipe which gives an even better result than the one here.

Summary

This recipe really does work. The smell you leave in the house is perfect and the final dish is delicious.

As well as the rice, serve it with naan breads (I get them fresh from my local Pakistani store at £1.20 for four, but those expensive shrink-wrapped ones will do if you can’t get fresh).