Asian Archive

TweetOnce again, for the third time in as many months, I have a cold! It’s annoying me greatly. I’ve been overdosing on vitamin C all day in an attempt to stave off the worst of it and for dinner I wanted something to get the blood racing – healing food with lots of ginger and garlic normally do the trick and a bit of spice never did anyone any harm. So this Goan vindaloo was a real knockout. Lovely, sweet and spicy in flavour with a vibrant and inviting glossy gravy. It really cheered me up if nothing else – which is half the battle when you’re feeling a little sorry for yourself. The good thing too, is that this curry is pretty easy to make – something I was pretty glad of today. More time left for the sofa in front of trashy TV wrapped in a duvet.

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TweetBhuna curries are amongst my favourites. A fragrant blend of spices with a milder spice count than many Indian curries. The sauce to a bhuna should be fairly dry and glossy and cling to the meat, in this instance pork. Traditionally, the spice paste and onion are cooked in a lot of oil or ghee – I have reduced this, but there is still, quite an amount. At the end of cooking, much of the oil will separate so you can either spoon it off, or blot it up with paper towels; or like I do, stir it in and blot it out of my mind! You can add vegetables to this curry towards the end of cooking to just cook through. This time I added a few cubed potatoes – but have made it with the likes of cauliflower, beans, eggplant, zucchini and even mushrooms.

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TweetTodays dinner started off in my head earlier in the day as a fresh fish with salad. However, as I left work on my way to the supermarket I was caught in an almighty downpouring of rain – dripping wet and cold I stumbled into the shop no longer wanting something light and fresh. I wanted something warming and rich – something guaranteed to cheer me up. This curry did just that – a delicious, glossy sauce, bursting with complex flavours from the warm tang of cinnamon to the fragrant cardamom and clove. It’s a fabulous moderately spiced curry – perfect for a cold, wet winters day.

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TweetHere’s a delicious Northern Indian curry which uses all the wonderful quality of the almond. Nuts are widely used in Asian cuisine as both a flavouring and a thickening agent. Here we get to experience both uses in a wonderful rich and creamy sauce. The thick gravy is packed full of delicious flavour and just perfect with chapati or roti. It’s not a spicy hot curry, so is perfect for chilliphobes. Personally, I always add a little more chilli just to get the party started.

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TweetAfter making the delicious duck vindaloo I was left with quite a lot of excess fat. Duck is an incredibly fatty bird and it needs to be removed before cooking in a curry, otherwise it’ll turn into a grease laden swamp of a sauce that’s not impressive at all. But what to do with the remaining fat? Rendering it out of the skin by cooking it gently is the perfect way to create 2 useable elements – firstly the fat which seeps out can be cooled then used to cook all kinds of food – especially my favourite roast potatoes. You can also use the remaining skin which crispens up into a delicious crunchy and glorious snack! It’s sublime. You’ve got to try them!

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TweetHere’s the best Vindaloo recipe you’re likely to try. Goan vindaloo is made with all meats; traditionally pork but also lamb, beef and poultry. In my opinion this duck version really delivers something special. The sauce is something else! Rich, sweet, sour and spicy – not to mention vibrant and glossy. It’s not too hot either – quite often vindaloo can be over spiced to live up to it’s fearsome reputation, but authentic vindaloo, while hot, needn’t be overpowering. This curry is the jewel in Goa’s crown; and it’s easy to see why. You’ll love it!

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TweetI’m a fan of cardamom – not so much when you bite into a whole pod, bur I do love the fragrant aroma and taste. This recipe dispenses with the unpleasantry of biting into any by grinding all 35 of them into a powder. You’d think the taste would be overpowering, but it’s not. While the key flavour most definitely is cardamom, the other flavours really do sing out. It’s a very unusual yet amazing curry – it’s a homestyle dish that’s incredibly easy to make. Set to become one of ‘must-serve’ curries…

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TweetI do love a vindaloo. I have a few recipes for it already on this site, but here’s another one, using beef. I ate a delicious beef vindaloo in a goan restaurant in Mumbai, India – traditionally, pork is the main meat – but it can be cooked using all kinds of meat, chicken, lamb, mutton, goat and even duck. I prefer making my own vindaloo to eating it at a restaurant – I find they always bump up the heat with chilli powder at the last minute because they think that’s what people expect, but vindaloo, while hot, shouldn’t be over the top hot. This one has a definite spice to it, but it’s way more complex and rich than spicy. The 20 cloves of garlic help create quite a special flavour so don’t be afraid to use them – the recipe actually called for 40, but I didn’t have that many so used everything I could muster instead and it turned out to be most delicious!

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TweetOnce in a while I make a curry that takes me completely by surprise – this appeared to be a recipe with not too much out of the ordinary but when I tasted the first mouthful I was absolutely amazed just how fantastic it was. The sheer richness and intensity is almost too much to take and almost too hard to explain. Northern Indian curries, like this, are often rich and full of heavy ingredients like ghee and cream – they make for a very luxurious curry just packed full of flavour – albeit not the healthiest choice. That said, this curry is one in a million, it’s up there as one of the best curries I’ve ever tasted. Superb!

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TweetThe Parsi community of India originally migrated from Persia about 1,000 years ago. They brought with them many culinary delights, some of which I savoured in Mumbai, where most of this dwindling population lives. There are a handful of excellent Parsi restaurants throughout the city and the food was always delicious and stood out from the local cuisine. I am still on the hunt for a recipe for an amazing Parsi Egg and lamb mince dish I regularly ate for breakfast, but for now this chicken dish will have to suffice. It’s a simple, easy to prepare curry with a very tasty sauce. The poppy seeds bring their own special flavour to the party and the colour is enhanced with the use of food colouring. I usually don’t add colouring, but this dish really did benefit from a bit of ‘joojing’ up. The result is an unusal dish you’re unlikely to taste at any restaurant outside India.

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TweetIt’s the ultimate all-in-one-pot dinner. Words cannot describe how fabulous the biryani is. It’s quite possibly the jewel in India’s crown. Tender meat, beautifully spiced with fluffy, fragrant rice. All cooked together in one pan. The best I ever tasted was in the Keralan city of Ernakulam near Kochin. I’m told it was cooked by a famous Hyderbadi chef, which would make sense as this is where the dish originates. It was absolutely amazing for many reasons. The chicken was moist, packed full of flavour and the rice fluffy and separated. The restaurant was obviously famous for its chicken biryani as it was the only thing on the menu. It’s easy to see why it’s become one of the favourite Indian dishes around the World. Try this yourself – it’s actually a really simple dish to make at home despite looking rather involved and tricky. The key to this dish is getting the rice right. Make sure you buy good quality basmati – and make sure you soak it first. It’s essential!

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TweetHere’s a second recipe for Chettinad Chicken for this site. Strange that the same titled dish can be so vastly different in its ingredients, but who am I to argue? This curry was easier to prepare than the last one, and the flavours quite different. That’s not to say it wasn’t tasty. It really was! I loved the texture that the fresh coconut gave it. It created a beautifully fragrant and fresh tasting sauce.

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