Chicken Curry and Beyond - The CurryFocus Blog

Hi, Ray here again.

This week I wanted to try out a recipe for a dish that I’d never eaten before. I searched through the yummy recipes on the Curry Focus website and decided to try the Beef Pasanda.

The beef needed to marinate overnight so I made sure that I got all of the ingredients early enough.

The marinade is about half a bottle red wine. Now here was the hard decision. I didn’t like the idea of buying an expensive wine just for cooking (I know that’s probably a silly thing to worry about) but I didn’t want to buy cheap, nasty wine either (because I’d have a couple of glasses to drink). I finally went for a middle of the road merlot.

Now this is easily one of the noisiest curries that I’ve ever made. I don’t have a meat tenderiser so resorted to putting the beef onto the kitchen work surface, covering it with the plastic meat preparation board and pounding the board with a hammer. I made a lot of noise but the beef was flattened just fine.

I put the beef, with the marinade, into the fridge overnight.

The next afternoon, I started to make the Pasanda.

I prepared the onions, garlic and ginger and stir-fried them for 10 minutes. The mixture gets very dry so needs to be kept moving at all times. There was a lovely ginger aroma when the cooking stopped.

I made up the spicy paste whilst the onion mixture was cooling.

After a while I put the onion mixture, along with the coriander and coconut, into the food processor and made a puree.

After that the spicy paste was stir-fried for 90 seconds to be joined by the puree before stir-frying for 5 minutes.

I mixed in the ground almonds and tomato paste and then removed the mixture from the heat.

The oven had already been preheated by now and the beef, marinade and cooked ingredients all went into a large casserole. After mixing everything well, the casserole went into the oven.

I checked and stirred after the 30 minutes and cooked it for another 30 minutes.

I checked the Pasanda once again and all was good.

I returned the Pasanda to the oven whilst the rice was started.

After five minutes I turned off the oven, leaving the Pasanda to cook for a further 10 minutes.

The pasanda and rice was served up to the waiting dinner guests.

The sauce was rich, thick, smooth, nutty and tasted of the red wine. And the beef was very tender. The Pasanda was eaten quickly enough but failed to ignite hearty enthusiasm. One of the guests commented that it would have been better with some yogurt. I did a quick search on the internet and most of the Pasanda recipes did indeed use yogurt as the marinade. So I need to find another Pasanda recipe to try. And one of the guests was looking for some red wine to go with the food but I had already drunk the remainder of the wine whilst cooking – I think this is a valid cook’s bonus.

Overall, the Pasanda was very tasty and scored 7 out of 10 with a heat rating of mild.

If you like a mild curry and red wine then this could be just the curry for you.

Another busy month as we try more recipes, look at how to match wine to a curry and continue to add new features to the website. We’ll let you know about the new features once they are ready. If you think of something that would make your visits to the website more enjoyable, just give us your ideas from the Contact Us page.

Last week we were asked where our website visitors come from. To be honest, we didn’t know the complete answer - we knew where most people lived but not them all. So we checked with Google and the answer was that we have had visitors from 145 different countries. Now that’s a lot of countries. Most of the missing countries in the world are from the African continent - maybe we need some more spicy African curry recipes on the website?

Ray cooks and reviews a delicious Jamaican Chicken Curry Recipe

Time to try out another great recipe from the Curry Focus website. I liked the look of the Lamb Rogan Josh recipe but hadn’t looked at the recipe early enough. The lamb needs to marinate overnight and the dinner guests were arriving in 6 hours. So, instead, I went for the Jamaican Chicken Curry that looked pretty easy to make…. read more

It can always be a challenge matching Wine With a Chicken Curry

I spotted an article that I think might be of interest to you lovers of fine Indian curries.

An Indian wine company called Indage is launching a range of Indian wines in the UK and the wines are reportedly good to drink with a curry… read more

Cumin Chicken Curry Recipe Review

Time to try out another great recipe from the Curry Focus website. This time it’s the Cumin Chicken Curry recipe.

I only had to buy the chicken – the other ingredients were already in the kitchen.

This is really a very easy curry to cook… read more

Top 5 Recipes for June

1 Chicken Biryani
2 Easy Chicken Curry
3 Chicken Jalfrezi
4 Chicken Bhuna
5 Chicken Curry

Why not tell us the recipes that you like? You can submit a new recipe here and a restaurant here.

Hi, Ray here again.

Last week I wanted to make a Rogan Josh curry but left it too late to make because I had forgotten that the lamb had to be marinated overnight.

So this week I was properly prepared to make a Lamb Rogan Josh from the Curry Focus website.

I made up the marinade and mixed it in with the lean lamb and then put it into the fridge to marinate overnight.

A couple of hours before dinner, I started preparing the ingredients which really only involved getting ready the onion and second garlic clove.

Then I started the cooking.

I stir-fried the cumin seeds and then stir-fried the bay leaves and cardamom pods.

Then I stir-fried the onion and garlic for 5 minutes before adding the coriander, cumin and chilli powder.

Soon it was time for the lamb to enter the frying pan.

And not long afterwards, the chopped tomatoes, tomato paste and water joined the lamb.

All was mixed up well and brought to a simmer.

The lamb simmered for 90 minutes and the basmati was timed to be ready at the same time as the curry.

Whilst I was serving up the Rogan Josh, I quickly microwaved a couple of stuffed paratha to go with the meal.

The Rogan Josh was served up and went down fairly well.

The lamb was really tender but this wasn’t the curry that I expected. The curry had a lot more liquid than I am used to and, to be honest, it was more like a stew than a curry. And it was very mild.

The Rogan Josh was awarded a sympathetic 6 out of 10 with a spice heat rating of mild.

I carefully reviewed the recipe to make sure that I had followed the steps correctly. And I had. Maybe the lid could have been left off the frying pan to allow the curry to reduce and thicken a bit. But the spice level was too low – I’m used to a Rogan Josh with a bit of bite.

But I won’t let the odd failure stop me. I’ll be hunting down another Lamb Rogan Josh recipe to try because it is usually such a tasty dish.

I’ll let you know what I find in due course.

Hi, Ray here again.

Time to try out another great recipe from the Curry Focus website. I liked the look of the Lamb Rogan Josh recipe but hadn’t looked at the recipe early enough. The lamb needs to marinate overnight and the dinner guests were arriving in 6 hours. So, instead, I went for the Jamaican Chicken Curry that looked pretty easy to make.

I went out to buy the scallions (spring onions), chicken and chicken broth. I had already decided that I would not buy a whole chicken. I’ve read how to joint (chop up) a whole chicken but the whole process seems a bit too involved for somebody of my limited cooking abilities. So I bought 6 chicken thighs. Chicken meat cooked on the bone is great.

Cooking time had nearly arrived so I prepared the ingredients – pretty simple stuff. I cut the chicken thighs in half, along the bones, to make sure that they would cook properly in just over 30 minutes.

I stir-fried the first ingredients and then added the chicken broth.

After cooking for the 3 minutes, I added the chicken pieces and mixed it all up. The mixture looked pretty dry so I boiled up some water in case I had to add some liquid.

I simmered the chicken and got the potato parboiled and drained.

The rice went on half way through cooking the chicken.

Near the end, I added the parboiled potato and finished cooking the curry.

As it happens, I didn’t need the extra boiled water and everything was cooked to perfection.

I served up the chicken curry on rice and presented it to the small dinner party.

The food quickly disappeared with words of praise ringing out. This is quite a spicy curry and has a distinctive, yummy, pungent taste. There’s a tablespoon of allspice and curry powder in the recipe and this probably contributed a lot to the taste. The curry is quite dry so it’s a good idea to have a glass of beer handy (as if I need any coaxing in that department).

On average, the guests rated the curry an excellent 8 out of 10 with a heat rating of medium to hot.

This really is a delicious dish and one that you should try. It is a very simple dish and I would recommend that you make some paratha or naan bread to go with the meal. And maybe a bowl of raita for those who need to cool the curry down a little.

I spotted an article that I think might be of interest to you lovers of fine Indian curries.

An Indian wine company called Indage is launching a range of Indian wines in the UK and the wines are reportedly good to drink with a curry.

The wines have been developed with input from chefs and are going to be available in good restaurants as well as in supermarkets.

Indage is hoping that it will capture a big slice of the curry eating, wine drinking market.

Some of the wines from the company are already on sale in the UK but the new range is being aimed at the curry market.

I’m not sure if the wines are going to be a big hit and only time will tell.

But I think that I’ll be sticking to my Kingfisher beer when I’m dining out – I just can’t imagine having a chardonnay or pinot noir with my rogan josh.

You can check out a full article here.

Hi, Ray here again.

Time to try out another great recipe from the Curry Focus website. This time it’s the Cumin Chicken Curry recipe.

I only had to buy the chicken – the other ingredients were already in the kitchen.

This is really a very easy curry to cook.

I cut up the chicken and mixed it up with the spices, yogurt and lemon juice, in a bowl. Then I covered the bowl and left it in the fridge to marinate.

I peeled and prepared the onion and garlic and heated up the frying pan.

I started to cook the onions and then got some rice underway.

Once the onion was ready, in went the chicken.

Near the end I added the water.

I noticed that the curry was going to be a bit pale so grabbed some fresh coriander and chopped it up for garnish.

The curry and rice were served up to the dinner guests and the dished were garnished with the coriander.

And the verdict? Simply delicious. This is a delightful curry with a delicate taste and a great aroma. It isn’t a spicy hot curry, if anything it’s a mild curry. But the dish got a very respectable rating of 8 out of 10.

If you’re looking for a curry for somebody who doesn’t like a lot of heat then this is the one for you. It’s a very tasty meal and is amazingly easy to make.

May has been another month where again chicken has come out on top looking at our most popular recipes. We have added some more great articles as well and we hope you enjoy reading them.

What Is A Karahi? A karahi is similar to a flat-bottomed wok and is the traditional cooking utensil for Indian curries.

Traditionally, a karahi is made of cast iron but nowadays you can buy a karahi made out of stainless steel or coated with non-stick material, such as tefal….

Pork Vindaloo Recipe Review My girlfriend wasn’t going to be here for my weekly curry so it gave me an opportunity to try a great Pork Vindaloo recipe that had been given to me by my flatmate’s mother. A vindaloo is a very hot curry (although not as hot as a phal)…..

Naan Bread Recipe Review I few weeks ago I made a great aubergine curry (here is the review of the aubergine curry).

At the time, I also ventured into making naan bread….

Easy Chicken Curry Recipe Review
Curry time again so once more I scan through the Curry Focus recipes. This time I was immediately attracted by the word “Easy” in the Easy Chicken Curry Recipe. And it looked an easy dish to prepare….

We’ve had some positive feedback with the revised search processing where the search looks for common mis-spellings and alternatives for search words. Thanks for letting us know that the changed search is helping you find the recipes that you want.

One of the suggestions that we’ve had is to include the blogs in the search, as well as the recipes. The blogs cover a wide range of subjects and it would be good to let you search them. It won’t happen this month but we’ve moved this request up the list and will tackle it next month. We’ll let you know when this has been put into the website.

Top 5 Recipes for May

1 Chicken Curry
2 Chicken Bhuna
3 Chicken Jalfrezi
4 Easy Chicken Curry
5 Chicken Biryani

Why not tell us the recipes that you like? You can submit a new recipe here and a restaurant here.

Hi, Ray here again.

Once again it’s the weekend and so time for another yummy curry from the Curry Focus website.

This time I chose the chicken dhansak. The recipe looks simple enough and I do enjoy the blend of dal, chicken and spices that you get with the dish.

As usual, I had most of the ingredients in the kitchen. Luckily I had run out of red lentils (masoor dal) so I had to go down to my favourite Indian supermarket where I got the lentils, some fresh coriander, a can of pineapples and a packet of stuffed paratha. The paratha are not part of the recipe but they go very well with curries.

I set the dal cooking and prepared the ginger, garlic, chillis, onion and chicken.

I drained the cooked lentils and stir-fried the initial spices before adding the chicken.

Then I stir-fried the second set of spices before cooking the onions. The curry was quite dry so I added some of the pineapple juice to stop the curry from sticking.

Then the chicken, pineapple, cooked lentils, ginger, lemon juice and the coriander were added to the frying pan. I mixed it all up, covered the frying pan and simmered the curry for 10 minutes.

The rice went into the microwave at the same time.

With about 3 minutes to go until the curry was ready, I started microwaving the stuffed paratha.

Then I served up the dhansak on rice and garnished with a little more coriander.

The finished curry was served up to the assembled dinner guests who quickly made the food disappear.

The curry proved to be popular and scored 7 out of 10 with a medium spice heat.

It was a pretty standard, easy, curry to make and the result is a delicious meal.

Chillis arrived in India early in the 16th century, not long after Columbus sailed to the Caribbean in 1492.

Why did Columbus head west? The main reason was to find a passage to India and the “spice islands” in the Pacific. Up until that time, pepper was carried to China (or Malaysia) and then transported across the Indian Ocean to India, then across the Arabian Sea to Africa, then overland to the Mediterranean and finally entering Europe via Venice or Genoa. Towards the end of the 15th century, the price of pepper was spiralling upwards and a lot of the blame was put on the multitude of middlemen in the process, particularly the Venetians and Genoese. A western sea route to the spice source was needed.

Columbus was convinced that he had succeeded in finding the western route when he reached the Caribbean and this conviction was strengthened when he saw the locals spicing up their meals with pepper.

But pepper wasn’t being used in the Caribbean – capsicums were being used. Varieties of these capsicums had been used in cooking for thousands of years in the Americas. One of the major users of the spicy capsicums was, and still remains, Mexico. The Aztecs were a major force in Mexico for a long time and their word for the capsicum was “chilli”.

In this way, the humble chilli pepper was “discovered” by Europeans.

In 1498 a small Portuguese fleet of 3 ships, led by Vasco da Gama, sailed down the west coast of Africa, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, crossed the Arabian Sea and landed at the Malabar Coast of India. The real sea route to India had been found (remember, this was long before the Suez canal was built).

Trade flourished between India and Portugal and the Portuguese established settlements in this area of India with their capital at Goa. The Portuguese quickly took over control of the spice trade and built forts to protect their interests.

And the Portuguese brought chillis from the New World and used them in their cooking in, and around, Goa.

The Portuguese ate a lot of meat, mainly beef and pork, and added chillis to the ingredients in their dish of meat cooked in wine vinegar and garlic. The Portuguese for this dish is “carne de vinho e alhos” – “vinho e alhos” was badly pronounced by the local population and became “vindaloo”.

The local Indian population usually did not eat meat – they were Muslims (who didn’t eat pork), Hindus (who didn’t eat beef) or vegetarians. But all that changed when the Portuguese introduced Christianity and even more so when the Inquisition arrived in Goa in 1560.

The Inquisition persuaded (or coerced or forced) the Indian population to become Catholics. In 1550, around 20% of Goans were Catholics and this had reached around 67% by 1650.

And the Catholic Church issued edicts saying that it was OK to eat pork and beef.

And so, gradually, the local population began to eat meat.

The British invaded Goa in 1797 and discovered the vindaloo. And they loved it. The British left Goa after less than 20 years and took Goan cooks, and recipes, with them back to British India. After that it didn’t take long for the vindaloo to reach Britain where it established itself as a favourite dish, especially pork vindaloo.

Use of the chilli spread within the Indian sub continent from Goa. The chilli was as spicy as the Indian long pepper (that it quickly replaced), was easy to grow and easy to store (the Indian long pepper was hard to store because it was susceptible to mould).

So, contrary to popular belief, the chilli did not originate in India – it is a spice from the New World (the Portuguese did indeed ship a lot of chilli to Europe, mainly in the form of chilli powder).

The blending of the Portuguese dish of “carne de vinho e alhos” and chillis resulted in the vindaloo, for which the rest of the curry-eating world is grateful.

There is a great Curry Focus recipe for Pork Vindaloo.