Hi, Ray here again.
This week I was going to cook a curry but it was going to be eaten at a friend’s house.
I had already been told by my girlfriend that I was going to cook the Beef Madras curry, which is a favourite of ours. I’ve made this curry quite a few times and every time the results have been just stunning (I’ve previously written a Beef Madras Curry Recipe Review).
I know that my girlfriend and I can cope with the curry’s spice heat level of medium, but I wasn’t too sure how the other two diners would cope even though the heat level was only medium. So rather than risk them not coping with the heat level, I decided that I’d also make a raita that can be used to cool down a curry. Making a raita is one of the easiest ways to make sure that you’ve got something on the table for people to use to cool down their mouths if they can’t cope with a curry’s heat and there’s a Curry Focus blog article, titled “How to cool down a curry that’s too hot“, that gives a few tips on how to stop delicate palates from catching fire.
If the other diners have problems with the heat level then the raita would help them cope, and if they don’t have problems then it’s just a yummy side dish.
I went for the Cucumber Raita recipe from the list of Raita Recipes and picked up a cucumber and some yogurt whilst out shopping.
I made the curry on Saturday and the raita on Sunday.
Making the raita is real easy. You just grate the cucumber, finely chop up a fresh chilli and then mix all of the ingredients (except for the fresh coriander) before covering with kitchen film and popping into the fridge to cool. It’s easily one of the quickest dishes that I’ve ever made.
I took the Beef Madras Curry and the Cucumber Raita to my friend’s place, along with a packet of poppadoms and, when I got there, it was a simple matter of making the basmati whilst heating up the curry and grilling the poppadoms. I sprinkled the fresh coriander over the raita just before serving up the meal.
So what was the food like? Well obviously the curry was great (because it always is). And the raita was great as well. The dinner guests easily coped with the curry heat and so the raita was just a tasty side dish with a lovely flavour – raita goes well with a lot of curries. The raita scored an impressive 8.5 out of 10 with a spice/heat rating of “Very Mild”.
I can certainly recommend this recipe if you want to make a yummy raita.
