Curry Focus

Chicken Vindaloo - a tough but tasty assignment!

2007-01-20T19:18:00.000-08:00

Chicken Vindaloo is on the menu this week. Once again we got our tasty recipe from the now famous www.curryfocus.co.uk website. Here is a link to the actual recipe if you would like to try it yourself.

http://www.curryfocus.co.uk/recipe.php?recipe=21

It took a bit longer than usual as there was a fair amount of time spent creating the Vindaloo Paste however the outcome was worth the effort. I had a bit of a problem when cooking the onions, it says to cook them until they are brown and crisp before blending them however the more I cooked them the soggier they became!

Here is the finished product..

Yummy Curry Rating from the diners: 8.0 out of 10

Hotness Rating: Medium

Balti Chicken - Cooked by Yours Truly

2007-01-07T17:44:00.000-08:00

This week we have chosen a tasty Balti Chicken from the www.curryfocus.com website. This dish is quite low on calories and fat content, perfect after all the rubbish we have been eating over the holiday period.

First of all I heated up the oil and added the chopped onion to it, then stirred in tomato and peppercorns, cardamoms, cinnamon stick, chilli powder, garam masala, garlic paste and ginger paste. This was then heated up for 5 minutes or so.

Next the chicken was added and cooked on quite a high temperature for 5 minutes.

The last steps involved adding yoghurt and simmering for 10 minutes, after this the remaining spices, coriander, lime and chopped up green chilli were added, before serving.

The end result very tasty, and healthy as well!

Yummy Curry Rating from the diners: 7.5 out of 10

Hotness Rating: Medium

Curry Focus Website - Delicious Recipes and Restaurants!

2007-01-03T20:39:00.000-08:00

The newly launched CurryFocus website is dedicated to the tastes and flavours of curries. They have great recipes for you to try that have all been supplied by people who use the site. If you have a favourite recipe, why not share it with with everyone?

If you don't want to cook then you can find your local curry restaurant by doing a simple search.
If you know of a restaurant that is not included in our database then you can simply add its details by filling out an easy form. We check the details before activating the restaurant in our database.

Week 5 - Lamb Korma

2006-12-28T19:47:00.001-08:00

Lamb Korma was on the menu for tonight, a simple yet tasty recipe was found on the net that involved making a paste out of chilli, curry and turmeric. Adding this to oil and onion, then adding cubes of lamb. Once the lamb cubes were sealed added evaporated milk, cream, coconut, and garlic. Final touches were coriander and Garam Masala.

Very tasty, this only problems with this dish was the appearance of the sauce due to the evaporated milk.

Yummy Curry Rating from the diners: 7.0 out of 10
Hotness Rating: Mild

We invite a Guest Chef "Pommy" Colin

2006-12-23T18:29:00.000-08:00

This week, we have invited a guest Chef to do the cooking for us. "Pommy" Colin is going to create 3 dishes for us. A Butter Chicken,a Chicken Korma and a Chicken Tikka.

Poppadoms will be provided for a taster along with a cucumber and tomato relish. Then for the starter dish we will be treated with Chicken Tikka pieces with plain yoghurt.

The preparation of the main tikka involves approximately equal amounts of the following...

Cumin
Ground Tumeric
Ground Chilli
Ground Paprika
Ground Garam Masala
Ginger
Salt and Pepper
Indian Curry Powder

As described by our wonder chef "Just throw in everything that is remotely Indian"

Tomato puree is then added to bind all the spices, just enough to make a nice spicy paste. (The rest will be used later on for our Tikka Masala)

Now the chicken is sliced into cubes, some for the chicken tikka starter. (these are made a little larger than the other cubes that will be used in the main dishes)

The pieces of chicken are then coated in the paste and the whole mixture placed for the fridge for approximately at least one hour, or if time allows the night before.

While the chicken is marinading "Pommy" Colin is chopping tomatoes that are going to be used in the relish and the tikka masala (possibly also to be garnish for our chicken Tikka)

They are chopped into fairly small cubes. ("Pommy" Colin suggests that this part is done before we hook into to many more drinks, as it can be dangerous for the fingers otherwise!)

Now its fry time, "Pommy" Colin has chopped up a number of onions that are going to be fried, the chicken pieces are also cooking in the oven at a low temperature (70 degrees Celsius) after first searing them at a high temperature in the pan.

Then the tomatoes and tomato puree are placed in one bowl and some pumpkin soup in the other bowl. A quarter of the Chicken pieces are added to the tomato dish, and the pumpkin soup has a portion of it added to each of the other dishes. Coconut cream is added to the korma dish.

The final product, very tasty. Our Diners tonight rated this trio of curries a 9/10.

Rangoli Indian Cuisine do the Cooking this Week.

2006-12-16T22:41:00.000-08:00

After going away for the weekend, and returning home late Sunday afternoon, there was no time for our weekly Curry Cook Up this week. After reading a local Indian Restaurant review about Rangoli Indian Restaurant I decided to try and see what all the fuss was about. I called ahead and ordered 1 Butter Chicken Dish, asked for Medium Hot and was advised I could pick it up in 10 - 15 minutes.

I shot down there 10 minutes later and was pleased to find a clean, efficient looking operation with ample parking out the front. The Indian chap in the restaurant was pleasant enough and passed my dinner to me, charging around $16 NZ dollars for a main dish, with rice and a garlic naan bread.

Here is my review of this restaurant.

Name of Restaurant: Rangoli Indian Restaurant
Address: D/317 Ti Rakau Drive, East Tamaki. (Near Thai Flame) (Auckland NZ)
Phone Number: 273 5002

Ratings (Out of 10)

Premises: 9
Rice: 8
Dish: 8
Bread: 6
Hotness: 6
Service: 7
Price: 8

Overall Rating: 7.5/10

I would definitely recommend this restaurant, these guys provide a professional and pleasant atmosphere, the food was superb and extremely tasty!

Week 2 Mogul - Style Beef

2006-12-09T15:38:00.000-08:00

This week we look at a beef curry, it is certainly an easier series of steps than the last effort. This is how it mapped out.

Chopped up an onion, placed in large pot with a bit of oil and began to heat up. Then added garam masala, turmeric, ginger and chilli powder. Once this had been all stirred in together strips of beef were added and then stirred on high heat until the meat was nicely browned.
I am still a bit funny when it comes to handling raw meat, its a bit icky yucky when you are not used to it!

The next step was to stir in milk, honey and chicken stock along with a little bit of water. The whole lot was then brought to the boil and then left to simmer for 30 Minutes. I then left it for a few hours, plenty of time for the flavours to soak into the meat.

The final part involved cooking the rice, reheating the curry as well as adding some lite cream and crunched up almonds to the mix.

Tasted very good, the only downside to this dish was the fact that the beef strips I cut were a little to large, and should have been chopped up more, plus the onion was not cut up enough.

Yummy Curry Rating from the diners: 7.5 out of 10
Hotness Rating: Mild

What is Coriander?

2006-12-09T00:10:00.000-08:00

Coriander comes from the seed of the Cilantro plant and is made into a spice. Coriander is a member of the carrot family. The seeds are brownish in colour, they are quite small and round. Morocco and Spain are the leading produces of Coriander.

Commonly used in Asian type cuisines, and particularly curries it is often used in conjunction with ginger. It is commonly believed to be one of the first spices used by mankind!

As a spice it is often used in marinades and ideal for sprinkling over meats or salads, Coriander seeds can be used either ground or as the whole seed.

Beef Dish for Week 2

2006-12-05T01:11:00.000-08:00

We are looking to create something Beef related in week 2 of our Curry Focus Experiment. Can a guy that has never cooked create 2 yummy curry dishes in a row? You will have to wait and see. If you happen to know of a Tasty Beef Curry Recipe that is quite easy to cook, please leave a note of where I can find it.

Take it easy.

Week 1 First attempt Chicken Tikka Masala!

2006-12-03T00:37:00.000-08:00

My first attempt at really cooking a meal was tonights dinner, a Chicken Tikka Masala. I found a recipe on the net, sent the other half out to collect the ingredients and then spent an enjoyable couple of hours putting it together. The process went like this.

Created a Tikka Paste, which was mixed with yoghurt, this was the marinade.
Cut up 550 gms of Chicken breast into 1 inch cubes, covered them in the marindade and left in the fridge for a couple of hours.
Chopped up some onion, chiles, ginger and garlic and mixed into the rest of the Tikka Paste, bought this to the boil. Then added water and some tomato sauce and blended the lot into a nice smooth sauce.
Put on the rice about this point and was also trying to grill the chicken cubes, which was a challenge trying to multi task at such an early point of my cooking career!

Once the sauce was blended and the chicken grilled, added the pieces to the sauce and simmered for 5 minutes to bring it all together. Finally served it up and garnished with fresh corriander and toasted cumin seeds.

Yummy Curry Rating from the diners: 8 out of 10
Hotness Rating: Medium

About this Blog

2006-12-02T16:23:00.000-08:00

Basically I am not much of a cook, however have always enjoyed the fine taste of Curries from around the world. Every week I will be taking a partiular curry, and trying to cook it. I will post a picture of the end result on this blog, and give myself a Yummy Curry Rating of between 1 - 10. I look forward to sharing the experiences and problems that will be faced!