It was a good night.
Naomi was back in the Netherlands for a few days (she lives in Britain now),
and the rest of the events unfolded naturally. We rounded up the gang of usual
suspects, set a date, planned a menu, and started cooking. It felt comfortable
in the way that a gathering of old friends feels comfortable - people you’ve
known for years, people who’ve known you for years. You know what their story
is, at least some parts of it, you remember who they were all those years ago.
You can only wonder who they think you were all those years ago. And hope you
(meaning we) will get together every so often for many years to come, and have
a good night like this night was.
The menu
Pappadums
Mango chutney
Chick
pea and pumpkin curry
Curry beef from
Trinidad
Courgette and
green pepper sabzi
Cardamom and
lime rice
Chapatis
Carrot and
sultana raita
Cucumber raita
Chocolate
cake with tipsy cream and green chai
Curry beef – Trinidad
Adapted
from Madhur Jaffrey’s Curry Bible.
this dish, the aptly if a tad syntactically unexpected yet
unimaginatively named ‘Curry Beef’, was a collaborative effort: I made the
marinade, naomi cooked the dish. it sounds like a lot of work, because there
are a lot of ingredients and the marinating and cooking take a long time. all
the ingredients for the marinade you chop up in one go in the food processor,
and during the time the beef is marinating, and later, simmering away, you’re
not really doing much of anything.
in other words, try this.
for the marinade
6tbsp chopped onion
2 spring onions
2 large cloves
of garlic
2tbsp parsley
2–3tbsp fresh
coriander (cilantro)
1tbsp fresh
thyme / ½ tsp dried thyme
some chillies
(see recipe)
½ tsp ground
ginger
for the curry
450g stewing
beef
2–3 cloves of
garlic
1tsp hot curry
powder
500–900ml beef
stock (see recipe)
1tsp ground
cumin
2tsp amchar
masala (ingredients below)
amchar masala (a
lot of it)
4tbsp coriander seeds
1tbsp cumin seeds
4tsp black peppercorns
2tsp fennel seeds
2tsp brown mustard seeds (we used
black)
2tsp fenugreek
preparing the marinade:
put
the following in a food processor: 6 tablespoons chopped onion (I used two
medium-ish onions), 2 large garlic cloves, 2 spring onions, already chopped in
smaller pieces (just use the white and light green parts), 2 tablespoons finely
chopped parsley, 2–3 tablespoons finely chopped coriander (cilantro), 1
tablespoon fresh thyme, or ½ teaspoon dried...
I
pause here, because we are at the chilli.
madhur
stipulates ¼ congo pepper (handle with care) or 3 bird’s eye chillies.
so, 3 bird’s eye
chillies to equal one fourth of a congo
pepper? quite.
I used one
pretty mild chilli instead.
where
was I? so, as much chilli as you think you and/or your intended audience can
stand, basically, and then ½ teaspoon ground ginger, ½ teaspoon salt, and some
fresly ground black pepper.
add
two tablespoons of water, and blend into a smooth paste.
cut
450g stewing beef up into 2½ cm pieces (madhur doesn’t say whether the pieces
need to be 2½ cm square, or just strips - I cut the meat into squares), and
place in a bowl. mix in the marinade, cover the bowl, and leave it in the
fridge for 30 minutes to 3 hours (we left it for, gasp, 5 hours. the meat did
not complain, nor did we).
Then, the cooking. Over to Naomi:
First,
make the amchar masala: dry-roast all the spices in a heavy-bottomed pan for a
couple of minutes, cool, and grind in a spice grinder (clean coffee grinders
work too). The amounts above make a lot of
spice blend (keeps in an airtight container) and require a lot of grinding. Idling kitchen companions are a plus
here.
Amchar
masala ground, pour three tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large,
heavy-bottomed pan. Add two or three cloves of garlic, crushed to a paste with
some salt. Stir through 1tbsp of hot curry powder, and carefully soften the
garlic without browning (or, if you can stand browned garlic, follow MJ’s
instructions and let it brown). Up the heat, add the beef with the marinade and
stir for a minute, then let it heat through for ten minutes with the pan
covered on a low heat (the mixture will be fairly wet because of the marinade).
Then season with salt, and add 1tsp of ground cumin, 2tsp amchar masala, and
500–900ml of beef stock (or simply hot water). The amount of liquid to be added
depends on how long you intend to let the curry stew for – for 90 minutes, as
the recipe states, 500ml is about perfect; longer stewing means more stock (of
course some can always be added later). Bring to a boil, then simmer with the
lid on for at least 90 minutes, or longer depending on your cut of meat. Make
sure the curry doesn’t dry out while stewing. Before serving, reduce the liquid
until it’s thick and sticks to the beef.
Pumpkin and chick pea curry from Tender
This is the curry that
started the Curry Fest planning this year. Not quite an Indian curry, but not
really South-East Asian either, we thought. It was delicious though. We cooked
the curry the night before, and added the coconut milk 20 minutes before
serving as we heated it back up. Worked nicely.
400g tin of chick peas
2 onions
4 cloves of garlic
a thumb-sized piece of ginger
3 large stalks of lemongrass
2tsp ground coriander
2tsp ground turmeric (curcuma)
6 green cardamoms
2 red chillies
a pumpkin of about 750g–1kg
250ml vegetable stock
400ml tin of coconut milk
a tablespoon of yellow mustard seeds
a handful of fresh coriander leaves
Peel and chop the onions, and soften them on a low heat in a good splash
of light vegetable oil (such as rapeseed or groundnut). Peel and roughly chop
the garlic and ginger, remove any tough leaves from the lemongrass and cut this
a bit more finely to avoid tough threads. Make into a paste in a food processor
and add to the softened onions. Add the ground coriander, turmeric, lightly
crushed cardamom seeds (minus the pods) and chopped chillies.
Cut the pumpkin into large-ish cubes (peel or leave the skin on,
according to preference). Add to the pan, together with the drained chickpeas
and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil, then simmer until the pumpkin is soft yet
maintains its shape. (If you want to serve the curry the next day, here’s a
good place to stop.) Stir in the coconut milk. Heat the mustard seeds in a bit
of oil until they pop, then add to the curry. Take the pan off the heat and
stir in the coriander leaves.
Courgette and green
pepper ‘sabzi’
I have to give you the official name of this
dish, because it’s too good: ‘Tori Aur Hari Mirch Ki Sabzi’. Oh yes. It’s dead
simple and made for a nice veggie side dish. The recipe was, again, adapted
from The Curry Bible.
Peel about 500 gr.
courgettes and cut
them into thick fingers, 4 cm long and 1 cm thick. Then take a green bell
pepper, quarter it
lengthways, remove the seeds and cut it crossways into 1 cm wide slices. Heat 3
tablespoons of oil (olive
or corn) in a wok or a large frying pan, over a medium-high heat. Put in ½ a
teaspoon of cumin seeds and ¼ a teaspoon brown mustard seeds. As soon as the mustard seeds start to pop (which
could be a matter of seconds), add the courgette and the pepper. Stir and let
them fry for 5 minutes. Then add 2 tablespoons of yoghurt, and cook until it has been
absorbed, stirring all the while. Reduce the heat to low and add a tablespoon
of chopped coriander
and ½ a teaspoon of salt. Stir for a minute, then add a generous pinch of cayenne pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice. Toss, and taste if the balance of
flavours is to your liking.
The cayenne pepper and
the lemon juice at the end is a shortcut – Madhur Jaffrey writes you can add
them if you don’t have any chaat masala on hand. In the spirit of not getting
too stressed out, we took this short cut. But if you have some time, do make
chaat masala. You can use it on other veggies as well. To make it, mix together
4 teaspoons of lightly toasted, ground cumin seeds, 1½ tablespoons amchoor,
3 teaspoons cayenne pepper, 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, ¾ teaspoon
black salt (I have
never seen that in my life! has anyone here? what does it taste like?) and 1
teaspoon salt. Make
sure to break up any lumps in the mixture. Put it in a jar with a tight lid,
and store it away from sunlight and heat. If you want to use the chaat masala
instead of the cayenne pepper and lemon juice, put ½ a teaspoon on the
vegetable mix at the end.
Raitas, rice,
pappadums
we made two different raitas, one
with cucumber and one with carrots and raisins. two raitas might seem a bit
much, but I knew there were going to be some people whose eyes would light up
at the sight of raisins in the raita, and also some people who would be, shall
we say, less pleased. and if you’re gonna make it a party, make it a party, you
know? two raitas it was, then.
I usually don’t use a
recipe for raita, but this time I did. sort of. that is, I read madhur
jaffrey’s recipes for them, and followed her instructions for the amount of
spices and salt, but I didn’t go so far as to measure the yoghurt or anything.
still, it felt good to just be able to follow instructions without having to
think about what I was doing too much.
Cucumber raita
first, roast some cumin seeds and
put them into a spice grinder or a mortar & pestle. peel one half of a
cucumber, and grate it into a bowl. add a teaspoon of ground cumin seeds, and
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper. add a dollop of yoghurt, stir everything together,
and check for seasoning. add some salt and pepper if needed.
Carrot and raisin
raita
peel two medium-sizes carrots, and
grate them into another bowl. add a handful of raisins, a teaspoon of ground
cumin, 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, a good dollop of yoghurt, mix, and check
for seasoning. you can always add some more yoghurt if you want to change the
consistency. the raita I usually make is less ‘liquid’ than the ones you get in
indian restaurants. questions of authenticity aside, and questions about the
importance of authenticity aside, I like it better my way. but you may not.
Rice with cardamom
and lime
depending on the rice you use, you
may need to wash the rice before cooking. the best way to cook rice, for me, is
to measure it in a glass or a mug, and then to add twice the amount of cold
water. so, one cup of rice, two cups of water. cook rice this way often, and
you’ll learn which cup in your cupboard will give you the desired amount of
rice. as a point of reference, a good portion is usually 75 gr. per person. put
the rice and the cold water in a pan, add 5 pods cardamom, and bring to the
boil. once the rice starts boiling, reduce the heat to the lowest flame, and
leave the rice to cook slowly until all the water’s absorbed. it completely
depends on the rice you use how long this will take. when all the water’s
absorbed, turn off the heat and let the rice sit and steam for a little while
longer.
serve with a few wedges
of lime alongside, to be squeezed over the rice à volonté.
Pappadums
the most convenient way of
cooking pappadums is in the microwave. place the raw pappadum on a plate - as
flat as possible - and put in the microwave for a minute. alternatively, heat
up a dry frying pan, and let the pappadums cook and crisp up in there, making
sure they don’t catch.
we served them as an
appetizer of sorts, with very (very) good mango chutney alongside.
Chocolate cake with tipsy cream and green chai
We
could have made kulfi or red bean ice cream or tapioca pudding… but somehow we
both weren’t really up for anything quite Asian for dessert. Besides, chocolate
had been looked forward to. So for dessert we had, once again,
Kate’s
Winning-Hearts-and-Minds cake. We served tipsy cream to go with it,
inspired by Michel Roux Jr (hands up who misses Michel and Monica Galetti?).
Ours was slightly sweetened whipped cream with a couple tablespoons of whisky.
To remain somewhat curry-appropriate, our drink of choice was green chai (by
Clipper – delicious).
Thanks for the good times, R, N, A, S and G!
- An & Na
