Category Archives: curry

empire fish and chips

Posted by Gary in chips, cod, curry, curry powder, fish, food, potatoes

empire fish and chips

Just the other week I was bowled over by Jamie’s empire chicken. I was also taken by his prediction that if you ask the British public what their favourite meals are, they’ll say “roast chicken” and “a curry”, hence his Imperial mash-up. But my mind wandered to that other pinnacle of British food, the fish and chips. What would this look like as a crossover?

As it turns out, hilarious fun. Spicy yet familiar.

Empire fish and chips (serves 2):

For the chips:

2 – 3 medium maris piper potatoes

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 teaspoon nigella seeds

1 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon madras curry powder

For the fish:

150g plain flour

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon honey

Carbonated water (enough to make a gloopy batter, approx 300ml)

2 cod fillets

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Cut the potatoes into nice fat chip shapes and drop them into salted boiling water. When tender drain them and allow to steam dry a little. Toss in the spices with a big pinch of salt, toss in oil and pop in the oven for 45 minutes until crispy.
  2. Meanwhile make the fish. Heat some rapeseed or vegetable oil in a pan or fryer to 180°C. Whisk up the batter ingredients and then lay the fish in the batter. Allow the excess to drip off and fry the fish for approx 8 – 10 minutes until golden brown on both sides. Serve immediately with lemon wedges.

empire chicken with indian gravy and bombay roasties

Posted by Gary in carrots, chicken, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cucumber, cumin, curry, food, garlic, ginger, lemon, nigella seeds, potatoes, red onion and tagged with

empire chicken with indian roasties

What a triumph this is. Just when I was feeling a bit indifferent to Jamie Oliver’s Great Britain along comes this absolute belter. Jamie introduces this by saying most people when asked about their favourite foods will mention roast chicken and curries, and this utterly unites the heart of both of these.

With blackened, tangy skin the chicken comes out juicy and tickling on the tongue, although be warned it will make a mess of your oven as it sits on the rack.

Being the kind of blog this is though, I have to talk about the roast potatoes. They are a triumph. I used to get “spicy spuds” from a dubious takeaway near me and these are very, very close to those – crispy, spicy and fluffy.

I’ve made a few changes to the spices in the potatoes based on what I had, and used floury over new pots to get them really crispy. I’ve served mine with a refreshing salad.

I cannot recommend this recipe enough.

Jamie’s original recipe is here.

Empire chicken, Bombay roasties, Indian gravy and refreshing salad (serves 4):

For the chicken and marinade

1.4kg free-range chicken

1 heaped tablespoon each finely grated garlic, fresh ginger and fresh red chilli

1 heaped tablespoon tomato purée

1 heaped teaspoon each of ground coriander, turmeric, garam masala and ground cumin

2 heaped teaspoons natural yoghurt

2 level teaspoons sea salt

For the gravy

1 stick of cinnamon

2 small red onions, peeled

10 cloves

3 tablespoons each of white wine vinegar and Worcestershire sauce

3 level tablespoons plain flour

500ml chicken stock

For the Bombay-style potatoes

800g new potatoes

sea salt and ground pepper

1 lemon

2 or 3 tablespoons olive oil

a knob of butter

1 heaped teaspoon each of nigella seeds, ground coriander, garam masala, fenugreek and turmeric

1 bulb of garlic

Pinch of chilli flakes

For the salad

½ a cucumber, peeled

3 carrots, peeled

1 red onion, peeled

½ lemon

    1. Slash the chicken’s legs a few times right down to the bone. Mix all the marinade ingredients together and smear all over the chicken. Leave to marinate overnight.
    2. Preheat the oven to 200°C and organize your shelves so the roasting tray can sit right at the bottom, the chicken can sit directly above it, right on the bars of the shelf, and the potatoes can go at the top.
    3. Cut the potatoes into golf-ball size pieces then parboil them in a large pan of salted boiling water with a whole lemon for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through. Drain the potatoes then let them steam dry. Stab the lemon a few times with a sharp knife and put it right into the chicken’s cavity.
    4. Roughly chop the onions and add to a roasting tray along with the cinnamon stick, cloves, vinegar and Worcestershire sauce, then whisk in the flour. Pour in the stock or water, then place this right at the bottom of the oven. Place the chicken straight on to the bars of the middle shelf, above the roasting tray. Cook for 1 hour 20 minutes.
    5. Put a roasting tray in the oven for five minutes to get hot. Add the olive oil, butter, the spices, halve a bulb of garlic and add it straight to the pan. Add your drained potatoes to the tray, mix everything together, then season well. After the chicken has been in for 40 minutes, put the potatoes in.
    6. Once the chicken is cooked, move it to a board to rest. Pass the gravy through a coarse sieve into a pan, whisking any sticky goodness from the pan as you go. Bring to the boil and either cook and thicken or thin down with water to your preference (I had to add some boiling water to deglaze the surface and make a sauce out of it.
    7. For the salad, use a vegetable peeler to make thin strips of the carrot and cucumber. Then finely slice the onion and add this to it. Add a pinch each of salt and sugar, then squeeze over the lemon and toss to combine. Leave for 15 minutes while everything else finishes off.
    8. Get your potatoes out of the oven and put them into a serving bowl, then serve the chicken on a board next to the sizzling roasties and hot gravy.

sag aloo

Posted by Gary in curry, potatoes, spinach

sag aloo

One of my favourite dishes from an Indian takeaway, among the mighty lamb balti, brilliant onion bhaji and cracking keema naan, is the humble sag aloo. Spinach and potato. What springs to mind are buttery, savoury bright yellow nuggets of firm potato streaked with iron-y spinach. Yum.

But I’ve never managed to recreate it successfully at home. In a moment of weakness the other day I picked up a packet of Schwartz Bombay Potato mix somehow assuming it would be any good. It smells the part and trying it neat it’s interesting (and bl**dy spicy!) but not really what I’m after. The recipe I used is on the Schwartz link and yet after 30 mins additional cooking the potatoes were only just done.

After whining on Twitter Shauna put me on to this recipe which sounds like the business. I’ll be trying it soon.

BUT – I have an idea for the leftovers. Watch this space…

curried lamb breast with onions

Posted by Gary in coriander, cumin, curry, lamb, onion, turmeric

curried lamb breast with onions

Flushed with the success of Simon Hopkinson’s stunning lamb breast dish, I felt the only way it could be improved is with the addition of curry spices. The Indian flavours I felt would surely go well with rich lamb. At the same time I stumbled upon other people doing the same dish, such as Girl Interrupted Eating. She’d chosen to do this in the slow cooker so I thought I’d do the same. I asked if she’d fried the onions off beforehand, as in my experience onions aren’t good at breaking down in a slow cooker. However in my haste I got on and cooked them off anyway, before Becky could reply that she didn’t!

Mine turned out very nice – warming and spiced and just breaking through the fatty lamb. It kinda tasted like it had been baked in mango chutney. Juicy and filling, not what you’d call a light dinner! Good fun though.

Curried lamb breast baked with onions (serves 4):

800g lamb breast

3 onions, sliced

1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled

3 garlic cloves, peeled

1 large bunch of fresh coriander

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon chilli powder

6 curry leaves

  1. Pre-heat your slow cooker to low.
  2. Heat a little oil in a large frying pan and sear the lamb on each side. Put to one side while you fry the onions gently.
  3. Remove the leaves from the coriander bunch and reserve for later. Put the stalks on a chopping board with the garlic and ginger and chop together to a chunky paste. When the onions have softened add the coriander / garlic / ginger mix. Fry for a minute and then add all the spices, frying for another minute.
  4. Add half the onion mix to the slow cooker, pop the lamb on top then add the remaining onions. Add a splash of water and pop the lid on for about 6 hours, or until the lamb can be pushed apart with a spoon.
  5. Remove the lamb to the side for one minute so you can remove any bones or gummy bits of skin ‘n’ stuff that lamb breast can have. Pop a sieve on a saucepan and put the onions into the sieve. Put the lamb and drained onions with a sprinkle of salt back into the slow cooker while you work on the reserved liquid.
  6. Simmer the liquid until reduced by half, add a dash of white wine vinegar and the coriander leaves. Dish up the lamb and onions, spoon over the sauce and serve with crispy cauliflower.

coley korma

Posted by Gary in coconut, coley, curry, fish and tagged with

coley korma

I’ve been watching the recent fish campaign fronted by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Jamie Oliver, Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay with great interest. Hugh’s documentaries were particularly memorable: following a fishing boat and watching aghast as tons of dead cod is tossed back into the ocean. Why? Because they have already exceeded their cod quota. Senseless, wasteful and frustrating. I watched most of it with tears in my eyes. I recommend you have a look at the Fish Fight website to find out more – why not sign up while you’re there?

The campaign has got the nation out and voting with their wallets. M&S reported their biggest week of fish sales in all their years of trading. Let’s hope the campaign continues to be a success and the ridiculous quota system is overhauled.

You may have noticed this blog contains little in the way of fish recipes. Sadly whilst I am a massive fan of fish, no others in the Roast Potato household are. Therefore fish is a real treat for me reserved for nights in alone. Tonight was one of those nights.

One of Jamie’s recipes in the series caught my eye: coley korma. Coley is a sweet and delicious fish, very reminiscent of cod but dirt cheap. Give it a whirl.

Jamie’s original recipe is here.

Coley korma:

4 coley steaks

1/3 jar of Patak’s korma paste

200ml coconut milk

1 mugful of rice

A couple of cloves

A couple of cardamom pods, cracked

Handful of coriander leaves, shredded

Half a cinnamon stick

  1. Get the rice on – chuck the rice in a saucepan with the spices, a splash of oil and some salt. Add twice the amount of boiling water to rice (so, two mugfuls) and simmer over a medium heat for ten minutes. After this time turn off the heat and pop the lid on for a further ten minutes to steam.
  2. Spread half the paste over the back of one of the steaks. Place in a hot pan and sizzle on one side for a couple of minutes. Flip over, add the rest of the paste and the coconut milk. Allow to simmer for a further 7 – 10 minutes until the fish flakes apart. Scatter over coriander and serve with the rice.

roasted cauliflower rogan josh

Posted by Gary in cauliflower, chickpeas, curry

roasted cauliflower rogan josh

I’ve been on a mad rush of curries lately. With how much I’ve enjoyed Leon’s crispy roast cauliflower in the past few months, it occurred to me that this method of cooking is identical to the tikka style of barbecuing the meat separate to the sauce. With the addition of lentils to make it a fuller meal and Patak’s taking care of the spices, this was a glorious curry.

Roasted cauliflower rogan josh:

1 head of cauliflower, hacked to florets

2 carrots, chopped into chunks

1 tablespoon sunflower oil

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

Sprinkle of black onion seeds

1 teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon turmeric

For the sauce:

2 onions, sliced

2 tablespoons Patak’s rogan josh curry paste

1 tin tomatoes

1 tin lentils

  1. Preheat the oven as high as it will go. Scatter the veg in a large baking tray. Mix the spices with the oil and drizzle over the cauliflower and carrots. Sprinkle with salt and toss liberally to coat everything. Roast for 45 minutes or until the cauliflower starts to blacken.
  2. When the veg has had about 30 minutes in the oven, prepare the sauce. In a large casserole sweat the onions in a little oil for about 10 minutes until starting to turn golden. Add the spice paste and stir for a minute to get it going.
  3. Add the tomatoes, then chuck in the lentils (including the water they come in). Bring up to a boil and simmer quite vigourously for about five minutes. The veg should be ready at this point so bring out of the oven and throw the lot into the casserole. Stir and check for seasoning (salt? Lemon juice?), then serve with naan.

quick cauliflower dhal

Posted by Gary in cauliflower, curry, lentils

quick cauliflower dhal curry

This dinner was made super-fast by the addition of two dead handy ingredients: Waitrose Cooks’ Ingredients Onion Curry Base and Patak’s Balti paste. This wiped so much time off the cooking, all I was waiting for was the cauliflower to get tender. The Waitrose onion curry base is particularly great; sweet, spicy and tender onions, garlic, ginger and chilli in a jar sweated down. Look out for them.

Quick cauliflower dhal:

Half a jar of Waitrose Cooks’ Ingredients Onion Curry Base

Half a jar of Patak’s Balti paste

1 head of cauliflower, broken into florets

1 litre vegetable stock

1 tin green lentils, drained

1 tablespoon double cream

  1. Heat a little oil in a deep pan and add the onions. Cook for a minute and stir in the curry paste. Add the cauliflower and cook for another minute stirring to coat the cauli in the pastes.
  2. Add the vegetable stock and bring to the boil. After five minutes add the lentils and continue cooking until tender. Just before serving stir through some cream.

gobi tarka dall

Posted by Gary in cauliflower, curry, curry powder, lentils, turmeric, yoghurt and tagged with

gobi tarka dall

I can’t get enough cauliflower, and am always quick to toss out a few recipes for those that think it dull and dreary. I was dead pleased to see an article in the latest Delicious magazine devoted to the joys of the cauli. It’s not just for cauliflower cheese, y’know.

Gobi tarka dall (based on a recipe by Debbie Major):

150g puy lentils

300ml vegetable stock

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

1 large cauliflower, broken into florets

1 medium onion, chopped

6 garlic cloves, grated

1 teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon Madras curry powder

200ml coconut milk

1 tin of tomatoes

1 tablespoon Greek yoghurt

Bunch of fresh coriander leaves

For the tarka:

2 tablespoons sunflower oil

1 teaspoon nigella seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

3 cloves

  1. Rinse the lentils thoroughly then simmer them in the stock for 20 minutes until tender. Set aside.
  2. Heat a little oil in a pan, and drop in the cumin seeds. After 30 seconds or so they will spit and jump about so throw in the cauliflower and get some dark brown scorches on them. Remove to one side.
  3. In the same pan fry the onion until soft (about 10 minutes), then add the garlic. After a couple of minutes stirring add the cumin, turmeric and curry powder. Cook for a further minute, then add the coconut milk, tomatoes and cauliflower. Simmer for fifteen minutes, until the cauliflower is tender.
  4. Stir the lentils into the curry and season well with salt. Leave to simmer so everything is piping hot, then turn off the heat stirring in the yoghurt with some vigour (this will avoid separation). Throw some coriander over the top.
  5. For the tarka, get the oil sizzly hot and add the spices. After a minute’s crackling turn the heat off and toss the lot over the curry. Serve with soft and puffy naan bread.

aloo tikki

Posted by Gary in curry, potatoes

I was watching Rick Stein on one of those Saturday Kitchen clips the other day, and I happened to notice that he’d made little potato cakes to go with a fish dish. I wanted something to go with my lamb madras, and these (with some Indian tweaks) seemed just right. I was amazed how good they were for something thrown together on the fly! Very tasty.

Aloo tikki (makes about 15):

2 large baking potatoes

¼ teaspoon turmeric

¼ teaspoon smoked paprika

½ teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon coriander

1 egg, beaten

100g sesame seeds

  1. Bake the potatoes for an hour or until a skewer comes out clean and easy. Leave to cool.
  2. When cool, scoop out the flesh into a bowl and add the spices and a good helping of salt. Form into small ping-pong balls and leave in the fridge to harden slightly.
  3. When ready, coat the potato balls in egg and roll in sesame seeds until well-coated. Fry gently in a little oil until browned on all sides.

lamb madras

Posted by Gary in curry, lamb and tagged with

When I get a craving for curry, there’s no stopping me until I’ve made one. And this one was great, zingy and powerful, with a creamy finish. Brilliant yellow and bursting with freshness.

Lamb madras (based on Allegra McEvedy’s Leon Gobi recipe):

500g lamb shoulder, diced

1 onion, sliced

1 carrot, sliced

2 thumb-sized pieces of ginger, peeled

5 cloves garlic, peeled

1 large teaspoon Madras curry powder

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon black onion seeds

4 heaped tablespoons ground almonds

400ml coconut milk

Juice of ½ a lemon

Handful of coriander, chopped

  1. Fry the lamb all over in a large casserole until browned. Remove to one side for now.
  2. In the same pan, add a little more oil and fry the onion and carrot with lid on gently for 20 minutes until softened. While this is going on whizz up the garlic and ginger to a paste, then add this to the pan with a big pinch of salt.
  3. Stir fry for a minute or two and add the curry powder, turmeric, black onion seeds and almonds. Fry for another minute, add the lamb back and pour over the coconut milk. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook with the lid on for another hour and a half, or until the lamb is tender.
  4. When the lamb is cooked, add lemon juice, adjust the seasoning and top with coriander.