I'm going to cook some Indian food for my Aussie boyfriend. So it will probably be more Anglicised Indian food. He likes Indian food but Indian takeout always make him ill, we don't know why. What's your favourite dishes? I only have butter chicken and basmati rice planned right now.
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He may be sensitive to MSG. Like Chinese, Indian restaurants use a lot of it.
How about some samosas? Good side that can be filled many different ways.
He can have some Chinese food, but now that i think about it he only really likes eating Chinese roast pork and roast duck. So maybe you're right.
Samosas are a good shout, thanks anon.
I only like Caribbean Indian food.
Indian takeout has infinite salt, sugar, cream and oil. Your boyfriend probably feels sick because he has a healthy stomach and digestive system.
Why dont you "anglisise" your hands, cooking utensils and food prep surfaces with a little bit of soap and warm water? That'll be half the battle off your hands.
He's convinced he gets food from the lack of hygiene, so yes I'm hoping making it at home will help.
*gets food poisoning
>but Indian takeout always make him ill, we don't know why.
That's because Indians have terrible hygiene. He's getting food poisoning from the cook not washing his hands.
Or cross-contamination.
Why not go for THE anglo-indian dish: tikka masala? I made it for the first time yesterday and it turned out pretty good, was very tasy.
I made tikka masala in the past and really enjoyed it. I'm not sure its that much different from butter chicken actually, the latter just seems to have more butter/cream in it.
I would think a butter chicken is quite similar, at last they look very similar from what I remember. Here's the recipe I followed.
get a jar of pataks tikka masala (50% off at woolies right now), really soften the onions up early on until they're starting to caramelize, then chuck in whatever the frick you want. Chicken, carrots, extra chilli, a tin of tomatoes. If you want to get fancy throw in some coconut cream but I go without.
Cant go wrong with a jar of patak curry paste and the australian palate for indian cuisine
Oh, and garlic naan. frozen stuff from the shops is fine, but that elevates it from casual to fancy curry.
We're not in Aus right now unfortunately, we're in SEA for his job hence why he doesn't trust the food here. I can still get Patak's here actually, I've seen it in the supermarket but never tried. Is it good?
it is generic and average and perfectly fine. He wouldn't feel like he's getting a restaurant curry, but he might feel like he's getting the curry his mum made (if she is in the sweet spot of adventurous enough to make curry but not enough to make it from scratch)
Mr Patak makes a nice curry but I doubt its better than any other jar paste you have available, I assume in SEA there are some good options. I'm going to give this guys recipe a shot to compare
If you want a restaurant quality British Indian curry all you have to do is make a vegetable stock from onion, garlic, ginger, red pepper, tomato and carrot (for spice, add a chili pepper) with some typical spices added (turmeric, ground coriander, cumin, black pepper, salt, paprika etc.). Cover it with water and bring to a boil then blitz it until smooth.
Toast some dry spices like coriander seed, cloves, cardamom pods, curry leaves etc., then after letting the pot or deep pan you're using cool, add ghee or oil (I prefer olive oil to ghee personally) and fry 1 tbsp of garlic & ginger paste (or just minced garlic and ginger if you can't find the pastes) for a couple of minutes, then 2 or more tsps of your desired curry spice, and about 500g of whatever meat you plan on using. Cook all sides of the meat then add the stock, 1/4 cup tomato paste and some lemon juice and reduce to your desired consistency on medium low heat.
This is the method used in traditional British curry shops. They precook and spice the meats and then throw them into garlic and ginger paste with whatever spice mix the curry ordered demands and then add a couple of spoons of a huge premade vegetable/onion based stock for texture. Traditionally the only difference between a tika masala, madras and vindaloo curry was just the amount of chili powder added to the curry. The former had none added, madras takes 1 tbsp and vindaloo would have 2 added with some vinegar. If you prepare it this way at home it will be almost indistinguishable from a restaurant made curry but healthier and will not make you sick from using ancient pre-cooked chicken or stock.
The recipe I usually use:
Curry stock
- 1 large onion
- 3-4 cloves garlic
- thumb sized chunk of ginger, chopped
- 1 large tomato
- 1 medium carrot, chopped
- 1 sweet red pepper, chopped
- 1 hot chili, chopped (optional)
- spices: 1 tsp each of cumin, coriander, paprika, turmeric, chili powder (optional)
This can be premade and frozen in batches if you make curry quite often, it's what they do in restaurants but I don't think they add as many vegetables, just a bunch of onions.
Rest of the curry:
-1 tbsp of garlic and ginger paste
- 1 tbsp of ghee or oil
- 500g chicken, beef or lamb
- 2-3 tsp curry powder (you can make your own mixture or use prebought ones, they typically sell different spice mixtures for madras, balti, masala etc. in Asian shops)
- 1/4 cup concentrated tomato paste
- liberal squeeze of lemon juice
optional, depending on whether you want a spicy or more mild curry: chopped green chili, vinegar, fresh coriander. To make a more mild one you can add heavy cream or sour cream as you would in other dishes by adding the hot mixture to the cream slowly before adding it in so that it does not curdle in the mixture.
Serve with rice, naan, sides etc. Should make you 3-4 portions and it is very easy to scale for batch cooking.
Thanks anon, that's really cool info. I like the extra veg in the curry stock, I always wish curries had more veg.
Cold Curry Udon Noodles.