Prawn & Taufoo Curry - and a little joke about Half Past Six!

There's nothing quite like a good Prawn Curry. A favourite way of making prawn curry is to make a dryish curry with lots of potatoes. My mother-in-law makes a great prawn curry this way and it's no surprise that The Lovely Wife does just as great a job with her own version of Prawn Curry. Actually, I think her version is better!

Prawns are kind of expensive but they are so, so delicious. It doesn't help that prawns are high in cholesterol either as I'm supposed to be watching mine. It doesn't help that I love prawns - in any form or fashion - but there's nothing quite like a good prawn curry eaten with rice.


This is what The Lovely Wife did:

Ingredients
1 kg prawns - shelled and deveined
4 firm taufoo - cubed
2 Potatoes - cubed
3 cloves garlic - minced
2 inches ginger - minced
2 large onions - sliced
2 Tbsp Fish Curry Powder
1 Tbsp Chilli Powder
2 tsp turmeric
5 stalks curry leaves
1 to 2 medium tomatos
1 cinnamon stick

Method
Marinate the prawns and taufoo with the ginger, garlic, curry powder, chilli powder and turmeric for about 1/2 hour
Fry the cinammon stick in a little oil till fragrant. Add in the onions and fry till soft. Add in the curry leaves and fry till fragrant and then add in the tomato. Cook until a nice paste is formed and add in the potatoes. Cook till just tender before adding in the prawns and taufoo and cook well till the prawns turn pink. Add salt to taste. Keep cooking over a simmering flame till you achieve the dryness you want.
You can use more curry powder or chilli powder depending how hot and spicy you want it!

The Lovely Wife and I both have different ways of making our curries. Usually, I will fry the chilli powder and curry powder to bring out the flavours but The Lovely Wife has her own method of doing things.

Regardless, The Lovely Wife's prawn curry was really delicious. I'd have preferred it withouth the taufoo but I have to admit it was different and it also added more quantity to the dish. Prawns are expensive and anything more you can add to the dish is always good!

The Lovely Wife made this dish some time ago and so I had to get the recipe from her to update my blog. As she was explaining how she made this dish, and as I was busy scribbling it down, I remarked that I would fry the spices first. I also mentioned how I would do things differently. She scoffed at me and said that her way was better.

As a joke, I drew a circle on her shoulder - as a clock face - and then marked out the time as six Thirty. I then called my son over and showed him the 'clock'. I told him that since I thought Mummy's recipe wasn't quite so good, that it was a 'Half Past Six Recipe' and that's why she had a clock on her shoulder that showed Half Past Six.

The laugh from my son was priceless, and The Lovely Wife, who had no idea what I had drawn on her shoulder, couldn't help laughing out too. I'm still surprised that she let me draw on her shoulder but I suppose she knew I was setting her up for a joke. She's a fun lady too that Lovely Wife of mine!

Now to explain: Half-past-six” is a Malaysian slang for 'inferior' or 'lousy' or 'poor quality' - you get the drift. It was probably more in use when I was younger but it's still used a fair bit these days.



I really don't know if this term is used in the rest of the world nor do I know it's origin. The only guess I have is that since both hands of the clock point downwards at half-past six, it's as if it were a 'thumbs down’.

Any one of you have any other takes on this? Any one else around the world familiar with this? Let me know!

Egg curry with eggplant

When I was young, my mother used to make a delicious egg curry. However, as I grew older, started cooking on my own, grew older, got married, grew older, had kids, grew older, this dish hardly made an appearance at our dining table.

That changed a few weeks ago. The Lovely Wife has been having a penchant for cooking Indian food using recipes from her collection of Indian Cookbooks. She decided to make this Egg curry and to say that it was delicious would be a tad of an understatement. It certainly brought back fond memories too!


This version of Egg Curry is a little different from how my mom used to make it. For one, this recipe uses eggplant that give the egg curry a nice distinctive flavour. I found it kind of funny (punny) that Eggplant is used in an Egg Curry - get it??!!



This is The Lovely Wifes interpretation of the recipe.

Ingredients
6 eggs
4 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
3 onions, sliced
3 green chillies, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 inch ginger, ground
handfull of curry leaves
1 tsp Tomato Paste
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
3 tomatoes, sliced
1 small eggplant, cut into large pieces
200g spinach leaves

Method
Place the eggs in a large saucepan. Cover with water and slowly bring to a boil. Lower the heat and allow to simmer for about 10 mins or till hardboiled. Drain and let cool in a bowl of cold water. Peel shelss and rinse the eggs to remove stray shells.
Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add onions, chillies, garlic, ginger and curry leaves. Cook stirring frequently until onions are soft. Add the tomato paste, ground coriander, turmeric, chili pwder, garam masala and a little salt. Cook, stirring for one minute.
Add the tomates, eggplants and spinach leaves. Cover and cook stirring from time to time for 6-7 minutes or until the gravy has blended with the eggplants and spinach. Add the hard boiled eggs to the pan and let them heat through in the curry for about 5 minutes before serving.

The recipe above comes from the book Indian Shortcuts to Success by Das Sreedharan.

Das claims that "Spicy egg dishes, such as this one are a favourite with my friend Jamie Oliver..."
While the egg curry was tasty, I wouldn't put it at the same level as something that Jamie would endorse - then again, Jamie aint not friend of mine is he...?

Regardless of whether Jamie Oliver likes this dish or not, it is very tasty and very nutritious. I really enjoyed this dish and to me, it's best eaten with rice, although I reckon it would be good with bread too!

Channa Dhall - Chickpea Dhall

I've realised that writing up an interesting post to go with a particular recipe isn't as easy at is looks. I've also realised that I've got a fairly large backlog of photos/recipes that have not been posted. It would be fairly easy to just post a recipe together with the photos but then that kind of defeats the purpose of blogging.

Anyway, now you know that blogging isn't that easy and you also know that I have a backlog of posts.

Recently, The Lovely Wife has developed a penchant for all things vegetarian. No, she is not becoming a vegetarian (not yet!) and neither does she shun meat. She is cutting back on her meat intake though. There are a variety of reasons for this but suffice to say that it has something to do with the latest books she has been reading although she reckons it is more healthy for her - regardless of what the books may say.

What books? Well, Total Body Makeover (Bob Greene), Fit For Life (Harvey Diamond), The Enzyme Factor (Hiromi Shinya), The China Study (Colin Campbell, Thomas Campbell) and The Jungle Effect (Daphne Miller) are just SOME of the books that she recently read that have influenced her behaviour - and eating habits.

So anyway, to cut a long story short, I made this Chickpea Dhall as a meal one day. There is some debate as to what actually constitutes Channa Dhall. Some say that Channa is the same as Chickpeas while some say that Channa is actually yellow split lentils. I've always known Channa to be Chickpeas (or Garbanzo beans) so if I'm wrong, I stand corrected.



I've only ever made this once before, but I'm very used to making Sambar that is not terribly different but at the same time not the same either as Sambar is much smoother than Channa Dhall and Sambar contains a mix of vegetables while Channa Dhall doesn't. The similarity of course is that both take a fairly long time to cook although Channa Dhall takes a bit longer to become soft due to the thickness of the lentil.

This is my take on Channa Dhall.

Ingredients
1 inch ginger
3 cloves garlic
sprinkle of mustard seeds
4 cloves
1 large onion - sliced
2 tomatoes - chopped roughly
2 tsp tumeric powder
1-2 tsp curry powder
Chickpeas
Water
1 red chilli - chopped
2 tbsp milk
coriander leaves for garnishing
Method
grind ginger and garlic to a paste. Heat some oil and fry the mustard seeds, cloves, tumeric powder and curry powder. Add in the ginger/garlic paste and continue to fry. Add in onion and mix well then add in tomatoes and cook to a nice paste.
Add in the Dhall with lots of water. Mix well and allow to simmer for about 2 hours until the Dhall is very tender and mixture is thick. Add in some milk to thicken if required. Season with salt and black pepper. Serve with coriander

Channa Dhall is perfect as a meal on its own or as a side dish with other vegetable or meat dishes. It goes really well with Rice, Breads - like Naan, Chappati, Pita or even sliced bread. You really can't go wrong with this...!

Mutton Varuvel

I grew up with lots of curries. The thing is, I always thought that anything cooked with lots of spices, chilli powder and curry powder was called a curry. It didn’t matter if it was a dry curry or a wet curry. It was all curry to me.

In my later years, when I started to cook in University, my mates and I followed the same rule. Hot, Spicy, Delicous = Curry. No matter if it was wet or dry. It was all curry to us.

The problem with curry started when I got married. You see, to The Lovely Wife, a curry entails lots of gravy, or Kolumbu. So a chicken curry would mean that there would be a lot of curried gravy aka kolumbu. A drier curry with some gravy, but not enough to be considered a curry would be a Peratal. Then a really dry curry would be a Varuvel.

I began to realise though that The Lovely Wife was right – as she quite often is. You see, even the South Indian Restaurants that we have in Malaysia serve their curries this way – Curry, Peratal and Varuvel. And if you only wanted the curry without any meat then it would be Kolumbu. See? Who said Indian food was easy and simple. And that’s only South Indian food… I haven’t started on Northern Indian cuisine and the naming conventions yet!!

The Lovely Wife and I both cook mutton varuvel although our methods and ingredients differ. This dish was made by The Lovely Wife as my little princess has developed a taste for mutton curry - any version, wet, dryish or dry – it doesn’t matter as long as its mutton!



This is what The Lovely Wife did:

Ingredients A

1.5 kg lean mutton or lamb
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp chilli powder
2 green chillies cut into 3 pieces
1 large tomato - sliced
3 tbsp ground ginger and garlic
3 onions

Ingredients B

2-3 Tbsp Curry Powder
1 Tbsp Chilli Powder
2 stalks curry leaves
5 dried chillies
1 cinnamon stick
6 cloves
2 star anise
1/2 tsp fennel powder
1 Tbsp Dark Soya sauce

Method
cube meat and put in a large pot. Cover meat with water with a little salt. Put in ingredients A and cook till meat is tender. Keep adding water if it dries up and meat is still not tender. Once meat is cooked, keep stirring till mixture is thick.

In a separate wok or large pot, heat a little oil and fry onions. Add in curry leaves, chillies, cinamoon, cloves and star anise. Fry till fragrant. Add in curry powder and chilli powder and cook well. Mix in meat and stir so that meat is well coated. Add in some water if too dry. Keep stirring until mixture is almost dry. Add in dark soya sauce and mix well. Season with salt to taste. Just before turning off the heat, sprinkle over the fennel powder and mix well. Garnish with coriander leaves.

My version would include some tomatoes and more curry powder and chilli powder but other than that there’s not too much difference although I think my version is tastier!


So after all those years of enjoying my mother’s dry mutton curry and proclaiming it to be the best in the world, I have finally realised that that it is actually a Mutton Varuvel! It doesn’t really matter though as the ‘song’ below explains. It is sung to Billy Joels “Always a woman” and is just a bit of fun to end this post…


A varuvel is dry
while a peratal is wetter
A Curry has gravy and can flood all the rice
They are all hot and spicy and can burn your mouth
Call it whatever you like
But its always a Curry to me……

A contribution to the BloggerAid Cookbook

Most of you would have heard of BloggerAid - Bloggers Uniting to Aid in the Alleviation of Hunger. If you haven't heard of them, then read this post.

BloggerAid has recently launched a huge project and in the words of the founders

Ivy of Kopiaste, Giz of Equal Opportunity Kitchen and Val of More Than Burnt Toast unveiled our ambitious project for our Social Network Bloggeraid to launch our cookbook. Food is our medium and taking a role in alleviating world famine is our mission. Our wish is that you will share our excitement and help make a difference to our world by joining us on this journey.

Yes! BloggerAid is publishing a Cookbook!! Now I've always wanted to publish my own cookbook but the last time I spoke to someone about it, I was told I needed to be famous. And famous I certainly am not. But I digress. For more information on the cookbook and how you can help, please visit this BloggerAid post.

This is my little contribution to the cookbook and it involves Chocolate, Honey, Yoghurt and lots of other stuff. If you are thinking dessert, you're way off target!

My contribution for this cookbook is my own original take on ...


Kofta Curry


If you're hoping to find the recipe here, then I'm sorry I have to disappoint. You either have to wait till the cookbook is out or pay me lots and lots of money. Enough money that we could just forego the cookbook and donate the whole lot to BloggerAid! I think waiting for the cookbook is a better idea. Provided of course that my contribution is good enough...



The Lovely Wife and the kids gave this dish their thumbs up so I can only hope that it will be enjoyed by everyone else as much as my family did. I'm just pleased that I was able to contribute in my own small way to BloggerAid!

Murgh Masala or Fiery Chicken Curry

This is a fiery Chicken Curry fashioned in the North Indian style. Murgh is the Hindi word for Chicken and Massala basically means spices. I first had this dish as a Uni student in Melbourne, Australia. One of my two flatmates used to work part-time in an Indian Restaurant on Tuesday nights. He would often bring home some of the leftover curries from the restaurant. We used to look forward to this and would sometimes stay up past midnight to partake of the food he'd bring home.


One night he brought home this fiery chicken curry and we all enjoyed it immensely. I tried on numerous occasions to get the same flavours and finally got the approval from my flatmates after about a year!



Ingredients
A:
500g Boneless Chicken Breast
250g Plain Yoghurt
2 Gloves Garlic
1 inch Ginger
1 tbsp curry powder
½ tbsp chilli powder
Salt

B:
2 Tbsp Curry Powder
1 Tbsp Chilli Powder
3 Dried Red Chillies
1 Large Onion
1 clove Garlic
2-3 pods Cardamom
5 Tomatoes
2 Tbsp Cooking Oil

Method
Chop Garlic and Ginger finely. Slice Chicken into thin strips. Marinate Chicken with Ingredients A and let rest in fridge for at least ½ hour. Meanwhile, cut dried chillies into four pieces each. Slice Tomatoes thinly. Slice Onions and chop garlic. Heat oil in a wok or non stick pan and fry Chillies, Onion and Garlic till soft. Add in Curry Powder, Chilli Powder and Cardamom and fry lightly till fragrant
Add in tomatoes and cook till a nice paste is formed. Add some water if necessary. Add in marinated chicken mixture. Cook well. Add in ½ cup of water into marinade bowl, scrape the sides and pour into the cooking chicken. Simmer for 20 minutes or until curry becomes thick

You may notice some white flecks appearing when the chicken and yoghurt are first cooked. This is perfectly normal and is caused by the acidic tomatoes separating the yoghurt.



This Murgh Masala remains one of my favourite dishes to serve, especially when entertaining. I served this when my friend Naomi came down from Japan for a visit bakc in August. I paired it with Sambar as well as a few other dishes. But we'll leave those dishes for another day!

Chicken Curry

To me, there is nothing quite as satisfying as a fiery curry with rice. Yes, Rice and Curry would definitely have to rank right up there as superb comfort food. When I first started to cook regularly, as a Uni student in Australia, a good curry always brought back images and tastes of home.


I remember sitting with my housemates, watching TV in the lounge, with our plates piled high with steaming rice and hot and spicy chicken curry. It didn't matter how cold it was cold outside nor did it matter that we were in the middle of exams. All that mattered at that moment was how good the rice and curry tasted and how much it reminded all of us of home!

This is my recipe for Chicken Curry.

1 Whole Chicken
1/2 inch ginger
1 tsp Turmeric
1 Large Onion
handful of curry leaves
3 Tbsp Curry Powder
1 Tbsp Chilli Powder
¼ tsp cumin
¼ tsp fennel
4 cloves
3 Tomatoes
2 potatoes
½ Cup Fresh Milk
2 tbsp Cooking Oil
Salt to taste


Wash and cut chicken into medium pieces. Rub chicken with turmeric and ginger, salt and pepper. Remove skin if desired
Heat oil in deep pan or wok. Fry onions and curry leaves
Add in curry powder, fennel, cumin and cloves and lightly fry till fragrant. Take care not to burn the onions. Add in the sliced tomatoes and then toss in the chicken and potatoes. Mix well.

Pour in a little water if too dry. Allow the chicken to cook and then simmer until liquid is reduced. Add the milk and cook until mixture is thick.

If you like a 'richer' curry, use freshly squeezed Coconut Milk (or the canned variety) instead of fresh milk. I try and stay away from Coconut Milk in my curries as it is rather fatty albeit delicious!

Some people prefer their curry with more gravy. I like mine thick and with the curry coating the chicken in all its gooey goodness. If you like your curry with more gravy, just add in more water or milk. Simple as that!

When my mom used to make curry for all of us, she had a little trick to make sure that none of the 'gooey goodness' was wasted. After spooning the curry into a serving dish, she would scoop a spoon of rice into the wok or saucepan and mop up all the leftover curry. We would all then fight for that bit of rice!