Curry Recipes Online
Curry Chat => Lets Talk Curry => Topic started by: Netik on June 25, 2013, 07:58 AM
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Dear Community, I'm swiss and regularly eating in asian takeaway (probably indian/thai) and indian restaurants. I now had (especially) 3 dishes which just blew my mind and I fail to reproduce them at home:
Curry 1, in the right of:
http://oi42.tinypic.com/68znd2.jpg (http://oi42.tinypic.com/68znd2.jpg)
I'm not sure if this is indian or thai or another countries curry. Probably it was fish (Pangasius / iridescent shark) or chicken. It was just legendary. I have to say I did not feel tomatoes, it was pretty hot and very .strong/salty in it's taste. And I couldn't feel the typical thai tastes like lemon grass so I guess it's more indian. But what could it be? All these famous indian curries look different.
Dish 2, in the left of the picture above.
It's Okras/Ladyfingers (but I had it with kohlrabi, carrots, spinach and other vegetables already) in a..coconut sauce. I tried many recipes already. There are curryleaves and onions, I can't find anything else in it. So I tried:
-Heating oil, putting in some mustard seeds and curry leaves
-Frying onion slices for 1-2 minutes
-Adding ladyfingers, 1 min
-Adding a cup of coconutmilk
-Cooking for 5 mins
-Adding some turmeric and vinegar
It tastes ok, but definitely not as good as in the takeaway. What else can I try? How is this dish called?
Curry 3:, yellow fish curry in http://oi43.tinypic.com/tao48z.jpg (http://oi43.tinypic.com/tao48z.jpg)
Definitely indian, it's also Pangasius / iridescent shark, I could identify mustard seeds and curry leaves, but that's it. I tried many recipes like goan fish curry or madras fish curry, but that's not it.
I found the ebook about how to cook BIR style curries and I will try them out this week, but as I said...on the pictures and videos they look much different from the curries I posted.
Thanks A LOT for any help and tipps!
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Neither looks like a BIR curry to me. The ingredients are not typically BIR either (no curry leaves in BIR, but lots in traditional Indian). I have no idea what they are. Do you know Chonk?
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The style of the dish and the ingredients look more south Indian or Sri Lanki than typical Bengali BIR dishes.
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Thanks guys. Yeah I also expected them to be more south indian/sri lanki.
What do you think - can the methods of how to cook a BIR curry with base gravy etc. be adapted to south indian/sri lanki recipes? Or are they using different methods?
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looks like slop.
Wouldn't touch it.
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The only good restaurants where I live are Tamil. My impression is that the dishes are cooked one-pot traditional style. I've never been in the kitchens though. If you wanted to use a base sauce it might need to be adapted somewhat. I find that there are some specific flavours that come from the use of Tamil curry powders (the shops around the area have huge catering size containers). I've never used fresh curry leaves, how long do they need to be cooked for? In the base? or added later?
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@vindapoo, believe me or not, it tastes fantastic.
Hmmm it depends, some recipes use curry leaves just to infuse the oil in the beginning, others add them in the end. Very special taste though.
I don't really like the idea of making one sauce for every curry, so I don't necessarily want to cook one pot style. I have just read the book of Julian voigt about how indian curries are cooked in takeaway style. What I did not consider is, that our takeaways in Switzerland might differ from yours in UK, and that the curries I like so much are not these curries you have (butter chicken etc.) but more south indian, coconut based curries. Seems to be different to find informations about the secrets of our takeaways/restaurants :/
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Hi Netik!
Unfortunately, I'm not into coastal dishes, (or anything with fish) but these remind me of south indian "karis". The yellow fish curry looks a little bit like a pachadi, could be "meen molee", but I obviously don't know for sure ;P The okra dish could be simply called "Bhindi (Eggplant) Masala" (or [Bhindi] Sabzi/Sabji, if other vegetables are used), or something with "vendakkai" (another word for Eggplant") or "thengai" / "nariyal" (both words meaning coconut). They could be sambars, too, but I doubt that. Can't help with the first curry, but it seems to me that both of the fish currys (and probably even the okra dish) contain some yoghurt.
Greetings!
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Netik, how about you ask which region the dishes are from next time you go there? Here in Germany, the restaurant owners are usually very friendly (even if the food sucks) and they're happy to talk about origins of dishes, ingredients and so on.
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Curry 3 looks like a Sri Lankan white curry.
You could try this recipe swapping the potatoes for fish. The ingredients list sounds similar to your description.
1 lb Potatoes, boiled and peeled
1 onion chopped
1-2 green chillies chopped
1 sprig curry leaves (optional)
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds (optional)
1 inch piece cinnamon
5 inch piece of rampe (optional)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp mustard seeds
1-2 pieces goraka*
1- 1 1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tbsp vegetable oil
Salt to taste
Method and comments found here: http://www.infolanka.com/recipes/mess3/127.html (http://www.infolanka.com/recipes/mess3/127.html)
Cheers, Frank. :)
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@DalPuri, Thanks a lot, looks really like it, I will definitely try it out :)
@StoneCut, Thanks, I already talked to him, however, he is just the owner of that takeaway but not the cook..they kind of distribute/sell the food of another restaurant which he didn't name yet (I will ask again though).
@Chonk: Thank you, I will try to find these recipes :) I think the recipe I tried for the okra dish was named vendakkai..not sure though....it was very simple, I wrote it in the first post. It was similar, but not quite right. I believe I didn't cook it right, maybe too long or too short. I'm also not sure how thick the coconut milk should be. When I make it myself, it is very liquid but very greasy somehow. In the takeaway it has more of a milk/yoghurt consistency, the seller told me there is no yoghurt in it, as it's not a north indian dish and served hot and yoghurt would curdle....he couldn't tell me more than that okra should be cooked in coconut milk and then I should add more coconut milk later. But maybe he is using some kind of single/double cream to make it tastier....
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Ah, I see. Wouldn't say that coastal indian cuisine doesn't use yogurt at all, but he has a point. But (preferable full-fat, and real, indian 'dahi' will contain even a lot more fat) yogurt will most likely not curdle if used correctly ,) Cream is a pretty good guess! Maybe even some coconut cream?
But, and DalPuris suggestion is pretty good, did you already ask which part of the world these dishes come from? Could be some Sri Lankan curries after all ;D But I'd still go with indian ;P
I'd guess the okra dish (recipe page one) lacked some flavour. No chili at all? Maybe a pinch of cumin and/or coriander? If we are talking about south indian cuisine, you could try to throw in a few split urid beans and roast them, and keep them in there for taste and texture. Or using a masala paste. But you know best how it tasted (:
Could it be, but I doubt it somehow, that they make their own coconut milk? If so, they have total control over the consistency. Just some ideas (:
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Hi Chonk, to be completely honest, I didn't even know Sri Lanka is not a part of south india like kerala or goa...shame on me :-X I will ask him next time..the Problem is there is always a huge Queue, so he doesn't like to be distracted, so I have to go very late when there are no People.
It did lack some flavours indeed, but there are big green Chilis, look like http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S02WhSEa3SU/TpoP1zX-QiI/AAAAAAAAGHc/SgDuAgWRul4/s1600/P1060529.JPG (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S02WhSEa3SU/TpoP1zX-QiI/AAAAAAAAGHc/SgDuAgWRul4/s1600/P1060529.JPG)
Thank you, I will try that.
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Chonk, I assume you are indian? May I ask you...A lot of recipes of indian curries from my book use grated coconut to make a paste. When I do that in my mixer, the paste is definitely not homogeneous...there are many coconut rasps inside. Should it be like that, or should the coconut kind of dissolve? Would it be better to use coconutcream instead?
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Chonk, I assume you are indian? May I ask you...A lot of recipes of indian curries from my book use grated coconut to make a paste. When I do that in my mixer, the paste is definitely not homogeneous...there are many coconut rasps inside. Should it be like that, or should the coconut kind of dissolve? Would it be better to use coconutcream instead?
for even pieces, why don't you use dessicated coconut? perhaps soak it for a 15 mins in warm water