Topic: Rajma Masala

[Malc.]

Decided to have a go at the Rajma Curry that H4ppy_chris kindly posted. First thing that I had to decide was the quantity I was going to cook as it was clear the recipe was going to feed more than the one person dining tonight, namely me.

The second problem I encountered was when I arrived home with several items of shopping that were needed for the curry, a tin of red kidney beans and chopped tomatoes. Well the kidney beans turned out to be in a tomato and chilli sauce so I had to rinse the sauce from them leaving less than I wanted. But as it turned out later, this was not detrimental by any means.

But now I had already deviated from the recipe I decided to look online to research the dish further. I found loads of recipes and watched a video at Sanjeev Kapoor which was quite interesting. So with all this in mind, to Chris' posted recipe I also added a black cardamon and replaced part of the coriander powder with garam masala and added some julienne ginger. The only other change was not to use stock and added just half a tin of water to the tomatoes before blending them as I had less kidney beans than expected. I know what your thinking, I changed the recipe somewhat, well maybe but that's they way it worked out tonight.

All I can say is thank you Chris, I thoroughly enjoyed this dish and look forward to having it again and again. It was funny as I was sure there was meant to be ground beef in it, but there you go. Moving forward, this is a dish I feel would cope with a medley of main ingredients, meat, fish or vegetable.

[goncalo]

Wow, you've put in a good effort into the looks of it! Great job. I am not particularly a big fan of kidney beans, so I might give this one a miss

[chonk]

Hey, Axe!

This curry looks great! I get in the mood for some rajma right now, just by the looks of yours -and I had some cup of my own just few hours ago! ;P Nothing wrong about adding some Garam masala and black cardamom. That gives the dish more of an "punjabi-style", which I personally prefer. But rajma is something, that works almost all the time, with almost any blend of spices. There are, like you said, a few variations out there. Will try some with paneer soon, out of Yamuna Devi's cookbook.

Greetings!

[Malc.]

Thanks guys I appreciate the comments. I must admit, is was quite a big portion but it went down well

Gagomes, you could replace the kidney beans with any other dried bean, butter bean, cannelini, black eye, etc. or substitute with meat or other veg. I was thinking of using sweet potato or butternut squash in addition next time.

Chonk, i've had black cardamon in the cupboard for a while but actually had never used it. It certainly has a very characteristic aroma and I was concerned about using it, but it really did add dimension of  flavour to the dish. I've considered for a while now, that curry is probably the tastiest way (for me) to reduce the meat in my diet and this dish certainly delivers in that respect. The idea of adding paneer sounds very nice too, something I will try myself. I have only recently started enjoying paneer and like it when its finely diced and fried.

I know the sauce in this dish is based heavily on tomato but I also think with a little trial and error, it could easily be made BIR, allowing for precooked kidney beans of course. I might have play with that idea, I might not, but I do recommend others try this dish.

[h4ppy-chris]

Glad you enjoyed it Axe.

[chonk]

Hey, Axe!

Rajma with sweet potatoes sounds pretty good, too - never thought of that! To be honest, just tried sweet potatoes for the very first time, a couple of weeks ago. But as veggie kebabs ;P Would recommend to try out black cardamom more often - goes also very nice with any tandoori dish, because of it's smokey flavour. It's the main indgredient of the Garam masala I use at the moment, so basically, it's in almost every single meal I cook ;O

Greetings!

[Malc.]

...goes also very nice with any tandoori dish, because of it's smokey flavour. It's the main indgredient of the Garam masala I use at the moment...

Interesting comments Chonk, have you ever come across black masala or black curry powder? I wonder if the black cardamon plays a key part in this?

If you have any suggested recipes for the tandoori pairings, I would love to see them.

Thanks,

Malc.

[parker21]

hi axe if you watch saturday kitchen live on the iplayer from last week 1 of the chefs used it to coat monk fish it looked like a piece of coal as he first seared it in a frying pan before putting it in the oven to finish it of! he said you can buy it online. heres the link to the recipe http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/monkfish_tail_with_39134

regards
gary

[Malc.]

Hi Gary,

Thanks for posting the link, that is the very reason I asked about it. I have tried searching Google for it but alas, I have not found it yet. The only thing that came close was a Sri Lankan curry powder, but i'm not sure if this could be used in place or not.

Cheers,

Malc.

[Peripatetic Phil]

Hi Gary,

Thanks for posting the link, that is the very reason I asked about it. I have tried searching Google for it but alas, I have not found it yet.

Maybe here ?
** Phil.