Topic: Methi chicken vs Ex hot lamb vindaloo

[curryhell]

As you're obviously a connoisseur MethiGoshtFreak i certainly will try your tips when next cooking the dish.  I don't think it will be that long before this is back on the menu.  As for the spinach, I think this may be added to give the impression there's fresh meethi in the dish when the dried variety is used.  I'll let you know how i get on 

[curryhell]

Well it wasn't that long before the chicken meethi was on the menu again.  This time i tried it with dried meethi leaves as I hadn't time to buy fresh.  I also tried the tips suggested by MethiGoshtFreak. However, i used coleman's english mustard as i couldn't be arsed to get the seeds out and i completely forgot about adding a bit of butter ghee.  That'll give me an excuse to try it again :

Supper done



A close up



Overall, I didn't find any improvement on my first and second attempts.  Given the choice, IMHO fresh is best if you can get it as i thought it gave a much more rounded flavour, not as pungent as the dried leaves.  The dish when cooking smelt even better with fresh.  That said, done with dried meethi, it's still a fine tasting dish 
I deliberately reduced the second reduction time to end up with more sauce.   Either bhuna or saucy is very good 

[Naga]

Looks very good indeed, CH - I could eat a plate of that right now!

I'm a big fan of methi - for me, it delivers much of the BIR taste I remember. Unfortunately, I haven't managed to shift my lazy Erchie down to the West End grocers for fresh methi yet, but I'll wait until I have some before trying out the dish as I've never used the fresh stuff in any of my curries so far.

[chewytikka]

Hi CH
Looking good as usual, I find fresh Methi is an aquired taste and unlike the familier Kasoori Methi.
I've made a few fresh Methi dishes over the years which were rejected by peeps.
I also remember the shopkeeper, telling me to wash the fresh Methi "twice" for some reason that was never explained. It might curl your toes or something ;D

Keep up the good work
cheers Chewy

[Kashmiri Bob]

Superb curry there CH.  Got some more fresh methi today.  4 big bunches for a quid. Bargain!

Rob 

[Kashmiri Bob]

Quick update on this one.  Tried it a while ago with frozen methi instead of fresh.





Oops!  I've hit the post button and I haven't finished the post.  I'll be back.


Rob 

[Kashmiri Bob]

Right.  Sorted.  Squeezed out the liquid from the blocks, chopped up, and dry-fried as per, for example, spinach.  Then popped in 40 g or so for the curry.





Tasted OK, but not as good as fresh.  The main problem, however, was the stems (this brand of frozen block includes lots of stems, not just the leaves) were not cooked properly.  It was like eating a curry full of twigs. So I ate what I could and the rest went in the bin. 

When I made this dish earlier with fresh methi I only used the leaves (read somewhere it's just the leaves that should be used).  I think I also read somewhere that methi (fresh) should be blanched in boiling water before use, to reduce any bitterness.  Can't say I've ever noticed any bitterness using fresh, or dried, providing it's cooked properly; the latter just tastes really "earthy" I think), but boiling the frozen stuff perhaps may have softened the stems up. 

Think I'll stick with fresh in future for the methi chicken. It's a lovely dish.  For lamb I'll stick with dried, i.e, for a methi gosht.

Rob   

[Alchemist]

Has anyone tried freezing the leaves themselves?  I have done this with curry leaves which works, but wonder if methi leaves would stand up to freezing, as when I buy a bunch I always have too much.