Topic: Healthy Curry

[JerryM]

recent cholesterol test came up fail.

gut feeling (hope) is that it's not down to the curry (have been eating quite a lot).

think in reality it's down to getting lax on a few bad practices - omlettes, cook breakfast, them german sausage and pudding/cakes, chocolate, pizza etc.

in short i'm going to get back to my norm "moderation" on these nasties.

thinking about various why's in Axe's base got me thinking about whether a healthy base was possible. also i've used the CIAH a lot recently to match up to my re-found love of biryani. the CIAH is quite labour intensive and does not quite match up to my norm std of base (not knocking CIAH - it's cooked in ~25mins).

i set out my need to produce with minimum effort a 1 off portion that was as good as anything i normally produce but that was a healthy as it could be. out went oil, salt, marg, coconut block.

i used my std all in cooking method with the main difference being that i blended after about 10 mins then left cooking for quite a while (~ 1 hr). the base tasted very good and surprisingly not a million miles from a pukka go at base.

at the frying stage i still used 4 tbsp of oil - (and although i don't know for sure) i believe that i burn off most of this oil during the cooking - i need to use ~6 tbsp to get oil on the surface and towards 9 tbsp to achieve BIR look.

i used the bought in error jar of pataks tikka masala paste to cook the curry - along the lines of Dipuraja's balti. i now know why Dipuraja goes to the trouble of making his own tikka masala (using the various pataks) - the pataks version is just ok nothing special - certainly not as good as the balti paste (big fan).

in short pleasantly surprised. going fwd i'm going to work on Dipuraja's frying method a little as it may be possible to reduce the oil at dish frying.

finished base:


dish ready to fry:


finished biryani:

[CurryOnRegardless]

Hi JerryM

Sorry to hear about the cholesterol but it's only saturated fats you need to worry about so if you stick to pure veg oil, high in mono-unsaturated fats, and avoid red meat then there is no reason to cut down on the curries.

You should kick the marg and the coconut block into touch as well and instead of the greasy fry ups have a curry for breakfast, fantastic!

Regards
CoR

[George]

recent cholesterol test came up fail.

Do you know your body mass index (bmi)?

http://www.scientificpsychic.com/fitness/diet.html

Roughly how many BIR type meals due you consume each month, whether home made or from an actual BIR?

[JerryM]

but it's only saturated fats you need to worry about s

CoR,

this is what i thought too. dietary cholesterol - i thought was not as important. i'm no longer convinced. the big change in my diet over the period has been eggs (i've been having 4 at a time)  - i'm sure they have been the major factor. onion & cheese sandwiches i think have probably also taken there toll.

i've also realised the need to keep an eye on the amount of calories from oil - the recommendations is <35%. i'm currently at 28% ave and finding it difficult to reduce - curry adding most to this in-balance at 80% for my normal curry and still 55% for the low fat version.

the coconut flour & block do hit u for sure - i need to find out if the block is hydrogenated. coconut in general appears to be very good and an exception to the sat fat rule.

[JerryM]

Do you know your body mass index (bmi)?

George,

i'd not felt a need as i'm pretty skinny down to controlling my sat fat intake - i use the pinch an 1" rule (when standing up u should not be able to pinch more than 1" around u're waste).

i'm pretty active through work but the trouble is it don't take u through that 120 beats which proper exercise does.

on the whole given everthing else was a pass ie blood pressure, i am convinced dietary cholesterol has a bigger effect than what's made out.

ps bmi @ 22

[Razor]

Hi Jerry,

i'm pretty skinny

And yet your wolfing down 4 eggs at a time

I'd love to see the size of your full English mate

Ray

[George]

i'd not felt a need as i'm pretty skinny ...ps bmi @ 22

No problem there then! I'm sorry to hear about the high C reading. With all the BIR style meals you seem to consume, I'm surprised you're not massively obese.  I don't know how you do it!

[JerryM]

George/Razor,

there is no upset on the cholesterol front - better u know than not

the eggs came from hols which did a mean double omelet with cheese and meat - i just carried on making it into a wigan kebab and having 2 of them with lots of tom sauce.

i was taken in by the low sat fat in eggs (and healthy ingredients) and reports (inc some evidence myself) that dietary cholesterol (what u get from the food itself) does not matter - believe me it does. an egg has 400mg of cholesterol - the recommended weekly intake is <1400mg.

the weight stays low by keeping an eye on the sat fat (which i've done). going fwd i just need to watch out for the dietary cholesterol too.

pushing the BIR boundary is just something that may help - clearly a healthy curry won't be BIR full stop - it might just be eatable though. i was real taken aback by how no oil and no salt in the base did not make a huge -ve in the taste.

next i plan to cook a dish without Dippies pastes to get a comaparable view c/w what i produce as a norm. i'm quite hopefull in achieving something for midweek when u can accept a little compromise.

when u think of how much "health" is in the rest of the curry ingredients it can only make sense. cutting curry consumption is not option for me.

[Gezh]

Jerry, and all.

This is something I'm quite conscious of myself. One of the reasons I'm enjoying cooking curry is that I'm making things to my tastes. The curry isn't floating in oil, and isn't over salted. The last time I ordered a take away, I was horrified in the quantity of oil it had, and spent ages spooning it off. In fact since I started using this site around xmas time, I haven't had a take away since. I'm scared of what my opinions will be when I do!

Rule 1 for me is less oil and hardly any salt, with the other flavours in the curry you just don't need it. It's like giving up sugar in coffee, once you're used to it, it's better.

And Jerry, I would say it's the rest of your diet that's the problem. Cut out the pizzas, fry ups etc. Pizzas are the worst food anyone can eat, as far as health is concerned. Currys aren't great in themselves, so I make sure the rest of my food intake is cereals with fruit, nuts and yoghurt in the morning, and lots of fresh stuff (vegetables from the allotment!) as much as I can. By the time you get to the curry, it's all the more worthwhile!

[Malc.]

Jerry, I know you have a keen eye and enjoy breaking down food in a technical way. If you haven't already checked it out, you should have a look at the technical data sheets from the Food Standards Agency for The Composition of Foods.

They consist of a full chemical analysis of food stuffs and can be quite eye opening at times. Be warned though, they are very comprehensive!

The following is a link to the page about the Cof IDS, the links to the data sheet and how to use them are at the bottom of the page.

http://www.food.gov.uk/science/dietarysurveys/dietsurveys/