Quote from: Onions on March 05, 2024, 06:19 PM
Really slow cooked chunks of meat in a tasty sauce  :like:what's not to like! And I can't imagine that marinade suffering from the addition of a couple or three extra green chiles...

It is a mildly spiced curry and for those who prefer to spice things up could add to the spices, including the addition of a few chillies.

I have cooked this now on several occasions for a number of people, and it goes down very well each time. Not overly hot but a fine balance. I use goat and marinade for at least a couple of days and cook until nice and soft. I use cast iron pans when cooking curries so I can take this off the heat with the lid on and it will keep warm for a long time.

North Indian Mutton or Lamb Korma Recipe from Times of India.

This lamb korma is made in the North Indian style using ingredients like onions, yogurt, ghee and spices that yield a rich and delicious dish. Golden onions also known as fried onions or brown onions along with yogurt form the base of this mutton korma.

For Marination
500 grams mutton or lamb (or goat in my house)
1 cup yoghurt
1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste fresh
½ teaspoon salt (adjust to taste)
1 teaspoon red chilli powder (use as needed)
1 tablespoon ground coriander
¼ teaspoon turmeric
1 green chilli slit

Whole Spices (or use 1½ tsp garam masala)
4 to 6 cloves
2 inch cinnamon piece
6 green cardamoms
2 small black cardamoms
½ teaspoon lightly crushed black pepper

Other ingredients
3 medium onions thinly sliced or use 1 cup supermarket pre-fried onions
3 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter or oil)
2 cups hot water Use more if needed

Optional (for authentic flavours)
1 strand mace
⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg (jaiphal powder, refer notes)
1 teaspoon kewra water (or ¼ teaspoon cardamom powder)

Instructions

Marination for mutton korma

Wash the mutton well and drain the water. Put it in a a bowl for marination. Next add all the spices – coriander powder, red chilli powder, turmeric and the whole spices – cinnamon, cardamoms, black cardamoms, pepper and cloves (or 1½Garam Masala)

Add ginger garlic paste, green chilli, salt and yogurt.
Mix all of these and cover it.

Marinade for at least 2 hours or, preferably, overnight in the fridge.
The marinade works as a tenderiser. So the longer the lamb meat is allowed to rest the more tender it turns.

How to make lamb korma

Heat ghee or oil in a wide heavy bottom pan or pot.
Separate the layers of onions and slide them to the hot oil or ghee.
Fry them until deep golden stirring often. The onions must be uniformly browned without burning. This may take about 8 to 10 mins.

Cool these completely and pulse them coarsely in a blender. Do not over blend as they begin to release a lot of oil. If your grinder is unable to grind, you may add 2 tbsps of water or yogurt to help grind. Set this aside.

To the same pan, add the lamb marinade and mix it. Begin to sauté on a medium heat for about 10 mins.

Yogurt and lamb lets out lot of moisture. Cover and let the mutton cook in this for 30 mins. After 30 minutes of cooking the mutton, add the crushed fried brown onions.

Pour 2 cups hot water and mix well. Cook covered until mutton turns slightly tender stirring occasionally. This may take about 1 hour or more.

Add mace and nutmeg at this stage (optional). Continue to cook until the mutton falls off the bone easily. Optional – Add kewra water at this stage. Mix and turn off.

Allow lamb korma to rest at least for a hour to absorb the flavours. Serve with naan, roti, paratha, rice, biryani or pulao.

Quote from: Kashmiri Bob on January 29, 2024, 11:18 AM
Like the sound of this one too  I made a pillau with barberries along these lines a while back.  Having ongoing trouble copying/posting links, but if you search (the forum) for "polow" this should bring it up.  Looks like I heated up the barberries in melted butter.  Heaven knows where I got the recipe from, although chewytikka posted a reply with a link.

Look forward to hearing about your results with the authentic recipes.  Only thing that would put me off is all those slices of bread and eggs in the kebab mix.  I have never really got anywhere with Persian style kebabs.  There is a chap on youtube (Henrys HowTos) who does loads of them.  Tried a couple many years ago but the spicing wasn't really for me.  Anyway, enjoy your cooking; the barberries are lush.

Rob

Thanks KB.
I've just returned from a short stay in hospital so won't be trying anything too adventurous until I recover.


My Crohn's disease crept up on me and bit me in the arse.

T63

Quote from: Peripatetic Phil on January 27, 2024, 08:23 PM
An interesting and complex dish — I wish you the very best of luck with it, and every success.
--
** Phil.

As with the Dhansak recipe I posted Phil, you could spread the preparation and cooking of such a dish over a few days.

I am on a new mission to find the best Irani Berry Biryani. The dish appeared on the Rick Stein series when he visited the famous Parsi Britannia Restaurant in Bombay/Mumbai, it is where the recipe originated, but the proprietor would not share the recipe ...it's secret.

The first recipe I am going to try is the one from the Bawi bride website. She has a little discourse on the origins of the recipe and makes comments on the berries that should be used. The traditional recipe calls for zereshk berries which are quite sour and provide a different flavour from the recommended alternatives such as cranberries which add sweetness to the finished dish.
I will be making the curry for the biryani in a le Creuset cast iron casserole instead of the pressure cooker suggested in the recipe. I will also be finishing the constructed biryani in the oven and not on the stove top. I will let you know how I get on with this recipe but I will also be trying the Brittania Berry Biryani from the Dishoom Cookbook as well as the one from the Parsi: From Persia to Bombay, by Farokh Talati.

Irani Berry Pulao
https://bawibride.com/irani-berry-pulao/

Ingredients

For Kebabs
250 gram mutton mince
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
0.5 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
0.5 tsp garam masala powder
1 onion finely chopped
2 tsp salt
2 eggs
6 slices bread, small size
0.5 bunch of coriander
0.5 bunch of mint
Oil for deep frying

Pulao Gravy
1 large onion finely chopped
3 tomatoes, boiled and pureed
4 tbsp oil
1 inch cinnamon stick
3 cloves
2 tbsp Bombay Biryani Masala (Shaan)
1 tsp Parsi dhana-jeera powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
500 gram boneless mutton
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 tbsp green chilli and cumin paste
Salt to taste

For Pulao
100 gram fried onions
100 gram zereshk/barberry berries
500 gram basmati rice
0.5 tsp saffron
2 tsp warm milk
Method

For the Kebabs
Soak the bread slices in some water and then drain out the moisture.
Mix all the kebab ingredients together along with the bread slices and let the mixture marinate for an hour
Form small coin sized kebabs and deep fry until they are golden brown

For the Mutton Masala
Marinate the mutton in the ginger garlic and cumin-chilli-garlic paste along with some salt. Set aside for a few hours or preferably in the fridge overnight.
In a pressure cooker heat up the oil. Add in the onions and fry until they go soft. Now add in the cinnamon stick, cloves, salt and all the dry spices and mix well.
Once the aroma of the spices comes, add in the tomato puree as well as the mutton pieces. Mix everything well and just add a little bit of water to ensure the meat doesn't stick (about a cup).
Seal the cooker and cook for 3 whistles and about 20 minutes on slow. Wait for the pressure to release by itself.
If required, dry off any extra moisture from the mutton - you want to end up with a thick chunky gravy.

For the rice
Bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Add in the rice and cook until it is 3/4 done. Strain out the water.
Dry roast the saffron in a separate small pan and add it to the warm milk - stir to get a fragrant light yellow colour. Add this to the rice and lightly toss.

Assembling the Pulao
In a vessel that is more wide than deep, add some oil at the bottom and some of the mutton gravy only.
Top this with rice, then adding mutton, kebabs, fried onions and the zereshk berries.
Repeat this to form at least two layers and top the last layer of rice with more berries as well as finely chopped coriander.
Seal the vessel with foil and then the lid and place the vessel on a hot tava. Allow the rice to cook for a further 15 - 20 mins on medium heat until it is completely done.

I had a go at Swasthi's chicken 65 last night.
https://www.indianhealthyrecipes.com/chicken-65-recipe-no-egg-restaurant-style-chicken-recipes/

I used the egg option but having no fresh curry leaves I left them out of the garnish.
I fried the chicken off in batches in my ridiculously small deep fat fryer, keeping the batches hot in the oven. This resulted in the batter become soft and I lost some when stir frying with the final tempering.

Result. Tasty chicken but a lot of faff. If I did it again I would dig out my much larger deep fat fryer.

Quote from: tempest63 on October 22, 2023, 07:23 AM
The BBC is running a story on the current cost of a takeaway curry in various regions of the U.K.

Indian takeaways: Restaurant owners say high prices down to perfect storm https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-67138765

The wife and I used to have a takeaway most weeks but in our area, a medium sized town midway between Chelmsford and Colchester, the cost is becoming prohibitive.

A main course each, a couple of chapatis, two veg side dishes and some poppadoms (which used to be free) is now close to £45.

The price seems to be a bit of a lottery; we add up the cost of the order and even though we have the latest menu, an additional 3 or 4 quid is always added to the order. I don't know if this is now for delivery, despite the menu stating delivery is free but it means the delivery guys and gals don't get as big a tip as they used to receive from us.

The takeaway opens at 17.00 but has recently decided to deliver from 18.00 hours, meaning the food is invariably tepid and can arrive too late to eat before bed.

The biggest problem is the quality of the food. I tend to order from the tandoori section, mixed grill or chicken shaslik, whilst the wife focuses on some of the "regional specialities", shaktora or Nawabi. I've noticed on a chicken shaslik that the quantity of chicken has reduced to be replaced with added onion or tomato, whilst the wife says everything off the regional menu tastes exactly the same, there is no variation in the sauces.

This is from the take away that we have used for many years, it has never been the greatest but was the best of the lot. A rival opened a few years back claiming to offer a "fine dining takeaway experience", a claim they never substantiated but it was a better take away and carried a premium price. We used it for a short while but reverted to our usual take away after a while. I'm told now that this high end restaurant has also increased its cost but has nearly halved its portion size and quality has fallen away. The owner of a local Tapas bar used to sing the praises of this high end option but was so disappointed with recent meals he told the restaurateur, a friend, that he could no longer recommend the place anymore and would no longer being ordering from there, and these guys are/were good buddies.

We all know the Indian restaurant trade has been in trouble for years now, I just wonder if this is the death knell for the industry from which it won't claw itself back?

In comparison to the rapidly rising costs of a takeaway Indian, we ordered from the local Chinese tonight.
Duck and pancakes to start with, a couple of main courses, chefs special chow mein and a bag of prawn crackers. Delivered to home at a little over £32. The menu is old and out of date but the cost of the meal was about £2 over the cost shown on the menu.
The Chinese seems to be of much better value that a comparable Indian and certainly hasn't risen as much in cost as the Indian has.
The two takeaways used to be comparable in cost for a meal for two, I would suggest the Indian is likely 50% more than the Chinese now.
T63

Quote from: George on December 12, 2023, 06:00 AM
About 20 years ago, I went beating for shooting parties several times. We were given a couple of pheasants as partial remuneration, each session. I recall cooking some the next day and experimenting with hanging for various periods. I also played around with seasoning, sauces and other aspects. But nothing I tried, produced a pleasant flavour for my taste. I much prefer chicken. Pigeon is also tasty.

I like to think I have trialled a good few recipes on a lot of birds over the many years I have been shooting.
I know when a bird is past roasting and needs to go into a casserole, and I follow loosely a Saint Delia recipe for roast pheasant but use a simple stuffing and a lot of streaky bacon to retain moisture.

Given that you cannot shoot game on a Sunday, I would assume that the latest they would have been shot was Saturday (if not today) so they would be at the latter end of our hanging time.
I don't know what temperatures you have been experiencing in your neck of the woods but it has been up to 9 or 10C in our little corner of Essex, so give em a sniff before you hang them too long.

What are you planning for them, roasting, casseroling, breasting and pan frying?

Quote from: Peripatetic Phil on December 10, 2023, 11:51 AM
My wife's hotel has just been gifted four brace of freshly-shot pheasant, and I have been asked to "do the necessary".  I know that they need to be hung, but for how long ?  I have improvised with road-kill pheasants in the past, and of course have cooked pre-hung, drawn and plucked pheasants, but never had to deal with multiple pheasants all requiring the full process.  All advice welcome.
--
** Phil.

Hanging Pheasants Phil is a question of taste. Some people will eat a well hung pheasant but others don't like the gamey taste that develops.
My wife likes her pheasants prepped and in the cooker/fridge/freezer within two days, but we hang ours in the shed and they are at the mercy of the weather conditions, if you have a good meat fridge at 3C you may get away with longer.
We frequently donate up to 10 brace at one of our local restaurants and they prep and store them immediately.