Curry

I went down to the local Indian grocery store and bought a whole stack of spices:

I have no idea what half these things are but I figured if I stick them into a pot and cook the death out of them something stunning might come out of it.

I start by dry roasting mysterious spices of cumin, cardamon, cinnamon bark, clove, corriander seeds, fennel seeds, black onion seeds:

Next I chop to tiny bits a Spanish onion and fry this right down and add this along with 3 plum tomatoes a red pepper and the dry roasted spices and ground cumin and turmeric to a pressure cooker:

And I reckon I’m going to cook this for about an hour (any longer and I think you would destroy the aromatics). After an hour here’s what it looks like…

I think it looks pretty legit, but how does it taste?

Acceptable but probably too much cardamom; good consistency.

Next I will fry off some very finely chopped garlic and ginger and a friend gave me a special chilli to put in:

I think it’s a jalapeno which aren’t that hot so I’ll use all of it and leave the seeds in.

So what vehicle is going to carry all these incredible flavours? How about some delicious sweet north atlantic prawns:

So the final step is to fry down the garlic, ginger, jalapeno, followed by about two table spoons of the curry base (you need to watch you fry the ginger and garlic and chilli for about a minute to cook off the raw taste. Mucho Importante)

And after throwing in some chopped coriander, here’s the end result!

So how’s it taste?

It tastes surprisingly authentic; you would definitely say this could be from an Indian restaurant. There are many interesting flavours kicking around and the final step of frying the base off has mellowed out the strong aromatic flavour it had before. But to say this curry is hot is somewhat of an epic understatement. After 10 minutes I can’t walk and have to go to the toilet to pass out. I am in a lot of pain and my friend said it was hot even for him “probably phal”. I dont’t dispute this. I think I should have used less jalapeno.

Authentic Prawn Curry, serves 4-6

Spices (whole) cumin, cardamon, cinnamon bark, clove, corriander seeds, fennel seeds, black onion seeds.

Spices (ground) corriander, turmeric (you can also use paprika but I didnt have any)

1 large Spanish onion

3 plum tomatoes

1 red pepper

1 packet small prawns (they’re sweeter than them tiger ones)

Chopped corriander

Chilli

table spoon chopped ginger and garlic

Method – Base

Dry roast all the whole spices in a frying pan. I used 3 cloves, and about a teaspoon of everything else but you can change the ratios to suit your own pallet. From experience, go easy on the cumin, clove and cardamom seeds because they are particularly aromatic.

Chop the onion into as small pieces as you can and add to a frying pan that has about two table spoons vegetable oil and cook till beginning to caramelise (not too much or the curry will be too sweet). Add this to a pressure cooker along with the finely chopped tomatoes and red pepper and the whole seeds. Add in about a table spoon ground corriander, turmeric, and if you have it, paprika.

Add just enough water to cover the mixture and pressure cook over a medium heat for about an hour. Any more than this and you risk losing the flavours, any less and not enough flavour will have transferred to the mixture. The product is your base and you will have enough for about 6 servings.

Method – Fry

Fry off the very finely chopped (or even better, mashed) garlic, ginger and chilli (seeds in if you’re a nutter) for around a minute or until they just start to turn colour then add about two table spoons of the curry base along with the prawns and finely chopped corriander. Cook through for about another minute and season with fish sauce for seasoning. I added a bit of lemon juice for a bit of extra cut but this is optional.

So what do you think? Have you got a curry recipe? What should I try next? Are these jalapenos?