TBK cooks - Two curries and all the trimmings

 
    The British Kabayan's Beef curry with Lime and a Cucumber and Mint Raita

I really love cooking curry and all the trimmings- Poppadum, Paratha, Cucumber and Mint Raita and a selection of chutneys! So in this blog I am going to share two of my favourite curries that I made in June this year. 

The first is a plain beef curry. Mr.  Max tells me: 

"Not all Indians pray to the cow as a God...only Hindus...and not all follow it...there is no rules and restrictions in India. It's your wish...if u want u can eat Beef, if not it's totally your wish. I was raised up in a way they didn't feed me Beef so I haven't tasted it yet. I do not want to taste it for now. However each part of India is different and just a few kilometers away from my town is Kerala where many people love to eat beef."

I found this recipe on line but I cannot remember where but its easy to make ( even with one pot!) but just takes time to cook ( especially with only one pot!) .

First the ingredients:

Season the beef and then brown in your one pot- it took me a while to do this! As you brown each batch put in on a plate but keep the juices and oil.  

                              The onion, ginger and garlic , all diced

Once you have browned all the beef cook the onion in the same pot  for 5 mins and then add the diced garlic and ginger and spices and cook for a minute until fragrant. Then add the coconut milk and bring to a simmer. I then had to split the liquid into two pots, added half the browned beef to each and then simmered each pot for 90 mins!

                          Half my beef curry simmering- it smells delicious

When I lived in Awali I would shout to a friend "Can you set your alarm for 90 mins" but this time I worked out how the clock on my mobile worked and did it myself- very impressive!

                               

Who says I am a technophobe! I may have a mobile but you are not having the number!!

While the curry is cooking you can prepare the trimmings. They suggest lime wedges and I also added Basmati rice. To their yogurt I added banana and cinnamon and sometimes I also serve my curries with Garlic Naan, Poppadum and Paratha. Max loved the Paratha I served with my Butter Chicken Curry when he was in Quarantine. He asked how I made it and I had to admit to opening the packet and frying it!

One of my favourite accompaniments for curry is Tzatziki ( A Greek dish with Yogurt and garlic and cucumber). This time I found a recipe for Cucumber Onion and Mint Raita in my Christmas present to myself - Madhur Jaffrey's curry Nation . If you want to see more curry recipes from this great book go to Cooking up some curries for New Year.

Cucumber Mint and Onion Raita 

This recipe comes from Rubina Haider from London who explains that 

"Raitas are yogurt based salads and are served with most Indian and Pakistani meals. They add a cooling crunch. They are also a standard accompaniment to all Biryanis. "

Source: Jaffrey, M 2021: Madhur Jaffrey’s Curry Nation, Britain’s 100 favourite curries. London: Ebury Press.

The  Cucumber , Onion and mint raita with chutneys , banana yogurt and Cinnamon and Jamie Oliver's Chicken Tikka Masala

So to make the Raita just whisk the 250 ml low fat yogurt in a bowl and mix in 100g of coarsely grated cucumber, half a medium sliced onion, finely sliced , 2 teaspoons finely chopped mint , salt to taste and a good pinch of freshly ground black pepper. Then scoop the mix into a serving bowl. It should serve 4- 6 people.

During April , May and June Chester devised The British Kabayan Cooks, a 12 week series on The British Kabayan Facebook page and each week he uploaded a new recipe, each from a different country, with The British Kabayan dressed as the Chef of each country. We started this project in 2017 with Corleen making the Chef's Uniforms based on an Idea from Mark Johns. James took the photos, Chester did the design, I cooked, Vin arranged the rice and washed up and the recipes were first made into a calendar, printed in the UK and distributed by Mark Johns in 2017 for 2018.

It was so popular that Chester then made it into an online recipe book which we launched in 2020. You can click the link below to see this

Recipes around the world

Then finally in 2021 he recycled it again as The British Kabayan cooks! 

As all my recipe books are in Palawan I have been cooking along and made this lovely Vietnamese Chicken Curry again in June 2021.

It is really easy to make and smells delicious as it cooks with all the lemongrass, fish sauce, chicken broth etc. and as it contains pot'

potatoes and carrots it really is a one pot dish.

You start by cooking the shallot, garlic, lemongrass and curry powder in the hot oil and sir fry until it is fragrant as above. Then you add the chicken , fish sauce and sugar and stir fry. Next add the chicken broth, carrot and potato and simmer for 15 minutes as you see in the picture below. 

Finally add the coconut milk and the Tapioca flour with water to thicken the sauce and serve with Coriander. I will always remember my trip to Hoi An when I make this and my cookery class at the Hoi An Hotel with fellow Trainee Chef, and American Lawyer, Grant. You can read more about that in my Blog called 

Ca ri ga- Vietnamese Chicken Curry

In case you are wondering about who the Tran was I fell in love with in Vietnam she was my tour guide for two days when we went to visit Hue- You can see her picture above in the hat I bought her when we returned to the hotel. Sadly she was married but we had a wonderful two days comparing life in Bahrain and Vietnam... I feel another blog coming on !

I hope you enjoyed the two curries, and we will be back with more recipe calendar recipes soon.

Ingat Palagi

Kita Kits

Stay safe

Isn't Chester wonderful how he comes up with all these footers, researching the language etc.!?