TBK cooks- Indian Food

 

                                                My Raita with my Indian Chicken curry

After filling myself with Pinoy, Malaysian, Cambodian and British food in SeptemBER my next craving was for Indian food! I searched my 2014 recipe book and came up with some recipes I learnt just before my good friends Keith and Rehana Gardiner left Bahrain. 

                                         My 2014 Recipe book

I asked Keith if Rehana would teach me some Indian dishes and she invited me to her house where we made a variety of Indian dishes together. She also gave me a copy of a series of recipes from her Mother and later , just before they retired and left Bahrain for Turkey, she bought round a box full of spices used in Indian cooking, many of which I still have today.

I have been careful in my use of the word curry as I read in Rehana's recipe book that:

 " The word curry does not appear on menus in South Asia. Instead you will find a great variety of dishes , and their description on the menu tells you how they are cooked or what the principal ingredients are. Secondly there is not really any such thing as "Indian Cooking". In a country as vast and varied as India, there are enormous regional and cultural variations . For example the staple in the south is rice , whereas in the north a great variety of breads is much more commonly eaten."

Source: Anwar Ka Bawarchikhana- 100 recipes from Anwar's kitchen

My Christmas present to myself in 2021, when all my recipe books were in transit to Palawan!

In another favourite Indian cookery book, Madhur Jaffrey’s Curry Nation – Britain’s 100 favourite curries , I read some amazing statistics about the popularity of Indian food in the UK:

"Now in the UK there are 10,000 Indian restaurants employing 80,000 staff making the industry worth 3 Billion GBP! That is some growth! It now accounts for two thirds of all people who dine out in the UK. But that is not the whole picture! Indian food sales from Supermarkets account for 600 million pounds a year. "

Source: (Jaffrey, 2012).( accessed 27.08.22)

I will not write about cookery books or other Indian recipes here as you can ready my many blogs on the subject ( see the links below) 

https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2021/06/two-curries-and-all-trimmings.html

https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2021/06/tbk-cooks-goan-prawn-curry-with-mango.html

https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2021/01/cooking-up-some-curries-for-new-year.html

So when Kevin asked me to teach him a variety of dishes recently I included Rehana's Indian chicken curry and Raita. He kept asking who Raita was ! I had to explain it was something you serve with curry. 

When I was researching this blog I found this piece:

"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.

So now you know who Raita ( and Rehana) is, Kevin!

Cucumber , Onion and mint raita with chutneys , banana yogurt and Cinnamon and Jamie Oliver's Chicken Tikka Masala which I made in Bahrain

For me the best thing about having an Indian dish is all the accompaniments that go with it. I usually make Papadums, Naan bread, Basmati rice, a variety of chutneys as well as a couple of "Curries" for my meat eating and vegetarian friends. Another thing one has to be very careful of when cooking for Indians is their religion. So some will eat cow ( beef) but for others it is sacred. Some eat with their hands and others use cutlery. My ex neighbour in Bahrain, Alpesh and Mittal and their kids were from Gujarat and were vegetarian and so on. 

       My Raita with green chili, grated cucumber and Gracie's natural organic Yogurt

So let me share the dishes I prepared for Kevin ( even though he did not have the manners to turn up or let me know he was not coming!). His reply was- "you gave me the recipe so I can cook it at home now! ". I suggested he went and bought his own recipe book!

Let me share you just two recipes from my 2014 Recipe book in this blog:

First, Raita:

It really is very simple. First order your yogurt from Gracie at Poochies kitchen.      It's 240 peso for 800 ml and you need to order 1 day in advance as Gracie hand makes the natural organic yogurt to order. It will last for 5 days in the fridge and is also good for dogs with bad stomachs! 

Poochies Kitchen can be contacted through Facebook by clicking the link below:

Poochies Kitchen- Puerto Princesa, Palawan

Next you grate the carrot and chop the Coriander ( Cilantro) and the Green Chili

Finally add some ground black pepper and mix the ingredients together in a bowl and then chill ( the raita not you!) . Charizz!

Other accompaniments for curry include yogurt and banana with cinnamon and a variety of chutneys ( tomato , mango, beetroot etc.) and breads like Naan            (available here frozen in Palawan) , Garlic Naan and Poppadom's. 

                         The Frozen Naan I bought, I think at Deli Mart

                               My chicken curry, Raita and Naan bread

So how do you make Indian Chicken curry? Well this is what you will need:

"Tell us a story , Mr P, this is all a bit dry!"

"Ok Mr G, you have heard of Amazon and Grab for your online shopping, right?"

"Yes, old man"

"Well here in Palawan we have Lazada and Shoppee but I use Jhoanna"

"Isn't that the name of one of your scholars?"

Yes- I send her a message on Facebook of what I need and she brings it to me and then I pay her. It's hard for me to get out with the puppy dog and I get so mad when I have to queue ages to pay at NCC, Robinsons and SM"

" SM, isn't that??"

"STOP right there Mr G!"

So this week I asked her to get 6 chicken breasts , amongst some other things..

and she confirmed she had bought them and the price in Pesos:

 

"That's a lot Mr P, 574 pesos is about £9 right, or 4 bd for your friends at the Bapco club. I can just imagine Mr Jaworski complaining if he had to pay 4bd for 6 breasts!"

"Phil it all came down to the different ways men and women think about breasts. When I said I wanted 6 breasts Jhoanna thought I wanted 6 pairs of breasts ( 12 individual breasts) , whereas I just wanted 6 single breasts!"

" Can we stop talking about breasts, we got into trouble for talking about breasts before I seem to remember?"

                                              6 double chicken breasts

In the Philippines, I have learnt from my Kabayan, we never let anything go to waste so I removed the breasts from the bones and made a chicken stock with the bones, an onion, bay leaf and some black peppercorns and a litre of water.

"How do you make stock , Mr P?"

" Easy Mr. G- here is the recipe my brother, Andrew gave me , years ago:

Chicken stock

Ingredients:

I chicken carcass ( or in this case the bones of 6 chicken breasts!)

1 Onion

6- 10 black peppercorns

2 bay leaves

One litre of cold water per chicken

 Procedure ( as they say in the Philippines) or Method as they say in the UK

 Chop an onion, add 6- 10 black peppercorns, a couple of bay leaves and a litre of cold water per chicken in a pan and bring to boil with the chicken carcass. Turn down and let simmer for quite a while until the fluid becomes brownish in colour. Drain through a sieve and let the liquid cool ready for use, or freeze it. 

             Making the stock- so glad I bought my big pans from Bahrain 

           Then you add the water and boil it, then simmer for 20 mins

Back to the curry- I heated the oil and then added the chicken breasts and cooked them for 2- 3 mins until they were brown and then sliced them. Next I added the onion which I had cut into wedges and then after 5 minutes cooking ( do not forget to stir it Kevin or it will burn the pan) I added the premade curry paste and my chicken stock, the tin of diced tomatoes and the sweet potatoes...

"Can we see that in Pictures Mr P?"

" Sure Phil"

           The single breast of chicken diced ( so I had 12 of these!)

Finally I added the green beans...

"From Baguio?"

"Of course Mr G, they are the best!" 

Once it was cooked we served it with the Naan bread and the Raita

"What did your guests think?"

"Well for Luis and Jovan it was their first ever curry and I am happy to say they both loved it- they even tried the Raita and the Naan bread. I explained Raita in India was like calamansi juice and Chili in the Philippines, or soy sauce and chili. I showed them how an Indian would eat with just the Naan Bread with their right hand instead of a spoon and fork. We were going to have Basmati rice but it had weavels in it after being in storage since December 2020. I will get fresh stocks next week!

                                   Jovan enjoying his meal

Well that's all for now dear readers. I hope you enjoyed our recipe and cooking Indian food . I also hope that you will try this and some of our other recipes like Butter Chicken curry from Pakistan , Lamb and Mango curry, Jamie Oliver's Chicken Tikka Masala etc. 

My special thanks to Rehana for her cookery lesson back in Bahrain, her spices and cookery book. Also my thanks to Mittal who taught me some Indian Vegetarian dishes. Anis introduced me to his favourite Pakistani Butter Chicken Curry and my gardener in Bahrain, Shji, gave me some great feedback when I tried my hand at the cuisine of Kerala. I am sure Carl Max will arrange a cookery lesson when I visit him in Kerala in 2024! Finally special thanks to Luis who showed me how to improve the pictures after I screwed up the brightness setting when I took the photos ( the first time I used the Canon on manual after my first photography lesson from Luis).

As usual we appreciate your feedback to help us improve future Blogs, and if you have any special requests for a blog topic please email us at the address below:

thebritishkabayan@gmail.com

Until next Friday this is The British Kabayan signing out from Palawan and wishing you 

Ingat Palagi ( stay safe)

and

Kita Kits ( see you soon)

Coming soon TBK shares his cooking skills with his friends in our new Brand- TBK teaches. You really thought I was going to stop teaching when I retired??

Stay tuned for more exciting adventures as a retiree here in Palawan with...