Chicken Curry and Beyond - The CurryFocus Blog

Can eating a curry start the process of labor? Judging by the number of internet articles and blogs on this subject, the answer is yes.

The “Second Nature Childbirth” web site lists eating a curry at number 12 in the ways to get the childbirth process under way. Check it out.

And the “Baby Centre” web site also has eating a curry as a way to start the labor process. See the article here.

But using curry to start labor is decried on the Baby World web site, according to this article. But I’d recommend not reading this article if you’ve got a sensitive disposition because it goes into some body functions pretty vividly.

Although it looks like eating a curry to start the labour process is an urban legend, or old wives’ tale, the media latch on to such events very quickly.

Such an example recently happened in a town near Brighton, on the south coast of England. A family and friends had just enjoyed a yummy lamb curry when Susannah, then 8 ½ months pregnant, went into labor. Amongst others, the story is related by The Argus (a local newspaper) and was even picked up by The Daily Express (a national UK newspaper). But even if curry DOES induce labor, surely it couldn’t happen that quickly?

Here at Curry Focus, we’re not convinced that curry has any effect on the labor and childbirth process.

But if you do want to speed up the process, why not have a yummy curry? It will taste great, even if it doesn’t work.

Hi, Ray here again.

I decided to try out one of the vegetarian recipes for a change and went for the Stuffed Eggplants.

Before I start, I need to say that I messed up with the eggplants that I bought. I saw that the recipe was for stuffed eggplants and bought a couple of large eggplants. But the recipe called for those small eggplants. So I started off all wrong.

I followed the recipe pretty well but things didn’t work out as I hoped.

First, the paste turned out to be a bit dry. It was very tasty but was dry.

Next, there was no “stuffing” of the eggplants. What I ended up doing was spreading the paste into the quartered eggplants like spreading butter. I did my best to evenly spread the paste into the eggplant cracks.

Then the final result was pretty tasteless apart from where the paste had come into contact with the eggplant. As I said before, the paste itself was delicious but the eggplant was dry and bland.

So it wasn’t a great success. I am more than willing to accept that my lack of cooking skills was the main problem, not to mention me buying the wrong types of eggplants.

Nobody around the table really liked the dish and it rated a small 4 out of 10.

But it hasn’t put me off. I see there’s a recipe for eggplant curry on the web site so I’ll try that out in a while. And next time I’ll get the correct ingredients.

Well, it’s now official. The fine tastes and customs of India, Jamaica, Thailand and the other fine nations that love their curries have officially arrived in America. It’s a fact that every 5th doctor in LA, Chicago and New York originated from India. The same also goes for approximately every 3rd computer expert, and every 5th motel owner and engineer.

Indian specific merchandise is being stocked up on by storeowners and merchants alike. With the large groups of Indians moving around the downtown centers, even grocery stores that had never before heard of Basmati rice are now carrying it on their shelves.

Everywhere you look, an Indian Curry House has sprouted up and, nowadays, India’s Diwali Independence Day parades are held in most big cities.

In scenes that are already quite common in other established countries, however slow to take hold in the US, we now are seeing families and friends heading out for a curry and it is pleasing to see that some Americans now would rather eat a tasty dish of Chicken Tikka Masala than punishing themselves with a quarter pounder burger and fries.

It has also become apparent, in recent times, that curry is not only tasty it can be very good for you. We read about one lady, Darci Jayne, who had hardly ever touched a veggie and lived on fast food like pizza, pasta and other high fat foods.

This terrible diet led to major weight gain and serious health problems that included severe joint pain. By the time she had nearly passed 200 pounds, she managed to finally lose weight by cutting portion sizes. However, she was struggling to keep the weight off.

An Indian cooking class that promoted tasty curry spices along with fresh vegetables helped her to turn things around and she began to conjure up an Indian Meal at least once or twice a week. Jayne found that over time the pain and swelling in her joints began to ease. A lot of spices have medicinal applications. Curcumin, for example, has anti-inflammatory properties and is contained in turmeric, one of the most widely used spices in Indian curries.

In a country that is struggling with a dependency on fast foods, and an ever increasing problem with overweight citizens, could curry be the answer that can help prevent a nationwide epidemic of obesity related problems?

Although curry is often associated with India, Thai cuisine is very popular in many American cities. And Thai curries can by just as tasty and spicy as Indian curries. It is also popular for American restaurants to offer Thai-influenced dishes.

Thai culture in the US is disproportionate to the actual percentile of Thai Americans in the overall population. This goes back to the Vietnam war and the large US presence in Laos and Thailand at that time which exposed US soldiers to Thai culture and then led to the influx of Laotian and Thai Americans.

Writing about the huge impact of curries in the US would have been absurd ten years ago.

But times change.

It’s now time to focus on curry in America.

Hi, Ray here.

Time to try out another of those yummy chicken curry recipes from the Curry focus web site.

This time I chose the Chicken Jalfrezi.

Once again, I got the ingredients ready before I started the actual cooking. It was just a matter of putting the ingredients that go into the curry together onto little plates. I mixed the curry masala paste with about a tablespoon of water in a small bowl so that there was a slightly runny paste.

The recipe didn’t say to seed the green chillies so I left the seeds in because I prefer them that way.

I also got some basmati rice ready to microwave before starting to cook.

I heated up the oil in a large frying pan and quickly cooked the turmeric and seeds. I had the frying pan over a high heat seeing that the recipe kept talking about stir-frying.

Then the garlic and ginger were quickly stir-fried followed by the curry masala paste.

The chicken was next and I happily took in the mouth-watering smells whilst cooking the chicken. I got the rice underway once the chicken was cooking.

Then I added the onions, chillies and red pepper.

This recipe is so easy.

The last ingredients to go in were the cilantro, tomatoes and garam masala.

Drain the rice and serve.

Easy.

The results were delicious. Another very successful meal that was much enjoyed by my hungry friends.

Be careful. This is quite a spicy hot curry. I would recommend that a side dish of raita (yoghurt and cucumber) be served with the meal so that people can cool down the curry a bit. There’s an easy recipe on the Curry Focus web site for raita.

Rating – 8/10

Hi, Ray here.

Once again, I took the plunge into the kitchen to try out one of the curry focus yummy recipes.

I chose the Thai Curry Chicken and Vegetables recipe because I love chicken curry and the vegetables made the recipe sound healthy.

Most of the ingredients were already in my pantry. I had to make a special trip to an Asian supermarket to get some rice wine vinegar and water chestnuts (the can of water chestnuts that I found was double the recipe quantity and I decided to put them all in).

I saw that the cooking was going to take place in about 4 different phases. So I measured all of the first batch of spices into a little bowl that I could just tip into the frying pan (I don’t have a wok so used a thick frying pan instead).

Then I washed and chopped up the vegetables and put them to the side

Then I grated some fresh ginger and put it with the spices.

Then I cut up the chicken (I had bought skinless and boneless chicken).

Then I opened up the cans of coconut milk and water chestnuts, drained the water chestnuts, sliced them up and put them with the brocolli and carrots.

Then the other ingredients that I would need were laid out on the side.

Finally, I washed some basmati rice that was going to be eaten with the meal and took out a couple of stuffed chappatis that I had bought from an Indian food store.

All ready to go.

First up, I heated the oil and then added the spice mixture and soy sauce. After a minute or so, I added the chicken and cooked it for the recommended 8 minutes. Then I added the broth, vinegar, coconut milk and curry powder and brought it all to the boil (the food smells were sensational – I wanted to eat it all there and then).

I started to simmer the food for 20 minutes. After 15 minutes, I popped the basmati rice into the microwave and set it cooking for 14 minutes. Once the 20 minute simmer period had ended, I mixed in the vegetables and brought the mixture to the boil again.

Once the microwave had finished cooking the rice, I quickly put one of the chappatis into the microwave and set it going for 90 seconds whilst I drained the rice.

The second chappati was hurled into the microwave for 90 seconds whilst I was serving the curry on a bed of rice.

I cut the chappatis into halves for the table and served the meal to a small gathering of friends. Not only were they amazed that I could cook properly (instead of just randomly throwing whatever I found into the pantry into a pan) but were, like me, delighted with the results. The curry was delicious. It was very, very tasty and will definitely be on the menu in this household again.

I’ve never rated a menu before but would give it a 9/10. It’s going to be hard to top this one.