Chicken Curry and Beyond - The CurryFocus Blog

A news item has just been seen that talks about the way that curcumin has been found (again) to help in the continual fight against cancers.

Melanoma is a life-threatening skin cancer that kills nearly 50,000 people a year and curcumin has been found to be good at disabling melanoma cancer cells.

And the same researchers have found out that curcumin stopped breast cancer from spreading.

The ever-increasing list of ailments that can be treated with curcumin is pretty amazing and we’ve written a few blogs on the subject over the years.

This latest research says that you have a lower chance of getting some cancers if you eat turmeric (one of the most used curry ingredients).

There are several face creams for sale that claim to slow down the skin aging process with the assistance of turmeric and/or curcumin. So now the cream makers know that there product can help protect against melanoma.

You can read about this new curcumin research for yourself.

Hi, Ray here again.

I was given a big sachet of Massaman curry paste some time ago and have been working my way through the contents. I’ve still got some of the paste and I checked out the Massaman curry recipes from the Curry Focus range of curry recipes to see what I could try next.

And I spotted the Massaman Chickpea Curry recipe that looked really simple to make.

This is a really fast curry to make, apart from the overnight soaking of the chickpeas, and the preparation and cooking time is only about 30 minutes.

I started to cook the curry when the dinner guests arrived and served it up half an hour later. As I guessed earlier, this is a really simple curry to make.

I served up the Massaman Chickpea Curry on a bed of basmati rice and the eager diners happily got stuck into the curry.

The potatoes and chickpeas were well cooked and the curry was really tasty.

And it was also really hot – probably the hottest curry that I’ve made from the Curry Focus recipes.

The heat level was simply too high for two of the diners. The heat level could be lowered by missing out one, or both, of the fresh chillies and only using one tablespoon of Massaman curry paste instead of the two tablespoons that the recipe calls for.

There is a lot of liquid in this curry and this could be reduced by turning up the heat a little.

Despite the heat level, the Massaman Chickpea Curry got a score of 7.5 out of 10 with a heat/spice rating of “Very Hot”.

In my opinion, this is a great Massaman curry that you really should try if you like a hot and tasty curry.

Newcastle University scientists have been experimenting with some commonly used curry spices such as cumin, turmeric, cloves, cilantro (coriander), cloves and cinnamon to find out if they reduce the production of methane gasses from sheep.

The scientists created an experiment that simulated sheep’s stomachs and measured the methane that was produced from them.

They found out that the curry spices reduce methane output with the most spectacular reduction of 40% being achieved by using cilantro (coriander).

The UK has 30 million sheep producing 600 million litres of methane each day and so this would translate into a massive reduction in methane emissions.

We don’t imagine that any farmer will feed a curry to their sheep but it’s more than likely that curry spices will be added to the sheep feed in order to cut down on methane produced by their sheep.

Read more about curry spices reducing methane emissions.

Welcome to the June 2010 edition of the Curry Focus Newsletter!

We cook and review a fantastic curry that has only been on the site for a couple of months. It often amazes me how well spinach goes with curry and Ray experiences it first hand - Murghi Aur Palak (Chicken and Spinach) Recipe Review.

How many times have you tucked into the leftover curry remains the next day and find them not only tastier than the night before, but sometimes more spicy as well? The Curry Focus team decide to do some investigating and you can read all about it here - Why Does Curry Taste Better the Next Day?

When it comes to reviewing recipes we are not afraid to say if a curry is not as tasty as it looks, Ray braves his way through reviewing a Lamb Curry Cooked with Rice.

We look at the upcoming British Curry Awards, and review a Karahi Chicken with Fenugreek recipe as well as a very tasty and simple to cook Chicken Massaman Curry Recipe.

Top 5 Recipes for last month

1 Easy Chicken Curry
2 Naan Bread
3 Chicken Curry
4 Thai Green Chicken Curry
5 Balti Chicken

Why not tell us the recipes that you like? You can submit a new recipe here and a restaurant here.

Browse Categories

Hi, Ray here again.

Easily the biggest section of great Curry Focus curry recipes is for chicken curry recipes. I check out the new chicken curry recipes fairly often and saw that the Murghi Aur Palak (Chicken and Spinach) recipe arrived in April.

I decided to make the Chicken and Spinach curry despite it having a lot of ingredients (I usually steer clear of recipes with lots of ingredients).

All I had to but for the curry was the fresh spinach and chicken thighs.

On Sunday afternoon I went through my usual ritual of preparing the ingredients and this time I also made the yogurt mixture and spice paste before starting any cooking.

This curry takes longer to cook than the average chicken curry, about 70 minutes and I started to cook the meal an hour before the scheduled eating time.

Despite there being a lot of ingredients and cooking instructions, this is a very simple curry to cook. There are four distinct parts to making this curry – frying the onions and chicken thighs, cooking the chicken thoroughly, cooking the fresh spinach and finally mixing all of the ingredients together for the last cooking phase.

The dinner guests arrived bang on time and did not need to wait too long before sitting down to eat the curry.

The Murghi Aur Palak (Chicken and Spinach) curry was served on basmati rice and everybody quickly made the curry disappear (like magic). The curry had great flavours and textures to enjoy and the consensus was that this was one of the best curries that I’d made.

The chicken was very tasty and well cooked and, not surprisingly, everybody picked up the chicken bone to chew off all of the meat.

The Murghi Aur Palak (Chicken and Spinach) curry received a brilliant rating of 9 out of 10 with a heat rating of “Medium Hot”.

You really must check out this recipe for yourself if you love a great chicken curry – I’m confident that you won’t be disappointed.

In the past I’ve noticed that a curry made at home often tastes better the day after it is made.

I wondered why this was the case and carried out some research on the Internet to discover why this happens.

One explanation was that the spices and flavors have more time to infuse themselves with the main ingredient.

Another reason that I found said that the flavor changes because the curry is frozen and then later defrosted.

The most compelling reason that I found was that you’re cooking the curry twice and so all of the ingredients have more of a chance to blend together (than when they are only cooked once) and that the effects of reducing the liquid causes the flavour to be more concentrated.

The most common reason that I found was that the spices have a second opportunity to pass their flavors into the curry.

I didn’t find any scientific explanation for the better taste but most people, including chefs, confirm that curries really do taste better if they are cooked for a second time and that freezing, defrosting and cooking a curry again produces an even better tasting curry.

I always freeze any leftover curry that I make and enjoy a tasty curry lunch at work.

If you’ve got an explanation for curries tasting better the next day, then why not post a comment against this article and share your wisdom with everyone?

Hi, Ray here again.

Time for another weekend curry. I checked out the Curry Focus recipes and chose to make the Lamb Curry Cooked with Rice from the delicious lamb recipes.

This looked like a biryani recipe except that the meat is usually marinated for a biryani.

As usual, the kitchen was well stock with the spices and basic curry ingredients so the only thing that I had to buy was the lamb.

I prepared the lamb and other ingredients late on Sunday afternoon and started the cooking about 30 minutes before I expected the dinner guests to arrive.

This is an east recipe to follow and it’s hard to imagine how anyone could get the confused with the cooking instructions.

There was a lot of rice (and water) in the recipe and so I used a large saucepan for cooking everything.

The dinner guests arrived in plenty of time of have a quick beer before dinner.

I made a raita and served it up with the Lamb Curry Cooked with Rice.

And what was the verdict? Pretty disappointing. The curry looked pretty unappetising and was a pale yellow color. “It looks like a big mess of rice with meat in it.” Nobody like the curry very much and it received a poor taste score of 5.5 out of 10 with a heat/spice rating of “Mild”.

The recipe showed promise when I first looked at it but the result didn’t live up to expectations.

If you use this recipe, let me know what you think.

Hi, Ray here again.

The weekend has rolled around again so it’s time for another curry.

This weekend I had some chicken breasts in the freezer that had to be used up soon and so I checked out the list of great chicken curry recipes on the Curry Focus website to see what I could make.

I spotted the recipe for Karahi Chicken with Fenugreek which looked to be a nice, simple, recipe. Unlike most curries, this recipe doesn’t call for onion or ginger but it looked like the results would be tasty.

My local Indian supply store had the fenugreek (methi) leaves that I needed so all I had to get at the supermarket were some chicken thighs.

I prepared the ingredients, cooked the chicken pieces and made the spicy paste not long before the arrival of the dinner guests.

I got on with the real main cooking once the dinner guests had arrived and were settled in the lounge with a beer.

The only tricky thing with the cooking was that the ingredients were very dry until the water was added so I had to stir the contents of the frying pan very often so that the food wouldn’t stick and burn.

And the curry was ready in only 20 minutes – one of the diners hadn’t even finished their beer!

I served the Karahi Chicken with Fenugreek on a bed of basmati and herded the diners into the dining room, where they quickly got “stuck in” to the meal.

And what was the verdict? Very tasty!. The chicken strips were unusual but everybody loved them. The curry doesn’t have much colour, although it tasted great – maybe I should have sprinkled some fresh cilantro as a garnish.

The curry was voted a score of 7.5 out of 10 for taste and had a “heat” rating of “Medium”.

This is a very simple curry to make. It only takes about half an hour from starting to prepare the ingredients to serving up the curry. I know you’ll be very happy with the results if you try this recipe.

Hi, Ray here again.

Just recently I wrote a review of the Dry Massaman Beef Curry recipe. I had been given some Massman Curry Paste by a friend and felt that I had to use it (there’s a good Curry Focus recipe for Massaman Curry Paste that I could have used to make some paste).

I checked out the great Curry Focus Massaman Curry recipes to see if there was another recipe that I could try with the paste that I had.

The Dry Massaman Beef Curry did not contain any potatoes, which I thought was a bit odd. But the Chicken Massaman Curry recipe does call for potatoes as well as coconut cream.

I bought a pack of chicken thighs to make the latest curry and cut them up a little as they were pretty large.

This is a very simple recipe and nothing wrong happened during the cooking and, before too long, I was serving up the Chicken Massaman Curry on a bed of basmati rice.

And everybody loved the curry. It was creamy with lovely flavours of coconut and peanuts.

Overall, the curry got a score of 8.5 out of 10 with a spice/heat level of “Medium to Hot”.

This is a yummy curry that is easy to make and I unreservedly recommend that you try it yourself.

Welcome to the May 2010 edition of the Curry Focus Newsletter!

Its been another busy month at Curry Focus headquarters with more articles, recipes and reviews headed your way!

With hundreds of recipes that have been collected, edited and reviewed on our site there was nobody more qualified than Ray to write an article on Nine Simple Recipe Steps.

Latest Articles

Too Much Salt in Purchased Curries
Lose Weight By Eating Curries
Nine Simple Recipe Steps
Review of the Dry Massaman Beef Curry Recipe

Top 5 Recipes for last month

1 Easy Chicken Curry
2 Naan Bread
3 Thai Green Chicken Curry
4 Balti Chicken
5 Chicken Curry

Why not tell us the recipes that you like? You can submit a new recipe here and a restaurant here.

Browse Categories