South India Pepper Chicken Curry Recipe Review


Hi, Ray here again.

Once again the weekend has rolled around. And we all know what the weekend means – curry time! I browsed through the great range of curry recipes on the Curry Focus website and found the South India Pepper Chicken Curry recipe amongst the large number of chicken curry recipes. This looked like a really easy chicken curry recipe to make, which suited a part-time cook like myself. Despite cooking curries for the last 4 years, I wouldn’t claim to be a master curry maker by any means. There’s just no way that I will be able to compete with cooks who have learnt to cook with the guidance of their mothers.

I picked up the chicken thighs and some coconut milk whilst out shopping. I really like recipes that use chicken thighs because I find that the meat is far tastier than chicken breast.

I saw that the first part of the method was marinating the chicken in spices so I did this first stage some 3 hours before needing to start the cooking. The recipe said to marinate for an hour but one thing that I’ve learnt is that marinating for longer usually means tastier meals. I was a bit perplexed at how to lightly crush the peppercorns until I realised that probably the best way would be to use my mortar and pestle. It was amazing that having this piece of kitchen equipment had fallen to the back of my mind since I invested in a spice grinder a couple of years ago. I suppose another way to crush the peppercorns would have been to use a rolling pin. Anyhow, I chopped up the chicken thighs and marinated them in the spices for 3 hours.

Cooking time came around in the evening and everything went smoothly – as I said earlier, this is a really easy chicken curry recipe. The one thing that I did notice was that the recipe only uses 1/2 a cup (125ml or 4 fl oz) of coconut milk so now I have the best part of a can of coconut milk in the fridge to use up (I’ll find a recipe to use the coconut milk – no way am I going to throw it away).

I cooked the curry without any problems, the curry tasters arrived about 15 minutes before the meal was ready and I served up the South India Pepper Chicken Curry on rice to the eager diners.

The chicken thigh meat was well cooked and the curry had the expected lovely coconut taste. The curry sauce was a runny but, being unfamiliar with the South India pepper chicken curry dish, I do not know if this is to be expected or not. It’s not really a problem though because the rice soaked up the gravy pretty well. There was a lot of pepper in this curry which gave the curry a bit of a kick with a hot aftertaste on the lips after the meal was eaten. But even though the curry received a spice/heat rating of “Hot”, it was not a mouth burning hot that you get with a vindaloo curry. Everyone enjoyed the meal and the curry received an average taste score of 8 out of 10.

This is a delightful curry and one that you really should try if you like a great hot chicken curry.

south india pepper chicken curry image

Posted in Recipe Reviews | Leave a comment

Leftover Turkey Curry Sauce


With the Christmas market in mind, Patak’s have launched a turkey curry sauce so that the British public can quickly produce a turkey curry from the piles of leftover turkey.

It seems that most Christmas Day turkey meals result in leftover turkey meat and, traditionally, the meat was mainly used up in sandwiches, soups and stews.

But the new turkey curry sauce means that you can create a leftover turkey curry in just 10 minutes.

The sauce costs £1 for a 500g jar and is available in Asda supermarkets.

The turkey curry sauce is obviously pretty easy to use so maybe the cook of the Christmas Day meal can be given a rest whilst somebody else rustles up the leftover turkey curry.

Posted in Information, Turkey Dishes | Leave a comment

Curcumin Fights Prostate Cancer


Once again we read about a component of a major curry spice being used in the seemingly never-ending fight against cancer.

And, once again, it is the curcumin compound (the ingredient that makes turmeric yellow).

Over the years we have written blogs about the use of curcumin in the battle against skin, breast, oesophageal and bowel cancers and this time it is prostate cancer that is being treated with curcumin.

And once again it is synthetic curcumin being used because the body absorbs synthetic curcumin more easily than natural curcumin.

It has been discovered that the synthetic curcumin inhibits the growth of prostate cancer cells.

It is early days in the research cycle and the synthetic curcumin has yet to be tested with humans.

We’ll keep our eyes peeled for future news of curcumin and prostate cancer and will let you know what happens.

Posted in Health | Leave a comment

Review of the Easy Chicken Curry Version 2 Recipe


Hi, Ray here again.

I’ve commented more than once about the number of chicken curry recipes which are on the Curry Focus website. A recent arrival amongst the chicken curry recipes is one for an Easy Chicken Curry (there is more than one Easy Chicken Curry recipe and the new arrival is version 2). The curry looked really easy to make (so it would live up to its title) and I selected it for this week’s recipe test.

As usual, I already had most of the ingredients in the house and all I had to pick up when shopping was the chicken thighs, chicken stock and fresh coriander (cilantro). Normally I have lots of chicken stock in the freezer but Wendy has recently gone through a soup making phase and reduced my chicken stock level down to zero (I prefer making my own chicken stock than buying but did not have time to go to the butcher to get some bones).

Late Sunday afternoon saw me preparing the ingredients and I started to cook the curry before the curry tasters arrived (they just seem to saunter in when the food is about ready).

The diners arrived just as the rice was set underway in the microwave and so had time for a nice beer whilst catching up on the weekend activities.

There is nothing difficult about following this recipe at all and the recipe does live up the “easy” tag.

Pretty soon everything was ready and I served up the Easy Chicken Curry on basmati rice.

The curry was very runny and had lots of liquid. I had the heat cranked up pretty high for the last 5 minutes of cooking but there was still too much liquid at the end. Maybe all of the last 20 minutes of cooking should have been done without the curry being covered so that the liquid would be reduced more. Or maybe only 250ml (9 fl oz) of chicken stock should have been used instead of 500ml (17 fl oz).

Anyway, I served up the curry without too much liquid.

And how was the curry? Pretty average. The chicken was well cooked and the curry had a “clean” taste. The spice/heat level was mild and you could easily taste the coriander (cilantro). But even though the curry was very edible, it didn’t really make anybody say “wow” – the best comment that was made was “nice”. In the end, the Easy Chicken Curry received an average taste score of 6.5 out of 10.

The curry maybe needs a few tweaks to make it better – less liquid and more heat (maybe a couple of fresh chillies or more chilli powder).

It certainly is an easy curry to make but does not appear on my list of curries to make again.

leftover ham curry image

Posted in Recipe Reviews | Leave a comment

Review of the Leftover Ham Curry Recipe


Hi, Ray here again.

The last recipe that I reviewed was one for a leftover turkey curry. With Christmas fast approaching I thought that I should try out a leftover recipe seeing that there was a good chance that leftover meat would be around after the main day.

But we often have leftover ham to deal with, as well as leftover turkey, and so I thought that I should try out a leftover ham curry recipe. Luckily a leftover ham curry recipe has recently arrived on the Curry Focus website (you can find it amongst the pork and ham curry recipe category) and the recipe looked like a very easy recipe to follow. The recipe uses curry powder and I know a lot of people turn up their noses at using curry powder, preferring to use the individual spices when cooking a curry. However, I have no such qualms about using curry powder when necessary. And considering that the main cook will already have spent a lot of time in the kitchen preparing the traditional Christmas meal, it seems like this is an ideal time to use curry powder and minimise the amount of cooking time for the leftover ham curry.

I picked up the fresh ingredients when out shopping, as well as buying some lovely precooked ham.

Preparation of the ingredients is really quick and easy. In fact the only tricky bit was crushing the lemongrass. Lemongrass is an extremely tough plant and I had to use a bit of effort to lightly crush it. But it only needs a light crushing to break the skin and the result is well worth the trouble.

The total cooking time is only about 20 minutes and so I waited before the curry tasters arrived before starting to heat the oil in my trusty frying pan. I’ve had this cast iron frying pan for years now and it is still my first choice pan to cook curries (I even cook dal in the frying pan).

Anyway, back to the cooking.

Once the oil was hot enough, I fried the curry powder and then added the ham and spring onion (scallion or green onion). The ingredients became fairly dry so I had to stir them often. Not quite a stir-fry but not far from it.

Then in went the rest of the ingredients, followed soon after by starting the rice cooking in the microwave.

I didn’t need to add any extra water and the curry ended up being dry. I suppose water may have been needed if I’d cooked it at a higher temperature (I must have cooked this curry correctly!).

The recipe called for final cooking stage to be 15 minutes, which seemed a bit long to me. But I suppose you cannot be too careful when reheating cooked meat and the extra time would let the lemongrass blend into the curry.

Altogether the cooking time was 22 minutes and I was soon serving up the Leftover Ham Curry on basmati rice to the hungry diners.

And the curry was lovely. The ham was well cooked and the overall taste sensations included lemon and coriander (cilantro). The curry was dry and had a good consistency. The leftover ham curry received an average taste score of 7.5 out of 10 with a spice/heat level of medium to hot. I use a hot curry powder but you could reduce the spice/heat level by using a milder curry powder or just using less of it.

All in all, this was a very acceptable meal and definitely tops eating leftover ham sandwiches or salad. Just make sure you have some curry powder and greens over the holiday so you can try the recipe for yourself.

leftover ham curry image

Posted in Recipe Reviews | Leave a comment

British Curry Awards 2011 Results


The 7th annual British Curry Awards were held last Monday evening (28th November) in a curry and entertainment loaded event at Evolution in Battersea, London.

Over 68,000 nominations were received for more than 2,700 curry UK restaurants this year.

Boris Johnson (the London Mayor) was among the audience that saw celebrity chef James Martin announcing the winners.

There was a heartfelt plea to reduce VAT on restaurant meals by 5% in order to help the restaurant industry which employs more than 100,000 workers and has a turnover of more than £3.5bn. The sceptical amongst us think that this was plea was a waste of time, but you cannot fault the curry industry for effort in trying to bolster the curry eating market.

The regional winners were:

Region Winner
Scotland Taj Tandoori, Prestwick
North East Vujon, Newcastle
North West Dower House, Doncaster
Midlands Rilys, Redditch
South West Spice Lodge, Cheltenham
South East Haweli, Twyford
Wales Bokhara Brasserie, Bridgend
London Suburbs Shampan 3, Welling
Central London Tamarind, Mayfair

In addition to the regional winners, the Culinary Chef of the Year award went to Khalid Sami Khan (of Lasan restaurant, Birmingham), the Best Newcomer Award went to Cinnamon Kitchen & Anise (London EC2), the Personality of the Year award went to Shelim Hussain MBE and the Special Recognition award went to Keka Ferdosi.

So once again the biggest annual curry awards have been made and now you know the best restaurant in your area. Why not try out your local restaurant to see why they won?

Posted in Curry Awards | Leave a comment

November 2011 Newsletter

Welcome to the November 2011 edition of the Curry Focus Newsletter!

Latest Articles

Roast Turkey Meat Safety – How long can you freeze turkey for? Can you refreeze cooked turkey? We answer those questions and more…

Curry College – Many of you will have read about the “Curry College” idea that Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, has proposed…

Leftover Turkey Curry Recipe – Christmas is just around the corner so I thought that I would try out one of the leftover turkey curry recipes from the great range of Curry Focus curry recipes…

Indian Food Curry Facts– Exactly how popular is Indian food in the UK? That anwswer and many more…

Fish Curry Recipe Review – If you like a hot curry, this is a definitely a curry that we recommend…

Chettinad Lamb Curry Recipe Review Chettinad is known for its cuisine so this was an extra reason for choosing to make the Chettinad lamb curry…

Top 10 recipes for last month

1 Easy Chicken Curry
2 Naan Bread
3 Leftover Ham and Rice Curry
4 Chicken Curry
5 Sri Lanka Goat Curry
6 Currried Eggs
7 Sole Curry
8 Thai Green Chicken Curry
9 Massaman Chicken Curry
10 Poppadoms

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

Browse Categories

Balti Curry Recipes

Jalfrezi Curry Recipes

Beef Curry Recipes

Kebab Recipes

Bhuna Curry Recipes

Korma Curry Recipes

Biryani Curry Recipes

Lamb Curry Recipes

Bread Recipes

Madras Curry Recipes

Chicken Curry Recipes

Masala, Spice and Paste Recipes

Chutney, Pickle and Relish Recipes

Massaman Curry Recipes

Curry Side Dish Recipes

Pork Curry Recipes and Ham Curry Recipes

Dessert and Sweet Recipes

Raita Recipes

Dhal Recipes

Rice Recipes

Dopiaza Curry Recipes

Starter, Soup and Snack Recipes

Drink Recipes

Turkey Curry Recipes

Festival Recipes

Vegetarian Curry Recipes

Fish Curry Recipes

Vegetarian Curry Side Dish Recipes

Ghee Recipes

Vindaloo Curry Recipes

Goat Curry Recipes

 

Posted in Newsletters | Leave a comment

Roast Turkey Meat Safety


The Curry Focus website gets a lot of visitors over the festive period looking for leftover turkey curry recipes. This is great as we like a good turkey curry ourselves. The great range of Curry Focus recipes has some leftover turkey recipes for you to try.

The main peak times for eating roast turkey is Christmas and Thanksgiving (both Canada and the USA celebrate Thanksgiving, with Canada Thanksgiving being in October and USA Thanksgiving in November).

But we notice that some people might be taking risks by holding on to their turkey meat too long after it has been cooked. We still get lots of visitors looking for leftover turkey curry recipes more than a week after when the turkey must have been cooked.

So in the interests of making sure that you survive your festive holiday, we did a bit of research on the Internet and have found some good advice about how to look after cooked roast turkey.

Once a turkey is defrosted then it should be cooked within 2 days (you can keep a frozen turkey in the freezer for up to 12 months).

Once you’ve eaten your meal, the leftover turkey should be put into the fridge (ideally within 2 hours of being carved and served). The turkey meat should be covered when put into the fridge. If you’re serving up cold turkey then only take as much turkey out of the fridge that you need to avoid leaving turkey meat lying around.

Eat all of the leftover turkey within 48 hours of the turkey being cooked.

If you’re reheating turkey meat (for example, in a yummy leftover turkey curry), then make sure that the meat is thoroughly heated.

Never reheat cooked turkey meat more than once.

You can freeze cooked turkey meat for up to a month – put the meat into freezer bags or containers and make sure that all of the air is squeezed out. Remember to label and date the packages so that you can see what is in them and so you can use the oldest first.

If you follow these simple steps then you can be sure that you’ll enjoy your roast turkey.

Posted in Information, Turkey Dishes | Leave a comment

Curry College


Many of you will have read about the “Curry College” idea that Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, has proposed.

The idea of the college is that British people are trained how to become curry cooks so that the curry cook shortage is addressed (this shortage was caused by new immigration rules that made it harder to bring Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian cooks into the UK).

Here at Curry Focus, we find it very funny that a senior politician is proposing an idea that has been around for quite some time now (we reported on a similar proposal just a few months ago when we wrote a blog about a curry cooking degree course in Bradford). It seems that politicians have no shame when stealing other people’s ideas.

All that we hope for is that the curry cook shortage is addressed now. There seems to be a lot of talking going on but we would like to see some action so that we have a plentiful supply of jalfrezi, madras and naan to keep us fed.

We’ll see how the plans work out.

Posted in Information | Leave a comment

Review of the Leftover Turkey Curry Recipe (version 1)


Hi, Ray here again.

Christmas is just around the corner so I thought that I would try out one of the leftover turkey curry recipes from the great range of Curry Focus curry recipes. There is a turkey curry category, which I looked at, and then I chose to try out the version 1 leftover turkey curry recipe.

I knew that I would be testing at least one leftover turkey curry recipes before Christmas so we all had a big turkey roast a couple of weeks ago and I packaged up the leftover turkey into plastic bags and popped them into the freezer. I had deliberately bought a turkey that was way too big for us so there was a lot left over. I even made some turkey stock with the bones and put that into the freezer as well. I think one of the big problems with Christmas turkey is getting the size right. Most people tend to buy a turkey that is too large and sit around picking at the meat over the Christmas holiday. I’d much rather have a curry.

This is a very easy curry to shop for and most people would have all of the ingredients in the house over the holiday period. As it was, all I had to buy was a banana, some coconut milk and fresh coriander (cilantro).

Preparing the ingredients before cooking was simplicity itself and everything was ready with 30 minutes to go until the scheduled eating time. I put some basmati to soak into a bowl and waited for about 10 minutes and before starting the cooking (this allowed for the dinner tasters to be up to 10 minutes late).

The cooking was easy and uneventful.

And the tasting panel arrived in plenty of time, as usual (I think they’ve only been late a handful of times over the 4 years that I’ve been testing out curry recipes).

I served up version 1 of the Leftover Turkey Curry on basmati rice to the assembled diners only about 15 minutes late.

And how was the curry? It was an average turkey curry. It had a nice taste and the turkey was nice and hot. The dark meat was tastier than the white meat (often the case). One of the diners said that the turkey was a bit chewy but it had been well cooked previously and the other 3 had no problem with the meat. I was a bit worried that the banana would make the curry too sweet but it wasn’t sweet at all really. One thing that I thought of afterwards was that I should have bought a red bell pepper and then the curry would have had a real Christmas look to it what with the peas and coriander (cilantro) providing the green.

The leftover turkey curry received an average taste score of 7 out of 10 with a heat/spice rating of “Mild to Medium”.

All in all, this is a reasonable curry and certainly preferable to the pile of turkey sandwiches that usually appear on Boxing Day. So this Christmas, make sure you have the spices (you do not need many), coconut milk and fresh coriander (cilantro) handy to try this recipe out for yourself. And if you need a hotter curry, maybe leave in the chilli seeds or throw in an extra chilli.

leftover turkey curry image

Posted in Recipe Reviews | Leave a comment