Thai Red Curry Paste

This curry is a beautiful and fragrant, it will fill your kitchen with aromas of fresh lime and pungent ginger, all mouth watering and tempting. The ingredients for this recipe are now available in most large supermarkets and I think it is worth the effort to make your own curry paste if you can, it is amazing the difference between it and the shop bought variety, much richer. Some of these ingredients are very new on the Irish market so I have a brief explanation of the more unusual ingredients to help you on your way.

Chillies

There are two dozen varieties used in Thai cooking, including the green finger length chillies; medium length plump chillies (yellow, white, orange, green or red); and the tiny bird's-eye.

Galangal

Similar in appearance to ginger but lighter in colour and more tender. It's flavour is fresh and fragrant, with slightly less heat than ginger.

Lemongrass

These hard woody stalks add zingy citrus-lemon flavour to dishes. It can be added whole , then removed at the end of cooking. To release the flavours, the stalks are usually crushed or pounded using a mortar and pestle.

Ingredients
6-8 Long red chillies, deseeded and roughly chopped
1 Lime, juice of half and the rind
2 Shallots, roughly chopped
4cm Ginger, peeled and grated
4cm Galangal, peeled and grated
4 Cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
2 Stalks of lemongrass, finely chopped
10 Black peppercorns or 1tsp freshly ground white pepper
1tsp Salt
1/4tsp Corriander seeds or 1tsp ground corriander
1/4 tsp Cumin seeds or 1/2 tsp ground cumin
6tbsp Vegetable oil

Method
Blend in a food processor the red chillies, shallots, garlic, galangal, fresh ginger and lemongrass.

Add the lime juice and grated rind, peppercorns, corriander seeds and cumin seeds. Gradually add the vegetable oil and blend to a smooth paste. The more traditional method is to grind all the ingredients into a paste using a mortar and pestle, works up an appetite!!

When a smooth fragrant paste is achieved transfer to a sterilised jar and keep refrigerated. The paste will keep for 4-5 weeks.

TIP:To sterilise jars, either put them through a cycle in your dishwasher, boil them for 5 minutes in pan of water or place in an over preheated to 150C/ 300F/Gas 2 for 10 minutes. 

Delia's Creamy Chicken Curry

This was the first recipe that I made from scratch, before that I didn't believe that I could make a meal from start to finish and for it to be edible! I am very grateful to Delia and her Complete Cookery Course, it gave me the confidence to cook everything from a poached egg to roasting a chicken for Sunday lunch, prior to buying this book I relied very heavily on prepacked food, mainly because I didn't really know where to start. I'm passing this recipe on in the hope that maybe this will give you the start you need to cooking with confidence.

Delia says:
This is good for either leftover chicken or turkey. It has a fairly mild curry flavour but you can "hot it up" if you like by adding a little more curry powder.

Recipe compliments of Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course

Serves 4

Ingredients
1lb Cooked chicken (450g) cut into 1 inch (2.5 cm) pieces
2 tbsp Groundnut oil
1 Large onion, roughly chopped
2 Celery stalks, roughly chopped
1 large Green pepper, de-seeded and chopped
1 heaped tablespoon Plain flour
1 rounded teaspoon Madras curry powder
1 level teaspoon Ground ginger
1 level teaspoon Turmeric
1 Clove garlic, crushed
1 pint Chicken stock (570 ml)
2 tablespoons double cream
Salt and freshly milled black pepper

Method
In a large flameproof casserole heat up the oil and soften the onion in it for 5 minutes, then add the chopped celery and green pepper and soften these for 5 minutes more. Next add the prepared chicken pieces and toss them around with the other ingredients. Now stir in the four, curry powder, spices and crushed garlic, and continue to stir to talk up the juices. Next, gradually add the stock, a little at a time, stirring well after each addition. Season with salt and pepper, put a lid on and simmer very gently for 20-25 minutes or until the vegetables are just tender.

Remove the curry from the heat, stir in the cream and serve with spiced pilau rice and mango chutney. I usually serve this with Delia's Perfect Rice or Pan Fried Potato Chips.

Jamie's 30 Minute Meals - Vegetable Rogan Josh Curry

I watched Jamie Oliver make this delicious curry on his television show last week and he made it look very easy and effortless and I have to admit that I was a bit suspicious, it couldn't be that quick. Well it might have taken me slightly longer (about 40 minutes) because I wasn't as familiar as he was with the recipe and I had to keep checking but I was very pleased with the finished meal. It was healthy, sustaining and could easily feed six. Jamie comes across as a happy go lucky type but here is a very knowledgeable and an accomplished chef and in my personal experience I found that his recipes are very reliable and more importantly tested. With the leftover butternut squash I had just enough to make a previous post  Pumpkin Pie with a Twist for dessert!

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
For the curry:
2 onions
1 medium butternut squash
1 small cauliflower
1 fresh red chilli (optional)
4 cloves of garlic
A bunch of fresh coriander
½ a 283g jar of Patak's Rogan Josh paste
1 x 400g tin of chickpeas
100g prewashed baby spinach
1 x 500g tub of natural yoghurt

For the rice
1 mug of Basmati rice
A few whole cloves

For seasoning:
Olive oil
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and black pepper


How to do it:
Get all your ingredients and equipment ready. Fill and boil the kettle. Put a large saucepan on a high heat. 

Curry: Peel and slice the onions and add to the large pan with a splash of water and a few good lugs of olive oil. Carefully cut the butternut squash in half across the middle (for speed I'm only using the seedless neck), wrap up the base and put in the fridge for another day.

Quarter the neck length-ways, then slice it into 1cm chunks – no need to peel them. Add to the pan. Trim the cauliflower and remove the outer leaves. Cut it into bite-sized chunks, and throw them into the pan.

If you want some extra heat, slice up the chilli and add it now. Crush in the unpeeled garlic. Finely chop the coriander (stalks and all). Reserve a few leaves for garnish and add the rest to the pan with a couple of generous splashes of boiled water. Add the Rogan Josh paste and the tin of chickpeas, with their juices. Season and stir well, then put a lid on. Cook hard and fast, stirring occasionally.

Rice: Put the mug of rice into a medium saucepan with a lug of olive oil and a few cloves, then cover with 2 mugs of boiled water (use the same mug you used for the rice).

Add a pinch of salt, then put the lid on and boil on a medium heat for 7 minutes. Fill and reboil the kettle.

Curry: Check and add a splash of water if it looks a bit dry. Stir, then replace the lid. (I covered my frying pan with turkey foil which acted as a lid)

Rice: By now the 7 minutes should be up, so take the rice off the heat and leave it to sit with the lid on for 7 minutes. This will let it steam and will give you beautiful fluffy nutty rice.

Curry: Take the lid off. Do you need to adjust the consistency at this point? If so, you can add a generous splash of boiled water, depending on whether you want it drier or wetter. Or mash up some of the veg for different textures. Taste and add a pinch of salt, if needed, then add the spinach and stir through.

To serve: Tip half the tub of yoghurt into a small bowl. Drizzle over a little extra virgin olive oil and take to the table. Transfer the rice and curry into large serving bowls. Spoon the remaining yoghurt over the curry, sprinkle with the rest of the coriander leaves and take both bowls to the table.