[Sca-cooks] Lamb curry recipe

[Phlip]

Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...

> Did you figure it out?

Yeah. Since I didn't get any answers, I improvised. Came out pretty good,
but I think it was missing something.

> One thing that confuses/phases me is the fact that you seem to be
> combining Thai curry paste (and coconut milk) and dried fruit, which
> always seemed to me to be a small percentage Indian and a high
> percentage English. Although one of my favorite curries, as a kid,
> was one my mom made from a recipe she got out of the newspaper, and
> it involved browning chicken with onions, adding chopped apples,
> curry powder and tomato sauce, bringing it all to a boil and
> simmering for about 20 minutes. This is served with rice and chopped
> nuts (peanuts, coconut, whatever) and raisins.

Well, the thing is, the book I have, which claims to be written by an Indian
lady, tends to have a series of recipes with common ingredient types, and
that's what I've based my generic curries on. There's usually a meat
(although she has several vegetarian curries as well), some sort of fruit,
onions, and a milk-type product, as well as different blends of toasted
spices and a thickening agent.

> Seems to me, you'd put a couple TBS of oil in a pan, add a dollop of
> curry paste, according to the strength you tend to like, stir to
> incorporate the oil and the paste, add the coconut milk, simmer until
> the oil begins to break out again, then add the lamb and "fry" a bit.
> Don't really need to brown it; it kinda cooks in that oil and in the
> end you probably won't notice a difference...  the meat'll release
> juice and thin the sauce down a bit, but then you cook it until the
> oil shows up again.
>
> If you want that fruit in there, maybe put the apple in after the
> meat, then throw your dried fruit in at or near the end?
>
> A.

Well, the meat I had was lamb shoulder chops, which are pretty fatty, so I
started by browning the chops in the pan, gently, to render some of the fat,
and to make them easier to dismantle into bite-size bits. Wasn't qite enough
fat in the pan when I took them out, so I added a bit of peanut oil and the
curry paste, and threw in some freshly chopped garlic. Cut up the meat and
stirred it around in the mixture for a bit, then threw in some whole wheat
flour for a thickener later,and, thanks to Rob's creative method of storing
groceries, discovered I now couldn't find the dried apricots, but I could
find the raisins and the dried blueberries and added some of them with the
onions, apple, and a bit of water. Covered that and let it simmer for a
while, and when it was almost done, stirred in some yogurt, since the
coconut milk had also vanished. Served it over the jasmine rice I'd made,
and it was pretty good.

Given my druthers, I'd have toasted an assortment of spices, but red curry
paste was what I had, so that's what I used. Finding stuff after Rob has
"put things away" can be interesting, since he tends to stuff things where
they'll fit, rather than where one would think they'd go- getting
ingredients together for a cooking project is always an adventure ;-)

But, as I said, the flavor tended to be kind of thin- while it was good as
it was, it needed something, and I'm not sure what. No, not salt- I normally
cook with little or no salt, and it was just missing the richness I want,
not the saltiness most people want.

Any thoughts?

Saint Phlip,
CoD

"When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
 Blacksmith's credo.

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....



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