The spices come in the usual bright packaging with instructions on the back for what extra ingredients are needed. That’s very handy

This Persian Beef kit required the usual Oil, Onion, Garlic, tin of Tomatoes, Salt, Vinegar and Ikg of Beef and also 1/4 cup of Ground Almonds and 1 cup of dried Apricots or 1/2 cup of dates.

The spices supplied included Cumin, Cloves, Paprika, Chili, Black pepper, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Mustard Seeds and Ginger.

The cooking process was extremely easy – not requiring any browning of the Beef, and the flavour went right through the Beef during the slow simmering period.  The recipe instructions were clear -

 First 2 medium Onions finely sliced were sauteed until clear. Towards the end of that process 3 cloves of crushed garlic were added, then the spice mix was mixed in for 30 seconds until the aroma was released. Then one can of pureed Tomatoes plus the ground Almonds and Vinegar were added.  After about a minute of stirring, the Beef was added and all was thoroughly mixed together.

After a few minutes I added some stock and then simmered slowly with the lid on the cooking pot. 30 minutes before serving I added the pitted dates.

RESULT: An absolutely full flavoured, gorgeous meal. I was totally impressed. Most curries improve with age, but this one was great, right out of the box onto the plate. I have frozen two portions for next week – I can’t wait!!!!

NOTE: I am not a fan of fruit in a curry, it reminds me of  homemade ‘curries’  I had when I was a kid, made from Clive of India powder, with diced apples and Sultana’s- Yuk.

I’m sure the dates served a purpose in adding to the flavour and authenticity of this curry. I ate one date and then left the rest on the side of the plate -it was the sort of thing  Jeremy Clarkson would do haha!

Another step up the ladder in my search for curry Nirvana-  http://shed.robhealey.com.au/cooking/curry-nirvana/

 ”Rich and aromatic, this is a hotter classic Indian beef curry.”

I followed the instructions, but used 1kg of lamb instead of beef.
Marinated overnight with 1 big onion, 6 squeezed cloves, lemon juice, tin of diced tomatoes, the supplied ground spice (30gms) and 2 tabs Vinegar.

The next day I fried 1 small onion and 3 finger chillies for 20 mins in ghee, then fried the marinade in 3 parts and then fried the meat v briefly, a few bits a time. I don’t think I’ll fry the marinade next time, it was unnecessary but I do like to make sure the onions have had some heat and that the tomato renders down.

Then I put it all in casserole dish with half a tin of coconut cream, which was too much, I will use 1/3rd tin next time, put in a 110C oven (middle) and cooked slowly for 3 hours. I noticed that the aroma was not very strong while it was cooking.

Curries are never at their best when new. This one was Ok, not as aromatic as some.

I froze some portions and re heated them when my old sailing mate Bob Reid came to stay. He is a great cook and curry fan.

The sauce was very oily and it really looked good. It had matured heaps.

Reidy was ecstatic about the curry – I wrote down what he was saying -

“This is Everything

intense flavour”

woohoo that was an excellent response.

I did ‘cheat’ by adding some SpiceZ Garam Masala 10 minutes before the end. This gave it the aromatic spiciness it was missing the first time around.

I thought it was quite a good curry, the lamb was so soft it was falling apart, and I would prefer it not to do that, but otherwise it was a good curry.

There was still this mystical ’secret ingredient’ missing, but I at least made a curry that was very edible.

I didn’t tell him it was a Madras and afterwards he declared it was very similar to a Beef Rendang – I had add too much coconut milk to it, so that was rather clever of him. I’m not sure if coconut milk should be an ingredient of Madras.

Drain in a metal sieve or colander after 8 minutes of simmering and flush through with cold running water. Leave to sit in the sieve/colander. 

Re heat when ready by boiling a little water in the saucepan with the sieve/colander on top. This will steam the rice and warm it up in a few minutes. The turmeric gives the rice a nice golden colour, far cheaper than using saffron, and they say that Turmeric is good for the digestion.

Basmati is THE ONLY rice for curries. It is also a low GI rice. A little extra flavour can be added by including either Cardamom seeds, or lemon grass. I have also read that adding a Rampe leaf (Pandanus) flavours the rice, but I haven’t tried that yet.

Cooking Pappadums in the Microwave  is an acceptable alternative providing they are sprayed with olive oil on one side and left for 10+ minutes. Then put a plate in the microwave (1100watts) and put it on full for 90 seconds to pre-heat it. Place four oiled Pappadums on the plate and Microwave for one minute.

This pre heated plate is an important part of the process.

Adjust the time to suit the strength of your Microwave. You can do 4 or 5 pappadums at a time this way and they are tasty.

Without the oil they are too dry and powdery.

You can do more than 5 at one time, but they may burn a little in a few places. I have cooked 15 by scattering them around the plate-  and making sure they are not all exactly on top  of each other. Very handy when making curry for several people.

I prefer plain pappadums, there is enough strong taste in the curry so I don’t need extra garlic or whatever. I use Sharwoods ‘Puppodums’, there are 15 in a packet. about 15 cm/6 inches wide as opposed to the other packet of large papadums on the supermarket shelf  which contain only 10.  I notice on the Sharwoods website that they now only show packets containing 8, which is disappointing because I expect the price will be much the same for only half the amount.

I have used the small Pappadums from the supermarket but the large ones are easier to oil & cook and a more authentic size. I have tried several other unknown brands from Asian shops, they sometimes have more flavour but sometimes not so good. Hard to find consistency and often they are not gluten free.

Once a packet is opened I wrap it in gladwrap, or seal in a ziplock bag- either way they keep for weeks, even in the tropics. But not so with cooked pappadums- for 8 months of the year when our humidity is high, a cooked pappadum begins to turn soggy in just a few minutes. In high summer they start to go soft after 3-4 minutes!! so best kept in a warm oven until ready to eat.

I used 12 ’Chicken Lovely Legs’ from the Woolworths deli  -  they are much better value than standard chicken legs, and I followed Lena’s  Chicken Vindaloo recipe – http://shed.robhealey.com.au/cooking/chicken-vindaloo-amazing/ substituting the Maharajah’s Vindaloo paste with the fresh herbs and spices of the Spicez Curry kit.

Here are the Chicken Lovely Legs simmering in the electric frypan. They have the knuckle cut off which makes them better value than standard chicken legs and you can fit more into the pan.

I have cooked Lena’s Chicken Vindaloo well over 50 times. It’s my guaranteed great tasting curry. This Spices Kit is every bit as good as the Chicken Vindaloo, and having fresh ingredients must logically be better. I would like to know which curry I prefer and so far I can’t decide- they are both so good!

I may have to try both at the same time to make a decision  heheh   that will be no hardship!

from http://www.cairnsdining.com/venue_47261

So it’s no surprise I have been eating Marinades Curries for many years, such a long time in fact that I finally managed to convince the owners, both Indian, to give me a sample of their spice mix for my favourite dish, Lamb Vindaloo. Over the years I have often asked them questions about how they make this dish, and they have always been very genrous with advice, but to actually be given some of their spice mix was a real honour.

Of course the curry I made from it turned out really well – a very good curry. But it did lack a certain signature flavour that their Vindaloo always has. I asked them today what the secret ingredient is; I found out a couple of things it isn’t but no luck in revealing the secret to their full flavoured curries. Apparently the chefs, ‘add things’ after the spice mix – well they certainly add GOOD things!!

Result -This is the best Lamb Curry I have ever cooked.

I’ve never tried Sri Lankan food. A little bit of research showed that many Sri lankan’s eat curry for Breakfast Lunch and Dinner – sounds good to me!!.

 The food is spicy. Sri Lanka has its own unique dishes and flavors. Sri Lankan cuisine has been blended with Indian, colonial and Arabs for centuries. Local spices such as cardamom, turmeric, black pepper, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon sticks, curry leaves and powder, fresh chilies and garlic are used in cooking. This enormous collection of ingredients makes Sri Lankan dishes unique and delicious.

The curry kit arrived very promptly. On opening the packet I saw at once that the ingredients were super fresh. Here’s the dried ingredients -

Enough ground spices for a kilo of Beef or Lamb 

This was exciting!  I ordered a kilo of large chunky lamb bits from the local butcher – John and Sue’s Bayview Butchery.

I asked Zana for any extra cooking instructions and she was extremely helpful. From her information I decided to marinate the Lamb overnight in the ground spices, vinegar, lemon juice and salt. 

The next afternoon I opened up the packet of dried spices for a closer look before starting to cook.

 Curry leaves, Cinnamon Stick, lemon Grass, 3 dried Chillies, Mustard Seeds and peelings of ’something’. Wow.

I cooked the sliced onion slowly for about 12-15 minutes then added grated Garlic and Ginger . A few minutes later I added two tomatoes and 3 extra green chillies that had been ‘wazzed up’ in the blender.

I let all that simmer for a further 5-10 minutes, then added the marinated lamb and marinade. It was looking rather dry so I added about half a cup of water. The recipe suggests adding beef stock which I will definitely do next time, but this first time I didn’t want to hide the flavour of the kit in any way.

I cooked the curry in a covered dish, in a low oven, for 2hrs 30mins. Just before serving I removed the larger dried ingredients and then used a tip Zana had given me – “take the meat out of the gravy at the end of the cooking process and fry it in a frying pan till nicely browned.  Then add it back into the sauce.  Delish!”

I enjoyed the meal, I had got the chilli heat just right, the curry was excellent if a little undercooked, which was my fault. I could tell that the curry was too young, so I froze 3 servings for later.

A week later I cooked one of the saved meals. I gave it a further 1hr 30mins in the oven at 105C. Mouth watering spicy curry aromas were coming out of the oven and I knew this would be a good one.

The curry was so much better again and I rated it -

“The Best Lamb Curry I have Ever cooked“.

This SpiceZ  Sri Lankan Curry is the closest I have yet reached in my search for Curry Nirvana, (which I would rate at 10), so I will rate this at 8.5 which leaves room for future curry gastronomic delights.

I shall be buying these SpiceZ kits from now on -I’m hooked. Zana was extremely helpful with advice, the kit was really fresh and the recipe simple to follow.  The SpiceZ website is http://www.spicez.com.au/

Result- disappointing. The kit was at it’s use-by date and not fresh.

After this kit I tried a SpiceZ kit which I now rate as the best I’ve ever tasted - I wrote about that kit at http://shed.robhealey.com.au/cooking/spicez-lamb-curry/ 

I’ll leave this review here- it was an edible curry with great promise, but I was disappointed because it lacked something essential -

On opening the packet I found two sachets, one of dried leaves, chillies ,berries and a cinnamon stick -

The other packet was a good quantity of ground spice -

The packet was labelled ‘Southern Indian Chicken’ but I decided tio use Lamb because I already have a very successful Indian Chicken Curry – http://shed.robhealey.com.au/cooking/chicken-vindaloo-amazing

The serving suggestion was for 4 -6 people, using Ikg of Chicken, but as usual with these dried ingredient packets it doesn’t matter very much and I decided to use it all on 565 gms of Lamb.

There was not much aroma coming from the slowly cooking meal, I think that it needs a few hours slow cooking to release everything from the dried ingredients.

The result was a lot better than I expected from the lack of aroma. Curries usually improve by being left for a day or too and I have frozen a second helping, which will be very interesting to try.

My Recipe -

Saute one diced onion until clear.

Add 6 pressed large garlic cloves and 1 diced tomato.

Fry gently until tomato disintegrates, then add packet of dried leaves, stir for 1-2 mins and then put aside.

Quickly brown large chunks of lamb, in butter, in a wok that is as hot as you can get it. Don’t take too long or meat goes tough.

Add sachet of spices to wok, add more butter or oil oil if too dry. Once mix is saturated (10-15 seconds) turn heat down and  mix meat and spices around , add Onions etc that was put aside.

Add sachet of tomato paste and water to suit. Look at how much sauce you will need to judge how much water.

Put into dish with lid and put in oven at low heat- I try for 60-65C degrees

Wait minimum of 3 hours – 6 to 8 hrs would be better at this temp.

NOTES.

Meat goes tough if too long in Hot Wok, so get that Wok hot and try to brown meat within 1 minute.
Oven at 60-65C. Meat is cooked when it reaches 62-65C, the hotter it gets above that , the more it shrinks. Meat that shrinks is tough.

Garlic:Next time I will use 4 large cloves of Garlic instead of 6. I didn’t notice the garlic while eating but the following day I knew I had had a lot of garlic by the taste in my mouth.

UPDATE 6 March 2010

One week later – I tried the frozen serving last night. It had matured. The garlic was a little bit less strong. It was hot enough with 3 chilli’s, it was tasty, it was spicy but it didn’t have the ‘life’ that a curry should have. It was ‘dead’. It was ‘flat’. I can’t describe it any better than that.

There was plenty of live ingredients like Tomato, Onions and Garlic but there was a secret ingredient missing - I don’t know how to make that ‘life’ .

Looking back I notice my comment “There was not much aroma coming from the slowly cooking meal” – On the plate it wasn’t without a spicy smell but not as strong as usual.  The meal tasted good but perhaps a larger than expected part of enjoying a curry is the aroma coming from the food ?

This one was about 7 out of 10 for sure-  a bit of ‘life’ would have made it fantastic.

My search for curry Nirvana continues -

For me it is the aroma of spices filling up the house, the flavour, the chilli bite, the battle with sweating forehead – it’s a full eating experience.

I enjoy all versions of curry, but Indian Curry is my favourite – nice and hot!

In about 1970  I was introduced to Indian Curries in the UK . My friend Martin Dix could handle the very hot Vindaloo’s while I struggled with Madras.

In Cairns in the mid to late 70’s there was an Indian restaurant called ‘Thuggee Bill’s’, run by Brian Cassey. His curries were every bit as excellent as the English curries, and when I asked him why, I discovered that he had learnt to cook curries by working in Indian Restaurants in the UK.

Curry Nirvana for me has always been the taste of  the curries I remember from those earlier days in the UK and I’m constantly searching  for the right ingredients to re-create that amazing taste experience, at home.

I’ve had many Indian curries in many different cities. My favourite restaurant for the last 6 years has been Marinades Indian Restaurant in Cairns. Their Vindaloo’s are superb.

There is no better way to cook a curry than to use fresh ingredients. I often use ‘Spice Kits’ which contain ground spices and dried fresh ingredients. Some are disappointing, either not fresh or missing ingredients, some are very good.

My favourite spice kit comes from  SpiceZ.  www.spicez.com.au  They make Beef, Chicken, Seafood and Vegitarian Spice kits -

 Of the bottle sauces, Maharajas Choice Vindaloo Curry Paste is by far the best.  http://www.maharajahschoice.com/    

For non Vindaloo curries, Passage to India simmer sauces in large sachets are very good.
http://www.passagefoods.com/

I particularly enjoy their Rogan Josh which has a mild bite that suits most people.
For a curry full of spices with very little chilli I use their Butter Chicken sauce.

I’m always experimenting with curry recipes. The main ingredients remain the same but each one has it’s peculiarities; for instance one recipe that unusually used a lot of poppy seeds was by Graham Kerr the famous ‘Galloping Gourmet’ TV chef from the 1960’s.

There is a great indian Chef, Sanjay Thumma, who has hundreds of  recipes and cooking video’s on his website. Sanjay is really emotional about his cooking and even burst into tears in one of his vids because the food had turned out so well.  It showed how much he really cares about his food.

His website is extremely extensive, and who can cook Indian food better than an Indian ? http://vahrehvah.com/

In 2007 I was fortunate to get a cooking lesson from an Indian lady, Lena, and her Chicken leg curry can’t be beat. This recipe always turns out great and by adjusting the chillies it can be very hot or mild. Full recipe here http://shed.robhealey.com.au/cooking/chicken-vindaloo-amazing

I’ve made some very good curries but so far I have not discovered how to recreate those early 1970,  UK Indian Curries – my Curry Nirvana.