Curry Recipe? You got one?

[twoplustwo]

I want to make curry. We all love curry here and I've never made it.
I checked allrecipes.com first but Im not sure how to find clarified butter. . . and the next recipe had something else I had no idea. Then I thought I know a group of people who can solve this for me.

I would like to make 1 chicken curry and 1 vegetarian curry using the same ingredients for both - obviously not the chicken in one and not the lentils in the other (<- or whatever I use in place of the chicken). I figure someone here may make a veg and non-veg batch.

Also, i am only an intermediate level cook. Something not difficult. And with fairly easy for me to find ingredients.

Yet still delicious.

If you got it - hit me up!

Thank you!

[MudPies]

I have the best one!! So easy and this sauce can be used for any meat/veggie/seafood combo.

3Tb mild curry powder
1tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp ground coriander
2tsp salt
2 Tb unsalted butter
2 cloves of garlic minced
2 (15 oz) cans coconut milk

Simmer. Add other ingredients. Eat and then wish you made double.

[twoplustwo]

That does sound easy and I am aware of all those ingredients!

[Soliloquy]

This is the best Thai curry recipe ever. You can use panang red curry paste, Thai red curry paste, yellow, green, etc. It seriously tastes like what you'd get in a great Thai restaurant. The fresh basil leaves are key. I use lime essential oil if I don't have fresh limes.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...rv12mNKh4dBhT4

[ForHim]

For another take on curry, chop and onion, garlic and ginger paste and go with MudPies' recipe, minus the butter and the coconut milk. This is a more traditional curry.

Halfway through, add in some tomato paste and a little sugar to balance it out.

At the very end, throw in a teaspoon of ground cumin (referred to as jeera in some recipes), about 5 - 10 curry leaves, and two teaspoons of garam masala. Usually a garam masala gets its heat from black pepper so it doesn't need to be thrown in first and gives exceptional flavor at the end.

We add potatoes to the curry. If your curry is a little too watery or thin, mash one or two of them to give a nice consistency to the sauce.

[twoplustwo]

Originally Posted by Soliloquy

This is the best Thai curry recipe ever. You can use panang red curry paste, Thai red curry paste, yellow, green, etc.

Curry paste is just something I can get at a regular grocery store?

Originally Posted by ForHim

For another take on curry, chop and onion, garlic and ginger paste and go with MudPies' recipe,

We add potatoes to the curry. If your curry is a little too watery or thin, mash one or two of them to give a nice consistency to the sauce.

Ok, I already have Mudpies ingredients on my grocery list (though honestly, I have 1/3 of it anyway already (garlic, spices) so I will start there.

Great tip on the potatoes. I do that when I make chicken / vegetarian pot pies. The vegetarian often needs a little bulk of potatoes. And I am making baked potatoes this week too - so will set one or two aside for the curry project. I always bake a whole bag anyway because I have a ravenous monster teenage son who will eat potatoes as a snack. He will eat them with a can of beans poured on top or chop them up and put a fried egg on top.

[Soliloquy]

Originally Posted by twoplustwo

Curry paste is just something I can get at a regular grocery store?

Thai curry paste is in Asian foods section of a regular supermarket. Little glass jars. It's very thick, not the bigger jars already mixed with coconut milk that are usually labeled as a simmering sauce. Red, green, and yellow are common. Panang curry paste usually has to be ordered online or bought at an Asian grocery. Red curry paste tastes very close to panang curry, when cooked.

Totally worth it, it's soooo good.

[Pragmatist]

I get panang curry paste from Amazon. I haven't been able to find it in stores locally.

[ViolaMum]

Curry powder is yellow and is found in the spice aisle - where you would find cinnamon, basil, etc. It's a western commercial approximation of Indian flavors - ginger, coriander, turmeric, cumin. True Indian curries vary dramatically by region, and individual cooks make up their own spice blends. Curry powder as we know it doesn't really exist in India. (There's also a curry tree; you can sometimes find leaves in the produce department of the grocery store. Definitely in Asian markets.)

Curry paste is Thai, southeast Asian, Oceanic. (I can usually find Thai Kitchen brand in my local grocery stores.) It's mainly chile peppers, lemongrass, ginger/galangal, kaffir lime.

[Soliloquy]

The origin of the English word curry is unclear but interesting.

[twoplustwo]

Originally Posted by ViolaMum

Curry powder is yellow and is found in the spice aisle - w.... Curry powder as we know it doesn't really exist in India.

Curry paste is

V. v. interesting. I had no idea. I use curry powder in so many recipes... which makes sense since none of them are Indian.

[RiverRock]

I know you said you wanted one recipe to use with lentils and chicken, but I would make Dahl with the lentils. It’s a thick lentil dish that can be eaten with naan (or another Indian bread such as chapati which is pretty easy to make) or on rice.

[twoplustwo]

Originally Posted by RiverRock

I know you said you wanted one recipe to use with lentils and chicken, but I would make Dahl with the lentils. It’s a thick lentil dish that can be eaten with naan (or another Indian bread such as chapati which is pretty easy to make) or on rice.

Maybe next time, but I've already shopped for this week's groceries.

Also, the meat eaters will get all vegetarian dishes too, but too many and they start to mutiny. Do you have a recipe? I can try it another time.

[ViolaMum]

I just re-read your original post - clarified butter is simple. You don't need to buy it. Butter is made up of fat, water, and then milk solids, some protein bits. Those solids are what burn if the heat gets too high. The fat itself is great for high heat cookings. Clarifying butter is the process of removing those solids. (Ghee is the Indian name for clarified butter.)

If you melt it over low heat on the stove, you will see white milk solids separate from the yellow fat. Let it sit for 10 minutes or so then spoon those out until the melted portion is pretty clear. Let it cool and refrigerate. Once it's solid, use it in the recipe. That's the traditional approach.

Cook's Illustrated has an alternative method that I've never tried, but now I want to. It looks faster: Bring 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 T cornstarch to a simmer in a pot with high sides. (This does foam, so you need a high-sided pot to accommodate that.) The water in the butter as well as any water-soluble proteins in the milk solids will be trapped in the cornstarch; any non-water-soluble proteins will separate out of the liquid. Line a fine-mesh strainer with a coffee filter and pour the liquid through it to strain out the solids and you’re left with clarified butter.

[twoplustwo]

Originally Posted by ViolaMum

I just re-read your original post - clarified butter is simple. You don't need to buy it.

Thank you. Very informative.

We may have a slightly different definition of "simple" when it comes to cooking. But it does seem do-able, if not simple to me.

I might try it some day in the near future.