Curry Dude hits New York

It's been a while since I last posted, I was in New York for the past week with no Internet. However, I did get myself some curry. I was on the lower east side where I literally stumbled across Brick Lane Curry House.


So I go in with my girlfriend to try their cuisine. There were various curry houses on the street, but I went to Brick Lane for nostalgic purposes. As we were seated, the table next to us are all drinking milk. Weird I thought and when their dishes came out, they timed themselves and scarfed it down. Even more weird. This was then followed by sweating profusely but then are awarded a free beer and a certificate of accomplishing their task. I was utterly confused. Turns out Brick Lane Curry House offers the hottest curry in the U.S, and has been seen on Man vs. Food. I've included a clip so you all will have a better understanding of what goes down at this curry house.


Since I didn't feel like entering the world of pain, I ordered a lamb Bhuna. Which was the best curry dish I've ever had! The lamb was marinated in the sauce and extremely tender, went well with my water and my wine. My girlfriend ordered the chicken Madras, which she preferred to the Bhuna (at least the sauce) while I still couldn't help but love the Bhuna. However both were amazing with the naan bread. Overall Brick Lane is a top notch place, even better than the curry I got in the real Brick Lane area... shhhh, don't tell anyone I said that. If you're in the New York area, I definitely recommend checking it out. If you are wondering what Bhuna and Madras are, I'll explain what those dishes are in detail in my next post.

Until then,
Curry Dude

January 13th: Lost

I was about to venture out and try one of the best Indian resturants in Milwaukee, when something happened, I got lost. After about an hour of touring the city I finally found my location, by that point it was late and was about to close. So I had some pizza in beer instead, a bit dissappointed but I will have some Indian food soon. I'm leaving tomorrow for New York City to do service and I plan to try to have some Indian Cuisine while I'm there.

Egg Curry....nice

I was just roaming around youtube and found an egg curry. There are many recipes out there so I put a video of just one of the ones I found. I'm going to have to try it out this week. I'm also excited for tomorrow because I'm going to one of the better Indian resturants in the midwest. I'll have a lot to share tomorrow. A final note is I'm not associated with this video in anyway, just an example of making an egg curry.



Cheers,
Curry-Dude

Indian Food Curries Favor With Americans - ABC News

Indian Food Curries Favor With Americans - ABC News

Origin of the Word: Curry

Many people in Europe and in American refer to Indian food as curry. For example Jamie Oliver's recipe book has an entire chapter on curries. Or as I was browsing Barnes and Noble a few days ago I found a book with 60 curry recipes. But where does this curry word come from?

Well, curry is a word that is used to describe Indian food (food from India), but there is no set guideline as to what makes a curry. That means curries don't need to use any certain powder or ingredient but that it has its origins from South Asian, specifically India. Okay that's nice, but what about the word, why do we call Indian food curry?

Glad you asked, there has always been a great debate on the origins of the word curry. The most accepted is that the word curry comes from a South Indian word, "Kari", which means spiced sauces, in India’s oldest living language, Tamil. Wow, that makes sense, so we got the word curry or curries from India after the Brits went there... well maybe. There has been some evidence that proves the word was used by Anglicans before going to India, but this evidence doesn't tie into it's current usage, i.e cury but was based off the french word "cuire" which meant to cook or broil.

The use of the word curry and curries became popular in the 1980's when a handful of Indian restaurants served curries. This caught on by those Western Europeans with bad dentistry (I'm talking about you England) and it made curry a household name. Curry was a symbol of a favorite eat out and take away item and helped add perspective to the concept of Indian food in western Europe, as well as add to the few decent foods found in London.

Cheers,
Curry-Dude

So what is Korma and Jalfrezi?

Yesterday I was asked what exactly Korma and Jalfrezi are. So, I will now have a post about a dish prior to eating and cooking it. Today I'll give you a little background information about Korma and Jalfrezi.

Korma is a Persian-Indian dish that traces it's roots back to the 16th century. Korma is a dish from the Northern Region of Indian cuisines. Korma is a dish made from cream, yogurt, nuts, and either a paste or coconut milk. Like most curries it can be vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian. Classically, a korma is a dish where meat or vegetables are braised with water, stock, yogurt or cream. Korma gets its name from the Hindi and Urdu words for braise. The main flavors from Korma come from it's mixture of spices including cumin and coriander which is combined with yogurt. Many current Korma's including those from the U.K (including Patak's sauce, the one I used) doesn't refer to a particular cooking technique (braising) but to a curry with a thick, cream-based sauce. Sorry purists but this bears little resemblance to a traditional Indian korma, as it is not braised.

Jalfrezi is a curry in which marinated pieces of meat or vegetables are fried in oil and spices to produce a dry, thick sauce. (whoops, mine was a bit thin until I had it as leftovers the next day, but I did follow the directions on the sauce can). You can cook it with green chillies, which can give you a Jalfrezi can range in heat from a medium dish to a Jalfrezi that is as hot as blazing hot lava that will incinerate your throat. Other main ingredients include peppers, onion and tomato. According to the oxford english dictionary, Jalfrezi's name comes indirectly from Bengali jhāl, spicy food, and Urdu parhezī, which means suitable for a diet. It was a dish that would incorporate leftover meat and vegetables and is classified as a southern dish of Indian Cuisine.


Jalfrezi Image From JamieOliver.com



Korma Image from wikimedia.org

January 4th: Jalfrezi

So tonight I made myself some chicken and vegetable Jalfrezi. It was slightly spur the moment because of a visit to Whole Foods last night. Whole foods a more diverse selection of Indian food choices than most supermarkets. Although I do plan on visiting the closest Indian spice store next week sometime.

Chicken and vegetable Jalfrezi.... your mouth watering yet? Chicken Korma is really good, but Jalfrezi is more my style. Think of it like Micheal Jackson, he was a good musician, but was even better at making parents feel uncomfortable when near their children... I'm kidding.....but seriously. Anyways, for the Jalfrezi I used chicken, green pepper, red pepper, onions, tomatoes, garbanzo beans (chickpeas) and added Seeds of Change Jalfrezi simmer sauce.

Patak's doesn't quite compare to Seeds of Change when it comes to quality, and I'm not saying it because Seeds of Change is organic, but it just seems to have less preservatives in it from what I could tell. Anyways here is a picture of my creation, it was better than Korma in my opinion but I'm not sure if I thought it was medium-hot. Still great none-the-less.

Cheers,
Curry-Dude

My Journey into Indian Cuisine

I've decided to start this blog to show my journey into Indian Cuisine. It all started last February in London. I was taken to Brick Lane in the east end and went to an Indian restaurant. We ordered a sampler, a little bit of everything. It was amazingly delicious and sparked my interest into Indian cuisine. Funny fact about 80-90% of Indian restaurants in London, are actually Bangladeshi. So my time abroad, in London gave me the taste for Indian food, Londoner's curry craving is like an Americans' burrito or Mexican food craving.

Now I'm here, just barely beyond where I was then. For Christmas I had asked for Jamie Oliver's newest cook book, Jamie's Food Revolution. I asked for this because it dedicates an entire chapter to Indian Food. YAY!

Being inspired by Jamie Oliver, I cooked my first Indian recipe, it was Chicken Korma. I started with Chicken Korma because it's one of the most mild curries which was a concern because of my dad. Can anyone say acid reflux, heartburn, and a hesitancy to new foods...well that's my dad. However, he was excited for the Chicken Korma, and to my surprise he liked it.

I cooked the chicken in the pan and then added Patak's Korma Curry Sauce and also added garbanzo beans (chickpeas). I kept it just above simmer for a while before I served on fluffed white rice, btw, my girlfriend is an expert rice fluffer. Picture From Amazon.com

I Scattered a bit of cilantro and a smidgen of plain yogurt on top of the chicken Korma. Which I then served it to my family and girlfriend. It had a great creamy taste with a hint of coconut. It was a really great meal, especially with the great company.... but I'm looking forward to my next endeavor, which will be more spicy (me likey) so my dad might have to sit on the sidelines for this one. I plan on hitting up an Indian restaurant in Milwaukee this week with my girlfriend and hopefully a few friends will join me. I plan to do quite a bit of sampling.

Cheers,
Curry-Dude