Bogra Rizala - Madhur Jaffrey

The name of this dish doesnt give anything away really... it doesnt sound like the name of any curry Ive ever had, and doesnt sound particularly Indian. Well its not "Indian", it is more specifically north Bengali, and its not reeeeally a curry. Its the Bengali version of sweet and sour chicken, and it doesnt actually contain any spices at all. I was tempted to add some while cooking, but I followed my rule of not changing a recipe the first time making it, and Im glad I did :) Heres the recipe, you really should have a go at this dish! MJ describes it as "gently sweet and sour (combining sugar and aromatic lime juice), it has a scrumptious dark sauce made entirely without spices that is rich with browned onions and cooked down yoghurt.". It really is delicious, rich, creamy and so tasty!

Sweet and sour chicken "rizala" (Bogra Rizala)

Ingredients

2 small onions, chopped

5cm/2inch piece fresh ginger (I left the skin on)

4 cloves garlic

1 chicken, skin off, cut into serving pieces (about 1.75kg) (I used a 4 boned thighs)

6 tbsp natural yoghurt

1.5 tsp salt

6-10 whole birdseye chillies, with small slits made in them (I used 2 lge green chillies)

2 tbsp lemon or lime juice

crispy fried onion slices, crumbled (see recipe below - uses about 3 small onions)

4tbsp oil reserved from cooking the onions

1tbso ghee or extra oil

Method

1) Put the fresh chopped onions, ginger, garlic and 3-4 tbsp water into a blender and mix until you have a smooth paste.

2) Put the oil and/or ghee in a pan on a med/high heat - when hot pour in the contents of the blender, stir fry for about 5mins or until the paste is lightly browned.

3) Add the chicken pieces and continue to stir for a minute, and over the next 5mins, add 1 tbsp of yoghurt at at time and keep browning the chicken. Add 175ml water, the crumbled onions and salt, stir to mix and bring to a simmer.

4) Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer gently for 20mins, turning the chicken every now and again. Add the chillies, sugar and lemon/lime juice - stir to mix and continue to cook for another 10mins.

I served this with white rice and S had mountains of coriander on his! I really enjoyed this dish, it was rich, creamy and way tastier than I expected! I think I needed to cook this down a bit more as I think the sauce is meant to be darker.. I loved it, it was very moreish, I think this is exactly what you want to sit down to after a long day of working hard! This isnt something youll eat often, it is quite fatty... I spooned a decent amount of fat out of the dish before I served it, so for the more health concious, add less oil, and use low fat greek yoghurt. This isnt very curry-ish, but dont let that stop you. Its delicious!

Crispy Fried Onion Slices


3 med onions 425g or equal amount of shallots
corn/peanut oil for shallow frying (I used rice bran oil)


1) Cut each onion in half lengthways and then slice it evenly across into thin slices. Line 2 plates with a double layer of paper towel and leave aside.


2) Pour enough oil into a large pan about 3mm deep and set over a medium heat - once hot, add the onions and stir fry for about 8mins till they begin to brown. 


3) Reduce the heat to med/low, and stir fry for another 2mins or so, then turn the heat down to low and continue to cook until theyre reddish brown, which should take about 15 mins.


4) Remove from the pan onto the paper towel, spreading them out and leave them for 5mins, then move them onto the 2nd plate of paper towel, and allow them to cool completely.


These onions can be kept in a lidded jar or a ziplock bag in the fridge for weeks. When I made these onions, I wasnt as strict on times etc as this recipe, and I didnt put them on the 2 plates, I just used one. Youre basically making crispy (not burnt), thinly sliced onions... So use your experience to decide how well you follow the recipe!

Hyderabadi Minced Lamb with Orange - Madhur Jaffrey, The Ultimate Curry Bible

With some mince and oranges to use up, this recipe by Madhur Jaffrey from the Ultimate Curry Bible was the one I chose for dinner the other night. She wrote that its not like anything shes ever tasted before, and shes right! An unusual but tasty curry with that comfort element of saucy mince meant this was a dinner I would make again!

Ingredients:

1 large orange
1 tsp ground turmeric 
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp corn or peanut oil
2 medium onions, peeled & sliced into fine half rings
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander 
4 cloves garlic, peeled & crushed
2 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled & finely grated
4 tbsp natural yoghurt
900g minced lamb
0.5 tsp ground turmeric
0.5 tsp cayenne pepper
250 ml fresh orange juice
1.5 tsp salt
1-3 fresh hot green chillies, sliced into very fine rounds
30 g fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped
30 g fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
1 tsp garam masala

Peel off the orange rind, making sure to leave the white pith behind. Cut the rind into very fine 1-inch long julienne strips.

  

Combine the turmeric and salt with 1.5 litres of water in a pan and bring to the boil. Pour half into a measuring jug and reserve. Add the rind to the boiling liquid in the pan and boil rapidly for 1 minute. Empty the pan through a sieve and set over the sink. Pour the reserved turmeric water back into the pan and bring back to the boil. Put the rind back into the pan and boil again for a minute, then again strain through the sieve set over the sink. Rinse the rind under cold running water and set aside. 

Pour the oil into a large non-stick lidded pan set over a medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, stir in the onions and fry for 6-7 minutes or until reddish-brown.

Add the cumin and coriander and stir for 30 seconds. 

 Add the ginger and garlic. Stir and fry for a minute. 

Add the yoghurt, a tablespoon at a time, and stir it in, making sure it absorbed before adding more. 

Put in the meat, turmeric and cayenne pepper. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes, breaking up all the lumps in the meat. Add the orange juice, orange rind and salt. Stir and bring to a simmer. 

Cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer gently for 40 minutes. Add the chillies, coriander, mint and garam masala. Stir to mix. Cover and continue to cook gently for a further 10 minutes.

I served this curry up with some home made flatbreads that you can find on this post, and some coriander from the garden for S. I hate the stuff, just the smell makes me whinge. S served his own up which is why its a ridiculous portion (he always does this with curry and regrets it).

This curry was pretty different, as you can certainly taste the orange and its not something youre used to tasting in your curries. S and I both enjoyed it, and would make it again if we had spare oranges laying around (which we often do...). It would be awesome wrapped up in some parathas with kachumber salad (in fact if I make it again I would much prefer it done this way!) or put into some sort of samosa. Its not too difficult to make, you just have to make sure you have everything prepared and ready to go at the start to make it as stress free as possible!

Its a different use of mince and oranges thats for sure!

Chicken Vindaloo - Madhur Jaffreys Ultimate Curry Bible

My darling S loves his curries, and he can be won over in an instant, when he comes home and smells a curry I become the best person ever ever ever! I decided to have a flip through Madhur Jaffreys book, the Ultimate Curry Bible, which I still havent cooked from! Its got such a great array of recipes in that book, for any lover of curry and spice its definately a book you want to look at.

I was looking through the poultry section because I had chicken breast in the fridge that needed using... I know that chicken breast isnt the best thing to be using in a curry because they dry out so easily, but we had planned on just grilling them for wraps but plans changed! I settled on the duck vindaloo, because I had everything I needed for it, and S loves vindaloos and orders it ALL the time, so I knew he'd be happy after a long day nerding out at uni! Ok so I had everything I needed cept duck... I subbed chicken. Ill let you know how that went later in the post!

First things first, heres the recipe!

Duck vindaloo

Serves 6

Ingredients

1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp bright red paprika
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp garam masala
4 tbsp corn or peanut oil
1 x 2.7kg duck, jointed and partially skinned
1/2 tsp whole brown mustard seeds
1/2 tsp whole fenugreek seeds
15 fresh curry leaves, if available
2 medium onions, about 285g, peeled and sliced into fine half-rings
2 tbsp peeled and finely grated fresh ginger
10 medium cloves garlic, peeled and crushed to a pulp
2 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped
120ml cider vinegar
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar

Method

Mix together the turmeric, cumin, paprika, coriander, cayenne pepper and garam masala in a small bowl and set aside.

Pour the oil into a large, wide, lidded pan and set over a medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, put in as many duck pieces, skin side down, as the pan will hold easily in a single layer. Lightly brown the duck, about 3-4 minutes per side, and remove to a bowl. Brown all the duck pieces this way and remove.

  

Add the mustard and fenugreek seeds to the hot fat and, as soon as the mustard seeds start to pop, which will happen in a matter of seconds, put in the curry leaves and onions. Stir and fry them until the onions begin to turn brown at the edges. 

Now put in the ginger and garlic. Stir and fry for a minute. Add the mixed spices from the small bowl and stir for 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring, until they have softened. Scrape the bottom of the pan as you do this.

Now add the browned duck pieces, the vinegar, salt, sugar and 475ml water. Stir and bring to the boil. 

Cover, reduce the heat to low, and cook gently for 45 minutes, lifting the lid occasionally to stir. 

Increase the heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, a bit more vigorously, stirring more frequently, for a further 30 minutes or until the duck is tender and the sauce has thickened slightly. Remove as much fat as possible before serving.

Leftovers ready for lunch tomorrow! S had coriander and fresh chilli all over his but it was spicy enough for me without the chilli and I haaaaaaaaaaate coriander!!

NOTES:

Now, I changed this recipe slightly as I had no duck and used chicken instead. I found that there was too much vinegar in this recipe for the chicken. If it were duck Im sure it would have been fine, because its so fatty and you need something acidic to cut through the richness, but the chicken, and chicken breast mind, has very little fat and its not necessary to have that much vinegar. I would cut it down to 50ml next time and add more if I need it. If you choose to follow the recipe to the letter then youll find the vinegar far too strong, I had to add more sugar and more tomatoes. It was still a touch too vinegary - but it was still really nice, S actually said he really liked it that way. 

I cooked this FAR less than the recipe stated. Chicken breasts cant take being cooked for the length of time specified so I halved it. Breast isnt really the best meat for this recipe, because the sauce benefits from being allowed to thicken up and by that time the chicken has dried out a bit. I would recommend using meat on the bone for this recipe, or at the very least, thighs. It came out fine, but for me, being a bit picky, I noticed the dryness. I knew it was going to be a bit dry but had a go anyway - always the optimist!

Being that I didnt use duck, when I was frying off the spices there wasnt enough oil in the pan to do it properly, due to the lack of duck fat. Next time Id add a bit more when frying the spices, not much but just enough to wet the pan a bit more.

Smaller things, I used spring onions instead of white onions as theyre just what I had. I also used canned tomatoes rather than fresh as I didnt have any - it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I needed to use the extra liquid that the canned toms have to counter the vinegar! 

I also found out that I had no cayenne pepper - I thought I had some, I might do, but the state of my tiny little pantry cupboard, I wouldnt be surprised if its in there I just have no idea where it is! Instead I used ground chillies, as the cayenne was the only thing providing heat, so chilli seemed a suitable substitution.

Looking back I really didnt have everything, did I?!

Anyway this was a really nice curry, S loved it, it was nice and saucy and I think its very versatile - it would be great with duck obviously, as well as lamb or beef. It was really simple to make and once youve got the indian spices its a real pantry, stand by meal. Its a sauce that can handle being cooked down alot longer than I cooked it, so would work well with cheaper cuts of meat that need longer slower cooking.

Id be happy to make this recipe again - however there are so many others in the book that Id like to try I dont know when Ill get round to it!