National Curry Week
Are you joining in the fun of National Curry Week?
Follow these top curry cooking tips from Scotland’s Curry Chef of the Year – Ashok Ram of The Radhuni in Loanhead, Midlothian!
- Use Greek yogurt instead of cream. Greek yogurt (thick, full fat natural yogurt) is excellent at adding texture and creaminess to curries and a far healthier alternative to cream.
- Simplify the spices. There are seemingly a million spices. The best way to start experimenting with Indian cookery is to pick a simple recipe that uses two to three spices and grow the spice collection from there.
- Freeze minced garlic and ginger in ice cube trays. Make batches of minced ginger and garlic and freeze in ice cube trays. Then push them out and zip lock them into bags ready for curries. That’ll save a whole lot of time when you’re cooking next!
- Adding few drops of oil to the rice before cooking it will prevent it from becoming sticky.
- Use spices in moderation, less is more. Adding too much spice can make a dish bitter.
- Covering the dish while cooking, not only conserves fuel but also hastens the cooking process using built-up steam.
- To make crispier bajjis (pakoras), add a little corn flour or rice flour to the gram flour while making the bajji batter. Also add some hot oil to the batter.
- Pick a few recipes and start experimenting! As you cook with Indian recipes more and more, you’ll get familiar with the process of toasting spices until they pop, knowing which spices go together most frequently, and how to combine ingredients for a final delicious meal.
- Do NOT use Curry Powder instead of Garam Masala Curry Powder is not garam masala and is never used in India. Curry powder is not as flavorful and has turmeric and other additions. Curry Powder is a British or Western spice blend approximating the masala spice blends from North and South India. Use garam masala spice blend or the mentioned spices in Indian recipes.
- If the curry is to salty, how to resolve, Adding Sugar Adding a small amount of sugar will help balance the salty flavor, but only will work when your curry is slightly too salty, not overly salty. If you are trying to counteract a heavily salted dish with sugar, you will end up making the curry too sweet and inedible.
Check back for more posts about National Curry Week.
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About Ashok Ram
Ashok Ram recently won Curry Chef of The Year at The Scottish Curry Awards and is the head chef of The Radhuni in Loanhead, Midlothian. Ashok has previously won Chef of the Year for Scotland and Northern Ireland. Ram was trained by Executive Head Chef Matin Khan.
