It is a cold January evening in Paris. To warm up I thought I'd cook one of my red hot curries today. It was one of the things I learnt when I was studying at Glasgow. Well, the web is supposed to be about information so I thought, why not inform my web friends about how I cook my curry.
I have cooked enough for six people because I used to make it for my SCUBA buddies. We were a bunch of cold and hungry bears after a days diving in the North Atlantic. Today there is just me and Rachel here but I can freeze the rest for another time.
I started the cooking at 4.30 and added the ingredients into the large sauce pot on a low heat exactly as follows:
4.30: I put 250g of butter, 2 tablespoons cooking oil, 1 tablespoon each of cumin seeds, coriander seeds, methi seeds (fenugreek) and cayenne pepper (chilli powder will do) and 4 cloves. You have to be careful not to burn it.
4.45: I put 4 cloves of garlic and 300g of green chillies into a food processor where it got finely chopped. then straight into the pot. Normally I would add more chilli but I am being kind to Rachel, where she comes from the local dish is Quiche Lorraine.
5.00: 7 onions (about 800g), again chopped in the food processor and into the pot.
5.30: I let the mixture cool down for a few minutes then it is turned into puree in the processor. This makes a much smoother sauce I find. Then it goes back onto a low heat and I add 36 mushrooms (about 500g).
5.45: I mix 700g of tomatoes with 100g of cream in the processor. Usually I use natural yoghurt but we forgot to buy it yesterday. This mixture is, of course added to the pot.
6.00: 6 pieces of breast of chicken (skinless and boneless), in they go.
6.45: I chop up a red pepper (about 250g) and add it
with a tablespoon of Herbes de Provence. Then I add the
magic ingredient, a spoon full of cochineal (E122 really).
Rachel is shocked when she sees the bright red colour but
actually this does not affect the taste.
7.15 It's nearly ready so I boil some Basmatti rice with a pinch of turmeric to give it that authentic yellow colour.
7.30 After 3 hours of cooking it is ready to serve. yum-yum!
This page was last updated 9 November 1997.