Indian Fish Curry

Recipe adapted from Coles Magazine, July 2013 page 55

Ingredients

1 cup basmati rice
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 brown onion, sliced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
½ teaspoon ginger, grated
2 bird's eye chillies, chopped
750g white fish fillets, cut into 3cm pieces
500g jar Patak's Korma simmer sauce
¼ cup water
200g Perino tomatoes
1 cup frozen baby peas
¼ cup flaked almonds, toasted, to serve
¼ cup coriander leaves, to serve
Naan bread, to serve

Method

1. Cook rice following packet directions
2. Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat, add almonds and toss or stir for 2-3 minutes until golden brown. Remove and set aside.
3. Add the oil to pan and increase heat to medium-high. Add the onion, garlic, chillies and ginger. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until onions are soft. Add fish, simmer sauce and water. Cook for 5 minutes or until fish is opaque. Add tomatoes and peas. Cook for 2 minutes or until soft.
4. Top curry with almonds and coriander and serve with rice and naan bread.

Jamie Oliver's 15 Minute Meals Beef Kofta Curry Fluffy Rice, Beans & Peas

I couldn't find the ready to eat Puy lentils in this recipe so I substituted with 3/4 cup green lentils which I soaked overnight. I also added 1 grated onion and halved the quantity of the rice ingredients. Below is my modified recipe.

Recipe adapted from Jamie's 15 Minute Meals page 66

*Ingredients out *Kettle boiled *Large frying pan, high heat *Medium lidded casserole pan, high heat *Liquidizer (blender)

Ingredients
Curry
¾ cup green lentils (soaked overnight)
1 heaped teaspoon garam masala
500g lean beef mince
1 onion, grated
olive oil
3 ripe tomatoes
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger (1 teaspoon grated ginger)
2 spring onions
1 fresh red chilli
1 bunch of fresh coriander
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon runny honey
2 heaped teaspoon Patak's rogan josh curry paste
270ml tin of light coconut milk
4 tablespoons fat-free yoghurt, to serve
1 lemon

Rice
½ mug of 10-minute wholegrain or basmati rice
5 cardamon pods
100g green or yellow beans
100g frozen peas
2 uncooked poppadoms

Method

Put the lentils into a bowl with salt, pepper, the garam masala, mince and onion, then mix and scrunch together with clean hands. Divide the mixture in half, then with wet hands quickly squeeze and mould each half into 6 fat fingers. Put them into the frying pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, turning when golden.

Put ½ mug of rice, 1 mug of boiling water and the cardamon pods into the casserole pan, then halve and add the beans and put the lid on. Squash the tomatoes into the liquidizer, add the peeled ginger, trimmed spring onions, half the chilli, the coriander stalks, turmeric, honey, curry paste and coconut milk, then blitz until combined. Pour into the kofta pan, bring to the boil, then simmer and season to taste.

Take the lid off the rice, add the peas, mix it all up and give it just a few more minutes. Crack up the uncooked poppadoms and pop them in the microwave (800W) for a minute or two to puff up. Finely slice the remaining chilli and the coriander leaves and scatter them over the curry, dollop with yoghurt, then serve with lemon wedges, poppadoms and the rice, beans and peas.

Jamie Oliver's 15 Minute Meals Keralan Veggie Curry with Poppadoms, Rice & Minty Yoghurt

Today is day 2 of the Jamie Oliver challenge.

I was really tired after work today so I was looking forward to not having to spend a lot of time in the kitchen and instead more time putting my feet up and relaxing. This recipe however, took me more than 15 minutes to make and there was a quite a bit of work involved. I felt even more exhausted after cooking tonight's dinner but, I have to say that the work was all worth it since this curry tastes absolutely sensational. Hubby didn't even notice there was no meat in it! I'll definitely be making this again.

Recipe from Jamie's 15 Minute Meals, page 228

Serves 4, 725 Calories

Ingredients

Curry
½ a cauliflower
2 tablespoon grapeseed oil
1 heaped teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 heaped teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 heaped teaspoon tumeric
1 small handful of dried curry leaves
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger
2 cloves of garlic
6 spring onions
1 fresh red chilli
1 large bunch of fresh coriander
2 ripe tomatoes
1x 400g tin of light coconut milk
1x 400g tin of chickpeas
1 x 225g tin of pineapple chunks in juice
1 lemon

Rice
1 mug (300g) of 10-minute wholegrain or basmati rice
10 cloves
½ a lemon

To serve
4 uncooked poppadoms
½ a bunch of fresh mint
3 tablespoon fat-free natural yoghurt
½ a lemon

* Ingredients out *Kettle boiled *Griddle pan, high heat *Medium lidded pan, medium heat *Large casserole pan, low heat * Food processor (bowl blade)

Method

Remove the outer leaves from the cauliflower, then slice it 1cm thick and put it on the griddle pan, turning when lightly charred. Put 1 mug of rice and 2 mugs of boiling water into the medium pan with the cloves, lemon half and a pinch of salt, and put the lid on. Pour the oil into the casserole pan, then quickly stir in the mustard and fenugreek seeds, turmeric and curry leaves.

Pulse the peeled ginger and garlic, trimmed spring onions, chilli and coriander stalks in the processor until fine, then stir into the casserole pan. Roughly chop and add the tomatoes. Pour the coconut milk, add the drained chickpeas, then tip in the pineapple chunks and their juices. Add the griddled cauliflower, cover, turn the heat up to high and bring to the boil.

Put the uncooked poppadoms into the microwave (800W) for a minute or two to puff up. Tear off the top leafy half of the mint and bash to a paste in a pestle and mortar. Stir in the yoghurt, add a good squeeze of lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Squeeze the juice of the remaining lemon into the curry and season to taste. Tear over the coriander leaves and serve with the rice and poppadoms.

Taj Indian Masala

North & South Indian Thali $13.90

I have wanted to visit this place for a while since every time I walk past the restaurant I can see many Indians eating inside- makes me think- this place must be authentic!

I finally got the chance when Hubby and I stopped by this place after watching a movie. We were on our way back to the car when we spotted the restaurant was still open so we decided to venture in and try the thali. We ordered one North Indian and one South Indian thali- this was a great way to try all their different curries, condiments/sauces and breads. I loved the variety that was presented to us as well as the quality & quantity of food. I found it all very delicious and quite spicy! I'd love to try the other dishes on their menu if I'm in the area again.

Located in Parramatta Westfields, this small takeaway restaurant is opposite Coles supermarket.

Ginger Indian Restaurant

The first time I went to Ginger Indian Restaurant was actually on 3rd July 2011 because I had a "Love It Up" discount voucher. Here was what was being offered: a 3 course meal (entrée, main & dessert) plus x2 side dishes, x2 glasses of wine for two people all for just $49, normally $110. Pretty good deal eh? I just had to check this place out.



Ginger Indian Restaurant is located on 94 Wigram Street Harris Park. Having never dined in Harris Park before, one of the first things I notice when driving down Wigram Street is how many houses have been converted to become Indian restaurants, Indian sweet shops or Indian convenience/grocery stores.

Ginger restaurant is one of these restaurants that is located inside a heritage house which enhances the warm, cosy and inviting atmosphere. What struck me initially about this place was how attentive the service was and how polite the staff were. From the time I made a dinner reservation over the phone to when I was dining inside the restaurant, staff were very friendly, courteous and accommodating.

Food is also delicious and meal prices are reasonable. There is a good selection of choices and food arrives well spaced apart. Overall a very pleasant dining experience. In fact, hubby and I enjoyed it so much the first time we went back a second time without a voucher. Here's what we ate, second time around...

Garlic Prawn entrée $12.90

The waiter asked how spicy we would like our entree so we opted for medium heat which was quite hot for us. When our entrée arrived we noticed that two of the prawns weren't cooked through which was disappointing but since it was seafood I let it go. Had it been chicken though I probably would've brought it to their attention.

For mains hubby didn't feel like eating anything too spicy and I wanted to eat a vegetarian dish so we ended up ordering the navratan korma- which had lots of different vegetables. The waiter explained that there were 9 vegetables in the dish, though I could only visually see 6?

Chicken Tikka was the other main that we ordered. We asked for mild knowing that if we had asked for medium it would've blown our heads off. Can't imagine what their hot curries taste like! 

Instead of ordering rice we decided to have naan with our curries. I was really excited to see garlic and cheese naan (combined) on the menu so decided to opt for that. Normally I would have one or the other but this restaurant offered both!

We were sufficiently full after our entree and mains so we decided to bypass dessert. But since I had a mango lassi as a drink during dinner, I didn't feel like I missed out on a sweet treat :)

Mango Lassi $4.00

Now, I can't really remember what I ordered the first time I dined at Ginger Restaurant (using the discount voucher) but I thought I'd still post the photos on my blog. Well, everything must've been good or I wouldn't have returned a second time around!
One thing I do remember though is that hubby and I were so full we had to lift our stomachs off the floor of the restaurant and drag ourselves back to the car!

Entrée 1

 Entrée 2

Mains

Dessert: Gulab Jamun $7.00

Would've preferred if they served the gulab jamun with a scoop of vanilla ice cream since I like the contrast of 'hot' and 'cold' but since hubby had ordered the mango kulfi it was all good.

Dessert: Mango Kulfi $6.00

Mango Kulfi was delicious, but it was a little bit too frozen. We had to wait for it to melt a bit before we could eat  it and I remember just wanting to just get right into it!

King's Indian Restaurant

King's Indian resturant describes itself as providng fine dining Indian cuisine. Now, I love eating Indian food but I tend to steer clear from fancy Indian places cause my experiences of it are that you often get stingy amounts of food for some exorbitant price that you could normally get at some family run Indian restaurant -you know, the kind of place that other Indians go to- that's how you know the food is authentic :) for a fraction of the price!
But Ouffer.com (group discount website) was offering the following: $35 for 2 entrees, 2 mains, 2 orders of rice, 2 naan breads and 2 glasses of wine (usually $110). Not bad... so I bought the deal a couple of months ago and realising that it was gonna expire soon, made a booking with hubby to check this place out.

However, I was a bit worried about dining in this restaurant and what my experience would be like since I had read on eatability.com.au some people's experiences were far from pleasant. For example, reviewers talked about being treated like second class citizens when they presented their vouchers and management/staff being rude. After reading these reviews, I pretty much sat through the entire evening anticipating that something bad was going to happen but alas, the service, food and the overall experience was quite lovely. Phew! (Maybe they took some tips from the customers/reviewers at eatability.com.au and learnt from them????)

Upon arrival at the restaurant, hubby and I were greeted by a smiling waiter and seated by the window. It was a Tuesday night and the restaurant wasn't completely packed- there were probably just 2 or 3 other tables with people dining.

The menu showed lots of good variety of Indian dishes- there were vegetarian, meat and seafood dishes as well as banquet options.

Angari Prawns $20.90

Since we were not limited with our choice of entree, we decided to opt for something more expensive on their entree menu- seafood options were more pricey than their vegetarian counterparts so we ordered the Angari prawns- marinated in yoghurt and cooked in a Tandoor oven. These prawns tasted absolutely delicious! They were well seasoned and pefectly cooked with a nice smoky bbq flavour from the Tandoor. Also really liked the spice powder that was sprinkled over the top. Not sure what it was though...

Machi Fry $19.90

The other entree we tried was the Machi Fry which were crispy fried flathead fillets marinated with Kishmiri chillies, ginger, garlic and battered with chickpea and cornflour.

One bite into the fish and immediately what struck me was how light and crispy the batter was with hardly any oil to be seen! I'd never had anything quite like it (it tasted even lighter than tempura batter). I was so surprised. The crispyness of the batter was a good contrast to the soft fish inside. Yum! This dish was so moreish!

Butter Chicken $18.90 & Lamb Korma $17.90

Unsure of how the food was going to measure up at the time of ordering, hubby and I decided to stick to some more common dishes for mains- butter chicken and lamb rogan josh.

Out of the two dishes I preferred the butter chicken dish as the chicken was moist and succulent whilst the sauce was really flavoursome with just the right hint of spicyness- great for dipping our naan bread! The lamb rogan josh was also enjoyable to eat as the lamb was quite tender and the sauce packed full of flavour. Both mains were generous serving sizes and provided lots of meat pieces- something that I wasn't expecting since I normally have to fish out the meat pieces in a pool of sauce at other Indian places.

Rice was also really nice with cumin seeds mixed through and garnished with some crispy shallots.

Garlic Naan $4.00

And finally, the garlic naan had good amounts of garlic as well as being nice and soft and not too oily.

Overall, the food at King's Indian restaurant is very good and the portions generous (hubby and I left the restaurant having to pick our bellies up from the floor cause we stuffed ourselves silly). Service was polite and the waiter we had was helpful when we were making our menu selection. The voucher made it all very great value for money however even without the voucher, the cost isn't considered over the top for "fine dining Indian". Our voucher included 2 glasses of wine but since hubby and I didn't want to drink wine we asked if we could swap it for some lassi but we couldn't so we opted for plain water instead. Funny that, I would've thought lassi would be less expense than wine... Ambience of the restaurant is nice- although I'm not sure about the hanging tv wall units that were playing bollywood music video clips. Plus I had some fingerprint marks on my plate- almost a fine dining experience... Would I go back? Maybe...

Mango Lassi

This Indian beverage is made with a delicious combination of mangoes, yogurt and a touch of mint. The perfect accompaniment to an Indian meal.

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 ripe mangoes, peeled and chopped (approx. 2 cups)
1 cup natural yogurt
3 tablespoons sugar (adjust to taste)
Ice cubes (as needed)

Method

1. Blend the mangoes, yogurt, and sugar in the blender until smooth and creamy
2. Add the ice cubes, if desired.
3. Pour into glasses. Garnish with mint sprigs and serve chilled.

Notes & Tips

The sugar can be adjusted to taste and it depends on the taste of the mangoes and yogurt.

If fresh mangoes are not in season, you can use tinned Indian Alphonso mango puree. Replace the 2 ripe mangoes with 2 cups of mango puree in this recipe.

Tandoori Chicken

Make sure to use spices bought from an Indian grocery store to obtain the true and authentic flavours of India!

Note: The chicken can be substituted with lamb to make tandoori lamb :)

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 kg chicken pieces or fillets
200g natural yoghurt
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated finely
1 tbsp garlic, grated finely
1-2 tbsp tandoori paste (Taj Mahal brand)
2 tsp cumin seeds, ground
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp garam masala
½ tsp chilli powder
½ tsp turmeric powder
Salt to taste
Yoghurt mint sauce, to serve
Roti or basmati rice, to serve

Yoghurt Mint Sauce

1 cup plain yoghurt
1 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander
1 tablespoon chopped mint
1 teaspoon chilli powder

Method

1. Trim away any excess fat from chicken. Prick the flesh of the chicken all over with a fork to allow the marinade to penetrate.
2. In a bowl mix together the yoghurt, salt, ginger, garlic, chilli, coriander, cumin, ground corinader, garam masala, turmeric and tandoori paste. Rub mixture into chicken, cover and refrigerate. Leave to marinate for at least 2 hours or overnight for a better result.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 220°C. 
4. Place chicken on rack over baking dish. Bake for 10 minutes or until chicken is tender. It is not necessary to turn the meat during cooking. 
5. Cut into bite sized pieces if desired before serving with yoghurt mint sauce.

For the Mint Sauce: Combine all the ingredients and mix thoroughly.