SUNDRIES

SUNDRIES

Ingredients:
Very finely chopped onion.
Some tomato, de-seed, chop very finely and squeeze out excess juice.
Very finely chopped cucumber.
A light sprinkling of salt.
P.L.J., just enough to moisten.
Thoroughly mix, and leave to stand for several hours. Before serving
Add chopped coriander leaves.
HINTS AND TIPS
(cid:190) When preparing fresh coriander, the restaurant chef will use it all, except the roots. (Even these are used in Thai
"cookery.) But sometimes, the leaves and stalks are used separately: The leaves are chopped and used mainly as a
garnish for finished dishes, the stalks chopped very finely, and added slightly earlier, but not cooked too long, as this
destroys their flavour.
(cid:190) A ' portion ' of curry gravy = 7oz. ladle full
(cid:190) The ideal curry pan is a stainless steel omelette pan 8-9 inches in diameter (widest part) and without a heavy base.
(cid:190) Panch Poran literally means 5 spice or condiment. This wonderful masala is made up of a blend of whole seeds containing,
cumin, fenugreek, fennel, mustard, and black onion seeds. It is excellent for flavoring when used in vegetable dishes, but can
be used in dal or fish.
Panch Poran Spice Mix:
2 T fenugreek seeds
2 T kalongi, kalogeera or Nigella (Black onion seeds)
2 T black mustard seeds
2 T cumin seeds
2 T fennel seeds
Mix all of the above spices together. Save the spice mixture for use in your Bengali dishes. Most recipes call for about a
teaspoon of the mixture. Pre mixed Panch Poran can be purchased at your Indian Grocer or online.
(cid:190) The secret of cooking rice successfully by absorption is thorough washing. Use only Basmati rice with this method. If you
want multicoloured rice, don’t try to colour it when freshly cooked, you'll only make a mess. Use previously cooked rice,
place in small portions in cups, add food colouring and a little water, then rinse and dry. You can add this to your freshly
cooked rice.
CONCLUSION:
The flavour of curry gravy is modified by cooking - it tends mellow. So a useful way of varying the dishes I have described is
to prolong their cooking. If you are going to do this, make the curry gravy thinner; add more water with the tarka. Instead of
one part water to three parts curry gravy, make the proportion one to two. This will obviously produce a thinner sauce. When a
dish is prepared, simmer it for longer until it thickens. (For standard curries use about 11/3 ladles of curry gravy to allow for
evaporation. Simmer for 5 + minute.)
In the time that I have been an enthusiast, the restaurant curry has changed almost out of all recognition; it is still changing.
Mastering this method will take a little practice, but should be worth it. Nothing comes easily, does it? If you are totally
familiar with the ingredients and techniques, you won’t need recipes; you will just 'cook'. If you are a regular customer and are
known at an Indian restaurant, you could ask if you could see the kitchen in operation. If you do, though, pick a quiet day such
as a Sunday or Monday, certainly not Friday or Saturday. Finally, without too much effort, you can have a curry- whenever you
want. With curry gravy in the fridge, cooked meat and rice in the freezer, a microwave oven to thaw them, and some fresh
vegetables, you have quite a choice.
*The Curry Club is indebted to Bruce Edwards (and his curry eating Labrador) for his Curry House Cooking and the Update
which has been carried in this and the last three editions of the Curry Magazine.
I would like to add the editor's personal thanks to along with the many other received from our readers, such as the one from
Vic Edwards (no relation, below)
In our next two issues we are covering curries from an excellent book, shortly to be published in May by Indian gourmet
Camillia Panjabi.
Dear Bruce,
Congratulations on an excellent series - at last a method that produces truly authentic restaurant results!
However, there are a couple of points I'd like to raise and I'd appreciate your comments: The first is in your Bhoona which I
find satisfactory but suspect that the majority of restaurants use the same method they use for vegetable bhajis to produce this
dish.
The second is onions which my greengrocer says are large English (size 60/80) not Spanish for Indian restaurants use - what is
your opinion on this?
Yours Sincerely,
Victor Edwards, Aldridge.