nlm (03/28/83)
Just tried this recipe from "The Complete Curry Cookbook", by
Charmaine and Reuben Solomon, and was pleased with the results.
Two points to consider:
1) If you like fairly hot curry (as I do), use a
heavier hand with spices. This was good, but a little
milder than I like.
2) It is IMPORTANT to trim the lamb of all gristle. We
didn't do a thorough job and some pieces were chewy.
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Hundred Almond Curry
Ingredients For Curry
3 1/2 lb roasting chicken
or
2 lb boneless lamb, trimmed of fat and gristle
5 medium onions
2 Tbl ghee or butter
2 Tbl oil
3 tsp finely chopped garlic
3 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
1 Tbl ground coriander
1 Tbl ground cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground fennel
1 tsp chili powder (optional)
3 tsp salt
3 large ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh coriander or mint leaves
100 blanched almonds
oil for frying
1 cup natural yogurt
1 tsp garam masala (recipe follows)
Method
Cut chicken into curry pieces (see notes below) or lamb into
cubes. Peel onions, chop three onions finely and slice the
remaining two very finely. Heat ghee and oil in a large
heavy sauce pan and fry the sliced onion, stirring, until it
is golden brown. Remove from pan and set aside. Add the
chopped onion, garlic and ginger to the oil left in pan and
fry on low heat, stirring occasionally, until very soft and
turning golden. Long, slow cooking at this stage is
essential if the curry is to have good flavor.
Add the coriander, cumin, turmeric, fennel and chili powder
and fry, stirring, for a minute or two. Add salt, tomatoes
and half the chopped coriander leaves, stir well and cook
until tomatoes are pulpy. Cover pan to hasten the process,
but uncover and stir now and then to ensure mixture does not
stick at base of pan.
Put in the chicken or lamb pieces and stir well so that each
piece is coated with the mixture. Cover pan and cook on
very low heat for 40 minutes or until the meat is tender.
Meanwhile, heat oil and fry half the almonds until golden.
In electric blender, grind remaining almonds. Beat the
yogurt with a fork until it is quite smooth and stir into
the curry together with the fried almonds. Simmer 5
minutes, uncovered. Stir in the garam masala, reserved
fried onions, ground almonds and remaining chopped coriander
leaves. Heat through and serve.
Ingredients For Garam Masala
4 Tbl coriander seeds
4 Tbl cumin seeds
1 Tbl whole black peppercorns
2 tsp cardamom seeds (measure after removing pods)
4 3 in cinnamon sticks
1 tsp whole cloves
1 whole nutmeg
Method
In a small pan roast separately the coriander, cumin,
peppercorns, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves. As each one
starts to smell fragrant, turn onto a plate to cool. Put
all into electric blender and grind to a fine powder.
Finely grate nutmeg and mix in. Store in a glass jar with
an airtight lid.
Notes
To cut chicken for curry, first joint the bird, then with a
heavy cleaver cut each thigh into two. The breast is
divided down the center and each half cut into two. Wings
are divided into two pieces. The first joint which looks
like a small drumstick is detached from the breast, then the
second joint and wing tip are separated from the first
joint. Though the bony back of the bird is cut into three
or four pieces and cooked with the curry for flavor, it is
not counted as a serving piece because there is very little
meat on the back except for the two 'oysters' of flesh just
above the thigh joint. Liver and giblets are also included
in the curry and indeed are so delicious that in the
intimacy of family meals they may be the bone of contention.