Spices in the supermarket, spices in the corner shop, spices online. Is there anywhere you can’t find spice in the UK these days? Thankfully for spice lovers, probably not. But ever wondered where it all started. It was, of course the huge British East India Company, who traded with, then ran India for many years. Discover how we got all our spices and what the early traders thought at the National Maritime Museum’s Traders Gallery, which has only been open for a few weeks. The gallery is open daily from 10am-5pm and entry is free.
Recipe… Bunny Chow with Chicken Curry
Bunny Chow with Chicken Curry
Serves 2
It’s simple, it’s rustic and it’s tasty… it’s a bunny chow! You’ll find someone selling them on every street corner in Durban, South Africa. Ideal for that steamy tropical climate, yet also great comfort food as the winter approaches in London. Cut off the bottom of a loaf, scoop out the white stuff leaving a crust shell. Fill with hot chicken curry (don’t forget the sauce now), settle down and use the bread you scooped out to mop up and eat your curry. No cutlery permitted.
Durbanite and bunny chow lover Richard says bunnies are best eaten sitting cross-legged while staring at the Indian Ocean with a bottle of ice-cold Coke by your side.
What you need
• 1 loaf of bread (it is best to use a loaf that has been left a day since buying it)
• 1/2 recipe Handi Chicken
How to make it
1. Cut the loaf in half and scoop out the bread
2. Fill each hollowed out loaf with the chicken
Become a curry chef
Fancy yourself as a bit of a curry chef? Now’s your chance to learn from some of the best. Cinnamon Kitchen (see review) is offering masterclasses from executive chef Vivek Singh or other curry kings such as head chefs Abdul Yaseen (Cinnamon Kitchen) and Hari Nagaraj (Cinnamon Club) in the surrounds of one of London’s best Indian restaurants.
Dates
Saturday 21 January: Detox with Abdul Yaseen
Saturday 25 February: Curry, classic and contemporary with Vivek Singh
Saturday 24 March: Seafood special with Rakesh Ravindran
Cost: £175
Bookings: events@cinnamon-kitchen.com
Where there’s smoke there’s tikka
New Jomuna, London, SW1V
I’m a sucker for the sizzle of tandoori on a hot serving plate so it was no surprise that as soon I saw a Chicken Tikka starter (£3.70) coming out of the serving hatch, I’d be ordering the same myself. But for all the sizzle and smoke in New Jomuna (and there is a lot of smoke in the upper section where the food comes out) there wasn’t much taste. The chicken was tender, the marinade was red, but alas that famous tandoori taste had left the building.
Oh dear, I thought. It really takes an effort to persuade my friend who is sitting opposite me to come out for a curry – not because he doesn’t like it, it’s just that his Indian wife of many years cooks a mean curry so it’s a case of coals to Newcastle. And now, on a rare curry together we are sitting near Victoria Station surrounded by smoke and decidedly average chicken tikka. But wait, his Chicken Tikka Puri (£4.95) comes quietly to the rescue. No sizzle, no smoke, just tasty meat and fluffy bread to soak the up the sauce.
And so it was all night. For every disappointing dish there was a good one. A Chicken Korai (£6.95) with a less than ‘special sauce’ but a great sweet and spicy King Prawn Dansak (£9.95) with decent enough sized prawns. An Aloo Chana (£3.70) that seemed to forget the aloo bit but a Keema Rice (£3.10) that was piled high with keema and was almost as good as a biryani I comment.
But, oh no, I’ve mentioned the wrong thing. Don’t get my friend started on biryanis. “All that effort and nonsense about the King of Dishes. Not worth it,” he concludes. Just as well I didn’t see a biryani coming out the serving hatch when I arrived really.
New Jomuna, 74 Wilton Road, London, SW1V 1DE. Tel: 020 7828 1401 or 020 7630 0238. E-mail: info@newjomuna.com.
New Jomuna snapshot
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Curry tip of the week 2
To avoid it breaking up when stirring, use a firm fish when cooking a fish curry. Monkfish or cod works well. Even tuna.
Monsoon beer tasting
Monsoon beer is a relatively new beer trying to break into the Indian food market. From Christchurch, New Zealand, you’ll only find it in a handful of places at the moment, but it’s good so expect it to spread its wings to a curry house near you soon. The Greenwich Curry Club felt that it was its duty to have a beer tasting and curry night…
Monsoon Original Pilsner (5.6% abv)
Appearance
Head: average • Lacing: fair • Body: hazy • Colour: straw
Aroma
Hops: average • Malt: average • Yeast: average • Aromas: alcohol, apple
Flavour and palate
Body: medium • Texture: slick • Carbonation: soft • Finish: twang
Drinkability and experience
Flavour duration: average • Sweet: light • Acidic: light • Sour or bitter: moderate • Off flavours: butter
Best curry dishes…
Hot and spicy, lamb
Monsoon Strong Pilsner (6.5% abv)
Appearance
Head: frothy/lasting • Lacing: fair • Body: clear • Colour: amber
Aroma
Hops: light/average • Malt: light/average • Yeast: light • Aromas: alcohol, banana, liquorice
Flavour and palate
Body: medium • Texture: slick • Carbonation: soft/average • Finish: twang
Drinkability and experience
Flavour duration: average/long • Sweet: light • Acidic: moderate • Sour or bitter: light/moderate • Off flavours: butter
Best curry dishes…
Chicken, lamb
Monsoon Organic Pilsner (5% abv)
Appearance
Head: frothy/large • Lacing: sparse/fair • Body: hazy • Colour: straw
Aroma
Hops: light/average • Malt: average/heavy • Yeast: average • Aromas: alcohol
Flavour and palate
Body: medium • Texture: slick • Carbonation: soft/average • Finish: twang
Drinkability and experience
Flavour duration: average/long • Sweet: light • Acidic: light/moderate • Sour or bitter: moderate • Off flavours: salty
Best curry dishes…
Mild dishes, chicken
Many thanks to the Mitre Hotel for hosting the event. The curry was ordered from Le Popadom. And very good it was too.
Bhuni Shakarkandi (Roasted Sweet Potato)
Serves 4
What you need
• 4 sweet potatoes
• 1 teaspoon chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon amchoor (dried mango powder)
• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 red chilli, roughly sliced
• few sprigs coriander, torn
• 2.5-cm/1-inch piece ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
How you cook it
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Wrap the sweet potatoes in foil and bake them in the oven for about 35 minutes or until tender. Leave until cool enough to handle, then peel and cut into 2.5-cm/1-inch rounds.
2. Put the sweet potato in a bowl, add the chilli powder, cumin, amchoor and salt and mix well. Squeeze over the lemon juice, then add the chilli, coriander and ginger. Serve warm.
Recipe from Food of the Grand Trunk Road by Anirudh Arora and Hardeep Singh Kohli, courtesy of New Holland Publishing.
Bharwan Mircha (Pan-Fried Stuffed Chillies)
Serves 4
What you need
• 4 red banana chillies (very large chillies for stuffing)
➠ For the stuffing
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus extra for frying
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 2.5-cm/1-inch piece ginger, peeled and chopped
• 2 green chillies, chopped
• Few curry leaves, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and very finely diced
• 60g/2oz peas, defrosted if frozen
• 3 potatoes, boiled and very finely diced
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
•1 teaspoon chilli powder
• salt, to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
• juice of 1 lemon
• 30 g/11/4 oz Cheddar cheese, grated
• 2 tablespoons mint and coriander chutney
How you cook it
1. Cut the chillies in half lengthwise, deseed and set aside.
2. Make the stuffing. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds and allow them to crackle. Add the ginger, green chillies and curry leaves and sauté for 1 minute.
3. Add the carrot and green peas and cook until soft. Add the potatoes, turmeric, chilli powder and salt. Cook for 2–3 minutes. Sprinkle over the garam masala and lemon juice and check for seasoning. Turn off the heat and allow the mixture to cool.
4. Once cold, add the grated cheese and Mint and coriander chutney. Stuff the chillies with this mixture.
5. Heat a non-stick pan, add oil and cook the chillies for 1–2 minutes on each side over a low heat, turning regularly until golden. Make sure that the stuffing does not ooze out.
Recipe from Food of the Grand Trunk Road by Anirudh Arora and Hardeep Singh Kohli (courtesy New Holland Publishers)
Cinnamon and a kick
As many curry fundis know, whisky is a great drink to share with your favourite food due to the spicy notes in the drink. Cinnamon lovers will be pleased to discover Fireball, a Canadian liqueur made with whisky and a heavy, heavy dose of the spice. At 33% abv it certainly has a kick too. I suggest trying it with a fragrant biryani.
Smile, you’re in Chutney
Chutney, Greenwich
You’ll have to go a long way to find a friendlier Indian restaurant than Chutney. The small, unassuming place (my friend says it always looks shut) is along Greenwich’s Little India strip, one of a few curry places (mostly takeaways) in just a few hundred metres of each other. But every time I’ve visited the greeting is warm and the chit chat over the choice of dishes with the waiter interesting. But this time Chutney surpassed itself by giving us a lift home because ‘the driver is available’. Now that really is service.
Chutney also serves exceptionally good food and has built a reputation for retaining customers who have moved out of the area. The chutney tray, as you’d expect from a restaurant with this name, offers something different: a dry cocunut chutney, made red with colouring and red wine. Tasty indeed, especially with a bit of sweet mango pickle.
Of the main dishes the new Napali Chicken (£6.45) a hottish dish, cooked with onions and green peppers, is to be recommended. But the menu offers so many interesting options: Boal Fish Massala (£6.45) a freshwater fish from Bangladesh, Pistachio Chicken (£5.95) for nut lovers, a Meat Thali (£10.95) with tasters of Chicken Tikka Masala, Chicken Korma, Lamb Bhuna, Tandoori Chicken, Sheek Kebab, rice and nan, and a good range of Chutney’s very own Tapeli set menus such as Tapeli Bengal or Tapeli Joypuri (both £10.95).
It’s not difficult to see that value features highly here, so it is no surprise that Chutney was named runner-up in the category of Best Value in the Greenwich Curry Club Awards. Should you need further persuading, old-school favourites such as Madras and Bhuna come in at £3.95 for vegetable and £4.45 for chicken, which is better than some of the takeaway neighbours.
Chutney, 11 Blackheath Road, London, SE10 8PE. Tel: 020 8692 1924 or 07947 120 989. Open: Sun–Thur 5.30pm–11.30pm, Fri–Sat 5.30pm–midnight.
Chutney snapshot
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The Royal Curry Club 