Indian food

Nu Delhi Lounge (Belfast)

2. Reviews (Other UK)

Nu Delhi Lounge, Belfast

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From top left: Chicken Chilli Garlic, Punjabi Lamb Masala, Garlic Nan, Mushroom Rice.

 

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Tandoori King Prawn.

Where is this restaurant then?
It’s right in the heart of Belfast.

Isn’t that the place responsible for sinking the Titanic?
Well, not exactly, that was an iceberg, but this is where they built the ship. At the famous Harland and Wolff shipyard.

Shouldn’t that be infamous, considering the Titanic sank on its first trip?
Yes, the city does have a strange attraction to this sinking ship; there is even a Titanic Quarter in the city, although I think that’s the tourist office at work.

Did the prices at Nu Delhi sink you?
Very good. Yes, they were maybe a notch about the average for an Indian (or Punjabi, as the venue says) but certainly not too outrageous. The bill came to just over £55 for a shared starter, two mains, rice, nan and drinks.

I like a drink. What did you have?
A mango lassi and pint of draught Asahi.

Isn’t that Japanese?
You’re right. I was a little surprised because it’s the first time I’ve come across it on draught in an Indian restaurant, but it is clean and sharp and pairs very well with spicy food.

Make sense. It would be nice to have it at the bar before the meal.
It would indeed, especially as it’s such an attractive bar, with the red and white strip lighting and hanging globes adding a touch of Bollywood glitz. The decor overall is smart and modern, with dark wood tables, lots of reeds in pots and back-lit wall panels.

I suppose I should ask about the food?
About time, that’s what we there for, after all. The prawns in the Tandoori King Prawn starter really deserve the title of king because they were plump and deliciously spiced. No extra sauce needed there. The Chicken Chilli Garlic is certainly one for the garlic lovers and on reflection the Garlic Nan was a clove too far for the table. The nan itself was top notch and some of the freshest I’ve enjoyed outside of India. I was a bit surprised that the chicken came in a reddish, creamy sauce, not something I’ve come across with this dish before, but it worked well. What I really liked was that the texture of the other main, the Punjabi Lamb Masala, was different, as the chef used chopped rather than pureed onions. Too many restaurants use a one-fits-all sauce, so all the curries end up a bit samey.

Is that a word?
Probably not, but you know what I mean. Lots of restaurants have a big, long menu but when the curries come out they look and taste the same. Certainly not the case here.

Sounds as if you like Nu Delhi then?
I do indeed. It’s smart but you don’t feel as if you are on parade and it’s a lot better than your average High Street curry house but doesn’t whack the pocket for your pleasure.

What’s the damage?
Drinks: Asahi £4.75, Mango Lassi £3.50
Starter: King Prawn Tandoori £9.95
Mains: Chicken Chilli Garlicn £12.95, Punjabi Lamb Masala £12.95
Rice: Mushroom Rice £2.70
Nan: Garlic Nan £2.60

Nu Delhi Lounge, 25 Bruce Street, Belfast. Tel: +44 28 90244 747. Info@nudelhilounge.co.uk. Open Mon to Fri, noon–2pm and 5pm–11pm, Sat to Sun 5pm–11pm.

Most popular curry restaurant names

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What are the most popular names for curry restaurants and takeaways? Answers revealed here

If it ain’t broken

1. Reviews (London)

Spice of India, London SE1

A rambling, long menu is often worrying. How can a chef know, and cook, all these dishes properly methinks.

But somehow it seems perfect for the Spice of India. This is a proper curry house. Packed with an adoring after-work crowd all tucking into popadoms and dips and loving the array of old-school dishes on offer, the place is buzzing midweek.

This Waterloo favourite has stayed true to what most of us fell in love with when it came to Indian food – good, tasty food with no nonsense. It may not have that stark (cool, you know) Scandinavian-inspired interior design and astonishing unheard of dishes we can boast about at work the next day as if we are great culinary sub Continent explorers, but it does serve decent curry at decent prices.

The Spice of India might not be new and shiny but it certainly doesn’t feel dated; it’s just happy in its own curry-house skin. And I’m happy it’s there. Chicken Rogan (£8.25), Prawn Bhuna (£8.75), Pilau rice (£3.25) and a nan bread (£2.95) hasn’t tasted so good in a while.

Spice of India, 65 The Cut, South Bank, London, SE1 8LL. Tel: 0207 1286 or 0207 928 5280. Open: daily noon–2.30pm and 5.30pm–11.30pm.

Scores on the tandoors
Food 7.5
Decor 6
Service and friendliness 7.5
Vibe (early Wednesday night) 9
Value 8

Recipe… Chilli Paneer

Recipes

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Serves 4 (as a main dish)
Cooking time: 35 mins 

What you need
• 4 tablespoons cooking oil
• 4 tablespoons cornflour
• 1 tablespoon red chilli powder
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 500g paneer cheese, chopped into small, evenly sized chunks or strips)
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 1 each of red, yellow and green capsicum peppers, chopped into bite-sized chunks
• 20g garlic, roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons Baj’s Blazin’ Original Hot Sauce*
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 4 green chillies, sliced down the middle and cut into chunks (deseed if you wish, but what a waste!)
• Small handful of coriander to garnish

How to cook
1. Mix the cornflour with 20ml of water, the red chilli powder and some salt and pepper. Coat each piece of paneer in the cornflour mix.
2. Heat a little oil in a frying pan to a medium heat and shallow fry some of the paneer for a couple of minutes until slightly golden. Set aside on kitchen towel. Repeat until all the paneer has been cooked.
3. Add the onions, peppers to the oil and cook for 3-4 minutes on a medium heat.
4. Add in the garlic, Baj’s Blazin’ Original Hot Sauce, soy sauce and brown sugar to the onions, peppers and garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes on a medium heat.
6. Add in the paneer and cook for a further 3 minutes, then add in the chillies, salt and pepper to taste and stir well.
7. Once everything is warmed through, sprinkle on the coriander leaves and serve.

* Recipe courtesy of  Baj’s Blazin’ Sauce from Greenwich.

 

 

Recipe… Egg Curry (street style)

Recipes
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Egg curry street style
Serves 4

What you need
• 8 eggs
• 3 potatoes
• salt to taste• 3 tbsp oil
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 2 tsp roughly chopped garlic
• a 2-3cm piece of ginger peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• a small handful of coriander (tear the leaves off and chop the stems)

Spice mix 1
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 cloves
• 2 cardomom pods (cracked open slightly)
• 6 peppercorns
• 3 whole dried red chillies (or a tsp of crushed dried chillies)
• 1 bay leaf

Spice mix 2
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp cummin
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder (add more if you like your curries hot)

How to cook
1. Hard boil the eggs and remove the shells.
2. Peel and slice potatoes and pat dry with a paper towel. Sprinkle potatoes with salt.
3. Heat the oil and fry the potatoes until they are cooked through and just start to brown. Set aside.
4. Fry the eggs in the same oil for about 5 minutes, rolling them frequently to avoid them crisping. Remove eggs and set aside.
5. Turn up the heat to ensure the oil is piping hot. Add the whole spices and cook for 20-30 seconds (cover the pan with a lid as it may spit). Timing is important. You want to infuse the oil with the flavours of the whole spices but if they burn you will have to do stage 5 again.
6. Add onion, garlic, ginger and tomatoes and turn down to a medium heat. Cover and cook for about 12-15 minutes, stirring from time to time to avoid the sauce sticking.
7. Add the Spice Mix 2 with some salt, and stir in thoroughly. Cook for another 10 minutes. You may need to add in some water if the sauce is too thick.
8. Add the potatoes and eggs. Stir so the eggs are covered with the sauce but be careful not to break them up. Heat through for about five minutes.
9. Spinkle on the coriander.

Southern spice

3. Reviews (International)

Spice, Wexford, Ireland

Good. Indian. Restaurant. Wexford. These are not four words you’re likely to see in the same sentence too often. But here it is: Spice, a beautiful restaurant buzzing with diners enjoying excellent Indian dishes. Well, well, what a find this is.

Wexford, a small, pretty town with a population of just 20,000, sits on the east coast of Ireland, about 90 miles from Dublin. What would the Vikings, who founded the town in about 800AD make of this spicy food one wonders.

The decor in Spice is smart and classy with modern sharp lines and thoughtful lighting creating a relaxed and atmosphere. It belies the exterior, which doesn’t promise much.

The chefs are from South India (Kerala) and the menu reveals their regional influences. There is a section of traditional South Indian curries (Lamb €12.50, Vegetable €9.50), a Fish Curry from Goa, the neighbouring region to Kerala (€12.95), and interestingly Kolhapuri, a delicious dish you’d struggle to find on the menus of many restaurants in London, let alone Dublin. Kolhapuri originates from the town of Kolhapur, in Maharashtra to the north of Goa.

Following a generous portion of a delicious squid starter (€9), it was time for a Lamb Madras (€12.50). Madras is, of course, the colonial name for the town of Chennai in south India, but although this is a well-known and popular dish it certainly doesn’t originate from that part of India. In fact, Madras was a name coined in the restaurants of the UK for a curry of a certain heat level (think Curry to Madras to Vindaloo to Phaal). Nevertheless it is a delicious dish and cooked excellently in Spice.

Fresh cream was used to achieve a nice, thick consistency (other restaurants use yoghurt or coconut cream for the same effect) and there was not a trace of oiliness. Those curry lovers who don’t like that film of oil on the top of their dishes will be pleased to know the only thing floating on the top was black mustard seeds.

Finally, worth a mention, is the clever way the menu provides info for people with allergies. Every dish contains a few letters next to it and there is a key at the back (PN = peanuts, S = soya, G = gluten, etc). It’s clever, helpful, and unobtrusive.

* The exchange rate at the time of the visit was £1 = €1.15

Spice, Monck Street, Wexford, Ireland. Tel: +353 (0)53 912-2011. E-mail: info@spicerestaurant.net. Open: Sun–Thurs 5.30pm to 11pm, Fri–Sat 5pm to 11pm.

Scores on the Tandoors
Food 8.5
Decor 9
Service and friendliness 7
Vibe (Saturday night) 7.5
Value 7.5

Curry tip 24

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Curries generally need seasoning with salt, like most dishes, so don’t be afraid to use it. If you do overdo it then lemon juice can neutralise the salty taste.

Curry joke 24

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The amazing thing about Indian food is that even when you are full you still keep picking at your favourite dish. The other day the waiter asked a couple if they had finished. The man replied, “You can take everything Butter Chicken.”

Leg of Lamb

Recipes

Leg of lamb with spice. Mouth-watering…

Curry joke 23

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My friend always takes a long time to eat his curry. I sometimes ask him why he is taking so long but he just replies, “Don’t Reshmee.”

Curry tip 23

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When a dish requires yoghurt, cream or coconut allow your base sauce (onions, tomatoes, spices etc) to cool down a bit before adding it. This allows it to absorb better and not split.

Curry tip 22

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Don’t treat your order of rice as an afterthought. Choosing the right rice can enhance your meal. If you are ordering a special dish (or a really hot one) stick to plain boiled rice or plain pilau so you don’t have tastes competing with the flavours of your main dish.

Curry tip 21

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Do you want a curry that’s cooked to perfection? Ask the waiter where the chef is from and what dish he would recommend from that country or region. Most chefs will have perfected the dishes from where they grew up.

Curry tip 20

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Keema curry is often over-looked. I was once asked, by a waiter, why I was ordering a Keema, as they are for old men with no teeth. Yet, I reckon they deserve a better press. Top yours off with a couple of quail’s eggs halved or a nice big duck’s egg quartered.

Curry tip 19

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If a curry recipe includes vinegar (eg. Vindaloo) but you find its taste a bit too tart, then use good old tomato ketchup instead, which contains vinegar. Ketchup is also a good replacement if a recipe includes tomato puree and you don’t have any.

Curry tip 18

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Onion, particularly white onion, can sometimes produce a bitter taste. To remove this bitterness boil the onions in water for a couple of minutes after chopping.

Curry tip 17

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If you’re cooking up a batch of curry to freeze or making a curry that you’ll reheat to eat later, always remember to under cook the dish(es) by a few minutes. The final bit of the cooking will be completed when you have defrosted and/or reheated the curry. This is especially true if cooking chicken which can go dry very easily.

Curry tip 16

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Are you looking to achieve that bright, red appearance in Tikka and Tikka Masala dishes without resorting to using the colouring that’s still used in some restaurants? Paprika is your friend.

Curry tip 15

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So you think Korma is just a mild, rather boring dish? Korma is actually a way of cooking and korma dishes aren’t just confined to the ones that have sadly just got associated with people who don’t like spice. Add some chopped fresh red chillies to your next Korma for a great balance of smoothness and heat. You’ll never think of a korma in the same way again.

Curry tip 14

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For a really rich, vibrant colour in your Kormas use saffron (not turmeric). To extract the colour from the saffron put a few strands of it in warm milk and gently press with the back of a spoon. The same trick works to give a beautiful colour to your Biryanis too.