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.
Spicy food
Not royalty but decent
2. Reviews (Other UK)Royal Tandoori, Lincoln
The Royal Tandoori is what I’d imagine curry houses looked like in the 1960s and ’70s. – the days when the food itself was still a novelty and the décor could be an afterthought. Things have moved on since then for sure, but not it seems in this specific corner of Lincoln. I say ‘specific’ because over the road a curry competitor, The Modern, is all shiny knobs and clean cut wood.
There are usually two ways you can approach things when you see a restaurant that thinks cork tablemats, plastic pepper pots and chairs with springs poking up the bums of guests are appealing. The first is that the food will be so good the décor doesn’t matter (after all a shiny table setting is no guarantee of quality food) and the second is that the food is as awful as the badly framed prints on the wall.
The Royal Tandoori is closer to the former, and although the food is not sensational by any means, it was certainly up to the task for four men who had just been to a football match.
When it came to ordering I blame the dithering. Starter or no starter? Popadoms? No I don’t fancy them. Lamb? Only if you order a chicken dish I can share. And not too hot. Side dishes? We won’t eat it all. But I want one. Dither, dither, dither. And so it came to be that, to avoid any more dithering we ordered a set meal, something I assumed belonged to the realm of Chinese food. Always seems like a good idea when you read it out loud but rarely is.
But here we go, headlong into a set meal. At least it included popadoms, which meant the pickle tax was absorbed (80p per person for the pickle tray indeed). So, and it really does sound good when you read it out loud, there are starters of Sheehk Kebab and Onion Bhaji, mains of Chicken Tikka Bhoona, Rogan Josh, Prawn Bhoona, and Chicken Korma, plus sides of Sag Aloo, Mixed Vegetable Curry, Pilau rice, Special rice and two naans. All for £42.95. Not bad indeed.
My reticence over set meals is that the nature of appealing to a group means the dishes have to be pretty middle of the road (see above). The second is that the dishes are mini portions.
But the dishes certainly were not mini, or if they were then the other people in the restaurant were getting huge portions. Certainly no complaints there. So how about the quality? Our friend Billy Broadbent, who knows a thing or two about curry, reckons it’s decent but probably not royalty.
Royal Tandoori, 118 High Street, Lincoln, LN5 7PR. Tel: 01522 514222 or 576736. Open: daily noon–2pm and 5.50pm–midnight.
The Scores on the Tandoors
Food 6
Décor 3
Vibe (Saturday night) 4
Service and friendliness 6
Value 7
Curry tip 22
UncategorizedDon’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
UncategorizedDo 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
UncategorizedKeema 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.
Chicken Ghee Roast
RecipesDelicious food from a great chef blogger…
Curry tip 19
UncategorizedIf 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
UncategorizedOnion, 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
UncategorizedIf 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 15
UncategorizedSo 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 13
UncategorizedOne of the great things about peas in a curry dish, like a great Mutter Paneer, are their bright colour. Ensure you add them at the right time and they are not over-cooked or they will lose that vibrant colour (think mushy peas at the fish ‘n’ chip shop).
Recipe… Okra with coconut and chilli
Recipes
Makes enough for a side dish for 2 people to share
Ingredients
• 1 tbsp desiccated coconut
• 2-3 small red dried chillies
• 10 lady’s fingers (okra)
• 1 red onion
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp salt
Method
1. Mix the coconut and chillies and mix together with a small bit of water. This is best done with a pestle. Do not blend as you want a rough mixture. Set aside.
2. Wash okra well and slice into small chunks.
3. Finely chop onion.
4. Heat oil in a non-stick pan until medium hot and add onion. Fry until they start to brown.
5. Add the okra and stir through. Cook until the okra softens.
6. Add salt and some water if the dish is sticking. Cook for a further 2 minutes.
7. Add coconut and chilli mix. Mix well and heat through.
Curry tip 12
UncategorizedFor that little bit extra when cooking sweet and sour dishes such as Dhansak and Pathia, use jaggery instead of sugar for your sweetener. If you run out of jaggery then brown sugar is better than white sugar.
Melanie’s Taj Maholla Chicken in Butter Sauce & Bollywood Basmati Rice — The Recipe Hunter
Recipes
Guy’s Big Bite had a one-on-one with a chef at an Indian restaurant and featured this recipe on his show.
via Melanie’s Taj Maholla Chicken in Butter Sauce & Bollywood Basmati Rice — The Recipe Hunter
Crispy Coriander Pakora — savvysouthindian.com
Recipes
These tasty fritters made with coriander leaves (cilantro) are incredibly crispy and flavorful. These golden bite size savory snack is a wonderful rainy day comfort food. It is an awesome thing to snack on with your tea or can be a wonderful starter at your cocktail party. Coriander is a quintessential ingredient in Indian cuisine. […]
Curry tip 11
UncategorizedVenturing into the world of using fresh fish for your curries? Fresh fish should have shiny eyes and body and slippery wet skin.
Curry tip 10
UncategorizedOnions form the base of almost all curries so you’ll be chopping a lot of them. Follow these steps for frustration-free chopping.
1. Cut onion in half through the stem before peeling.
2. Cut off stems and peel.
3. Slice the onion long ways but do not cut it all the way through to ensure it is still held together. You can help with this by pinching it together with your thumb and forefinger. The end result, if you were to pick up the onion, would be a fan shape
4. Twist the onion around and slice in the other direction, this time cutting all the way through.
Hey presto, nice small chunks of onion.
Curry tip 7
UncategorizedFancy a change from beer with your curry? The spices in whisky make it an ideal drink to accompany your favourite spice dish. Try the smoky blend Johnnie Walker Black or the super peaty Islay single malt Laphroaig with Chicken Tikka Masala.
Mutton Liver Fry — Taste Buds
Recipes
Mutton liver is an organ meat that is very high in nutritional value. It can be fried, boiled, baked or broiled into various savory dishes. The liver is considered to be the most nutritious part of the lamb. It is very rich in proteins, iron and Vitamin. It is very important not to overcook mutton liver as […]
Curry tip 6
UncategorizedAre you a Butter Chicken lover? When cooking with butter always add a little oil to the pan first to stop the butter burning.