Curry chicken salad

This is one of the yummiest non-salad salad recipes I know. It makes a good, cool albeit filling lunch on hot days. This recipe is variously inspired by this, this and a Waldorf Salad. We don't add celery to our salad since one of us is a celery supertaster but celery is perfect in this if you aren't similarly hindered. Most recipes I've seen online use chicken breast that they cook but I've always used rotisserie chicken-- its just way more convenient. The grapes can be replaced by apples and its still delish.

Ingredients

• 250 g seedless grapes
• 1 cucumber
• 1-2 tomatoes
• 1/2-1 red onion
• 1-2 limes, juiced
• 1, 1 kg Rotisserie chicken
• 2 handfulls walnuts
• 1 jar Hellmans Mayonaise (this is to taste) 
• Ginger powder (optional)
• Curry Powder
• Pepper

Method

1. Dice the cucumber, tomatoes and onion finely and add to a large bowl
2. Quarter the grapes and add to the bowl
3. Toast, cool and chop the walnuts and add to the mixing bowl
4. Remove the chicken meat from the bones (skin is up to taste, we usually remove) , chop and add to the bowl
5. Add lime juice, half the mayo, a half tsp curry power, a pinch or two ginger powder and pepper and mix all the ingredients together
6. Adjust seasonings according to taste. Add extra mayo if need be. The texture should be smooth and creamy. You can, of course, use low fat mayo, but really, you only live once. 

Karnataka-style slow cooker pork curry

This recipe is inspired by this recipe. I wanted a genuine, spicy indian pork curry that I could make in the slow cooker. This recipe worked really well! I've made it twice now, once with picnic bog and once with Karre and the karre worked much better. These are both swedish cuts of pork. If you're in the states, boston butt or any pork shoulder cut with adequate fat that works in the slow cooker should work. My variation uses only one pan for the initial step.

Ingredients:

Spice Blend:

• 3 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 3 teaspoons coriander seeds (or two teaspoons coriander powder)
• 6 cloves
• 2" cinnamon stick
• 2 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 20 black peppercorns
• 2tsp brown mustard seeds

Curry: 

• 2" peeled and roughly chopped root ginger
• 10 garlic cloves
• 2 tomatoes, quartered
• cooking oil
• 1 tsp brown mustard seeds
• 2 sprigs curry leaves
• 4 onions, finely chopped
• 3 green chillies, stalks removed, pierced with a knife
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 2 dried red chillis
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon kashmiri chilli powder, (optional)
• 1-1.5kg pork shoulder, cut into cubes, with some fat
• 0.5 cup vinegar (I've used both apple cider and white, no real preference)
• 1 can coconut milk

Method:

1. Cut the pork into large chunks and salt and pepper the meat.
2. Fry the pork chunks for about 6-7 minutes on each side on medium heat
3. Turn off the heat. In the remaining hot oil, add all the spices under spice blend. After about 5 minutes, scrape the spices into the spice blender and blend. Add vinegar to make the spice blend liquid.
4. Turn the heat back on. Add mustard seeds to the hot oil and when it sputters, add dried red chillis and then the curry leaves. Fry for a few minutes
5. Add the onions and fry until well browned. 
6. Now add in the kashmiri red chilli powder and fry for a minute or two and then add in the spice mix. 
7. In the spice blender throw in the ginger, tomatoes, garlic and red chillis and blend
8. Toss the blended mix into the curry as well
9. Fry this on medium-high heat until the mix begins to thicken and release oil
10. Add this masala and the pork pieces to the slow cooker 
11. Cook on high for 3-4 hours. Test at 2 hours for doneness. 
12. When done, add the can of coconut milk and let the curry cook in the slow cooker without a lid for about 30 minutes.

Slow cooker lamb Rogan Josh

Our grocery store had a sale on lamb and so I picked up a 1.6kg (3.5lb) chunk and didn't know what to do with it. My problem with lamb is that it can taste overwhelmingly of...lamb? wool? Not sure. It doesn't always taste strongly but when it does I'm not a huge fan. So, I decided to go with strong spices and the slow cooker. I combined two different recipes. Recipe 1 which did lots of things that sounded good and Recipe 2 which sounded really authentic. My combined recipe is below. It was super spicy, so I would reduce the number of dried red chillis when I make it again.

Ingredients

• 1.6kg boneless lamb leg, cut into large chunks
• 3 large potatoes (totally optional), cut into large chunks
• 1-2 red onions, chopped
• 1 cup Yogurt
• Vinegar
• Ginger chopped or paste
• Garlic chopped or paste

Masala 

• 1"-2" piece of cinnamon
• 5 whole green cardamom pods
• 3/4 teaspoon whole cloves
• 3/4 teaspoon whole fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• 5 dried red chillies
• 2 large or 3 small star anise
• 1 black cardamom pod
• 1 teaspoon paprika powder

Method

1. Grind together ingredients for the masala
2. Add the lamb chunks, the spice powder from above and salt to a bowl and shake around until the lamb chunks are coated well. This sat for about an hour and I guess it marinated, but that wasn't intentional. I was mostly chopping other stuff and being lazy.
3. Fry the onions and once they are caramelized, add ginger and garlic chopped or paste and fry for 5 minutes on a low to medium heat. I added about 5 cloves of finely chopped garlic and a tablespoon of ginger paste. The ginger paste was probably about 2" worth.
4. Add the lamb chunks and fry until some of the chunks get some surface. (This is to get some flavor out of the Mallaird reaction, but I wasn't thorough about browning all the lamb)
5. Splash in some vinegar. I had some red wine vinegar. I'm fairly sure the type of vinegar won't matter.
6. Add everything to the slow cooker and toss in the potato chunks and stir to coat and cook on high for 6 hours.
7. An hour before completion, stir in the Yogurt.

I think 5 or 5.5 hours would have been better, not because it dried out, at all, but because the pieces were almost too falling apart. I ate it over rice with Yogurt because I needed Yogurt to cut the heat of the chilies. It was hot and yummy and kept us warm during the snow.

Update October 2016: We have now also made this with pork shoulder as well and it tasted excellent. So either protein is fine to use with this recipe. 

Masala jheenga (Goan prawn curry) recipe

We got this recipe from here. It got rave reviews from the non-indians, but I rather liked it too. I think its a keeper! I thought there was too much masala, I think I will make a little less next time. Also, we don't get "Bart's" tamarind here, so I just used the usual thai tamarind paste and I needed a lot more than 1tbsp of that.

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 2 tsp ground paprika
• 3 green chillies, deseeded and cut into strips
• 100ml coconut milk
• 400g large fresh prawns, peeled but with tail shells on and deveined
• 1 tbsp tamarind pulp (try Bart’s)
• For the curry paste
• 100g desiccated coconut
• 5 whole dried red chillies
• 4 tsp coriander seeds
• 21/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 2cm piece of fresh ginger, grated
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tsp whole black peppercorns

Method

1. Place all the ingredients for the curry paste into a food processor and blend well, adding enough water to make a thick paste.
2. Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan over a medium heat and gently cook the onions until golden. Add the curry paste and paprika and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Stir in the green chillies and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add enough water to thin the mixture to a sauce consistency. Add the coconut milk and prawns and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the tamarind pulp, then season and cook for a further 2 minutes. Transfer to bowls and serve with steamed basmati rice and pappadums.

Salmon and Eggplant Curry

This Thai curry turned out good – the eggplant tasted amazing!
Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon Thai yellow curry paste, (see Shopping Tip) or 1 teaspoon curry powder, or to taste
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 medium eggplant, (about 1 pound), cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 14-ounce can “lite” coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon fish sauce, (see Note)
• 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
• 1 pound skinned salmon fillet, preferably wild Pacific (see Note), cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 cups sugar snap peas, trimmed
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
• 3 tablespoons lime juice

Directions

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add curry paste (or powder) and garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add eggplant and cook, stirring, until the eggplant is coated with the curry mixture, about 2 minutes.
2. Add coconut milk, fish sauce and brown sugar to the pan. Bring to a boil; stir in salmon and snow peas. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until the salmon is cooked through and the peas are tender-crisp, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in basil and lime juice.

Kashmiri Chicken Curry

This turned out really awesome with rice and kachumbar.
Ingredients:

• 1 small chicken abt 750-800g - skinned and cut into 8 pieces 
• 2 tsp oil
• 1 inch cinnamon stick
• 4 black peppercorns
• 1 bay leaf
• 2-3 cardamoms
• 2 cloves
• 1 large onion - diced
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ginger paste
• 1 tsp garlic paste
• 1 tsp red chili powder
• 1 tbsp ground almonds
• 3/4th cup yoghurt
• 2 green apples, peeled, cored and sliced
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
• A handful sliced roasted almonds and chopped cilantro for garnish

Method

1. Heat the oil in a thick-bottom nonstick wok.
2. Fry the onions to pink and then add the whole spices and cook for 1-2 mins.
3. Add the chicken pieces and stir fry for 3-4 mins.
4. Lower the heat and add the garlic, ginger, salt, garam masala, ground almonds and red chili powder - stir fry for 2-3 mins.
5. Beat the yoghurt and add it in, stir cook for another few mins.
6. Add the apples and chopped coriander, cover and cook for 10-15 mins.
7. When the chicken is cooked, transfer into a serving dish and garnish beautifully with toasted almond flakes and chopped coriander leaves.