Curry Lovers Try This!

Do I love to cook! I love the creativity of cooking. I love trying different herbs and spices and creating new dishes for others to enjoy. I get tremendous pleasure out of feeding people good food and receiving lavish praise for my efforts. Yup. It totally feeds my ego to feed others delicious foods!

I’d like to take this opportunity to share one of my favourite recipes. I make up all my own recipes. I tend to use cookbooks for ideas or if there is a very specific dish that I don’t know how to make, I’ll follow a recipe, but once I’ve made it a couple of times, I’ll often find a way to play with it a bit. It’s great fun.

I love Indian food, so I have come up with some Indian inspired recipes. I normally use what I call “eyeball measurements”, but have estimated the measurements given here to be accurate. Others who have followed my recipe have had great success with the measurements in this recipe.

My cooking is all about quick, easy and flexible meals. My recipes tend to have several variations. This curry is no exception. There are variations for chicken, beef, lamb and vegetarian. Beef and lamb will take 2-3 hours to cook, so if you’re in a hurry, a curry with boneless chicken can be ready in 30 minutes. A vegetable curry will cook within 20 minutes.

Curry with Variations for Other Similar Dishes

Beef:

4-5 large pieces of beef shank, bone in

Variation: Boneless chicken is best if you are short on time. Lamb or goat can be used instead of beef if you are not in a hurry. Red meats need to be cooked with some bones in the pot for flavour.

1 large bunch Fresh Cilantro

2 tomatoes, diced

Fresh or dried hot peppers, chili powder, or chili flakes (to taste).

Fresh ginger (a few slices peeled and minced, or a tbsp. of jarred minced ginger; not the powder)

2-3 cloves garlic (2 large cloves is usually sufficient).

2 tsp. each of:

Ground cloves

Ground cumin

Ground nutmeg

Ground turmeric

Ground dry mustard

Add salt to taste

Method:

Sauté the spices, peppers and salt in oil. Add chopped cilantro, garlic and ginger. Let cook together for about a minute and then add your meat. Cut the meat off the bone and add 1 inch pieces or smaller to the pot. Cook the bones as well. Brown the meat in the spices and herbs. 

Add diced tomato and let simmer.

Add about 1 cup of water once the meat has simmered a little while in the tomato and spice mixture. 

Let the meat cook for 2 hours. Cook longer if the pieces of meat are large or if you used a stewing beef instead of shank (3 hours for stewing beef). If you use chicken, reduce your cooking time appropriately. 

An hour before your dish is finished, add diced potatoes & chopped spinach (fresh or frozen)

 Variation: This dish is also good with the following combinations:

 Cauliflower & chick peas (I use canned chick peas. Make sure they are drained and rinsed).

Just spinach

Potato and chick pea

Wax beans and spinach

Root vegetables

Meatless with the above veg combination

Another vegetarian option is to use diced Chinese eggplant, or whatever eggplant you like. The large purple one can be quite rich. Use cinnamon in your spice combination and leave out the cumin.

Serve with Basmati rice or roti. 

Plain yogurt on the side will help ease the heat. You can add diced cucumber to plain yogurt with a little milk and some salt. Add a tsp of dried mint flakes or chopped fresh mint as an option. 

Aside from being an enthusiastic cook, Renée Cormier is a certified marketing coach, consultant and facilitator on a mission to show business owners how to easily get the most out of their marketing efforts and where to find money in their businesses. Renée will help you gain clarity about where your efforts should be placed and work with you to increase your profitability. She will also conduct a thorough marketing audit for you, show you how to refine your messages, and help you uncover the most effective marketing tactics for your business. Visit https://www.reneecormier.com/