What an absolutely amazing experience this whole event was! This includes my shopping trip on the Friday before with Nasim and Sumrah from work.
Indian food is very new to me. I have never been huge into chilli (I liked a little heat, but to a limit) and because Sheila wasn't either, curry's and the like never featured on our menu's at home. Then we went to Thailand... Ever since our honeymoon, Sheila has been getting steadily hotter and hotter. About 2 months ago I bought
Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible. Needless to say, we started of light. Korma's and Coconut, Almond style curry's were the order of the day.
Sheila made the suggestion of a fully Indian themed dinner party. I was a tad dubious to start of with and then got into the whole idea of it. At work, one of my colleagues, Nasim is regarded as a brilliant home cook for everything Indian and has brought in various offerings for the office to try on occasions. I decided to use her as my mentor and she just jumped at the idea and was very excited to teach me a little about her food culture.
I went to her with a menu in my head...
Beef Samosa's with a home made chutney to start. Main course was a Green Coriander Chicken Curry from the Curry Bible. Dessert was an Indian flavour inspired Coconut Ice Cream with Mango Sauce. Following a short discussion with Nasim, the menu matured into:
Curried Lamb Samosa's, Phakora and Pappadam with Chilli and Coconut Relish, Tamarind and Date Dip, Cucumber and Mint Raita and Mango Chutney
Green Coriander Chicken Curry with Basmati Rice and Naan Bread
Coconut Ice Cream with Mango Sauce in an Amaretto Snap
As you can see, almost all of the influence was into the starters.
Next on the food journey was a quick visit down to VB & Sons in Greenford. Nasim was like a little child and was running around the shop showing me all sorts of things and appeared to be loving it! Stopping in front of the chilli section, she grabbed a plastic bag and put a whole handful of green chilli's into the bag and proceeded to add another handful. I asked, "What's that for?". "The chilli dip!" she replied. My mind boggled! There were only 8 people enjoying dinner at ours and Nasim had at least 20 chilli's in the bag already and was putting in more! "Ummm... I think that'll be enough..." I stammered. She looked at me and said, " Don't worry, they're not as hot as those ones there," pointing at the scotch bonnets and bird's eye chillies. Sheila and I usually put two bird's eye chillies into our dishes now and even if these chillies were milder than the bird's eye, I was still seriously struggling to comprehend 20+ chillies in one dip used only for starters... Bless Nasim though, she did stop putting chillies into the bag!
At home that evening, I prepared the Lamb Curry for the Samosa's and the marinade for the chicken curry. I was informed by Nasim that the mix for a samosa has to be dry. Following her instructions (hastily written down) I browned off the lamb in a frying pan, added
Garam Masala spice and salt and allowed this to cook off completely, so that no liquid remained in the pan. I checked the seasoning and added more spice because I didn't think the kick was there. To the cooked meat, I added very finely chopped onion and coriander and finally some frozen peas. All I did was stir this around until mixed and then the pan came off the heat. I was told to not cook the onion or peas, as the frying the next day would do this. Also, Nasim said to use the coriander stalk as the stalk holds loads of flavour. So, the mix was allowed to cool, placed into a sealed container and then into the fridge.
The chicken marinade involved a whole bulb of garlic, huge chunks of ginger (sorry, Sheila!), the juice from 2 lemons, salt and a little water. This was blended together thoroughly and massaged into the chicken cubes and placed, covered, in the fridge overnight.
About a month ago, I made an ultimatum to Sheila. Dessert's were no longer part of my realm and it is now her job. This obviously caused a little anxiety in the beginning, however she rose to the challenge and after delving into several recipe books and putting a few ideas out there, she decided on the dessert you see here. On the Friday evening, Sheila joined me in the kitchen and made the custard for the coconut ice cream so that it could spend the night in the fridge and get lovely and cold before being churned. It is nice spending time in the kitchen with my wife, however I have to learn to keep my trap shut. Rolling pins hurt... I can also honestly say that she is one messy cook!
On Saturday, I started on the dipping sauces. I started by putting Tamarind and Date (about 200g each) into water and bringing this to the boil. Whilst the fruit was boiling away, I started on the Green Chilli and Coconut Relish and I dumped a handful of (6) green chillies into a blender. On top of this I added a whole bunch of coriander, about 150g of dessicated coconut, some lemon juice, salt and a couple of cloves of garlic. Turning the blender on, I added a couple of spoons of water through the top of the lid. Whizz, whizz, whizz... stop, spoon in, taste... BANG! Wow, it was hot! My reaction caused loads of hilarity from Sheila until it was her turn to taste. I deviated slightly from Nasim's recipe here and added some coconut milk and sugar which I believe really helped the sauce. So much for Nasim's comment that these chillies are milder than Bird Eye chillies...
Onto the Tamarind and Date sauce then. I strained off the liquid into a bowl and squeezed out the remaining liquid from the soft fruit pulp. I discarded this pulp and put the liquid back onto the stove. To this I added 1 tbsp tomato sauce, salt, 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp cayenne pepper. The sauce was then allowed to reduce a little to develop the flavours. Tamarind, I found with jaw clenching intensity, is very bitter on its own, however the finished sauce tasted amazing!
The Raita was easy. Grate the cucumber, finely chop the mint leaf and stir both into plain yoghurt. Add a little seasoning to taste and done!
One of our guests jumped into action cooking the pappadums. Easy easy easy! 1 minute each in the microwave and done.
Onto the Pakora. This is essentially an Indian batter and I was introduced to this delectable fritter at work at a colleagues leaving do. Yes, Nasim had made them! Well, I nabbed her recipe and set about creating it. You start off with finely chopped onion, very small diced potato, finely chopped Methi (fenugreek) and
Gram flour. This is all mixed together with a little water, salt and chilli powder to create a moist yet firm batter. Just before frying, I was instructed to add 1/4 tsp bicarb of soda.
To fry, use a dessert spoon to portion the batter and plop into the oil. Do not have the oil too hot. We had it set at about 180C and this worked fine. Remember that the potato is raw in the batter, so this needs to cook through and is why a very small dice is a perfect cut for the potato.
Whilst Sheila was diligently acting as my commis chef frying off the pakora, I started on filling the samosa's following Nasim's folding instructions from the day before. I must say the shape came out wonderfully even if it did take me quite a while to complete all the filling and folding. A paste of flour and water is used to glue the samosa pastry closed. We fried the samosa's off to a beautiful gold and starters were ready!
Our guests loved it all! 17 samosa's gone, about 40 pakora gone, a dozen pappadum (almost) gone with many a comment on the sauces, especially the green chilli and coconut fire bomb.
Just before starter service, I started the Basmati rice going in the steamer and place the naan bread in the oven (covered in foil) to warm up. I removed the chicken in marinade from the fridge and added this to a hot pan on the stove. I then let it do its thing as I enjoyed starters with our guests.
Returning from starters, I stirred the chicken salivating at the wafting garlic and ginger aromas coming from the pot. The rice cooker had finished its cooking cycle and I let the rice continue to steam and keep warm in the steamer. Into a blender I added 400g tomato, 1.5 bunch coriander, 4 whole green chillies and a couple of teaspoons tomato puree. Once blended thoroughly, I added this whole lot to the pot with the chicken and brought everything back to the boil. I just love coriander and was really looking forward to tasting this dish.
After allowing about 15 minutes for cooking, I added 400ml yoghurt, stirred it all together and brought it back to the boil. A quick taste and adjustment of seasoning and we were ready to eat.
Once again satisfied guests... The coriander chicken was amazing. I just loved it, especially when wrapping the chicken and a little sauce up in some naan bread and munching it like a wrapped pancake!
Dessert was next. Sheila jumped onto the Mango sauce and all of a sudden I was the commis chef! I was instructed to go out and fetch the ice cream basin from the freezer and set up the churning machine. The sauce was finished in no time at all (a little lemon juice added for sharpness) and the custard had been poured into the churner and was whirring away. We then spent the next 20 minutes making Amaretto snaps whilst the ice cream churned away.
The sweet creamy coconut and slightly sharp mango was quite honestly just perfect to finish off our firey yet morish meal.
Thanks sooo much to Nasim! I will be speaking to her again soon about our next Indian evening.
