Jalfrezi curry

First up, this will take 2 1/2 hours from zero. If you have the curry base and the boiled meat, it will take half an album, maximum. Maybe only one long song,

One way or another, this is maybe my third or fifth attempt at this kind of cook. I knew where I wanted to go, but didn’t have all the ideas in place. With help from my neighbour (who is Indian)–thankyou S!—and the recipes in a blog post I got there.

Ingredients

• Meat. Chicken breasts, per person, much the same for lamb or beef

• Green peppers, per person

• Onion, half per person

• Cherry tomatos, four per person

• Ginger/garlic, the real thing much preferable

• Tomato paste

• Curry base, about a pint, or maybe a ladle per person

• Indian spices, or curry powder. A few leaves like curry or menthi help, also cayenne or paprica

Tools

• A big frypan. Or balti, you must be able to proper fry. Better a fast reacting setup, like gas and steel pan. Cast iron on an electric stove will need patience and timing

• Many pots and bowls. No way round it, this recipe is kitchen‐utensil intensive

Make

I hope curry base is available.

Begin with prep,

1. Boil the meat. Chicken needs 15 mins. Lamb or beef may take 2 hours. Finally, the meat could be thumb‐end chunks, or thereabouts. You can cut it before or after (often easier) cooking

2. Make ginger/garlic paste—six garlics, same ginger, about 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup oil, blend

3. Chop peppers and onions thumb‐end size

4. Mix one tablespoon of the tomato paste with water to pourable sauce

Line up everything someplace (me, that must be next to the sink),

1. Onions/peppers

2. Garlic/ginger paste

3. Spices

4. Tomaote paste

5. Curry base

6. Precooked meat

Ready?

1. Use at least four tablespoons of oil, fry onions/peppers until the peppers blister and the onions go brown at the edges. Short of setting fire alarms off, full burn

2. In with the ginger/garlic paste. This has water in it, and you want water to go, so 1 minute or so until it’s not spluttering

3. (maybe turn down the heat) In with the spices. These need to fry, but not burn. In most cases, this will be 1/2 minute or so

4. Now the tomato paste. This will slow the burn in the pan. Give it maybe thirty seconds for the stew to thicken again (the pan looks horrible at this point)

5. Dribble in a few spoons of curry base. The base goes in as stages (to stage the burn?) Thirty seconds, it should start to bubble or crater

6. Add about 1/4 of what’s left of the base. Wait 1 minute or so, until it bubbles or craters

7. Add the rest of the base, wait a few minutes for bubbles or craters

8. Turn power to low. Toss in the meat and anything else you want to cook. 5 mins

9. Thow in the tomatoes, let them get warm, 2 mins

Variations

• You can chuck all sort of main ingredients in, but that’s not Jalfrezi. See the restauraunt style recipies

• People go on about frying the peppers and onions. They must not dry out, but they must blister and go brown at the edges

• I had no spices. That’s true, near nothing usable. I used 3 tablespoons of Pataks Rogan Josh from the corner shop. That one is tomato‐based with spices thrown in, so close enough

• Without the curry base, it will take all afternoon. With the curry base, and the prep done, it will take 10 mins. The website author calls it ‘restaurant’ method for good reason

References

If you want to know more, this site is a treasure stash. It’s confusing also, but the confusion inspires,

https://glebekitchen.com/restaurant-style/

Source recipe for the ginger/garlic paste,

https://glebekitchen.com/garlic-ginger-paste/

Feedback

Oh, you should have heard the chuckles, seen the grins.