Curry | But I Smile Anyway...

Home…?

05 Apr 2017 106 Comments

by Ritu in Family, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, british, Curry, Home, Indian, Kenyan, Romesh Ranganathan

Where is your home?

British Skies

I am not talking about the bricks and mortar that you spend the night in, where you have your family of friends living with you.

I mean where are you from, really?

A little scene I saw on a TV programme earlier made me think.

A Sri Lankan comedian, Romesh Ranganathan, was travelling around America and was entered into a chilli/hot food eating contest, and the cameraman was surprised that he found it so hard. Ranganathan asked him why he thought that he would have been ok eating pure chilli and the other guy couldn’t really answer. Because he assumed that being brown skinned meant being immune to the properties of all the chillies and spices in the whole world.

The thing is, Romesh was born and brought up in the UK, in Crawley. Not in Sri Lanka.

And the same goes for me. Born and brought up in Birmingham, in the UK, I abhor chilli. Spice, I can cope with, but not hot food! I will often add to my introduction of myself that I am a bad Indian, as I can’t eat hot food!

But how Indian am I?

Genetically I am 100% Indian, born to Indian parents, but they were born in Kenya. So are they Indian or Kenyan?

Similarly, am I Indian, Kenyan, or British?

If someone was to shout out to me to go home, back to where I came from, do they mean I should leave the Garden of England, in Kent, and scurry off, tail between my legs, back to Birmingham? Or are they referring to my skin, and telling me to go back to whatever South Asian country I obviously came from?

Thing is, to me, my home is here. In Great Britain. I have grown up for the last 40 years with the same influences around me as the average ‘English’ 40 year old. We watched the same TV, went to the same schools, drank at the same pubs, danced at the same clubs…

Granted I had rather colourful family orientated weekends, due to all our various celebrations and get togethers, but that only added flavour to the Ritu that I was.

I could probably bet that there are many white skinned British folk who have eaten more curries than me. My mum was never one of those Indian mummies who always had a pot of curry on the boil… Yes we ate traditional Indian food, but not that often. We would even eat certain Kenyan foods like Ugali, a steamed corn bread with spinach or chicken. In fact if you ask me, my favourite dinner is a good old Roast Lamb with mint sauce, complete with roasties, Yorkshire puddings, veg and lashings of gravy!

In my car you’ll find CD’s ranging from Brit Pop to Bollywood, the Swinging Sixties to Soul, Bhangra to The Beatles. Eclectic, but it’s a reflection of me heritage, and growing up.

At home, I lounge around in my trackies and hoodie, not a Punjabi salwar kameez.

And I know that everything seems better after a good old cuppa tea. (But that goes for British, and Indian values!)

But it still doesn’t change where my home is.

Versatile Mushroom Curry/Sauce/Something Or Other!

03 Mar 2015 15 Comments

by Ritu in Recipes Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Curry, Mushroom, Recipe, Sauce, Thingy

It’s Tuesday.
That means veggie day here in our household.
Hubby Dearest is definitely Mr Meat, so days like today aren’t easy. Usually my Mother-in-Law makes a lentil curry, which he just about eats.
However the in-laws are away for a while now, so he has to eat my food…
Mwa ha ha ha!!
No, seriously, I’m not a bad cook, but still, veggie? Not him! He’d rather order a veggie pizza but we can’t do that every week, especially since we had pizza on Sunday!
So I thought I’d ressurect one of my mum’s recipes. We used to have this mushroom concoction in pita breads with salad, and it was yummy! Or you could have it as a pasta sauce.
Here are the instructions for how to make it!

Ingredients
1 tbspn olive oil
1 tspn cumin seeds
1 chilli, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 inch ginger, minced
1 white onion, sliced
2 large flat mushrooms, chopped
A handful of button mushrooms, quartered
Salt to taste
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 dessertspoon tomato puree
1 tspn garam masala

Instructions

1) Heat oil in a large wok or pan. Once hot, add cumin seeds. When sizzling, add ginger, garlic and chillies and cook circa few moments. Then add the onions.

2) Cook the onions until translucent.
3) Add the mushrooms, tomato puree and tinned tomatoes. Mix and add salt and garam masala.

4) Put on a low heat and allow to simmer until cooked, about 10-15 minutes. Check and stir. The mushrooms will give off water so you will get a natural gravy as well once cooked.

Enjoy your mushroom thingy how you wish! We’re having it in pita with salad today!

Indian, anyone?(Recipe)

10 Feb 2015 3 Comments

by Ritu in Recipes Tags: Authentic, Blog, Blog Post, Blogging, Curry, Curry Base, Curry Recipe, Punjabi, Recipe

One of my curries with Paneer

A good while back I assured my good blogpal Tom I would post a simple, authentic curry base recipe. This is your true base for pretty much all Punjabi cuisine. I hope you might take the time to try it out with whatever variation you wish, and let me know!

Punjabi Curry Base
You will need:
Vegetable oil
Cumin
White onion
Garlic
Ginger
Green chillies
Salt
Chopped or fresh tomatoes
Turmeric
Garam Masala

Heat some oil in a pan, about a couple of tablespoons.
Add a teaspoon of whole cumin seeds.
When they start to sizzle, which will be rather quickly, add a large diced onion.
Fry on a medium flame for a while until the onions are nicely browned.
Add a couple of cloves of minced garlic and around an inch of minced ginger and fresh chopped chilli to taste.
Fry for a short while until these have also browned.
Top tip! If you find that this is starting to stick to the bottom, add a small amount of salt, it will stop the sticking!
Now add a tin of chopped tomatoes, half a teaspoon of turmeric powder, and half a teaspoon of garam masala powder.
Allow the mixture to cook on a low heat for a while stirring occasionally, until the oil starts to rise to the top.

This is the base for pretty much all home made curries!

If you want a curry with a bit of a gravy then add whatever you are planning on cooking, like chicken or lamb, with potatoes and/or peas, and coat in the mixture then add water to the desired amount for a nice gravy. Then allow to cook! Lamb will take around an hour, chicken quicker, but check periodically to see when the meat and potatoes are cooked.
You could put a tin of kidney beans or chick peas and potato, with water for vegetarian alternative.
For a drier dish you could add mince and peas, no water needed and cook in the base.
Or add whatever veg you like! If using potato, add that first as it takes longer than most other veg, then add others once it’s partly cooked, like cauliflower, diced carrots and peas, aubergine, that sort of thing!

Once cooked, taste to see if you want to add any more salt.

Hopefully this would create a tasty, authentic homemade curry for you!

Enjoy!