National Curry Week 2012

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So in celebration of National Curry Week I cooked 3 Curries and 2 Misc dishes!

First off was Beef Massaman using the paste supplied by R and G Pastes.

The dish took around an hour in total to cook and I was pleased with the finished product.

I was taken aback with the sheer amount of milk and coconut milk that was added. The recipe recommends 1 full tin of coconut milk followed by a pint of milk. As someone that doesn't cope well with too much dairy i did feel the effects of this amount. I cant help but think that the creaminess of this combination somewhat took away from the beautiful flavours that the package promised. I personally added a chilli to give it an extra boost as well as some veg (baby sweetcorn, mangetout and runner beans) to give the dish some more texture.

I bought a sachet of the Penang paste as well. The instructions are the same as above but I will not be using as much milk product and may add extra liquid through water and see how I get on and keep you posted.



The curry company Thai Yellow Curry was the next one. I had this sauce before and really enjoyed the delicate and fragrant tastes so thought why not?! This time instead of using my go-to chicken I decided to use fish. As I am a fish fiend i felt that using a generic fish pie mix would satisfy my palette  The mix included cod, salmon and smoked haddock. I did have some reservations about whether the smoked fish would work but I'm glad i did it! Really mixed in well with the flavour of the curry!

All the curry pots I have had from here have always been to a good standard and are ideal if you want to have good curry fairly quick - I often have a hankering for them in the week and this range definetley solves the time problem. I think i'd look to add some vegetables next time, especially if opting for chicken to make the texture more interesting (and for me to feel better about the fact im eating a curry whilst on a diet).

Prices for this seem to range from place to place. At the Stone Food and Drink Festival these pots were 3 for £10 for 475g of sauce. There are good sell by dates and you have the option of freezing too!


Homemade Thai Turkey Burgers was my boyfriends highlight of the week!

This amount will make you about 4 large burgers!

Ingredients:

• 1 pack of turkey mince (Tesco's healthy living is 380g)
• Thumb sized wedge of ginger, chopped finely
• 1 red chilli, chopped finely
• A handful of coriander, chopped finely (This portion is very generous as I love coriander)
• 2 cloves of garlic (you can do 1 cloves, especially if you're at work the next day)
• 4 spring onions, chopped
• 1 egg yolk to bind
• 1 glug of Mr Vikkis' sweet jalapeno sauce ( get some here!) 
• 4 wholemeal buns

(My boyfriend, josh, loves these served with home made potato wedges - but that is up to you!)

Get a large bowl and put turkey, ginger, chilli, coriander, garlic, spring onions and egg yolk in. Get your hands messy by mixing the ingredients together and form into your chosen patty size. (i love the word patty)

I opted to griddle fry mine for about 6 minutes each side so they have the authentic burger marks. This cooking time will need changing if you have opted for smaller/larger burgers and I would always recommend checking that the middle is fully cooked and piping hot.

Cut your bun in half and add the cooked and fragrant burger. Have a good old mouthful of your burger to see if you like the balance of flavours then add Mr Vikki's to taste!

I have seen this recipe with pork mince which would be delish but turkey is cheaper and more healthy!

If you have a go let me know what you think!

My next blog will look at my year of Cornwall holidays and the delights I have stumbled across :)

Eat, Drink and Be Merry

H x