These recipes will add some spice to your life
By Faith Bahadurian
Oct. 13-19 is National Curry Week in the United Kingdom, where chicken tikka masala is considered the national dish. But, instead of that, I’m going for a crunchy seafood "fry up" seasoned with curry, a good companion for basmati rice with sizzled Indian spices.
We’re "visiting" Burma and Thailand too. Caught up in the news coverage of the vote on Scottish independence, I noticed a recipe for Scotch Eggs with curry in a new cookbook I won at zesterdaily.com. "The Burma Cookbook" is a gorgeous travelogue about Burma’s history of empire and cuisine. And from Thailand, we have a roast duck and kabocha squash curry, because the convenience of an already roasted and hacked-up duck from the Asian Food Market in Plainsboro is hard to beat.
Crunchy Curried Shrimp or Fish
Adapted from "The Best Recipes in the World," Mark Bittman, Broadway (2005). 4 servings.
1 1/2 to 2 pounds shrimp, the bigger the better, peeled, or any fish fillet
1 tablespoon vinegar, any kind
Salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 teaspoons curry powder, preferably homemade, or garam masala
1/4 teaspoon cayenne, optional
Peanut or vegetable oil for frying
2 cups flour
Lime wedges
Chopped fresh cilantro leaves for garnish
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Toss shrimp or fish with vinegar. Combine salt, pepper, turmeric, curry powder, and cayenne, if using, and rub into the seafood.
Put at least 1/8 inch of oil in a large nonstick skillet; heat to medium-high. Combine flour with enough warm water to make a paste about as thick as yogurt.
When oil is hot enough a pinch of flour will sizzle. Dip each piece of seafood into the batter and cook, raising the heat to high, turning to promote even browning until golden and crisp all over, 5 to 8 minutes total. Do not crowd; you will have to cook in batches. As each piece is done, keep it warm in the oven while you continue to cook. Serve with lime, garnished with the cilantro.
Burman Scotch Eggs
Adapted from "The Burma Cookbook: Recipes from the Land of a Million Pagodas," Robert Carmack and Morrison Polkinghorne, River Books (2014).
6-8 eggs
1 pound pork sage sausage or lean ground pork
2 teaspoons curry powder or masala spice or Chinese five-spice
1 teaspoons salt (2 if using plain ground pork)
1/2 stalk lemongrass, white part only, finely chopped (optional)
About 1/4 cup flour seasoned with salt, white pepper, and hot chili powder or paprika
1 egg, beaten
1 cup dried or fresh breadcrumbs
4 cups oil, for deep frying
Hard boil eggs using your preferred method, and cool. Crack and peel. Meanwhile, knead pork and curry powder together, adding salt and lemongrass (if using). Lightly rub each shelled egg in seasoned flour and work meat around each egg using the palm of your hand as a "cup." (Place some sausage in your palm to start, then form it around the egg.)
Dip each egg into breadcrumbs and deep fry a few at a time in 325-degree oil, about 6 minutes, until lightly golden. Serve chilled, accompanied by a fresh tomato "salsa" made with red or green tomatoes, onion, chili powder, sugar, vinegar, salt.
Roast duck and squash curry
Adapted from "It Rains Fishes: Legends, Traditions and the Joys of Thai Cooking," Kasma Loha-unchit, Pomegranate Artbooks (1995). 4 servings.
One half-pound to 2-pound kabocha or other winter squash
4-5 cups coconut milk (two 19-ounce cans)
4-6 tablespoons red curry paste (Asian market or international aisle of supermarket)
1 1/2 tablespoons palm or coconut sugar (or brown sugar), or to taste
Fish sauce, to taste
2 1/2 to 3 pounds roast duck, chopped through the bone into small chunks (Asian market)
2-4 small fresh hot chillies, slivered (optional)
2 cups Thai basil leaves, plus sprigs for garnish
Cut the kabocha in half, scoop out seeds and pith. Place cut ends flat on a surface for stability; peel and discard the skin. Then cut into 1 to 1 1/2-inch chunks.
Do not shake the cans of coconut milk before opening. Spoon 2/3 cup of the thickest cream off the tops of the cans and place the 2/3 cup into a large pot over medium-high heat. Reduce cream until thick and bubbly (about 3 minutes), then add curry paste. Mush paste into the coconut cream and fry a few minutes until it is aromatic and darkened in color. Then pour in the remaining milk from both cans, stirring well to dissolve the paste and make a smooth sauce.
Add the sugar, stirring well to blend into the curry sauce. Taste and add fish sauce only as necessary to salt (may not be necessary if curry paste is highly salted).
Add the squash chunks and duck pieces. Stir well into the sauce. If there is not enough curry sauce to cover most of the duck and squash pieces, add more coconut milk; or if the sauce already looks plenty rich, add 1/2 cup of water instead, as the squash and duck will thicken and enrich the sauce even more when they are cooked.
Return to a boil, then lower heat to boil the sauce gently. Cook partially covered, stirring occasionally, until the squash is tender, or cooked to your liking (15-20 minutes or more). Taste the sauce and adjust as needed with fish sauce and more sugar to the desired salty-sweet combination. If more hotness is desired, stir in the slivered chillies.
If a lot of fat has cooked out from the duck, skim off the oil floating on top of the curry sauce. Then stir in the basil until it wilts to a bright green color. Turn off heat and spoon curry into a serving dish. Garnish top with basil sprig(s). Serve with jasmine rice.
Faith Bahadurian blogs at http://njspice.net (also Twitter @njspice).