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Tips for making a curry?

T

The Governor

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I fancy knocking up a curry, any top tips out there for making a nice low-carb one.

I'll probably go for a beef curry, normally I'd have rice but obviously that's a carb too far :D Any ideas for a substitute for rice?

Did I read someone said Naan bread is good?
 
First week after daughter was diagnosed, cooked her favourite meal Chicken Rogan Josh. I went through the long process of weighing all ingredients seperate, tomatos, onion, curry paste, etc. Then weighing whole pot. Calculated portion size to get carbs. Weighted rice seperate. Dished it all up.. Lovely

She ate half and wanted to leave rest. Had no chance of seperating leftovers. Went to pieces worrying I was going to overdose her on too much insulin or send reading too high.
Several weeks later when I had stopped panicking so much to get every carb right to the nearest decimal point reaslised curry has a neligable amount. Just weighted rice. If you avoid Basmati as it seems to be higest carbs, and have a smaller portion, still faily low carb meal.
 
Hi Guv,

I put a curry recipe on the recipe page in the food forum, if it helps.
Any combo of meat and veg will give you a top curry, and inherently low-carb. The rice and the naan are the deal breakers if you're a carb dodger. As a rice alternative, try grating a cauliflower with a cheese grater and stir frying with vegetable oil. It works brilliantly and if you fling in some cumin seed or cardamon pods, it's even better than the real thing.

All the best,

fergus
 
Believe it or not, grated cauliflower makes a good rice substitute. Put cauliflower in a food processor, and grate it until it is about the consistency of rice, and then microwave it for about five minutes. After that you can use it as a substitute for rice in most rice dishes - except for those which rely on rice absorbing water (such as paella). It works particularly well if you fry it with an egg to make an "egg fried rice" and you can easily add spices to make a very passable "pilau rice". I have used this trick to make a very acceptable accompaniment for curry.
 
Most home made curry recipes are fairly low carb. Takeaways vary, some are horribly sweet so must have a lot of aded sugar. Many are very high in saturated fat because they often use clarified butter for cooking.

Rice is mostly carbohydrate , no getting away from it!
I don't agree that the type varies the carb count much. On the GI index list they're all about 41-42 carbs for 150gms cooked weight. What does vary is the GI index. Some varieties are very fast, some very much slower. How its cooked varies the starch absorption rate, if its very soft and sticky it is much faster than if al dente.
I avoid rissotto type dishes completely as my one early test did send my BS sky high and stopped me eating any sort of rice for about a year. Now I've found that I need a normal carb/insulin dose with mixtures of wild rice/basmati/brown rice, for other types I have to take take a little more insulin so generally avoid unless eating at other peoples houses.. I weigh portions and as rice is quite heavy I eat smaller portions of rice than pre D.

1 small sharwoods coriander and garlic naan contains 21.5gms carbs.
Poppadums are light and contain about 6gms carb each
 
The problem for me is the rice/nan bread.

A good curry needs loads of oil. Worrel-thomson's fish curry uses greek yogurt to good effect.

My tips for flavour are

A bulb of garlic and equal amount of grated root ginger.
A wee bit of asafoetida in the oil when frying pureed onions with garlic/ginger (almost burning the mixture).
A good amount of ground coriander/cumin/tumeric which makes it a doughy consistency.
Into the dough goes lots of oil (tends to be ground nut oil for me) on a low heat.
Once the oil starts to separate, then I add the tomotoes (or passata), coconut and maybe some more chilli.
I ground down cachew nuts in a wee bit of milk to give a nice nut flavour.
Always use chopped coriander leaves at service.

The trick is proportions. Still working it out. I am going to add a couple of cloves early next time as well.


I need far less insulin compared to bought in curries.
 
I make a lentil dish, which almost qualifies as curry.
Fry chopped onions and garlic in olive oil, add curry spices cook like the Indian cooks do and quench with water if anything gets towards burning. When spices are done add a can of chopped tomatoes and cook until flavours blend A splash of Worcester sauce adds something.The Wok is the right shape for this sauce. cook lentils separately in water without salt. (Brown or Puy lentils are nicest) Add cooked lentils to spicy sauce. Not curry, but quite low carb. serve with brown rice.Barley makesa nice change. Use portion control to keep carbs down.
Keep tasting to get seasoning right. It tastes great!
 
Try vegetarian and fish.

Make a good amount of sauce with chopped onions, garlic and either tinned tomatoes or fresh chopped cherry tomatoes. Fry the onions and garlic in a mix of unsalted butter and olive oil (oil in frst so that the butter does not burn). Add desired curry paste or your own blend of spice and mix through. Add chicken stock or beef stock and simmer until it thickens.

For the vegetables try

Okra (cut off the stem but do not open the fruit body);

Peppers (blow torch till black, put in a poly bag to sweat, remove from bag and rub skin off with a kitchen towel) remove seeds and chop or slice. (This alters the taste and makes the peppers much sweeter and oilier) ;

Aubergine - slice, drizzle with olive oil or melted unsalted butter and roast on a griddle over a high heat until they blacken and start to caramelise;

Potatoes - par-boil, slice or chop and fry in olive oil and unsalted butter;

Butternut squash - half, remove seeds, drizzle with olive oil and roast. Then slice or chop and remove skin;

Turnips/swedes - treat same as potatoes;

Fresh Spinach.

I have smaller two handled open pans (like small Woks) so I divide the sauce between the pans and cook the vegetables I am having in individual pans so that I can adjust the thickness of the sauce to suit the main ingredient. This also means you retain the individual flavours. Don't cover anything other than the Spinach which needs to steam.

For fish I prefer a good sized Salmon fillet, skin removed. Add the fish to a pan with sufficient sauce. Cooks in a few minutes. Alternatively use Cod, particularly Salt Cod suitably steeped in water for a few days (change the water frequently to remove the salt) as it has a different flavour and texture from fresh Cod. Monk tails also very good. Ling and salt Ling if you can get it works well.

Rather than rice try Chappati or Paratha and use your fingers with the breads rather than a fork. You can buy these or make your own, its not that difficult. You can also make a very decent filler with Chick Peas. Curry also goes well on a bed of pasta, tagliatelli or any of the flat noodles are better that spaghetti. Try Couscous, the coarser stuff rather than the medium or fine.

If you like particularly hot curry add one drip of 'Da Bomb - Beyond Insanity'' (and only one drip) to the main batch of the sauce; its 116,700 Scoville Units! (Not for children; wear disposable gloves or wash your hands immediately after handling the bottle just in case any gets on the skin and is inadvertently transferred to delicate places!) I get mine at Harvey Nics, its about a fiver a bottle and a bottle will last for a few years. One opened best to keep the bottle in the fridge.
 
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