The life of Austen

Ghee. Not like gee whizz or 9.797 645 m/s², but clarified butter. Clarified butter is made by heating butter so that the milk solids stick to the bottom of the pan and the butter fat, or ghee is left as a golden liquid at the top of the pan. With true Indian ghee the butter is heated so that the milk solids become slightly brown, giving a mellow, nutty flavour. However, not all of us have either the time or the patience to perform this precise task, as if the solids burn, all is lost(i.e. no cigarette breaks, drinking binges etc). That is probably why I've always used olive oil to make my curries up until now. What a shame it has been, as I found out after making this vindaloo. Now, with the ramadan coming up, the local halal slaughter-house has started stocking ready-made ghee! Excellent!
As I'd never made a curry with ghee before, I admit that I was excited to see how the final result would differ from my current attempts, bearing in mind that this is the true Indian method and that my vindaloos have not yet reached perfection.

It is very time consuming to make a decent curry(from one to two hours preparation and cooking time), so if you're having friends round make sure that they're kept busy chopping ingredients between beers, be certain to have all of the ingredients as it's almost like a Ducasse recipe (apart from the fact that you don't need to start preparing your ingredients a week or so before (or have thirty people in your kitchen) and make loads! The base of this curry is from Madhur Jaffrey, but I have been modifying and perfecting it over the last two years, so it's now quite different from the original recipe in flavour.
This is what you will need:

Ginger and garlic paste:
1 full head of garlic
1 decent sized cube of ginger (3cm cubed)
3 tb hot water
(Peel and chop up the garlic and ginger, then blend in a mixer with the hot water until a smooth paste is obtained)

Spice mix:
1 tb cumin seeds
1 tb coriander seeds
1 tb paprika
2 1/2 ts garam masala
1 ts black peppercorns
1/2 ts yellow mustard seeds
1/2 ts brown mustard seeds
1/2 ts turmeric
1/2 ts fenugreek
5 - 25 dried small red chillies (I use seventeen at the moment)
(roast the whole spices (except the chillies) in a pan with no oil or ghee until slightly browned. Let them cool and then mix with all of the other spices in a coffee grinder until everything is completely ground up into a powder)

Tea bag:
20 cardomome seeds
3 bay leaves
3 cloves
(It took me ages to find empty tea bags in France which they are very convenient as they save you having to fish out the whole spices(which is a real pain) or having nasty surprises(a mouthful of three cardamome seeds and a clove, for example). Tie it up well with cooking string as it will get battered around (you can even put one inside another).)

Onion and tomato mix:
4 onions (chopped or sliced)
1 tin peeled tomatoes
250 ml chcken stock
(heat plenty of ghee in a non-stick frying pan and when hot add the onions. Cover and mix every so often (It is important to cover the onions so that they do not dry out and burn) cook until the onions will not go browner without burning(If you burn them it ruins the entire curry so start again, or stop before, even though they're not entirely brown (this will mostly affect the colour of the sauce, so it is not the end of the world)) If you think that the onions may burn, add more ghee). Remove from the heat. Put the tomatoes, stock and tepid (or not too hot) onions in a liquidiser and mix until smooth)

Chicken:
1 1/2 kg boned chicken cut into small pieces
1/2 ts Nigella
1/2 ts brown mustard seeds
1/2 ts yellow mustard seeds
1/2 ts fenugreek
2 cinnamon sticks
(heat some ghee in a non-stick frying pan and add the above spices along with the tea bag. When the mustard seeds start to pop, add the chicken and brown slightly (It is better to undercook it rather than overcooking it as it will cook more in the sauce). Cover.)

Other ingredients:
Ghee
15 curry leaves
1 tb white wine vinegar(can be replaced with cider vinegar)
1 tb salt
1 tb sugar

Sounds daunting? It is! Prepare everything as above before starting the main cooking to save last minute rushes. As you get better you can do several things at a time, but I generally have a few beers in-between so that it is less intensive.

Heat some ghee in a big (enormous) pan and add the ginger and garlic paste when hot. stir and cook for a couple of minutes, then add the curry leaves. Cook for about another minute, then add the spice mix. Stir continually until a paste is formed without it sticking to the pan and add the onion and tomato mix along with the salt, sugar and vinegar. Cover and let it cook, mixing regularly so that it doesn't stick, for about ten to twenty minutes. This sauce can be frozen for up to a month and a half (I tend to divide it up into five or six freezer bags for easy "meals for two" so that you can add it to the meat of your choice whenever you want. This also means that you don't have to eat curry for a week, which if you are on your own or are a couple is quite an unreasonable feat to subject yourself to).


Add the chicken, including the cinnamon and tea bag, then cover, leaving the lid slightly open (if you open it too much, you will have greasy bright red spots everywhere). Cook for 45 minutes or so stirring as often as you can. If it gets too hot, turn it off for a few minutes, then heat it up again.