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Mango Chutney - Pic courtesy of currycircle.com |
Fire burn and cauldron bubble
Clare Latimer shares this week’s column with Scottish chef Christopher Lambton who serves up a ‘Macbeth-style’ recipe for curry
FOR those of you that read the article about my trip to the Borders of Scotland (July 9), I promised the curry recipe from the sweet tearooms, Laurel Bank, in the delightful village of Broughton.
The owner, Christopher Lambton, has kept his word and as I have never had such a personal recipe as this, I have decided not to change a word – and for those of you keen to try a “Macbeth style” recipe here is your chance.
Border line curry recipe
The best bit about making a curry for the tea room (we always call it that, even when we are pretending to be a restaurant and bar) is going up to the garage where I store the spices.
There I use a coffee grinder to pulverise my spice mix: a full grinder of coriander seeds, a full grinder of cumin seeds, about a third of a grinder of fenugreek, and a third of fennel.
This goes into one bowl. In another bowl I assemble a tablespoon of ground ginger, a full takeaway cup of ground almonds, and a tablespoon of turmeric.
In yet another bowl I throw in some whole cumin seeds and some green cardamom pods. All these bowls get carried down to the kitchen with a few large onions, two heads of garlic, three tins of coconut milk, and some tomato puree.
In the kitchen I slurp lots of vegetable oil in a large saucepan, add the ground cumin, coriander, fennel, and fenugreek, and the chopped onions, and stir over gentle heat until soft.
I then add salt, the almonds, ginger and turmeric, cook a bit more, then add the coconut milk and a tube of tomato puree. This bubbles away for a bit and then gets whizzed up into not too fine a sauce.
At this point I add some chilli powder and cayenne pepper and stir, adjusting chilli-heat, salt, sugar, and liquidity.
Into this spicy onion soup I add about 4kg chopped chicken breast and simmer until cooked through. This is ready straight away but improves with keeping for a day or two.
The whole spices are optional (not all customers can cope with a cardamom) but can be added with the chicken.
This is served with a garnish of fresh green coriander and rice. Sometimes I stir chopped coriander into the mix, and sometimes some bean sprouts.
I hope this is useful! My philosophy is basic but good: you don't get any nasties in our food but I won't be winning any Michelin stars for haute cuisine any time soon.
So says Christopher Lambton. In my view, with cooking like this he well deserves a Michelin star, as it is cooking straight from the hip and not from the textbook.
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Mango Chutney
I have added this recipe as I think it will go well with the curry – or any other curry. Some people poo poo the idea of chutney with curry but I love it. Your choice!
Ingredients
3 large ripe mangoes, peeled and diced
450g onions, peeled and sliced thinly
1 Bramley apple, peeled and finely chopped
50g fresh ginger root, peeled and finely grated
375ml white wine
vinegar
1 teaspoon mixed spice
Juice and finely grated rind of 1 lemon
400g light brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 scant teaspoon nutmeg
1 teasp salt.
Method
Put all ingredients in a large heavy-based saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring often. Cook for one hour or until mixture has thickened. When cool, remove the cinnamon stick and put into sterilised jars and seal. Label and store in a cool dark place. It will keep a long time. |
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