A Ruby? Or “Ruby Murray” is traditional English cockney rhyming slang for a curry. I guess Ruby Murray was an Irish born singer back in the 50s or 60s.. and god knows how, got his name associated via slang for a curry.

Curry really is a national dish back in England. Curry restaurants are everywhere, some are really decent, others are er, a bad stomach waiting to happen. General rule, never order seafood in a curry joint. I learnt this the hard way at Chutney’s in Queen Anne (Seattle), I was sick for days after that one. You would have thought I would have learnt that back in England, but the Chutney’s “special” of halibut sounded too good to be true. It was special all right.. anyhow.

The amount of curry I ate in England would most likely be considered mad by Americans, but everyone ate a curry at least a couple of times a month. Generally it was either a take out, or an eat in at a restaurant. Making a curry can often be a little laborious, and when you have good Indian restaurants close to you, well, the choice is pretty obvious. Oh, and to top it off, they are never really expensive.

So this is actually the first time I have ever made a curry from scratch. My brother (a curry fiend) bought me a Indian food cookbook for Christmas last year, and I have been wanting to try it out. He has cooked a bunch from it, and swears he will never eat take-out curry again. I laughed at that, but you know what, it is true, I will honestly never eat take out curry again after this – the difference is quite incredible.

The first thing I noticed with this was the complete lack of that overly hot burning sensation that you get from most curries. This one was deeply aromatic, incredibly flavorful, but not hot. Not at all. You could taste everything, your taste buds weren’t on fire. Secondly was just how clean this tasted to most curries you buy out and about. You could taste individual ingredients. Even though about 8 spices went into this, it was easy to pick out individual spice flavors, and the gentle herbs (cilantro and mint) that were in it too.

So I was leafing through the book at the weekend, trying to decide what to cook. I called up the little brother, and he really recommended the lamb biryani. Danika isn’t a fan of eating anything “baby” (having given birth to Drake, that isn’t completely out of order I guess), and my insistence that lambs aren’t babies, they are just young (a sheep under 2 years old to be exact), didn’t make her change her mind. So lamb biryani became chicken biryani. And bloody tasty it was too.

As I flicked through, I also found a recipe for Naan bread. One of my favorite breads, and I haven’t had it in years. Right I thought, I don’t make bread that often, and this could be fun.

OK. Now on to one of my favorite stores. Ever. Not just my favorite spice store, oh no. This place is amazing. Every spice under the sun, and then some, and ridiculously good quality, and a pretty darn fair price. If there is something these guys don’t know about spices, it honestly isn’t worth knowing. World Spice is on Western Ave in Seattle, and well worth a visit.

 

I have always been looking forward to when we can cook with Drake. He is such an inquisitive little chap, that I always thought he might enjoy it (OK, I thought I love cooking, so he must do too…) We figured it might be fun for him to push flour around, and prod dough. And we weren’t wrong. He had a great time trying to play with the dough.

 

So I normally don’t post recipes from cookbooks on my blog. I am concerned about copyright infringement, and don’t want to get anyones goat. I have changed this recipe a fair chunk to make it suitable for chicken, so in this case, I think it is fine. I am certainly not calling my own, and anyone interested in cooking real (not western) Indian food should check out – The Food of India: A Journey for Food Lovers. I am not normally a fan of “a whole country in a book” kind of cookbooks, but this one is really exceptional. It well researched, with authentic dishes.

 

So it all turned out fantastic. We ate late. Really late. This took much longer than expected. The Naan bread was exceptional too, especially considering I hadn’t baked bread in ages. I reckon it was all down to Drakes rather inquisitive thumb. Nice one Drake.

NOTE: This dish is cooked in a heavy dutch oven (earthenware or cast iron) with a tight fitting lid. You also make a sausage of dough that forms as a sealer between lid and base of the pot. You want to make sure you have a really good seal, otherwise moisture will escape when in the oven, and you end up with a dried up mess.

It should also be noted that you should use incredibly fresh spices. This dish is all about the aromatic flavor of the spice blends.. If you use old spices, it is just going to taste dull, and well, old.

Chicken Biryani

1lb of boneless chicken, cut into 1.5″ cubes

1″ piece of fresh ginger, grated

1 clove or garlic, chopped

1 tablespoon of Garam Masala (a spice blend – directions to make it follow this recipe)

1/4 teaspoon of chili powder

1/4 teaspoon of ground turmeric

1/3 cup of chopped fresh cilantro

small handful of chopped mint leaves

1 cup of basmati rice

1 large onion, sliced

1/2 cup of whole milk yogurt (plain)

1/4 teaspoon of saffron strands, soaked in a couple of tablespoons of hot milk

Sealing dough: 1 1/3 cups of whole wheat flour and 1 teaspoon of salt

Garam Masala

8 cardamon pods

2 Indian bay leaves

1 teaspoon of black peppercorns

2 teaspoons of cumin seeds

2 teaspoons of coriander seeds

2″ cinnamon stick

1 teaspoon of cloves

Start by making the Garam Masala. Put all of the ingredients in a clean coffee grinder, and grind until a fine powder. You can also use a pestle and mortar, but heck, that is going to take you ages. This will make more Garam than you need, but you can store it for a while in a container with a tight fitting lid, and out of sunlight.

Mix the chicken with the ginger, garlic, garam masala, chilli powder, turmeric, coriander and mint. Cover, and pop in the fridge overnight.

Preheat oven to 425.

Rince the rice under cold running water until the water is clear. Put the sliced onion in a sieve and sprinkle a little salt on it. This will draw out some moisture. Let this sit for 10 minutes, then rinse and pat dry with paper towel.

In a large frying pan, heat a little oil over a medium heat. Add the onions, and cook slowly until caramelized. Take the onions out, and put them into your dutch oven, or earthenware pot (stove top safe for this one..) In the same pan, add a little more oil, and brown off the chicken. We don’t want to completely cook it, just get a sear on the outside. Add this to the pot with the onion in.

Throw the yogurt in with this, and cook on the stove top for about 20 minutes with the lid on, just to get all the flavors combining.

Put the rice in a saucepan, and cover with water. Cook this for about 5 minutes. Drain the rice. Spread the rice over the top of the chicken/onion mixture in your pot. Pour the saffron milk over the rice, trying to get an even coverage.

Make up the sealing dough. Put the flour into a large bowl, and add the salt. Add a little amount of water, and start mixing the dough. Add enough water so the dough just forms nicely, and isn’t too sticky. Roll this into a long sausage shape – enough to fit around the circumference of your pot.

Put the dough around the rim of the pot. Push the pot lid down into the dough, forming a tight seal.

Bung this into the oven for 20 minutes.

Break the seal of the dough using a knife, and carefully remove the lid, making sure no dough falls into your curry. Serve by dishing the rice onto a plate, then topping with the meat/onions.