Feast of Kurma – KEDAH VIRUNDHU

Kurma is a hot favourite dip for south Indian people…….. Why it got that much important in our diet? I shall list my preferred answer as FLAVOUR, TASTE, CONSISTENCY and all time best GO for any food stuff. Kurma is such a very few dishes you have feel slight identical on above said points in any part of India.

Kedah Kurma is a special Mutton Kurma preparation in Southern Tamilnadu during local festivals. This preparation has special taste because lots of considerations on selecting male goat (Kedah). Among the selection of goat, the growth of flesh in neck is important before slaughter.

Flavour & Taste – Ginger and garlic paste is an instrumental in spur the flavour of any type of Kurma when it mixes with spices. Some add ginger and garlic paste in two stages to increase the spice and Kurma flavour thus frying onion is one stage and while making coconut paste is another. Revamp the coconut masala flavour in separately fried spices is a new perfect option.

As a new try in taste twist, Khus Khus (Poppy Seeds) would be fried with spices at that time of seasoning spices in oil rather than usual grinding with coconut. Finishing touch with few drops of lemon juice which stops cloud formation over top and preserve the shelf life.

Consistency – Mashable ingredients potato, greenpeas in vegetable Kurma ascertain the regularity. Potato is an important characteristic to soften the meat much better and defend the meat from breakage while cooking. Onion and tomato have to fry separately, paste it and use for better yield. 

Let’s get in to the kitchen to prepare yummy village style Kedah (Mutton) Kurma

Onion – 2 Kg                                                       Cinnamon stick – 5g

Tomato – 1 Kg                            

Cloves – 3g

Ginger – 210g                                   

Garlic – 170g                           

Saunf – 6 g

Chilli powder – 25g                        

Mace – 2g

Dhania Powder – 25g                     

Mint leaves – 150g

Coconut – 2                    

Coriander leaves – 100g                        

Poppy Seeds – 10g                      

Turmeric powder – 6g

Cashewnuts – 30g                         

Garam masala – 5g

Mutton – 3Kg                                                

Salt and water ad required

Vanaspati, Ghee and Refined Oil – 1 ½ liters (combined)            

Cumin Seeds – 2g

Green chillies – 08g

Cardamom – 1g                

Method

Separately fry the sliced onion, tomato and fine paste it keep aside.  

    

Make ginger and garlic paste. Now dry fry the spices one by one alone. 

Make a Kurma paste very finely (without any spice granules) with grated coconut, Poppy seeds, cashewnuts and all fried spices then keep it away. Boil the mutton along masala powder, coriander and mint leaves in pressure cooker up to mutton tenderize.

Heat the fat in heavy bottomed hundi, add the onion paste and slitted green chillies fry it for 5 minutes. Then add tomato paste fry both get mix well. Add ginger and garlic paste and cook till raw flavour goes out. Now add the masala powder one by one except garam masala and coriander powder. Moderate the fire and Stir continuously, cook for another 7 minutes.

Now see the red colour appears over the gravy. In this time add mint and coriander leaves, boiled mutton pieces and mix all together.

Then pour 6 litres of water, once it starts boil then add coriander powder and salt. Let it to boil well for another 10 minutes. Now you can realize the gravy flavour, at this time add coconut paste mix well. Reduce the flame and cover the lid for another 15 minutes.

Finish with fine chopped coriander leaves, garam masala and ghee. Mix all well, now turns off the flame and covers the lid for another 10 minutes. 

Serve it hot with your mind like dishes

Note  

Add some chilli powder in oil first fry it for few seconds to improve the gravy’s red colour then add remaining masala power. Also you can add the spices in seasoning time rather than grinding with coconut.

12g of poppy seeds (Khus Khus), 2g of Saunf, 30g of ginger and 15g garlic are enough for a coconut to prepare 2 litres of Kurma.

Hope above recipe shall make some refresh in your Mutton recipes.

Fill your plate with steamy white rice and Mutton Kurma. Let’s enjoy the taste.

To Curry

To Curry ….. again. Global foodies favourite talk is inexplicable in the Indian curries gallery here I take you into my much awaited TO CURRY blogging. Curry is a perfect blend of masala, spices and oil, literally say, it is a genuine seasoning.

Ancient scripts say black peppercorns (Karunkari) were used to spice up the dishes in sangam age, especially in meat preparations. So for that reason till now any spice preparation made out of vegetables (oh, see the word KaiKari in Tamil) and meats are called curry.

Tempering is the indicator of your efficiency and flavour of the tempering speaks whether you are the best cook. With any more addition or reduction of ingredients, it may be burned atlast the complete curry spoiled. After that whatever trick performed by you cannot get your desired taste in it. Therefore, be conscious of tempering curry, since it is the initial one which is going to produce the best of your curries.

It’s everybody wishes to bring out the curry in red colour, that means pure red fat shall be floating (Rogan) on the top… It makes its looks nice and breathes earthy flavour to the curry.

Ok, how to bring out the same?

After mixing thoroughly the masala and fundamental ingredients add a little water and make it to simmer for sometime which helps the oil in the masala leave and floats on the curry and it adds good colour too.

Once after have seen the name curry, everyone thinks that the dish may not be finished without curryleaves. But too much of it may sometimes arrest the flavour or real taste of the curry (my next post is on curryleaves, I shall brief you on that later). So add the curryleaves whenever it is required.

After adding the thickening agents do not allow to boil, keep the flame in simmer. Otherwise, the curry will disintegrate. Use a little gingelly oil with any other oil. It is but better to use ghee and dalda for mutton and beef.

Sometimes we are not satisfied with the seasoning and it may be our habit to put masalas again and again which spoils the taste and aroma and it may not properly bind with the ingredients and it may feature raw taste to the curry. By the way, in which stage is adding the masala into curry is very important. Keep the taste of your product (curry) in mind, use the essence wisely.

Suggestion for adding essence

1. For beef and mutton you may increase the essence as per your taste buds, but add less turmeric powder. Use black peppercorns and curd which helps to enhance the scent.

2. Add less turmeric powder and spices for chicken curry.

3. Take care in tempering with fish curries. It is advisable to use ground redchilli paste for good authentic colour and taste.

4. To push in masala to the curry add some “Otty Masala” to pump up the taste. It is to simply sauté the shallots and chopped tomatoes and just grinds it in mixie. Use this ground mixture while preparing any curry at the time of tempering.

5. Put the sour kind ingredients ex: (tomatoes) only after the main ingredients are mixed well and cooked with masala to get better taste.

6. Extensively use the cumin powder in meat preparation; it is the only masala powder which easily penetrates to the fibers of meat.

All Purpose Masala Powder

Cardamom – 1 tbsp
Cloves – 1 tsp
Cinnamon – 3barks
Saunf (Fennel seeds) – 2 tbsp
Kalpasi – 1 tsp
Mace – 3nos
Nutmeg – 2nos

Dry fry the above ingredients. Powder it finely. Store it in airtight container and use whenever require.

To get the non-vegetarian taste in vegetarian curries use my above APM and also add a little for all curries to get the desired taste and flavour.

Are you ready to cooking up the best curry? Go ahead… Enjoy the taste. Soon I shall be back on Curryleaves vs Curry….

Note

Try the correct proportion of ingredients and do observation on your method to dish out a yummy curry.

Tagline

Good responses for my earlier post on “Secrets of Dosa Success” by your wave of posts were tagged into my blog success. Many requested to write something on curry, these request from my lovable readers urged me to post this new “To Curry”.