I like to use curry pastes. Patak's Balti spices is a favourite. I wouldn't call my curries particularly authentic. They tend to be made from what I have available in my cupboards at the time.
I must admit I'm not a big fan of cardamom so substituting it for allspice or something similar would be better for my tastes.
Try this then: ½ tsp curry powder 2 tsp chili powder 1 tsp cayenne 2 tbsp coriander ½ tsp cinnamon In one and half sticks of butter, cook one onion (half diced, half minced), 3 garlic buds and 4 tbsp fresh grated ginger (or paste). Then add the above spice mix and a small can of tomato paste. Cook 15 minutes on low. Then add precooked cubed chicken and cream to taste.
Just to be really awkward I don't eat meat so I'd have to substitute the chicken for something which didn't have a mother. Mushrooms usually work well instead of chicken.
Hey @MJ Davies, I took a few minutes and froze the ice cream today. Here’s your bowl. My wife went and picked a couple colanders of strawberries while I cranked the ice cream maker. Hope you like fresh strawberries better than peaches!
I like a brand in the UK with locations around the country/but not everywhere called Wing Yip. I like Wing Yip Curry Sauces as it's a cash and carry for UK Chinese food too. They have pastes for Chinese Curry, Hot Chinese Curry, and others like Madras and Thai ect,.. And the bins on London's Chinatown are full of Wing Yip bags so you know it's where they shop too! They sell industrial sized and have a supermarket on site and sell smaller sized and import from Hong Kong and.. have a website for online shopping if you haven't got a Wing Yip near you. £1.20 for wine bottle sized soy sauces too!.. https://www.wingyip.com/food/sauces-pastes/curry-sauces-pastes https://www.wingyip.com/nsearch/?q=concentrate+curry
There are decent Chinese and Indian stores in Norwich which is about 40 mins away but it's a bit limited for that kind of thing out here in the sticks. Can't even get gram flour in the local supermarket.
Just got my main spice ingredients today from good 'ol Amazon (unobtainable around here) and try my hand at Kimchee, absolutely love the stuff. 5 bucks a pint in the stores just ain't cuttin' it....I can eat that in one sitting.
Online init. They have online shopping now for those who aren't near a Wing Yip. It's how I cook Chinese food and get my kitchen to smell like a Chinese takeaways too... There's been one in Croydon all my life. I bought my wok @ Wing Yip and they have live lobsters. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq22rQ3HW2B/
Wing Yip haven't got Matcha though, I bought that at Piccadilly Circus at Japan Centre. Got my Matcha set there too, that day.
I don't cook Chinese food as often as I should. I've been pretty broke because of covid shutting down the catering industry and Chinese can be expensive to make properly.
I learned because I like it and can't afford to eat out so much, so, I feel blessed being close to the source of UK Chinese food. My friend got into steaming and baos and things. They have all the spring rolls and whatnot frozen and sell the bamboo steamers and all of that. Get your dim sum on here. It's all affordable too since it's sold at cash and carry prices, couple of pound on the pots and buy the food.
https://www.wingyip.com/nsearch/?q=steamers Also https://www.wingyip.com/cooks-curry-concentrate-chinese-405g.html This concentrate is like £2.30 and like buying a year's worth if you live on your own and cook it once or twice a week, and it's what they sell you for £6.40 a portion around the corner, same stuff, same cash & carry, same sauce. @Montegriffo You may need Wing Yip in your life and thankfully they've got you covered online nowadays if you're not near one, honestly, those prices assure me that if I ever opened up anything I could go into catering and start selling Chinese Food, honestly, it's at wholesale prices and all the takeouts are doing it anyway, why not just cook it yourself at home? That's what I say.
If only I could make my own fried chicken, but then, if only I could get my hands to see... I'd also love to make my own Pizza Hut or Papa John's at home, that would be amazing.
The biggest onion I ever got in my life was at Wing Yip. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq5l-WbHvZj/ Cost 62p and I loved it. This was my big onion in beef chow mein. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq90koyn7uO/ This was my big onion in chicken chow mein https://www.instagram.com/p/BrRIGpiHgqx/ I'm a sucker for Blackbean Sauce however. https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu7nBgUnyw7/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BwIXeRLH32a/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CInFhUOM6rz/ My Blackbean Sauce comes from Tesco and costs £1.80 and I'm lucky if I get 2 uses out of it and I'd have to use it within 3 days of opening it. I don't like the Wing Yip one as I don't know how to sweeten it, so, I love my Tesco for having that aisle.
This is what I aspire to make next, tbh. Only problem is, it's not in English... Making my own cheveda or 'Bombay Mix' as it's called in my country/UK. Literally, this is at the top of my list of things I want to know how to make too.
Wife made a mulberry/rhubarb pie yesterday. Just ate the first piece. I highly recommend the combination!
Ours got some kind of stalk borer pest in it this year. Ever hear of anything like that? I’ve never seen anything but grasshoppers bother it.
I haven't but I've never tried to grow it. It seems to be one of those things that everyone has too much of. I've been full on food mode for the last week. I just started work at my favourite pub in the world. Second time I've run the kitchen there. An isolated inn in the marshes on the river Waveney. The original building is the old lock keeper's house, timber framed two up two down, 200 - 300 years old. I have to drive down an earth track 3/4s of a mile through the marshes to get there. The other morning the lane was blocked by a pair of swans and about 5 or 6 cygnets. I had to get really close before they would move out of my way. Then a heron flew across the marsh and landed in a tree by a dyke. Not a bad commute. The little ditch behind the kitchen where I take breaks has wildflowers and reeds all along the bank, kingfishers flying past in a blue flash and butterflies everywhere. I haven't seen one yet but there are marsh harriers there which are our largest native hawk. Anyway, I've had to open from scratch. Fitting out the kitchen which was empty bar two stoves. Finding suppliers, making a menu, buying stock and catering equipment and finally start cooking some food to sell. All in a week, we open on Monday one week after I started.
We never have enough rhubarb. But we use more than the average bear. We freeze a lot with strawberries for strawberry rhubarb pie in the winter and with apples for apple rhubarb crisp in the off season. Awesome! I’m happy for you. That does look like a beautiful place. And getting to set things up the way you want?! Can’t beat that. Do you have complete control of the menu or are there constraints?
It does have a tendency to flood in the marshes though. This is the lane to the pub when it's under water. There were times when I worked there before, about 20 years ago, when I would have to leave my truck at the end of the lane and kayak in to feed customers who got there by river.
