MALAI CURRY

CHUNI LAL'S MALAI CURRY

A tasty curry straight from Dad's childhood in India.

Now that Dad has stopped relying so much on takeaways, he's been craving a decent homemade curry. Having grown up in Burma and India, he knows a thing or two about how a decent curry should taste. 

This dish is one that was prepared by Dad's family's cook, Chuni Lal, when the family was in Delhi. As a child, Dad would sit cross-legged on the kitchen floor with Chuni Lal as he ground spices, chopped onions and garlic and smoked his biri (a foul smelling Indian cigarette, according to Dad). 

This is a Malai recipe – Malai was the cooking style of the cooks of the Mughal emperors. The Mughals conquered the entire Indian subcontinent, but hated the spicy, fiery curries of their subjects. Malai cooking was created to make curries which were easier on the palate.

We are exceedingly proud of Dad, who made this curry from scratch, using a recipe he found on a scrap of paper in his Mum's handwriting (and which he had to translate: the measurements were in Myanmar units), with no help, intervention or advice from us. And I can honestly say it is one of the best curries I have ever had. 

The recipe below is provided by Dad, and includes some of his helpful comments to make things clearer.

CHUNI LAL'S MALAI CURRY

INGREDIENTS – serves 4

• 4 tbsp vegetable cooking oil
• 1 large chopped onion
• 35g Garam Masala (Dad also recommends using Schwartz's Bombay Potatoes mix if you don't have any garam masala)
• Garlic and ginger paste (5 cloves of garlic and 1 inch ginger)
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp of Fenugreek seeds 
• 1 tsp black pepper seeds 
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 70g pulped tomatoes (don’t overdo the tomatoes or they steal away from the hard-to-get malai taste. If anything, be mean in the measure of tomatoes, literally two tablespoons of tomatoes with some juice is enough)
• 1 tsp red chili powder 
• 900g peeled King prawns (without tails) or 3 sliced chicken breasts – (prawns are the perfect central ingredient of a real malai dish, but Dad used chicken for this preparation. You can also use lamb, turkey or beef.) 
• 200g chickpeas 
• 30ml water
• 30ml of cream of coconut 
• 2 tsp sugar

METHOD 

1. Heat the oil in the pan. Cook the chopped onions on a high heat to brown them, then reduce to a low heat
2. Mix in the garam masala. Stir well, then leave for 1 minute, stirring occasionally.
3. Add the garlic and ginger paste, coriander, fenugreek seeds and black pepper seeds, mixing them well into the garam masala.
4. Cook gently on a low to medium for another minute, with only an occasional stir "to remind the curry you’re still there" (OK Dad).
5. Season with the salt and turmeric. Mix well.
6. Cook gently for one more minute, stirring occasionally. 
7. Add the tomatoes, chili powder, water, and coconut cream. Stir for a minute or so until the curry begins to look yellow.
   
8. Add the sugar and stir.
9. Add the prawns (or chicken) and the chickpeas.  
10. Simmer on a low to medium heat until your main ingredient is cooked. Make sure the heat is low enough not to burn the juice away.
11. Sprinkle on some chopped fresh coriander and serve with yellow rice.

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