Off Topic Spurlock's Ramadan Diary 2018

Normally buy either a cow or a few goats for Idul Adha here. Lately been having it/them sacrificed in one of the villages rather than Jakarta as a lot of the mosques there never get a cow donated and its a big deal whereas in Jakarta there are a line of them at every mosque. Send us photos of it being done just to prove it wasnt a scam. Price of cows double in the weeks before - like a good Yorkshire muslim I suggested to Mrs we buy one months in advance and keep it in the garden but she was having none of it.

 

Fcking hell mate, I'd have to agree with her!

 

Chicken Bhuna masala and rice.

I'll put the recipe up...it's tasting Daddy

 

I admire you lot with the fasting and that. No way I could do it tbh.hats off to you.

 

Cheers Bluey...a few more days left then it's done

 

I made bhuna beef last week. It was fcking amazing if I do say so myself. I googled the recipe but made a few of my own twists to it...

1kg of beef cut to cube sizes
In a wok heat oil, then add 4 cardamoms, 3 - 4 bay leaves, 3 cinnamon sticks and half a tsp of fenugreek and fry until the aromas are released.
Then add in 3 sliced onions and allow them to brown over a high heat. Stir occasionally to stop them from burning.
After browning the onions, the beef can be added along with 1 heaped tsp of minced ginger and 1 heaped tsp of minced garlic.
Fry the beef over a high heat till the pieces are brown on the outside. Browning the onion and beef before adding heaped tsp of salt adds a lot of flavour to the finished dish
Follow this by adding 2 tsp of madras curry powder, 1 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp coriander powder, 1 tsp cumin powder, 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder , and 1 tsp red chilli powder and 1 tsp of turmeric powder.
Mix the spices well and then add 2 chopped tomatoes.
Cover the wok and allow the spices and tomatoes to cook over a low - medium flame, till the tomatoes are soft and mushy.
Mix the ingredients again, then add half a carton of yogurt and squeeze half a lemon in and then gently cook the beef over a slow simmer for about 1 - 1.5 hours, covering the wok to make it like a pressure cooker stylie, until the beef is tender.
When the curry begins to look dry, add water to loosen it and stop it from burning. Avoid adding too much water in one go, top up as needed.
Once the beef is tender, add some extra water to loosen the curry and bring to a boil one last time. How much water you add will be down to your preference - I prefer to keep the gravy quite thick so just enough water to partially submerge the ingredients is enough for me. Cook for a further 5 - 10 minutes and then your bhuna beef is done! Garnish with fresh coriander.

Had it with garlic naan, it was like a dream mate

 

I always put my own twists to things...try little tricks....rarely measure anything out...a bit of this a bit of that....voila!

Your recipe sounds very tasty mate...I can tell it works

 

Exactly! That's why I wrote heaped tsp because it aint a bloody exact science. You got to go with the flow.

It was a gem tbh, I had some beef left in the freezer and just thought why not... hence why I had beef on the brain when posting yesterday

 

Btw bhuna is definitely the way forward. I never knew that adding water and gradually boiling it off actually seals the flavour of the spices into the meat/curry. I thought it would wash it away but quite the opposite. I have to say cooking has become my new passion over the last year, fcking love it

 

Love cooking aswell..open the kitchen door, light a spliff and start to make whatever you fancy. I watch YouTube vids and have picked up loadsa tips over time...and sealing the flavours like that is definately the best way.

 

It's a fcking endless world of possibilities. Indian one day, Italian the next, Thai, Chinese etc. Cooking is a fcking art and the results are never bad. You might not always get it spot on, but actually putting it altogether is self satisfying.

And tbh when I had to feed myself and the fam, with the missus incapacitated, I quickly realised Manchester is fcking expensive for take-aways

My spliff days are long gone though sadly

 

Because it wouldn't survive the desired months?

 

I have never been able to bake but my daughter is superb at it, same with me and cooking and her baking though when it comes to quantities "a lump of this, a handful of that", you just know what looks right

 

Have I read it wrong, I thought he meant a live cow (before he slaughtered it)

 

Very true... although tbh I get the amount of salt wrong quite often... just never looks like it's enough, then I taste it and realise I should've stopped adding earlier

 

I used to be unhappy with the texture of my curry sauce. I wasn't cutting my onions finely enough...and I whisk up my tomatoes...makes a great curry sauce base.

Little things

 

Interesting... some curries I cut them up fine but others e.g. mince curry and the bhuna beef I made, both had onions sliced not diced. Tbh I can't claim to know why, everything I make is sourced somewhere online before I fck around with it

 

The trickiest thing I find is making rice. Takes FCKING ages and still can't get it spot on. It's perfectly fine for a chinese sticky rice thang, but just not right to accompany a curry. Now washing rice over and over again to get rid of the starch, but getting it light and fluffy without burning it is a skill in itself.

 

No, you read it right, he did mean living. However, all that steak and burgers vs feeding the ****ing thing?

 

True...mince curries are much better with coarser onions...but there you don't need an onion base.