Is Supermarket Curry Powder Any Good?
How to make a tasty curry with cheap curry powder…
I don’t know why but for some reason I got it into my head to make a ’student style’ curry. I wanted to see if you can make a decent curry using only the most basic ingredients: chicken, onions, curry powder, tinned chopped tomatoes and coriander.
Me being me I usually make some regional curry paste using a certain strain of chilli with curry leaves, various seeds, spices and twenty odd other ingredients. But not today!!
I bought some chicken thighs, a can of bargain chopped tomatoes, a pot of bog standard supermarket curry powder (own label cheapo) two onions and a pack of fresh coriander/cilantro.
Now this isn’t hugely radical, there are curries out there which do use nothing but ground spices which combine to make a garam masala or curry powder. I’ve had some wonderful examples in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore but when you see their masala mixes they do look somewhat more appealing than the curry powder I bought. I tried my curry powder on its own to test its strength. It was chilli and black pepper hot and really quite nasty. A good garam masala should have a rounded aromatic smell and taste but this was certainly what you paid for-cheap.
What that told me was that I would have to cook the dry powder out more than perhaps I normally would. I fried the chicken pieces in hot oil and then added the sliced onions and browned them well, the curry powder went in next and the pan took on the golden hue you expect from a standard mix. I really cooked this out, scraping the residue meat and powder from the bottom of the pan as I went along. The can of tomatoes went in after eight or so minutes and the pieces of chicken were covered with hot water (not stock-I’m doing this on the cheap remember) I did have a sweet potato to use up so I chucked that in but that would not affect the curry in any positive way.
I left the chicken to simmer away whilst I cut myself to pieces pruning a very thorny bush in my garden. Returning to the kitchen looking like a less attractive and distinctly poorer version of Russel Crowe in Gladiator I checked my curry. It was actually quite good already, there was a slight oily slick which pleased me and once a bunch of chopped coriander had gone in along with a sneaky squeeze of lemon the curry was good to go.
Now I was quite pleased with the end result, I’ve cooked better curries but given the nature of the experiment there was nothing wrong with it. You could make a very cheap meal this way, I do spend a bit more because I want to eat decent chicken but I could happily have substituted the chicken for broccoli or aubergine/egg plant.
There are some valuable lessons to be learnt from this; cheap doesn’t always mean poorer quality and expensive doesn’t always mean better. I am a firm believer in honesty in food and cooking, if something tastes good then that’s what matters. This did, it was cheap, quick and fun to make.
Would I do it again? probably not because I enjoy cooking Asian food in traditional ways and I am competent enough to do it without too much fuss, and I have all of the ingredients at my disposal. But if money and/or time and skill were thin on the ground I’d cook it again in an instant.
Quick and Easy Chicken Curry
Miles,
brilliant idea !
I think there’s a real use for this type of thing and tips on how to make such ingredients work from a real professional would be really popular, IHMO.
Also what I would say is, if you presented that picture and put a hugely extravagant list of ingredients below it costing a small fortune and a method beyond 99.9% of people everybody would look at that dish and say that looks incredible !
I think recipes such as this a far more likely to encourage people to start to cook as well - it’s realistic for them both practically and financially.
Keep up the good work
Rod
September 20, 2009 @ 9:10 am
Bravo Miles,
I echo Rod’s comments and well done for bringing this to the fore. What also impressed me was that you avoided the ‘cook in sauces’ which are a significantly added cost for people on low budgets. This can readily be copied by anyone.
Anne
September 20, 2009 @ 9:26 am
Miles,
I really enjoyed this. It was a hoot, including the thorny bush subplot.
I guess it’s all very easy to buy expensive for expensive’s sake but, at the end of the day, what you do with it does have significant bearing over how much money you spend. Besides, Kayleigh - the delightfully pretty, though dramatically fake-tanned checkout girl - will fancy you no more if you buy premium Italian tinned tomatoes over own-branded toms.
Corking post, Miles.
GDave
September 20, 2009 @ 8:18 pm
GDave,
Hear what you’re saying about the expensive ingredients because if you bugger it up then it leaves more than a sour taste in the mouth doesn’t it. I should know, my chefs do it on a daily basis!!
Miles
September 20, 2009 @ 9:52 pm
Hi Miles:
Just like a beautiful model will look good in the latest diaphanous sack as she sashays down the runway, so a skilled cook or chef can save nearly any meal with a little intervention and engineering.
The bit of slipped lemon and the fresh coriander will do wonders to save the anemic dry-spice mix that store brand OTS curry powders are.
Now that I think of it. If there are two “rescue spices” that really can make mixes taste more “real”, I would choose freshly ground nutmeg and fresh turmeric - both of which taste completely different fresh than the powdered versions.
Your post is also an excellent example of cooking as a “gateway drug” to international cuisines. By that I mean, it allows people who are interested in culinary arts, but unsure of where to start, to cook a basic dish.
Bravo!
September 20, 2009 @ 11:11 pm
Laura,
Thanks, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible and truth be told I’ve learnt a lesson from it too. I remember seeing fresh turmeric root for the first time in Malaysia and was utterly blown away by the colour. I can still see the street stall and the vendor showing me it.
Miles
September 21, 2009 @ 7:27 am