Topic: Jalandhari / Jalandhri Recipe?

[Naga]

Although it's a while since I had a Chicken Tikka Jalandhari, I remember the dish with great fondness and I'd like to try and recreate it. It seems to be found mainly on Scottish menus, although I've found a few instances of the dish on online menus down south.

The description of the curry is fairly consistent on restaurant and TA menus, and Mr Singh's India at Charing Cross, Glasgow is a fairly typical example:

"Jalandhri - A potent fusion of ginger, garlic, onions and peppers, coconut cream and fresh herbs simmered in a spicy chilli sauce"

It's heat level is variously described as ranging between "spicy", to "hot" to "very hot". There a very few odd variations which incorporate mushrooms and spinach, but I have no memory of these ingredients in any Jalandhari I've eaten.

As far as I can see, there's precious little online information on the recipe for this curry, but given that the city is situated in the Punjab, there's bound to be strong regional influence on the recipe.

The only recipe I've been able to find with "Jalandhar" attached to it was this one:

Jalandhari Special Chhole (Chane):sent by Ritu

Ingredients : 1 cup kabuli chana 1 tomato, chopped 1 onion, chopped finely 1 onion, sliced into rings 1 tsp garlic, grated 1 tsp ginger, grated 3 green chilies, chopped 1 tbsp coriander, chopped

[Naga]

Well, I didn't manage out for a sit-down, but I DID get a takeaway from one of the popular restaurants nearby. I chose the Chicken Jalandhri and my good lady wife went for the Chicken Chasni.

When I plated up my wife's meal, I had a sneaky lick of the serving spoon only to find that the "Chasni" sauce tasted just like a Korma with orange food colouring added. My wife confirmed this on her first taste, adding that the chicken breast tasted just like boiled chicken - and that wasn't a compliment!

My Jalandhri didn't look too inspiring either. There was plenty of darkish browny-orange sauce and chunks of orange-coloured chicken with some roughly chopped onion, finely chopped green pepper and what looked to me like finely chopped fresh methi leaves.







It didn't really taste of much, although there was a bit of background heat reaching for the back of my throat, and I can confirm that the chicken probably WAS just boiled in water with some orange food colouring added. It was neither tasty nor succulent.

A bit of a disappointment really, although my wife reckoned that my Chasni beat the restaurant version hands-down - and who am I to disagree!

I'm not exactly sure what it is I'm looking for in a Jalandari as my memory is a bit foggy on the look and taste - but I DO remember that any I had in the past impressed me enough to want to try my hand at a recipe now.

I'm not sure where I go from here, but I think I was unlucky tonight. I'll definitely have to get out to a good restaurant and try the dish again, because tonight's offering came nowhere near the mark.

[Secret Santa]

Naga if that's what you get from a 'popular' restaurant around your way I don't think I'd like to try the dodgy ones!  ;D

As far as the chicken goes it sounds like it was just boiled in turmeric because that's exactly the effect you get. I go out of my way to avoid restaurants that do their meat that way.

The thing that struck me about the recipe you posted for this curry is the 2tbsp of asafoetida!  Was that a typo? If not that's going to be a very potent curry. It may even be the unique selling point for this particular curry, if it is in fact not a typo, and may be what you are looking for?

[Naga]

Naga if that's what you get from a 'popular' restaurant around your way I don't think I'd like to try the dodgy ones!  ;D

Aye! That's why I came here and started making my own! 

The thing that struck me about the recipe you posted for this curry is the 2tbsp of asafoetida!  Was that a typo? If not that's going to be a very potent curry. It may even be the unique selling point for this particular curry, if it is in fact not a typo, and may be what you are looking for?

The recipe is the same as the one the link above it points to. I didn't reformat it, and the author obviously didn't bother with adding any punctuation. I think he's suggesting 3 or 4 pinches of asafoetida, which still seems a lot to me.

Anyway, the search for a palatable Jalandhari (whatever it might be) goes on...

PS: I forgot to add that I couldn't detect any "potent fusion" incorporating ginger or coconut cream in the curry - no trace of a taste resembling those ingredients.

[Secret Santa]

This sounds like what you're after Naga: http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3912.0

It's a pretty complex recipe what with the various pre-made stuff but it's from the Ashoka, and you said this is usually seen North of the border, so it sounds promising.

[Naga]

Well spotted, SS! I did a search on here first with negative results before I tried the wider Internet. It never occurred to me to omit the "h" from Jalandhari! I'm a fan of PP's Jaipuri, so I have high hopes for this one. I'll give it a bash and post the results. Thanks again!

PS: I had a quick look at the online Ashoka menu and the dish description is virtually the same as the one in my first post. I also see that no-one seems to have had much success in cooking PP's recipe, so I don't hold out a lot of hope for my efforts. I'll still give it a go, though, and see how I get on.

[Naga]

This afternoon, I demoed the Jalandhari recipe minus meat and based it largely on the only published dish available, namely, PanPot's brief notes on the Ashoka version.

Of course, there's no hint as to the ingredient quantities required, so some educated guesswork was required. I based the quantities on the ingredients I use in a South Indian Garlic Chilli Chicken and, of course, the Ashoka Jaipuri, both of which I'm very familiar with.

I had all of the ingredients to hand, with the exception of green pepper, mixed pickle and the Ashoka versions of garlic sauce and masala sauce. I substituted yellow pepper and Mr. Naga and, noting comments from billycat, JerryM and ELW in the original thread, decided my best approach was to use pre-prepared garlic chilli sauce and Zaal red masala sauce both of which I keep frozen and have great confidence in.

What can I say? I ended up with a smooth, velvety orange-brown curry sauce which had a good, hot mouthfeel from the tandoori paste, Mr Naga, chilli paste and garlic chilli sauce. I have to agree with Martinwhynot, who commented in the original thread in that "it took me straight back to the Ashoka taste I remember", although that was probably largely down to the late addition of the coconut cream in the cooking process.







I almost wish I had some Chicken Tikka ready to put into the curry, because the results certainly exceeded my expectations by some margin. Still, I've now got 2x400g curry sauce portions which I'll freeze for later use.

Is it a Jalandhari, or at least, is it the Jalandhari I imagined? I honestly have no idea, but the recipe certainly works and I'll certainly be using it again. Here's my recipe notes:

ASHOKA JALANDHARI (as adapted)

Serves: 2

Ingredients

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped finely

[natterjak]

Great looking recipe naga, thanks for posting it. If it were posted in the main dish recipes / house specialities section it would be much easier to find in future.

[Naga]

Thanks for your kind words, NJ.

I haven't posted this recipe anywhere else because its simply my adaptation of PanPot's original recipe which is, itself, posted as  PanPot's Ashoka Jalandri in the Main Dishes section of the forum.

To publish the recipe myself as a new and separate entity seems too much like claiming personal credit for the dish. All I've done is tinker with PanPot's original input.

PS: In view of your very valid comments, NJ, I've appended a link to this topic on PanPot's original thread.

[Stephen Lindsay]

Somewhere along the line I've missed this one and it looks the business!