Curry Recipes Online
Curry Chat => Lets Talk Curry => Topic started by: Robbo141 on March 22, 2022, 10:55 PM
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Since discovering the Butter Chicken recipe, cooked in the Instant Pot electric pressure cooker,
https://twosleevers.com/instant-pot-butter-chicken/
I’ve been experimenting with variations, just winging it basically and I have to say the results have been very satisfactory. Good enough to just not think about base gravy for the foreseeable future. Heresy, I know.
If you have a pressure cooker, give it a bash. It’s the simplest of methods and makes for very tasty result. This was my last one:
Ingredients
1 tin diced tomatoes
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1.5 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tsp kasuri methi, crushed / rubbed
1 black cardamom
1 piece cinnamon
1 tsp extra hot chilli powder
3-4 cloves
2 bay leaves
Chopped fresh coriander stems. About 1” of the bottom of a bunch
1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs or tenderloins work well too
Put everything in the cooker and mix well.
Put the lid on and Cook on ‘High’ for 10 mins then let pressure release naturally 10 mins then manually release the rest of the pressure.
Remove the chicken and discard the whole spices.
Blend the curry with a stick blender. It will be quite thin at this stage but that’s OK.
Let it cool a good 30 mins or more. Apparently this helps when adding cream later.
Return the chicken to the pot and add:
5-6 Thai chillies, sliced lengthwise
1 tsp garam masala
Some heavy cream. As this isn’t Butter Chicken, I didn’t add the whole 4oz cream, just a bit to give it some body.
Turn the cooker on Sauté and bring it to gentle simmer to warm the chicken back up and cook the chillies just enough. I did try putting the chilies in the first stage but cooking them under pressure just makes them mush and I prefer them a little more solid.
Really simple, and apart from the slight faff of having to blend and then let cool, it’s something I’m going to continue experimenting with this and not do base for a bit.
Give it a go?
Robbo
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OK, inspired by your recommendation (and rapidly losing my former interest in labour-intensive food preparation), I invested £59-99 in one of these (https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/prod.news.product.which.co.uk/news/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Lidl-Multi-Functional-Pressure-Cooker-1-960x480.jpg) today. I will report back when I have tried it, but the first dish is far more likely to be braised sheeps' hearts in Madeira sauce than it is anything from the sub-continent !
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** Phil.
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Nice Phil. Useful for so many things and of course you can make base gravy in it in much less time than traditional methods, should you wish. Enjoy.
Robbo
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I've had mine for over 10 years and I use it all the time. Stews, curries, base gravy, corned silverside, pressure cooker, rice cooker all in one. I've used it to make Christmas Pudding. You'll love it. I'm also going to give this one pot Butter Chicken a crack. These units are fantastic.
I also have the standard stove top pressure cooker but I rarely use it these days.
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I also have the standard stove top pressure cooker but I rarely use it these days.
If the £59-99 Lidl special is all it's cracked up to me, my "standard stove top pressure cooker" will shortly have a new (hopefully temporary) home in the St Austell Hospice charity shop ...
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I tried this curry today and really enjoyed the flavours and ease of making, The only difference I did was to add a couple of onions in as prefer curries without too much tomato taste and thought this would help balance it. Am loving my new Instant pot and look forward to trying lots more dishes cooked in it.
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Great to hear foureyes
I’ve made a few variations of that recipe. It’s very forgiving. I put one roughly chopped onion in and it definitely added something to the texture after blending. The basic butter chicken recipe is a good starting point but hard to mess it up and it’s such a hands-off prep, I love it.
Robbo
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Inspired by your recommendation (and rapidly losing my former interest in labour-intensive food preparation), I invested £59-99 in one of these (https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/prod.news.product.which.co.uk/news/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Lidl-Multi-Functional-Pressure-Cooker-1-960x480.jpg).
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** Phil.
OK, initial feedback on the Silvercrest SSM 1000 A2. I used this for the first time today to cook a liver and bacon casserole. In the past I would have cooked one of these in a cast-iron casserole dish (Chasseur, Le Creuset or similar), so sought guidance from the web on cooking one in a multi-function pressure cooker. I decided to go with the recipe at Krumpli (https://www.krumpli.co.uk/instant-pot-liver-and-onions/), substituting my much-loved Bonne Cuisine Madeira wine sauce mix for Brian Jones' gravy ingredients. I didn't bother weighing the liver, nor did I bother to trim the liver and soak it in milk (why eat liver if you don't like the flavour ?!). Apart from that, I more-or-less followed the instructions, although I did ignore the "Sandwich the slices of bacon between two baking trays and bake in the oven with the liver for 45 minutes" and just threw four extra rashers in the pot at the appropriate time.
My first problem (apart from failing to realise that the device was not pressurising) was that the SSM <etc> has no manual setting. Nor does it display the temperature at which it is cooking or even list the temperature for each preset function in the handbook (I have asked the manufacturers for this information, and am awaiting a reply as I write). The second problem was that I failed to realise that the device does not require the lid to be in place when using the sear/sauté function. This, of course, made the searing phase rather more difficult than it need be. In the absence of a manual setting, I chose the "egg" option for the final (5+10 minute pressure-cook) phase, but found that this caused the sauce to stick to the bottom of the pan (it came free easily enough, using a wooden spoon) so I think that for my next Madeira sauce recipe (braised stuffed pigs' hearts) I will opt for the "soup" setting, which will hopefully operate at a lower temperature and therefore be less likely to cause sticking.
Once I had come to terms with the limitations of the SSM <etc>, I have to say that it produced very acceptable results. I couldn't be bother to cook any potatoes, so just ate it as-is, and it proved a very satisfying meal. Would I recommend the SSM to others ? Only if budget is the overriding criterion. If not, look for one that displays temperatures, allows you to adjust the temperature for the preset functions, and offers a manual mode. Maybe one of these (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crock-Pot-CSC051-Programmable-Multi-Cooker-Stainless/dp/B07C1MPN1T/ref=sr_1_24?keywords=multi-functional+pressure+cooker&qid=1648648498&sr=8-24).
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** Phil.
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Phil
My Instant Pot doesn’t show the actual pressure or temp either but I’ve never needed that level of detail. I just use manual no set for a given time. One thing I did read is that the soup setting is useful when cooking yoghurt based curry, to prevent it separating. When I do use the sauté function it just has high, normal, low settings. Works well as long as you keep stirring.
Just have yourself a bash at butter chicken and never look back.
Robbo
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Mine (Ronson) has no manual control at all. The only variable control is the timer and this is not applicable to the Saute and Slow Cook functions. Saute is lid off and one heat where you decide how long to cook for and turn it off when you're done. Slow cook is for 8 hours with lid on under pressure. The other modes, for Curry, Rice, etc, have the temperature pre-set, all operate with lid on and under pressure, however each mode is time variable between an upper and lower limit which varies from mode to mode.
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It sounds as if yours and mine are somewhat similar in functionality, Livo. Odd that in both the length of the sear/sauté programme is fixed — what do the manufacturers gain by this, I wonder. Incidentally, in mine "slow cook" defaults to four hours without pressure, but can be set to anything from 30 minutes to 20 hours (other "without pressure" programmes are "yoghurt" and "sear/sauté). Robbo, what did you mean by "I just use manual no set" ?
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** Phil.
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Incidentally, if anyone else is new at "Instant Pot"-style cookery, there is an excellent selection of relevant cookery (e-)books here (https://thepiratebay.org/search.php?q=instant+pot&cat=0).
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Sorry Phil, typo. I meant to say use manual and set for a given time. To pressure cook with the Instant Pot, I just press the Manual button, then set time for 10 mins. It comes to pressure, then automatically switches off after the set time and then the timer starts counting up from zero, so you can see how many mins it has been sitting, in case the recipe specifies to wait a certain time before manually releasing pressure.
I was given a paperback cookbook which is where I originally found the butter chicken lady, as she is known. Of course, all the recipes are online now, but it’s still been a useful collection.
https://www.amazon.com/Indian-Instant-Pot®-Cookbook-Traditional/dp/1939754542
Tonight I will be winging it again, this time using a can of crushed tomatoes instead of diced and see if that eliminates the need to blend.
PS: it makes perfect soft boiled eggs too.
Robbo
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Phil, I couldn't open that link, it appears there's some high court judgement on it along with others -http://www.ukispcourtorders.co.uk/
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That may well be your ISP, Anita. I will create a local copy of the page and send you a Dropbox link which should keep your ISP happy.
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** Phil.
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All in all a successful quick dinner in 30 minutes. :like: :like:
I was in need of a fast meal for 5 and had 3 large chicken breasts requiring use, so I gave this a try. I followed the linked Butter Chicken recipe quantities as given with the addition of a big spoonful of Patak's commercial Butter Chicken Paste and a half cup of water as I had nearly 1 kg of breast fillet (almost double). It did produce a nice easy curry and the preparation was nearly nothing so there is benefit there. Nobody complained about eating it. I guess it is an American influenced recipe as it uses Cayenne Pepper which I substituted for more Indian Kashmiri Chilli Powder.
My only issues were the texture of the chicken and looseness of the sauce. I don't usually cook chicken under pressure and the reason was clear again. The chicken chunks began to break down in texture and some pieces would literally shred when stirring in the last stages. Easily remedied next time by doing the sauce for a few minutes on saute before adding the chicken and then do less time under pressure. Chicken thigh fillet would probably be less prone to breaking up.
The sauce was a bit thin for my liking so I added a TBSP of corn flour / cold water slurry to thicken it up a little right at the end. This may have been my fault as upon reading the whole blurb, I did notice that there are suggestions in avoiding loose sauce and also the fact that only half the sauce is meant to be kept in the finished dish. I did neither of these. I just did a one pot cook with everything in on curry setting for 15 minutes with slow release for 10. Possibly over-cooked it but it worked OK.
The method in itself shows a lot of potential and the dish was enjoyable served with boiled Golden Basmati rice, steamed veggies and a few Parathas.
A lot of potential here Robbo.
Edit: I shouldn't have added the half cup of water. Pressure cooking in a sealed vessel requires minimal liquid. Note for next time.
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Good to see Livo. It very much is something that can be tinkered with and still get pretty good results. I’ve had similar experiences as you mentioned.
1. Chicken
I now just dump in a pack of skinless, boneless thighs whole. Much less fall-apart and no need to chop raw chicken, so less clean up.
2. Consistency
I found that switching to canned crushed tomatoes instead of diced gives a much better result and no need for blending. Just this week I tried rinsing out the can of tomatoes with 1 cup of water and adding to the pot but that made for a very thin result, so I ended up blending.
3. Cayenne
Agreed. I use 0.5 tsp extra hot chilli powder and 0.5tsp Kashmiri. Much better. I also find adding 5 or 6 thai chillies, sliced lengthwise after the pressure cook work very well, although not when cooking for the missis.
All in all though, as a simple technique to get a decent curry out, I’m finding this a great basis for experimenting. Glad you had a positive outcome. More to follow.
Robbo
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I had placed the small amount of leftover curry and rice in a microwave container in the fridge. I ate it for lunch yesterday and I really appreciated that it was indeed a nice tasty dish. The tomato, butter and kasoori methi had combined to give that familiar flavour combination. The method is certainly a lot easier (and much faster) than making a Makhani Gravy and real Murgh Makhani.
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Next day leftovers for lunch for me have rapidly gone from lunchtime to elevenses to near tenses these days. I always have rice left over and frying up a couple Thai chillies, a little onion, ginger and garlic then throwing in an egg before adding the rice (to which I already added a little Tamari) is the perfect breakfast. Splash a little fish sauce and I could be in Bangkok again.
As I write, the Instant Pot is doing its thing to make dinner for tonight. Adding fresh spinach after the pressure cook stage for a saag type dish. Serving with these amazing frozen naan breads we found in Trader Joe’s. Seriously good naan bread, straight from the freezer.
Keep calm and cook curry everyone. Spring is almost here and I’ll be outdoors on the grill doing BIR before you know it.
Robbo
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What brand are the naan Robbo? I have had good experience with Haldirams frozen naan.
I've bought some thigh fillet yesterday so I'm going to experiment with a one pot Balti / Mild Curry. I'll have a look at the recent Balti Base Gravy thread (Kushi) to see what's in it and then work out how to scale down and cook in one go. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. I may also include some of my home made balti paste and a bit of Rik's mild curry paste if applicable in lieu of spices.
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Trader Joe’s is a supermarket where all their food is own branded. I used to buy fresh naan from Stonefire but they were very lack luster and nothing like proper naan. Finding these frozen versions was a godsend. Saves the faff of making them myself although it is easy.
Hope your balti turns out good and you can post the recipe.
Robbo
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I need to upgrade the rating for the Instant Pot butter chicken. Before packing the leftovers from the cooked dish I packed a takeaway container for my daughter's partner. He was not there due to shift work and butter chicken is his go to dish.
He has rated it, the best butter chicken I've ever made, and lamented that I probably didn't remember how I did it. I don't know why he would think that! :clown2: Anyway, the dish gets the :like: :like: from him and I do know how to recreate it this time.
I did the "kushi" balti Instant Pot version. Very nice, some tweaking to do still and I'll post what I did soon. A little more to it, as expected, but still much easier than the whole base gravy method.
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Not exactly Kushi Balti Chicken in the Instant Pot / Multi Cooker. (I will do it properly to assess how close it is.)
I've attached a photo of the ingredients after minimal preparation. From the lower left and in roughly clockwise direction.
Cassia Bark, Tej Pat, 2 cardamom, 2 cloves.
Kasoori Methi
Mixed Paste (2 TBSP each of Balti Paste and Mild Madras Curry Paste)
300 ml of water
Dried Coriander leaf (I didn't have fresh)
Blended in the Nutri-Bullet - 2 medium onions and about 30 grams of carrot with 1 TBSP of oil and a splash of water.
1 small can of Tomato Supreme. (Approximately 1 cup and any form of tomato will do)
Vegetable oil (I probably used 3 - 4 TBSP in total)
1.5 kg of large cut Chicken thigh fillet
1 TBSP Ginger 1 TBSP Garlic
1 tsp salt
1/4 each chopped red and green capsicum.
What I did:
I started by tempering the whole spices in oil in the instant pot on Saute mode. After a minute or so, I added the pureed onion and carrot and allowed it to simmer away for about 10 minutes, stirring to avoid catching.
While this was going, I used a small frypan on the cooktop to fry the garlic and ginger on low heat. To this I added the curry pastes and allowed to fry for about 2 minutes, then added the tomato and continued to cook on low flame.
I then removed the whole spices from the instant pot and poured in the frypan mixture, water and added the chicken, capsicum and salt.
Stir it up to combine and set on Curry mode for 15 minutes.
After completion I allowed to pressure down for 10 minutes before lifting the valve and opening the lid.
Add Kasoori Methi and Coriander and cook for a further 5 minutes on Saute.
Observations:
Again, don't add water or use a lot less, just to avoid initial sticking. (It is a non stick instant pot but ???) I again needed to thicken with corn flour / water slurry as it was very watery consistency upon opening the lid. I think this is the biggest downfall of the method over pan fry BIR.
I forgot to include Garam Masala (from Kushi Balti). I added extra 1 tsp of salt after tasting following the pressure cook.
It made a nice mild chicken curry (Balti???) dish from scratch in less than an hour. It requires some tweaking but the method is solid. I used homemade pastes but you could use store bought of your choice for different profile dishes. Kashmiri, Rogan Josh etc. Some quartered fresh tomato added in the final 5 minutes would be OK as well.
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Nice variation Livo. I never cook that much chicken so would reduce the amount of pastes by half when I give it a go. Using pastes isn’t something I’ve tried yet with this new found pressure cooking technique.
Robbo
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There was enough in the pot for 10 servings.
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Cooking curry can be a very confusing and frustrating pursuit. Following my initial success with the Instant Pot Butter Chicken, and confident that my comments herein, would remind me of exactly what I'd done, I revisited yesterday. Well actually I cooked it on Friday and allowed it to sit for a day as this improved the dish last time, as is commonly experienced. While still an enjoyable meal, it just did not turn out the same. I did make a few minor changes but to be honest, I can't see how they would have had any detrimental effect. I simply withheld some water and added the chicken slightly later to avoid over-cooking. The dish simply lacked any depth of flavour and I can't determine why. Oh well, there's always another day to try again.
The plus side was that I did prepare a batch of Dawn Simpson's Spiced Chokos, using up a few of the many currently hanging on our vine, and my naan turned out well enough for the family to compliment them as "really good this time". 3 varieties, cheese, garlic and coriander plus plain. These were cooked on a cast iron flat plate I found somewhere (can't remember where) over gas and simply flipped. None of the tawa inversion etc. They turned out great. Yeasted naan with buttermilk and egg.
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Chokos… well there’s a thing I had to google. Interesting.
And I agree about the frustration that comes with inconsistency. The times I’ve cooked what I thought were absolutely identical dishes and have one great, only to find the repeat was meh…For that IP butter chicken, my only mods to Urvashi Pitre’s recipe are;
1. Use extra hot chilli powder instead of cayenne
2. Added ingredients - black cardamom, few green cardamom, star anise, couple cloves, Indian bay leaf, 5 or 6 Thai chillies, sliced lengthwise.
At least we get fed doing this never ending quest.
Robbo
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A very versatile vegetable that grows prolifically (here anyway) on a climbing vine. People put buckets and boxes full out on the street for neighbours to take. We have given 10s of kilograms of them away this season. Bake with your roast veggies, boil or steam them or make fried veggie patties (similar to pakora). You can even slice them up and stretch your apples into 2 pies instead of 1. They will take on the apple flavour and you wont know the differece. I have fond memory of them being pressure cooked on my grandmother's gas cooker. Apparently they fed many in the depression before my time.
The great thing is that they make a really nice curry quite similar to okra / bhindi, or you simply add them into your mixed veggie curry. I love the spiced choko recipe I use. I found it by shear chance about 20 years ago and make it several times every year when the vines are harvesting.
As for the inconsistency, I'm stumped as to how my second attempt simply didn't work. It was still OK but the first one was much better.