There’s more than one way to make a curry

Sometimes doing something different is a good thing. Over the weekend my partner and I made a curry, and we decided on using okra for the main dish.

I would automatically make a curry with onions as the base, however my partner (who is Indian) doesn’t. Of course this isn’t the first time she’s made me a curry, but this time lack of onions intrigued me. Like many of you I always used to consider onions to be an integral part of a good curry, as if they offer a major note to the flavours. Well it’s true that onions do give a fantastic flavour to curries, but it doesn’t mean you can’t make it delicious and flavourful without them. In fact the okra curry we made had a freshness of taste which is amazing. The tomato flavour is more profound and so are the flavours of all of those wonderful spices we added.

We also made pakoras out of Indian spinach. Indian spinach has small leaves and has a more bitter taste than our variety. We did use onion in these, blended them together with the spinach, spices and gram flour and then deep fried them. To go with the pakoras my partners made her secret instant Indian tomato and chilli chutney. It’s more like a salsa and amazing…hopefully one day she will give me the recipe!

To go with the meal we made our own naan bread, I don’t usually make my own Indian breads and it was surprisingly easy. We also used an excellent technique for getting a tandoor like result from a frying pan, it really made the bread look the part. By moving away from my way of making curries I ended up with a fantastic plate of food and learned a few tricks. I recommend trying to cook something in a different way to how you would normally make it as you might discover something life changing! Do you like to push the boundaries in your kitchen? Please remember to share your stories in the comments below. Michael Robinson