In this article you will find different options for your main ingredients in BIR (British Indian Restaurant) style curry (the protein and/or veg ingredients), and options on how to pre-cook them (if at all).
Typically in Indian restaurants and takeaways the choice is mostly limited to a selection of proteins or vegetables, e.g. chicken, chicken tikka, lamb, prawn, keema, paneer, or veg. However, when cooking BIR food at home. a much larger selection is available, and if desired, in numerous combinations.
The speed of cooking to order is a key factor, and to that end a lot of the ingredients are cooked in advance to help hurry the curry process along. This is especially relevant to meats such as lamb, which can take 90 minutes or more to cook. To a lesser extent this applies to poultry – cooking chicken safely from raw to cooked in the final curry cook still takes the chef undesired additional time.
However, at home when we are cooking only one, or perhaps a few curries, we don’t have the same constraints on cooking time. An extra five minutes here and there will have hardly any affect on our schedule. We still have to pre-cook lamb and chicken tikka (for example), but conversely we don’t have to cook chicken (off the bone) in advance, and can instead (if we wish) cook it from raw in the curry itself.
So let’s look at the most common types of main ingredients for curry and how (or how not) to prepare them.
CHICKEN
Given time, I prefer using my recipe to pre-cook chicken so I can portion up and freeze enough to last for a good number of curries. The recipe produces tender and tasty chicken (off the bone breast or thigh), delicious enough even to be enjoyed on its own. When added to a curry it can be added near the beginning or near the end – it just needs to be heated through.
The simplest option for cooking a chicken curry, though, is to put the pieces in raw. It should be added early on enough so to give it time to cook through, and you should make sure the pieces are coated well with sauce at all times. That will help the chicken from drying out and going tough. Make sure the chicken is safely cooked, but don’t overcook it either.
An simple altertive method for pre-cooking is to poach. When making BIR style curry you’ll be having a pot of base gravy simmering away, so it’s a good opportunity to cook the chicken that way. Simply it to the base gravy and simmer until done – 10 minutes or so for medium sized pieces of chicken.
In the above two cases, of using raw and poaching in base gravy, please bear in mind that the chicken will not be seasoned so the curry may need a little bit of extra spices and salt to compensate.
RECIPE FOR PRE-COOKING CHICKENCHICKEN TIKKA RECIPE
LAMB / BEEF
It’s best to use cheaper cuts of lamb or beef such as shoulder or leg in a curry, and they do need quite some time to cook, sometimes up to 2 hours, with gamier meats like goat taking even longer. When given that time, the meat turns out super tender and ready to use.
My recipe for advance cooking the meat in chunks is suitable for both lamb and beef, and can be used with mutton, goat and similar. The result is not only tender and delicious meat, but also an amazing stock which can be used to enhance your curries with.
For even better results cook the meat with the bones – take the meat chunks out once tender as per the recipe, then continue to simmer the bones for an hour or more. Add a little extra water along the way if you feel it’s thickening up too much.
To store the cooked meat for future use, I seal approximately 180g-200g of it in a freezer bag with enough of the stock to coat it – that’s quite a generous amount per serving, considering the expense.
Whether you are using bones or not, don’t waste the stock. Pour it into ice cube trays freeze it. Two or three tablespoons of stock will give your meat based curries a lift when added part way through cooking.
RECIPE FOR PRE-COOKING LAMB / BEEF
KEEMA
Let’s not forget about keema (minced meat, usually lamb, but sometimes beef, or a combination) as a main curry ingredient. Being in a minced form means the meat will cook a lot faster than in chunks. It’s best to pre-cook it for use in a (BIR style) curry as it does benefit from that longer time, and the extra flavour you can add makes it worthwhile. Keema is great in a curry because you get a little bit of meat in every bite.
Check out my recipe for pre-cooking it below, which can be batch cooked, and portioned up for the freezer if desired.
RECIPE FOR PRE-COOKING KEEMA
VEGETABLES
Cooking time varies immensely between types of vegetables and is also affected by other factors. such as size. There are many options.
Some (for example garlic, ginger, onion, pepper, and mushroom) are ideally suited to be added when you’re actually cooking a BIR style curry. That is, provided they’re in small enough pieces, or if you’re willing to wait longer. The larger the veg pieces, the longer it takes.
Having said that, semi-raw onions and peppers have a pleasing crunchy texture which adds to the character of a curry, for instance a Jalfrezi. My recipe for that involves ‘scorching’ largeish pieces of peppers and onions in a frying pan for a couple of minutes to caramelise them and soften them up a little.
Others vegetables such as potato, cauliflower, carrot do need longer cooking, and of course it depends how big or small the pieces are.
When I’m prepping to make a curry with such mixed vegetables, a simple method of pre-cooking them is exemplified as follows.
Peel and chop potato and carrot into 2cm chunks, and break off some cauliflower into similar sized pieces. Bring a pan of salted water to a simmer, add a teaspoon of turmeric, the potatoes, and the carrots. Simmer for about 10 minutes or until cooked but still firm. Add the cauliflower and some frozen peas about half way through that time. Drain and use in the curry at will.
PRAWNS
Raw prawns are quick to cook through, and should not be heated for a prolonged time or they will go rubbery.
It’s simple enough to add them to a curry a couple of minutes before the end. Prawns that are bought already cooked need next to no time and just need warming through.
Obviously the larger king prawns will need a little longer than smaller ones. Make sure any hint of rawness (translucency) is gone before eating them.
It’s worth noting that prawns have a high water content which, when released, will thin a curry somewhat.
PANEER
In my opinion, paneer (a type of cottage cheese used a lot in vegetarian Indian cuisine) is underused as a main ingredient in BIR style curries. It blends in well with most dishes, having a mild, creamy taste, and has a firm texture which gives a satisfying mouth feel.
You can make paneer at home easily but it can be challenging to get it firm. When commercially made, it’s compressed with large presses that ensure the cheese is firm enough to withstand cooking. Most often, I find it more convenient to buy it ready made from Asian supermarkets, and I know that the mainstream British outlets also sell it nowadays.
Paneer doesn’t need pre-cooking, but it benefits from being fried to brown some of the sides, and to firm up the texture further (you know – that ‘squeaky cheese’ experience). It also likes being seasoned well to bring out the flavour.
To give your paneer a tasty headstart, chop it into bite size chunks (1-2cm), drizzle with a pinch of salt, a small drizzle of oil, a sprinkle of kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves). Put it in a frying pan medium high heat in a frying pan, and gently stir fry for 2 minutes or until you’ve got a nice bit of browning on a few of the sides. Empty into a container and set aside until adding to your curry right near the end.
