New Zealand Play the French - Let's Eat Indian

The All Blacks are playing the French.
Pete and Elphie were coming over to watch the rugby.
Food on your lap was the order of the day. What better than Curry?

On Food TV Cyrus Todiwala one of Britain's most successful Indian chefs, demonstrated this delicious curry.
"I Curried favour" with our guests!!! and it worked
The flavour and texture of this dish with the ground nuts in the sauce is just divine.

So:
Green Curry with Cumin Pilau

Once again you can make the sauce for the curry earlier in the day and add the prawns just before serving.
The Pilau is very simple just a wonderful flavour with the cumin and onion

First the Curry
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
5cm piece cassia bark broken in half
4 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
4 cloves
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
4cm piece ginger, finely grated
2 green chilies, seeded, finely chopped
½ tsp turmeric
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
150 mls water
500 mls coconut milk
50 gms cashew nuts, roughly chopped
110 gms ground almonds
5-6 fresh curry leaves
500 gms tiger prawns, shells removed
2 tablespoons roughly chopped coriander leaves


Heat a heavy-bottomed casserole, and add oil.
When hot add the cardamom, cloves and cassia bark.
Cook for one minute on medium heat.
Add the sliced onions and cook for 3-4 minutes, or until translucent.
Make sure the onion does not brown.
Add the garlic, ginger and green chilies, and cook for 4-5 minutes.
Mix the turmeric, ground cumin and ground coriander with the water to make a paste.
Add to pot.
Place the coconut milk, ground almonds and cashew nuts into a food processor and blend until you have a smooth paste.
Add a little water if required to give it a single cream consistency.
As soon as the liquid has reduced down in the pot, add the coconut milk mixture and stir continuously for 1-2 minutes.
Add the curry leaves, and bring to the boil, stirring slowly.
Add salt, to taste, and simmer for 1-2 minutes, then add the prawns.
Continue to cook for a further 1-2 minutes, before removing the saucepan from the heat.
Sit for 5-6 minutes, while the latent heat of the curry cooks the prawns.

For the Cumin Pilau
These proportions of rice to water are perfect for this method. Couldn’t be simpler

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
900ml water
500g basmati rice, washed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper


To make the Pilau,
Preheat the oven to 150C
Heat an ovenproof saucepan until hot and add the oil, onions and cumin seed.
Fry for 3-4 minutes until translucent and softened.
Add the water and bring to a simmer.
Add the rice and stir well to combine.
Bring to a simmer and cover.
Place saucepan in the oven for 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and fork through.
Season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper


To serve, place Pilau Rice on plates and ladle curry on top.

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves