Curry Legend -World Curry Staff Testing

Last month, we gave you guys a sneak peak at some of your favourite dishes that will be included in the upcoming Curry Legend World Curries cookbook.

This month, some of those same dishes were put to the test in a round of our famous Spicery Staff Testing! But sometimes, things just don’t happen in your favour (especially when you don’t read the recipe instructions beforehand and panic takes control!).

So amongst the good times, we decided we should be honest and report some of the bad times too. From flying bits of lemongrass to a broken blender mid-cooking and even suffering the consequences of poor time management, we think it’s safe to say we’ve experienced it all this time!

Alice's South east Asian successes

I was really excited to try out a few of the NEW curry legend world curries at home. The original book went down a storm with my other half and housemate so I was interested to see whether this would be as successful.

As with the original book the recipes are nice and quick to make.

I cooked 2 recipes from South East Asia.

Firstly the Thai Muslim biryani, which we'd eaten on Khao San Road in Bangkok which turned out to be a pretty authentic version (if a little lacking in 100% humidity and cold Singha beers).

Secondly the Nyonya Fish Curry which was equally delicious!

Looking forward to the printed version coming out soon!

Amy's Curry By The Sea

So great to be back doing some staff testing! I was excited to try a fish curry as I was spending the weekend by the sea and was able to pick up some mackerel.

The miris malu is such a quick and easy recipe, the coconut milk made the sauce really rich and lovely - I thought it might be a bit too rich with the oily fish but the chilli heat from the spices balanced everything out perfectly. If I had time I would've marinated the fish overnight but it was still amazing and well received by my folks.

The second recipe I cooked was the Vietnamese chicken curry - wow, delicious. Apart from managing to fire the inside of the lemongrass across the room when I whacked it with a rolling pin, things went according to plan and the curry just bubbled away happily for half an hour. I served it with huge hunks of baguette which was perfect for mopping up the incredible sauce, no rice cooking required! Definitely going to make this one again.

Elizabeth's Trinidadian Feast!

This was my first time at Staff Testing and to be honest, I’m not a great chef so I was a bit nervous!

Since there were two Trinidadian recipes up for grabs, I thought it was most appropriate for me to try them out for authenticity: Creole Pelau and Geera Pork. I’ve seen my mom make Pelau before and have tried making it myself a few times but I’ve had no experience in making Geera Pork, as it’s a dish we usually purchase from ‘d Geera man’ in my hometown.

My plan was to eat both dishes together as one meal, which would not be too uncommon back home. The entire process was really straightforward and the recipes were both very easy to follow. However, I mismanaged my time and ended up having to eat the Pelau on its own and then having the pork with boiled rice and broccoli (also not uncommon in Trinidad, minus the broccoli!).

All in all, it was a great meal and I’m glad we invited friends over to share, because it was a lot of food! In terms of authenticity of taste, this Trini girl gives both dishes two solid thumbs up!

Maisie's Hong Kong Fish Balls!

I was excited to try one of the World Curry recipes as there are definitely a few there which i've never heard of or seen before.

I decided to go for something that sounded quite exotic to me- the Hong Kong Fish Balls, of which I had no idea what to expect though it's safe to say things did NOT exactly go to plan!

The start of cooking was a sign of this downhill struggle which I ignored as I somehow was unable to source prawns in my local supermarket! I decided to just use more of the white fish the recipe calls for. Unfortunately, the prawns provide more than flavour, they act as a binder for the fish balls so that you can mould them. I found this out the hard way as my 'balls' were more like crumbly masses of fish...

I still went ahead a fried them and about half stayed together- Mostly due to the fact that I misread the recipe and began frying the fish in a load of oil before realising my mistake!

Deciding to move on from this disappointment, I went onto blending the paste and had forgotten that the blender broke a few days earlier and so had to do my best to chop up the onions into a paste. In hindsight it would have worked to use a pestle and mortar but my brain seems to have been somewhere else that evening!

The sauce actually turned out to be absolutely fine and bubbled up into a thick and rich sauce to cover my deep fried remnants of fish.

We then had a knock on the door as my friend came round for dinner who I then remembered is vegetarian...oops! 

And so we took out the stack of dusty local takeaway menus and decided to give into fate who seemed to not be on my side.

Though I had failed at a few of the vital steps in the recipe, it was still a lot of fun to prepare with my friends and I was determined to add my dish amongst the plastic boxes of takeaway Indian...

Just read the recipe beforehand folks!