Mamta's Kitchen - A Family Cookbook





Patak's paste without the oil

Return to the forum index.

On 13/08/2007 05:08pm, Johnny C wrote:

Patak?s curry pastes are delicious and excellent for spicing up chicken, fish, meat. Sadly, the oil content (between 25 and 50% usually) mean that the pastes punch a big hole in a diet.

The Ingredients list on the jars isn?t helpful; it usually lists coriander, a few random spices, oil and salt and ?spices? (which it says IIRC ?contains mustard?). Quite by accident, I discovered how to get that Patak?s flavour without any of the oil.

This can be made in large batches. As it contains a lot of vinegar, the basic spice mix paste can be made in large batches, kept in a jar in the fridge, and made ready to use at a moment?s notice by simply adding low-fat fromage frais.

Purists would roast the coriander, cumin and fenugreek seperately, however the ground 'Rajah' or 'Nimco' spices give perfectly acceptable results. It's hard to get brown mustard powder, so you need to roast the mustard seeds and grind them. The mustard is necessary, it adds a subtle but essential taste.

Spice ingredients:

1 tbsp ground coriander

1 tbsp ground sea salt

1 tbsp turmeric

1 tbsp ground ginger

1 tbsp ground garlic

1 tbsp thyme

1 tbsp ground black pepper

1 tbsp brown mustard seeds

1 tbsp chilli powder or cayenne pepper

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp ground fenugreek

1 tsp asafoetida (not necessary but reduces the fart-power)

100ml white vinegar

To use:

1 onion or 4-5 spring onions

100ml fat-free fromage frais

Prepare the spice mix:

Mix all the spices together well. Roast and grind up the mustard seeds a bit using a coffee grinder or stick blender foodmill attachment. When you have a uniform colour and texture, add the vinegar. Mix in well, until you have a stiff paste. At this point, you should recognise the Patak?s smell!

This can be kept in a sealed sterlised jar in the fridge. If you were adding oil, at this point you?d need to add a lot of oil and fry the spices to kill off any bacteria from the oil, but as you?re not, the large quantity of vinegar should stop the spice paste from spoiling.

Leave for at least a day, it could be kept for 3 months without loss of flavour.

This is a basic mix. Different pastes from Patak's have different things in, so you'd need to use your judgement or refer to recipe books (such as Pat Chapmans) to see what different spices you need to emphasise.

To use the paste, mix a few tbsp with a tbsp of fat-free fromage frais. Ideally, chop half an onion or a few stems of spring onions (use the leaves as long as there is a white core). Blitz the past and fromage frais with a stick blender of in a food-processor. Salt to taste (if it?s not salty enough already).

Marinate the meat overnight if possible, then grill or stir-fry.

On 13/08/2007 06:08pm, AskCy wrote:

Basically you are just putting together spices that are used in making a curry from scratch. Would it not be better to just make up enough for when you want to make the curry then its as fresh as possible each time?

Steve

On 14/08/2007 01:08am, Waaza wrote:

there is an annoying (to me!) trend in India where cooks are using already mixed masalas for individual dishes. One might have twenty different masalas; makes little sense if the same spices are used over and over. The only benefit is if roasting a large batch (not all mixes are roasted, horses for courses), but the drawback is that all the spices have to go in at once, which is certainly not the way I would do it, for various reasons.

cheers

Waaza

On 14/08/2007 11:08am, Phil wrote:

I also prefer to grind whole spices fresh each time, and not to use the same spice mix for every dish. I use cumin and coriander a lot, but there are dishes in which I don't use them at all.

Phil

On 14/08/2007 05:08pm, AskCy wrote:

I use garlic a lot.. far too much some might say... but I love it...

Steve

On 17/08/2007 11:08am, JL wrote:

I was in India not so long ago and was amazed to see the rellies getting out the jars of curry paste, ginger and garlic.

When I told my relative about all the grinding / dry roasting etc I did in preparation she laughed and said "don't you have anything better to do with your time ahahahahah:)

I still prefer working from scratch.... a much nicer flavour

:)JL

On 17/08/2007 06:08pm, AskCy wrote:

I prefer doing it all (as with all my cooking) as I know exactly what has gone into it, no hidden chemicals, the type of oil and fat I want in there, no funny little extras..

Steve

On 17/08/2007 07:08pm, Caroline wrote:

I was always against curry pastes but not any more since I bought a book called "The Ultimate Low Fat Indain Cookbook" and they have a basic Curry Paste and a Tikka Paste which are brilliant - I make them myself so I know what goes into them. Not all the recipes in the book use the pastes but the ones that do also have other herbs and spices in them so none of them taste the same.

Tonight we were not having Indian food but wanted the rice spicing up a bit so put the rice and water into the steamer bowl and added a Tbsp of the curry paste and the rice was wonderful. The spices have been earlier "cooked out" so there is no bitter taste in the rice and the oil is kept to a minimum.

So do not dismiss these pastes if you make them yourself.

On 17/08/2007 07:08pm, AskCy wrote:

but making them yourself is again making them from scratch only putting in what you want in there! So rather than spending hours making up a massive batch sorting jars our, storing etc, aren't you better just making each thing with the spices when you need them ?

Steve

On 18/08/2007 03:08pm, Caroline wrote:

It is not "a massive batch" but one small Kilner jar which I keep in the fridge - it takes about half an hour from start to finish to make and is there when I want it. Today I am making Hot Chilli Chicken which has cumin, chillies, paprika, bay leaves, coriander, cumin seeds etc etc. plus 1 tbsp of the paste to give it an extra dimension. Another time it could be Jalfrezi - same curry paste but with different spices to give an entirely different taste.

If I wanted spicy rice I would have to cook the spices out first - or end up with a powdery taste- then add to the rice - this way it is one spoonful out of the jar and put away for next time. Spend the time once making the paste then you don't have to do it again for a while.

Return to the forum index.