Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Experimental Cookery 2013: Lamb Kofta Curry

Yesterday's effort was another one from the Hariy Bikers' "Great Curries". It was significantly better than the previous one, but...

Yesterday was not a good day. There have been a few of those this week, but what made yesterday bad was that there was a traffic jam on the way to work, which meant I was late, which meant I had to work late. And, since everyone else was late, too, the traffic on the way home was also bad, so I got in very late. The last thing I wanted to do was to spend any time cooking, but there wasn't any choice.

The first step of this curry was easy - I had to make up the koftas, which as basically just meatballs. So, a bunch of stuff went into the food processor, the mince was added, and then it was put in a bowl and covered to chill. That was on Sunday. Because of this, the meat had to be used yesterday, or it would have had to be thrown out.

Still, I didn't think that should be too bad - I just had to whip up a sauce, cook the meatballs in the sauce, and that would be that. How bad could it be?

Unfortunately, what I hadn't reckoned with was that the sauce required a 20-minute simmer step. Then, that done, the koftas needed cooked in the sauce... also requiring a 30-minute simmer step. It wasn't difficult, at all, but it was time-consuming... and it was the last thing I wanted to do after a hard day.

The resulting meal was very nice, and I'm sure we'll have it again (if only because we have half the koftas left over). But I won't be doing this on a week-night in future. The closest I'll come might be to make up the sauce in advance and freeze it for later use, thus reducing the hour and a half I spent down to half an hour or so.

So, this one was a victory, but rather a Phyrric one. Hopefully, tonight's prawns won't entail the same level of trouble...

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