Chef spices up healthy eating

This is a very great story about the chef Moynul Hussain, makes me inspired and want to cook curry like right now!

A CHEF is hoping to tantalise the taste buds of South Tyneside's takeaway fans with his version of favourite Indian dishes.
Traditionally, curry is not regarded as the healthiest of foods.

But that could all be about to change if Moynul Hussain has anything to do with it.

The 37-year-old has launched a healthy curry drive with the opening of his new takeaway in Frederick Street, South Shields.

The key to his new venture is that all his dishes will be cooked in a health-friendly way, by using less oil and leaving out ghee – a traditional ingredient often used in Indian cooking which is high in calories. Mr Hussain, who has worked as a chef for 15 years in South Shields said: "People shouldn't have to compromise on taste to eat more healthily."

Mr Hussain moved to South Shields from Bangladesh 27 years ago.
He has trained as a health worker with the Community Voluntary Sector (CVS) and has run a number of healthy eating courses in Hebburn.

Mr Hussain has recently visited Bedewell Primary School, where he taught youngsters how to cook authentic Indian food.

He took over the shop, formerly Naz's, last month.

"With my background in cooking and the knowledge I have gained as a health worker about nutrition, I felt opening up a healthy curry shop was my way of putting something back into the community.

"I just hope people will give my curries a try and, if they like them, keep coming back."

As well as serving up Indian dishes, Mr Hussain says he is also able to give advice to people with special dietary requirements on what curry is best for them, as well as cater for parties.

Sandra Minchell, from Hedworth, who has taken part in Mr Hussain's cooking courses and has followed his tips on creating healthy dishes, said: "My husband and I attended one of his cooking courses and he hardly used any oil in his cooking. All his dishes are really healthy.

"My husband and I lost weight eating his curries alongside us exercising.

"I think it's brilliant that he has opened up his own business – I'm really pleased for him."

Moynul's Healthy Spice is open Monday to Sunday, 5.30pm – 11.30pm and can be contacted on 456 5588.





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Looking forward to Curry channa and aloo with buss-up-shot

A very interesting curry recipe to look forward to. This is worth a try! Read the surprise below.

Divali will be celebrated on Friday and already roti shops have been flooded with requests for paratha roti and channa. It is a time when these dishes are very much in demand. Cooking channa and potatoes is quite easy though it takes a little time to prepare. Making roti on the other hand is quite a task. Preparing these dishes at home can save you money and you can end up with enough food for three for four meals during a three-day period.
Channa also called chickpeas or garbanzo beans are extremely low in fat and are a great source of protein. They also provide an excellent source of molybdenum, a trace mineral that is needed for the body's mechanism to detoxify sulfites. Sulfites are a preservative commonly found in wine, luncheon meats, dried fruits and dried potato products.

As a good source of fibre, channa can help lower cholesterol and improve blood sugar levels. This makes them a great food especially for diabetics and insulin-resistant individuals. Like other beans, it is rich in both soluble and insoluble dietary fibre.

When served with high quality grains, channa is an extremely-low-fat, complete protein food. Channa is also a good source of folic acid, manganese, and minerals such as iron, copper, zinc, and magnesium.

Ground channa makes many tasty dishes like hummus, falafels (Middle Eastern) and curried chole (Indian). Here are two recipes for channa dishes and paratha or buss up shot.

Curry Channa and Aloo

1/2 lb dried channa or

1 tin of channa (garbanzo bean)

4 potatoes, peeled and chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

2 pimento peppers, finely chopped

2 tbsp curry powder

1/2 tsp geera

1/2 tsp masala

1/2 tsp salt or salt to taste

3-4 leaves chadon beni, chopped finely

If dried channa is used, pressure cook in salted water (1 tsp salt) until tender. Drain and set aside. Don’t throw away the water. Wash and peel and chop the potatoes. Heat oil and add onion and garlic.

Add the curry and cook until almost dry. Add potato and green seasoning. Stir until coated with curry. Add channa and mix.

Then add the pimento and chadon beni. Add the “channa water”, just enough to almost cover the channa and aloo.(about 2 cups).

Cook until potatoes are tender and mixture is thick. Season with salt, geera, masala. Add pepper to taste.

Pindi (Rawalpindi)

Chole (Channa)

2 cup dried channa (white chickpeas)

2 heaping teaspoons of black tea, coarsely powdered

2 badi/moti/kala elaichi (available in TT)

5 cloves, ground

3 small sticks of cinnamon

3 tsp ghee and/or peanut oil

4 green chilles

1/2 inch of fresh ginger

1 tbsp whole cumin

1 1/2 tsp coriander seeds, ground

1 tsp amchar

1 1/2 tsp black pepper, ground

salt to taste

1-2 tsp garam masala

Coriander leaves

Sliced onions



Soak the channa for 24 hours; drain, rinse once and drain again; place these, along with the tea, kala elaichi, cloves, cinnamon, and water to cover 1-2 inches in a pressure-cooker; cook for 12 minutes at 15 PSI; remove from heat and allow to cool and pressure to fall (or cook in a large saucepan until tender). Drain, reserving liquid. Remove and discard kala elaichi and cinnamon.

Meanwhile: halve the chilles, de-seed, then quarter lengthwise; cut across into 1/8 inch strips. Peel the ginger, then slice into thin rounds; stack the rounds and cut into fine shreds.

Dry-roast, separately, the cumin and coriander seeds; grind and combine with the other dried spices, reserving the garam masala alone in another bowl.

Heat the oil to smoking, then add green chiles and ginger; stir once and add the ground spices; stir once again and add the reserved liquid from channa; keep at a slow boil, stirring frequently as it reduces and lowering heat as you go, until thick enough to coat the stirring-spoon.

Add the drained channa and salt to taste; stir carefully over gentle heat until fully-hot. Remove from heat and stir in the garam masala.

Serve topped with sliced raw onions and coriander leaves.

Paratha Roti (Buss-up shot)

4 cups flour

4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 oz margarine, butter or ghee

1 3/4 cups water



Knead flour with baking powder and salt in a large bowl for mixing. Leave for about 1/2 hour, covered with a damp cloth. Divide dough into 4 balls.

Spread liberally, margarine/butter/ghee over dough and sprinkle w/ flour. Cut dough from the centre to edge.

Roll dough tightly into a cone shape, then press peak of cone into centre and flatten. Sprinkle flour on kneading area and roll out till very thin.

Place it on a moderately hot tawah (large skillet if you don't have one), coating dough on both sides with oil as it cooks.

Turn on both sides and cook about 1 1/2 minutes on each side Remove from tawah and hit with wooden palette until flaky.


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Indian Americans reflect on life in US

I have a feeling that India is busy preparing for Obama’s arrival... Maybe busy preparing the best curry they could offer and the world became so psyched about what’s going to happen that India is becoming a BIG HIT!

As US President Barack Obama prepares to visit India, BBC Radio 4's Americana programme spoke to first and second generation Indian Americans about their perspective on life in the United States.

Nilimma Devi - Choreographer

Nilimma Devi (centre) came to the US as a 25-year-old bride

I was born in pre-partition India, Peshawar to be precise. I came to this country [in the 1960s], a 25-year-old bride, to the Midwest, Madison in Wisconsin.
When I came to this country there was electricity, there was food. Things that were a rare commodity [in India] at that time, they were in such abundance. My first thing was: "I want a dishwasher and a car."
My neighbours were appalled. "This simple girl from India wants a dishwasher?" I didn't think I would have to walk two miles to get sugar and salt. So I wanted those two things. It was 1968-69, so it was all good.
I've always thought I would go back to India and perhaps settle there, retire there [but] there are things I can bring to India and America both. As an artist, I can take something beautiful of America to India, and bring something very endearing of India to the US - a sense of spirituality, music, religion, divinity and how that becomes relevant today.
Then I can bring new ways of looking at life, at culture, from US back to India - the spirit of innovation, the spirit of looking at the world in wonderment - not that other countries don't have it, but its more abundant here, I think, in the US.
That vibrancy comes from the many cultures who come here and bring many angles, many views of looking at life. To be exposed to those, it begins to stimulate you, your own energies, at another level, where you just become richer for it. It doesn't dilute your own essence, it just makes you richer.


Gabriel D'Coasta - Curry chef

Gabriel D'Costa says his daughters love living in America

I [was born] in India, Calcutta. I am a chef for different restaurants in Maryland. We cook the naan and some tandoori items, curry items, goat curry. We neither make it very mild or very spicey. I always try my best to give typical Indian food.
I have my family here, my wife and three daughters. We are now American citizens. In my family my wife doesn't work. She takes care of my children, the food, the studies, any teachers meetings at the middle school and high school, she is there too.
Here I have noticed that parents are not that interested. Husband and wife, both of them are working. I think in America that is lacking.
My daughters they love this country, they don't want to go back to India. They say we are now American, for America, by America. Even I say it too, because I have everything in this country-a good job, a good house, good everything.


Sreeja Nair - IT Professional

I am pretty sure that when someone first looks at me, I might be "a brown person who just happens to work in IT" and then I open my mouth. I think it's pretty accurate to say that I am direct person. I don't mince words... but I am tactful and diplomatic, and that might break a stereotype.
There are definitely parts of me being Indian that put me at an advantage. My parents were definitive about the fact that I would go to college for example. It didn't strike me until I was in grade 12, that there was an option to not go to college. "What do you mean that is an option? What do you mean I can take a year off and travel?"
Having said that, what they put into me was great work ethic, the need to understand material the need to learn, the need for continual improvement. That has definitely put me at an advantage.
The concept of a predetermined career being chosen for you is an Indian concept. The concept of having the freedom to find yourself and be a stronger person for taking the time to know who you are is more of an American concept.
Luckily, as a person in-between both these worlds I've had both the opportunity to be told what was thought to be an advantage to me, while at the same time taking the time to find out who I am, whether I would be happy in that. That, I think, is a hybrid of that of both having an Indian background but growing up in a North American culture.
I think if people looked my parents they would be more likely to know that they are Indian. I think if people looked at me they would either be thoroughly confused or consider me to be a "third culture kid," someone who can understand a variety of cultures and contribute in that way to the rest of the world.






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ANOTHER GOOD NEWS! Curry's curcumin may stem liver damage

See? Curry is an all around dish after all! It's not only delicious but it's also good in our health. This article proves and explains it all!

Curcumin -- a chemical found in the spice turmeric -- may help slow damage from fatty liver disease, U.S. researchers say.
Researchers at Saint Louis University in Missouri say turmeric -- one of the spices that gives Indian curries zing -- is also an ingredient in Chinese medicinals.
The study, published in Endocrinology, suggests curcumin may counter a liver disease associated with obesity -- called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis -- that can cause a type of damage called liver fibrosis and possibly cirrhosis, liver cancer and death.
"My laboratory studies the molecular mechanism of liver fibrosis," corresponding author Anping Chen said in a statement. "While research in an animal model and human clinical trials are needed, our study suggests that curcumin may be an effective therapy to treat and prevent liver fibrosis, which is associated with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis."
Chen and colleagues found leptin -- a complex hormone made up of proteins -- plays a critical role in the development of liver fibrosis. High levels of leptin activate hepatic stellate cells in the liver -- cells causing the overproduction of the collagen protein that characterizes liver fibrosis.
However, the researchers found one curcumin eliminates the effects of leptin on hepatic stellate cells and stops the formation of fibrosis.




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Curry healed our heartache: Separation, abuse and even murder have blighted the lives of these Indian sisters

Here’s a very touching story from dailymail.uk. Who would believe that this once a side-dish (CURRY) became their FOOD HERO? Check this amazing story that changed their lives.


For most of us, the dishes of childhood have a powerful nostalgic appeal. But for sisters Priya, Alexa and Sereena Kaul, these flavours and tastes are all the more important, given how traumatic their upbringing turned out to be.
One faced adoption because, as a girl in male-dominated 1960s Kashmir, she was considered a worthless burden. All three coped with long separation from their parents.
Most recently, they have lived through the murder of a beloved son and nephew. But throughout, they have clung - and cooked - together. Now, they've written a recipe book based on their consoling cuisine, in the hope of persuading the rest of us to follow their example.

Sister act: Priya, Alexa and Sereena Kaul have written a recipe book based on the consoling cuisine that saw them through a traumatic upbringing
Were it not for the obvious bond between them, you'd never guess they were related. Softly spoken Priya, 51, arrives wearing a purple beaded blouse, made in her husband's factory in Delhi. Alexa, 50, is every inch the mum-of-three in her stylish trousers and John Smedley cardigan, while feisty Sereena, 49, is pencil-slim in a tight designer dress, her highlighted hair pulled back off her face.
They even live on different continents - Priya in Delhi, Alexa in Surrey and Sereena in Florida. Despite the differences and distances between them, they still love to cook together. 'Often, I'll ring Alexa while I'm cooking and ask her what spices I should put in,' says Sereena.
Their culinary skills derive from their mother, Krishna, who married Omkar, an engineering graduate, when they were in their teens.
They were so poor they had to travel around India, living with whichever relation would put them up. In 1960, when Krishna was pregnant with Sereena, Omkar followed his brother to the UK to take a postgraduate degree at Leeds University, in the hope of improving his prospects. With only enough money for a single ticket, he left his wife and daughters with his mother in Srinagar, in the north of India.
There was much disappointment when another girl was born and Krishna was pressured by her in-laws to give Sereena up for adoption to a wealthy, childless couple. Though only 21 she found the courage to refuse.
Money was extremely tight. Omkar, while studying full-time, had a succession of menial jobs and sent all he could back to his family. Nevertheless, the sisters remember their early childhood as happy. After four years, their father had scraped together enough money to buy his wife a single boat ticket to join him.
Sereena, just three at the time, recalls hanging over the balcony with Alexa, arms outstretched to their mother, calling her to come back. 'I don't think Mum turned round - she was too heartbroken,' says Alexa sadly.
'I look at my own children now and don't think I could ever leave them. But if it was the only way I could get them a better life, who knows?'
Sereena stayed with her grandmother, while the eldest two were sent to stay with their great uncle. The regime was harsh. The girls were
sometimes beaten.
'When your parents aren't there, there's no one to speak up for you,' says Sereena. But after two years, the money was raised to bring the eldest girls, by then aged seven and six, over to Sheffield.
Alexa says, 'I remember this man walking towards us at Heathrow Airport, and Priya saying, "That's our Dad!" I said, "No, I've never seen him before."' Now an office worker, their mother had swapped her sari for a skirt and high heels. Alexa recognised her only by a mole at the corner of her eye.
'There was never any arguing about who did what. Sereena laid the table, while Priya and I diced the onions, washed spinach and cooked the rice'
Despite speaking only Kashmiri, both girls settled quickly and happily into their new school. However, when Sereena was finally brought over to join them the following year, aged six, it took her longer to adjust. She couldn't remember her mother and had never met her father. 'I was sure of my sisters, though, and in a way Priya has been a mummy to me,' she says. 'They always looked after me.'
The sisters have always cooked together. From when Sereena was seven, she, Alexa and Priya were expected to prepare dinner every day before their parents came home from work.
'There was never any arguing about who did what,' recalls Alexa. 'Sereena laid the table, while Priya and I diced the onions, washed spinach and cooked the rice, for our mother to fry it all up when she got in and we'd have our family meal.'
After leaving school, before the elder two went off to university, they all moved in together and carried on their collaborative cookery.
'There was never any discussion of who was cooking - we did it as a group,' says Sereena, who admits she was 'very, very upset' when she got a telegram from Priya announcing she was getting married. 'I wasn't prepared for my sister to leave me. I felt abandoned.'
Priya, the eldest and most conventional of the sisters, accepted an arranged marriage and was introduced to Raj Kachroo, a civil engineer who runs a factory with his sister.
'They were friends of the family so my parents knew everything about him.' When I ask how many children they have, Priya looks down and replies, 'I had two, but my son died last year.'
The sisters' eyes fill up with tears, and Priya is too upset to elaborate. Later, the others explain that Aman died after being assaulted by fellow students at medical school in India in an initiation rite that went horribly wrong. He was 19. A murder trial is under way against his assailants.
Poignantly, the sisters have dedicated their book to Aman, 'who truly believed in us'. You get the strong impression that this project has been part of the sisters' healing process.
Alexa has three daughters from her marriage to an Englishman, Jamie Goodwin, whom she met when they were buyers at London fashion store, Browns.
Sereena, the most rebellious of the three, refused to contemplate university and went straight into marketing on a national newspaper. Much to her parents' chagrin, she fell in love with her boss, Norman Walker, a divorcé with children a decade younger than she was.
The sisters' cookery book is a celebration of the importance of eating together, which has helped them during the tough times.
Sereena says, 'We cooked for friends all the time, and they'd ask us for the recipe and spices to go with it, which is how we came up with the idea for the spice box,' a stainless steel container with all the spices needed to create their dishes, which you buy separately.
As a project to bring their family together, it could hardly have been bettered. Now the sisters hope their delicious, homely recipes will work the same magic for the rest of us.

Curry did heal their heartaches.



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NO EXPERT INCLUDED: A VERY EASY CHICKEN CURRY RECIPE

Hey folks! Are you a big Curry fan? If you want to make your own Chicken Curry and find it hard to cook like a PRO, WORRY NO MORE! This simple Chicken Curry recipe is made just for you.

BUTTER CHICKEN RECIPE

For Marination
800 grams of chicken cut into pieces (preferably boneless)
1 tablespoon(s) slightly sour yoghurt (optional)
1 tablespoon(s) vinegar or lemon juice
1 teaspoon(s) each of coriander, cumin and red chilli powders
1 onion chopped and made into a paste (optional)
2 teaspoon(s) each of ginger, garlic pastes
salt to taste
a few drops of edible orange-red color (optional) For the Gravy
4 large tomatoes chopped
4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon(s) fresh cream
1 teaspoon(s) each of coriander, cumin, red chilli and black pepper powders
2 teaspoon(s) each of finely chopped ginger and green chillies
salt and sugar to taste
melted butter, fresh cream and finely chopped coriander leaves for garnishing

Prick holes and make cuts in the chicken pieces. Mix well the ingredients for the marinade and rub into the chicken pieces. Let it marinate for a few hours, overnight if possible for best results.
1. Heat half the butter on medium level in a heavy-bottomed pan and put in the chicken along with the marinade. cover and cook for about 25 minute(s) or till the chicken is fully cooked. After the liquids have evaporated, stir fry the chicken for some time in the residual fat.
2. Heat the remaining butter in a saucepan and add the red chilli, coriander, cumin and black pepper powders. Fry for a few seconds. Add the chopped tomatoes, sugar, salt and cook uncovered on medium level for about 7 minutes till the puree thickens and the fat separates. Stir in the beaten cream and reduce the heat to low.
3. Add the chicken, chopped ginger and green chillies to the simmering gravy. Sprinkle salt to taste if needed. Mix well. Cover and simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes or till the curry is thoroughly heated through.
Just before serving pour melted butter over the curry. Garnish with a swirl of fresh cream and finely chopped coriander leaves.
TIP:
• For a thicker and richer gravy cashewnut paste (soak cashewnuts in water for an hour or so and grind them) can be added while making the gravy in step 2... fry it along with the spice powders and then proceed as above.




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CURRYsma: Why is curry so tempting?

            It’s not a person or a diamond, It’s CURRY! It was once a side dish, now a main dish. Here’s a tale of total neglect to total attention.

            It’s funny how people considered the curry before as a type of “gravy” or a sauce and a side-dish. So picture curry as the children’s tale “ugly duckling” and the Sorcerer’s apprentice who seemed so vulnerable and dependent but time transformed them into the biggest superstars. But how did they survive?

            Unlike other side-dishes in the history of side-dishes the Curry became an international hit and it wasn’t even just a “one-time-fame” but THE CURRY, my friends, became prominent and phenomenal. This magical dish which originated from the subcontinent of India (the home of spices) started as a combination of India’s sacred ingredients: yoghurt, ghee, and besan. Then over time, people experimented with this sauce by incorporating meat and vegetables. Then, TADDAH! Hundreds maybe thousands of Curry flooded all over the world leaving humans in awe. Let’s just say that Curry is definitely a jaw dropper. And this is the dish’s cute little history.

            But what we are talking here is the Curry’s tempting charisma or shall we say, CURRYsma. When I read some forum on the internet about people who loves curry, I found some pretty authentic proof Curry’s adaptability that appeals a lot of people. Some answers were because of its smell and fantastic aroma, its color, and lastly some pointed out its spicy feature as its biting taste. But as I read more and more posts from these curry lovers, I noticed TWO common reasons why they love curry which I labelled as the ultimate CURRYsma. The two main reasons are: it’s easy to cook and because of its versatility it can be matched with almost all other kinds of dishes.

            There you go, now you know the CURRYsma! Happy eating!

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