I decided to take up my culinary experience up a notch. If I usually make delicious difficult-to-prepare food (such as Indonesian food) with the help of some ready made spice mixture, this time I decided to make things from scratch. Or sort of. The menu for today: lamb curry.
When the new mall, Pejaten Village just opened last year, my hubby and I went there to check out what is in store. Since it was not fully functional yet (they said it was only a soft opening), not many of the stores were open. At that time, the Matahari department store and Hypermart grocery store were open, with some small stalls selling girlie accessories, a few food stalls in the food court, and some small restaurants including Secret Recipe.
Since my hubby is away, I opted to eat everything that he would otherwise not have on his menu. One of them is Indian food. Although he doesn’t mind having them once in a while but such occasion is just too rare for me. So when I went shopping the other day, I took some ready made Indian food from the supermarket: beef curry, chicken tikka masala and nan parantha for accompaniment. It was quite practical to heat up too. I just popped the beef curry in the microwave for a few minutes, while the tikka masala and nan went into the oven for about 20 minutes (wrapped in aluminium foil). Yes, I do realize the instruction on the box said 7-10 minutes in the oven but I took the food out from the freezer so it did take longer to actually heat up.
The beef curry was good although not particularly special. It reminded me a lot of Padang beef curry (rendang) although it was much more rich in spices. The tikka masala was really nice, it was a bit spicy (as in chilli hot) but still tolerable. The nan was actually disappointing because it was not as expected. It was too plain and too fluffy, and tasted like ordinary bread. So next, time I will try the other tastes of India (I could see they had plenty to choose from) but I may just try to make my own nan. We’ll see. 
Actually, the name of the dish is boller i karry. It’s my hubby’s favourite dish which is made of minced pork. Although I try to avoid eating pork, once in a while I do give in to his craving for his favourites. However, since I don’t really like the smell of raw minced pork, I make a deal with him that he will do the cooking when he wants to have this dish. This deal works well for both of us. Here’s how he does it.
Ingredients:
Season the minced pork with salt and pepper and mix thoroughly with the onion. Add one egg to help it stick, and form into balls. Bring chicken stock to boil, add the meatballs and cook until they float, remove and set aside. Add about 3 teaspoons of curry powder (or to taste). Add the corn flour to one cup of chicken stock, shake vigorously, and add to the pan. This will help thicken the sauce. Once the sauce has thickened, return the meatballs into the pan and season with salt and pepper if needed. We usually have rice as side dish and have a few spoons of blackberry jam on the side for taste. This recipe makes enough for 2 days (or four people).
