There’s so much more that can be done with fruits if you don’t enjoy eating them raw or as chaat. You can still get fruitilicious, and spread it beyond your breakfast, right to your supper. So why not try some fruity curries? These are low-spiced delicacies made out of seasonal fruits, typically with a white creamy gravy.
Chef Nizammudin of Kasbah suggests these for times when you are bored with the spicy chicken, mutton or even veggie spreads. But then, you should be willing to experiment. His fruity version of Navratan Qorma is prepared with a fruit cocktail comprising papaya, pineapple and cherry. “The base for this is again creamy and it’s rich in dry fruits,” he says.
Fruit curries, being low on spices, have been a part of various Western menus. “Aren’t we pretty cosmopolitan when it comes to food?” observes Shamsul Wahid of Smoke House Grill. His favourite fruity curry is Orange Duck, which he makes with freshly cut oranges in orange syrup.
Also, depending on the availability of the fruit in a particular region, they have traditionally been incorporated in regional dishes. Like the red and rich Seb Ki Sabji from Kashmir — a fascinating dish made with apple — relished with rice, or down South, mango and banana curry have always been loved. Interestingly, in Delhi many kitchens have adopted fruit curries and are enjoying them with slight modifications. Like the effortless and tangy mango curry, which can be made in exactly 30 minutes, is cooked in many city homes. You just have to fry onions, grind together coconut, chillies, garlic, ginger, cumin and coriander, add the ground mixture and stir-fry well. Add mango slices and jaggery and pour one glass of water. Add salt and prepare on a medium flame till mangoes are tender and the curry thickens. Enjoy.
Orange Duck
ingredients
2 cloves
Garlic peeled
1 tbsp curry powder
30 ml olive oil
Half onion red (chopped)
Fresh oranges (deseeded and chopped)
2 tbsp mashed potatoes
30 gm pure ghee
10 gm hazelnut
2-3 stalks pock choi
1 breast duck (Peking)
100 ml orange juice
Salt, to taste
METHOD
For the duck breast: Score the duck on the skin side. Marinate with salt and pepper. In a hot pan place the duck breast skin side down. Slowly cook till the fat melts away and the skin becomes crisp. Turn over sear on the other side. Reserve the fat. Cook in the oven at 160 degree for 10 mins.
For the mash: In a pan add hazelnut, toast till slightly golden. Then add duck fat, and the mash of potatoes. Adjust seasoning.
For sauce: Add pure ghee in the pan. Add chopped onions and sauté till transparent, add orange juice and reduce till it becomes syrupy. Add chopped oranges.
To assemble: Place mash on the center of the plate in a sauté pan. In a pan, sauté pock choi with wine and place on top. Carve the duck and arrange on the mash. Pour the sauce on top. Serve hot.
(Recipe by chef
Shamsul Wahid)