Rogan Josh Curry Paste.
I have no dishonour with my flagrant corner cutting in cooking. If there is a process that takes me to the flavour quicker, then I have every possible intention of taking it. This is evident in my home made rogan josh paste. I happen to bulk make this and store it in little jars that are dotted like ellipses in my fridge ready to snatch when the moment takes me. However, the corners I cut may be brazen, I have not sacrificed any of the robust traditional rogan josh flavour and still cling true to the basis of construction on which it is formed.
A rogan josh is a staple in Kashmiri cooking and roughly translates to an intensified and hot simplified butter. However, the paste itself is a beautiful mixture of hot spices that are more throat warming than skull melting as it’s constructed with spices of the sweeter family with heavier aromas as opposed to those constructed with fiery heat. The corners I cut are evident in the chargrilled red peppers for the consistency and a curry powder instead of the Kashmiri powder.
But anyway, it requires nothing more than the following.
Take a small handful of chargilled red peppers (available from a jar) and slice up before adding to a food processor. Follow this by adding some crushed coriander seeds, 1 teaspoon of chili powder, a teaspoon of paprika, a teaspoon and a half of garam masala, two garlic cloves, a handful of fresh coriander, a generous squirt of some tomato puree, a chopped chili (I have home grown ones but feel free to use any chili at your disposal, removing the seeds if you desire a milder warmth), some flavourless oil and finally a thumb size piece of ginger. Sounds like a huge list but as you can see from the picture, nothing is fresh and was all found lingering in my pantry.
The recipe is quite complicated now so pay attention. Now what you do is: press the button.
Once everything has crushed together and blended to form a deliciously aromatic and rough textured paste, you are ready to either cook with it or jar it for later.
Maybe it wasn’t so complicated after all.
Traditionally this is cooked with a lamb – which I thoroughly recommend – and for that you would only need to fry up some onions in oil followed by some lamb cuts before adding this curry paste, some water and once everything has emulsified, add a little Greek yoghurt and serve with some plain rice. However I never like being caught off guard and there will always be some form of Rogan Josh paste in my fridge.
MIKEY AND THE KITCHEN. 