Mains

Kaju Butter Masala is the kind of dish that is usually made as a side dish but mostly ends up being the star of the show. If you adore cashews, you will fall in love with this regally rich and royally elegant curry.

Butter Masala dishes such as the popular Chicken Butter Masala and Paneer Butter Masala are steadily gaining popularity in Pakistani home and restaurant cooking and rightly so – the rich gravy flavoured with Mughlai style spices truly makes these dishes fit for royalty.

I personally feel that Kaju Butter Masala is the most outstanding variation of the Butter Masala genre and makes a particularly fabulous dish when entertaining desi style. Amazing entirely on it’s own as a main, Kaju Butter Masala makes an impressive vegetarian entrée if you are serving a desi menu and looking for veg option ideas.

My family is so crazy about cashews that sometimes we have to hide any cashews in the house from ourselves (if that makes any sense) as we can polish off an alarmingly copious amount of those utterly delish nuts in record time. So if like us, you too adore cashews, then Kaju Butter Masala is the perfect curry for you.

Some people prefer a thicker Kaju Butter Masala gravy while those like me prefer a slightly looser gravy to mop up with with garlic naan or lachay daar paratha. So feel free to keep the gravy as thick or thin as you like.

I follow the recipe by Veg Recipes of India to make Kaju Butter Masala with barely any tweaks. This is the place I turn to for the most outstanding desi vegetarian recipes and you can find the original Kaju Butter Masala recipe by the wonderful Dassana Amit  here.

Serve Kaju Butter Masala as part of an elaborate desi meal or simply by itself accompanied by hot parathay, roti or naan.

 

Kaju Butter Masala

Recipe Type: Main    Author: Alice In Eatland

Prep Time: 20 Minutes    Cook Time: 30 Minutes    Total Time: 50 Minutes    Serves: 2 – 4

 

A sublime cashew curry, gloriously creamy and spectacularly seasoned! This Kaju Butter Masala is surprisingly simple to make and insanely delicious to eat!

 

INGREDIENTS

• 4 tbsps butter
• 4 large tomatoes, seeds removed and chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 large garlic cloves, finely minced, grated or microplaned
• 1.5 inch piece ginger, peeled and grated or microplaned
• 20 roasted cashews, powdered in food processor or coffee grinder
• 2 medium green chillies
• 1/2 tsp Kashmiri / degi chilli powder or red chilli powder
• 1 tsp Kasuri methi / dry fenugreek leaves
• Salt
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 2 tbsps cream
• 1/2 – 1 cup roasted cashews
• Fresh coriander leaves to garnish

 

METHOD

1. Heat 1 tablespoon butter and saute the cashews until they begin to change colour, being careful not to burn them. Remove sauteed cashews from pan and set aside.
2. Heat another tablespoon of butter in the same pan and add the bay leaf. Saute around 10 seconds.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes, stir and add 1/2 a cup of water. Cover and simmer until the tomatoes are soft and mash easily when pressed with the back of a cooking spoon.
4. Remove tomato mixture from heat and cool to room temperature. Remove and discard the bay leaf.
5. Process or blend the cooled tomato mixture until smooth.
6. Heat the remaining butter over medium heat in the same pan and add the garlic and ginger.
7. Stir for 10 -15 seconds and add powdered cashews. Stir until the mixture smells nutty and begins to colour slightly. Be careful not to over brown or burn.
8. Stir in the pureed tomatoes, Kashmiri/degi chilli powder or red chilli powder.
9.  Then add the water and green chillies. Cover and simmer the gravy, stirring occasionally until it is as thick as you prefer.
10. Season with salt and add garama masala.
11. Crush the Kasuri methi/dry fenugreek leaves between your palms and add to the gravy.
12. Finally stir in the cream until combined and remove from heat.
13. Stir in most of the sauteed cashews, reserving a few to garnish.
14. Top with with fresh coriander leaves and reserved cashews.

When both Thai Curry and Khao Suey are at the top of a girl’s comfort food list, she does the natural thing and combines them to make a soupy curry of deliciousness that is the Thai Curry Khao Suey!

I think the first time I had  khao suey was when I made it myself. I had heard of and read about this Burmese dish and it sounded wonderful – delicately spiced soupy coconut gravy spiked with lemon juice and served with boiled noodles or spaghetti and topped with a number of yummy toppings such as crispy fried garlic slices, crunchy chopped spring onion and fresh coriander leaves. Since this dish had never been made in my family and I knew of no restaurants that were serving it at that time, I did what any food lover would do – I made it myself.

There were a few very nice Thai restaurants in Lahore back in the day. This place called “Lemon Grass” was my perhaps my first introduction to Thai food and my family and I used to love it. I have yet to have a better Pad Thai than the one that used to be served here – flat noodles in a sweet and sour tamarind based sauce topped with crushed peanuts and an over-easy egg. They also did a fantastic Thai green curry with fragrant lemon grass and chunky eggplant slices – I can still taste it! The interior was fairly opulently Thai looking and I was so sad when they closed down – such a pity.

Another Thai restaurant in the city was “Royal Elephant” at the Pearl Continental Hotel. It had good food and regal looking Thai style decor but that closed down too. I guess with the only Thai restaurants I knew of at that time shutting down, this Thai food fan had no choice but to start making it herself.

I am glad to see khao suey on a few restaurant menus in Lahore now. Only a few people in the city were aware of this coconut curry soup unlike folks in Karachi, where its almost always been popular thanks to the Memon community who brought it to the city from Burma or Myanmar, and often call it khausa.

There are so many regional variations of the soupy noodle khao suey, hence many ways to make it. There’s the Burmese version, the Memoni take on it, the way its made in northern Thailand, the one made in Laos and the variations made in India, to name a few.

Thailand’s khao suey is called khao soi  and versions of it are sometimes popularly known as as Bangkok curry noodles or Chiang Mai curry noodles in different places. It is a coconut based curry soup served with condiments and both boiled and fried noodles.

Thai curry and khao suey consist of coconut milk and a similar sort of curry-spice base, so it made sense to combine them for a very flavourful “the best of both worlds” soupy noodle outcome.

Commercial yellow Thai curry paste includes the usual curry spice ingredients such as turmeric, red chilli, cumin and coriander so it makes a good flavouring base for the khao suey part which is made with many of the same spices. I suppose red Thai curry paste can be substituted for the yellow one but I have not tried it and moreover I wanted to stick with the yellow base color of Burmese khao suey. You can also increase the quantity of the mixed vegetables, chicken and prawns up to 1 cup depending on your preference.

Thai Curry Khao Suey is a complete meal. But what makes this fusion curry soup gravy stellar is the variety of the khao suey toppings. Adding boiled noodles or spaghetti to each serving is a must but other than that everyone gets to customize their portion with the rest of the toppings of their choice. Enjoy!

 

 

Thai Curry Khao Suey

Recipe Type: Mains    Author: Alice In Eatland

Prep Time: 10 Minutes    Cook Time: 20 Minutes    Total Time: 30 Minutes

 

Deliciously aromatic, pleasantly spicy & comfortingly creamy with fresh, crunchy & crispy toppings, this 2-in-1 Thai Curry Khao Suey is a complete meal!

 

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tbsp oil
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 tsp finely chopped garlic
• 1 tsp finely chopped ginger
• 2 tbsp Thai yellow curry paste
• 2 tbsp gram flour / chickpea flour
• 2 cups coconut milk
• 2 cups vegetable or chicken stock (preferably no/low salt variety)
• 1/2 cup sliced mixed vegetables (I like mushrooms + baby corn + lightly steamed French beans) OR 1/2 cup chicken strips OR 1/2 cup prawns (fresh or defrosted if frozen)
• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

• Boiled noodles / spaghetti
• Deep fried sliced onions
• Deep fried sliced garlic
• Chopped spring onions, both green and white parts
• Fresh basil leaves
• Fresh chopped coriander leaves
• Hard boiled egg halves / quarters
• Lemon halves / quarters
• Dried chilli flakes
• Chilli oil
• Roasted crushed peanuts

 

METHOD

1. Heat oil, add onions, ginger and garlic and saute half a minute or until fragrant.
2. If using chicken, add it now and saute a few minutes or until chicken changes colour – do not overcook. Remove sauteed chicken to a plate and cover.
3. Add curry paste to the pan and cook a few minutes until curry paste darkens slightly.
4. Sprinkle the roasted gram flour, stirring until everything becomes a thickish paste.
5. Remove from heat and whisk in the coconut milk gradually, making sure all the spice mixture is thoroughly combined with it and no lumps remain.
6. Add stock, return to heat, bring to the boil while stirring then lower heat.
7. If using vegetables or the sauteed chicken, add now and simmer 5 – 10 minutes.
8. If using prawns, add and simmer 1-2 minutes (do not overcook prawns or they’ll become tough and rubbery).
9. Check salt, stir in lemon juice and remove from heat.
10. Serve everything separately family style. Every diner helps themselves to the curry soup, noodles and other toppings.