Indian Food Shop in Dublin?!!!

meremortal

Hi everyone!! I'm having about 15 people over for curry tomorrow night, need to find an Indian shop - and fast!! As I'm very disorganised and running out of time I just want to buy a fresh paste for Rogan Josh, and another curry of some description. Will resort to jars from Tesco (please forgive me) if I have to but would love to buy a fresher paste from a small Indian shop,

Any advice appreciated!!

Alun

Most of the Asian Stores in the centre of Dublin sell Patak's curry pastes which are OK. You can get them in most supermarkets too, but the choice might be a bit more limited.

Try the Asia Market on Drury St. or the Asian Food Company on Mary St. Also the big mainly Chinese one by the Luas Stop on Abbey St. will have them too.

The Sweeper

ooo, curry! have no idea if you've had your party already, but 15 people is a LOT of people to be feeding. Make your life as easy as possible.

1. Buy naan breads. Try the Sharwoods lot from the supermarket. They aren't as good as the fresh ones but fresh are difficult to make at home if you don't have a brick oven in your kitchen. :-) Allow at least one between two people - they come packaged in twos and take a few minutes to heat - I like to moisten them with water, wrap them in foil and put them in the oven - saves you burning them under the grill if you're frantic when your guests arrive.
2. Prepare all your curries in advance of your guests arriving. Then you can reheat them - try the rogan josh paste and the madras paste from patak's. Buy the meat pre-cubed, I'd make the rogan josh with lamb and the madras with beef. Patak's pastes can be improved with a few additions - before you use the madras paste, for instance, slice two or three onions finely and add about two cubes of peeled grated ginger. Caramelise over a medium to low heat for ages in some oil - like half an hour - before adding the paste and meat and whatever else - water or tomatoes or stock.
3. You don't need to seal meat to keep it tender in a curry - just never let the sauce boil. Slow, gentle cooking is the best tactic.
4. If I was going with one lamb rogan josh and one beef madras I'd also do a vegetable dish like an aloo gobi - potatoes and cauliflower. That's pretty simple to do from scratch without a paste and there are plenty of recipes on the internet. You're feeding the hoardes, so a bag of potatoes and two heads of cauliflower!
5. If you cook the curries in advance you can reheat them simply on a medium heat in their pots - just make sure they're piping hot. This will also allow you to concentrate when you're heating naan breads and cooking rice. Believe it or not, I'd reckon that when feeding the 5,000, the rice is the easiest thing to get wrong! (It's the same if you're making pasta for a lot of people. Overcooked rice and pasta are a disaster.)
6. Cook the rice when everyone is there. Rice is best fresh, steaming hot and not overcooked and stodgy. Just do simple, plain rice, don't go mad with pilau (in case some people don't like it). A large colander of rice will stay warm for longer than you'd think if you drain it, fluff it with a fork and then cover it with a CLEAN teacloth.

I don't envy you cooking for 15 people. That's one hell of an effort!

Alun

Following on from what MAJD said, if you're going there anyway, the Asian Food Company has a (halal) butchers at the back of the shop that does some great quality lamb. They'll cut it up into whatever sized cubes you want while you wait.

babyguinnessfan

the rice is the easiest thing to get wrong!

I agree - and am hopeless at cooking it under pressure. If I was cooking for that many people I might consider buying the Uncle Bens rice that you can do in the microwave - takes 2 minutes and you can't mess it up. Would be more expensive obviously than buying packets of normal rice...but if you can I would.

Have a great night.

Minder

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

Cook the rice when everyone is there. Rice is best fresh, steaming hot and not overcooked and stodgy.

Cook rice like you would cook pasta. Plenty of boiling salted water. Add the rice and stir to prevent clumping. Basmati is great like this. Cooks in about 10 minutes but test it after about eight. Taste some and if there is no bite - it's cooked. As MAJD said, drain and cover with a clean tea towel to steam dry.

Minder

Bart Spices now do a range of Veerasawamy curry pastes that are excellent. You might see these in larger supermarkets.

meremortal

Wow! Thanks everyone for your help! Especially Minesajackdaniels - very comprehensive!! Unfortunately the markets and shops in the drury street area were closed by the time I got to them last night - so Pataks Rogan Josh and chicken tikka masala it is! I made them them last night - and thanks for the tips on the naan bread, had just planned on grilling them but thats a better way. I'm okay enough with rice - the key is to rinse it first, and cook it til its still got a bite, then drain and allow to finish cooking off the heat in its own steam.

I think I'll have my next curry night on a Saturday so I can be a bit more organised - and will try a more authentic curry then! Will definitely try that Halal butchers for the lamb - Tescos doesnt look the best... hopefully no one will notice! Thanks again everyone - fingers crossed theyre all hungry as I've made loads!!

Ishindar

there is a really good indian/thai resturant style cooking night course in hartstown community college. i did it last year and it was amazing, if your interested in that sort a thing. i think signups are around this time as it starts end of january usually. its a mix of demonstration and cooking yourself, highly recommended.

luckat

There's a couple of nice shops down at Kelly's Corner - Arab rather than Indian, but they have the same spices mostly. They're a bit edgy about European women, but f em.

The Asia Market has a big Indian section with cheap spices - you can get things like cumin and coriander seed and so on, and whizz them up in a coffee grinder.

Madhur Jaffrey's A Taste of India is a great book if you can get hold of it, as is her Indian Cooking.

olaola

http://www.bombaybazaar.ie/ do home delivery.

rubadub

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

[*]Prepare all your curries in advance of your guests arriving. Then you can reheat them

Yes, in fact some would say it tastes better if it has been left a day or so more.

Blackrock market in dublin has a proper ethnic food shop now (not a stall) which has all sorts of stuff. Tandoori chicken is a favourite of mine and would be easy enough to do in bulk, maybe as a side dish, e.g. a big bowl of chicken thighs & drumsticks.

Faith

Locked, because it's a zombie thread bumped by a naughty poster whose post has been deleted now.