Pot of Patchree

I have had a busy few months, going on my year-end holiday, then preparing first for Christmas followed by Chinese New Year.  Then the start of the work year meant less time for my various pastimes, including updating this blog.  Well, time to make up for the quiet few months!

I decided this year to make Patchree for our extended family Christmas meal and followed that up with the traditional curry devil on New Year's Day.

Brinjal Patchree

Patchree (also spelt patchri), it seems, is not a well known dish.  In fact I could not find many references to it online.  Fascinatingly, however, I found one, of all unlikely sources, in the archives of the Washington Post, embedded in a 1984 article about the chef from the Singapore Embassy in Washington DC!  So I am truly adding something new to the universe of information found online by adding this simple recipe here!

Anyway, patchree is a Eurasian vegetable dish, probably Portuguese in origin given its hot and sour curry base, and the complex mixture of spices which go into the dish.  It's traditionally made with pineapple or brinjals, but I suspect the pineapple one is more popular, albeit called by the more common name of "pineapple curry".  Variations on how to prepare the dish exist - one recipe from "Robin's Eurasian Recipes" fries the brinjals, and then ladles the sauce on top.   Others cook the brinjals in the gravy.  This year, since I love lots of gravy, especially with loads of chili, I decided to go with Mrs Handy's recipe, which cookes the brinjal in a tamarind-based gravy.  I was glad I did - my Grandmother used to refer to Mrs Handy quite a bit and so the flavours of this dish brought back memories of her cooking.  And I think my family members felt the same way, for the dish was mostly finished with only three small pieces left at the end of the meal.

Devil Curry

One of my aunts brought a pot of devil curry for dinner, which sort of whet my appetite for more.  So, I whipped up another pot for our New Year's Day meal.  I basically used the same devil curry recipe which I have already included in this blog, but added potatoes and tomatoes into the mix.  And since we had some rather nice expensive bratwurst (or whatever "wurst") I put that in too, rather than the tiny little cocktail sausages.

Just the memory of the dish makes my mouth water.  Which is why I've added in the photo into this post as well.

Anyway, here's the brinjal patchree recipe from Mrs Ellie Handy's "My Favourite Recipes" (I added in the English names of the spices, and quantities of the spices in powdered form):

Ingredients

4 tablespooons oil
10 shallots, finely sliced
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cm fresh ginger, chopped

Curry Paste
1 dessertspoon Ketumbar (2 teaspoons coriander powder)

1 dessertspoon jintan puteh (2 teaspoons cumin powder)

1/2 dessertspoon jintan manis (1 teaspoon fennel powder)

Piece of turmeric, size of two peas (1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder)

8 dried chilies, soaked

2 cups thick tamarind juice from 1.5 dessertspoon tamarind

2 tablespoons sugar, or to taste (I used 4!)

Salt to taste

4 brinjals

3 green and 3 red chillies, split halfway up

2 sprigs curry leaves, optional (for garnish).

Directions

1. Cut the brinjals lengthwise into half, and then cut each piece into two.  Make two diagonal slits in the flesh of each piece and soak in water for about half an hour.

2. Make the curry paste, by blending the spices and chillies together (of course you can pound it all together if you wish).  May need to add a little oil to the mixture if you are using all powders. 

3.  Fry the onions, garlic and ginger in the oil till soft.  Add the curry paste and fry till fragrant.  Then add the tamarind juice, salt and sugar to taste.  Then add the brinjals and chillies.  Cover the wok (I always use a wok) and leave to cook.  Garnish with the curry leaves.

That's it!  Simple but yummy.  If you're interested, more recipes by Mrs Handy here. 

What the Devil

Ellice Handy's Curry Devil

Devil Curry (also called Curry Debal, Curry Devil, etc) is one of those classic Eurasian dishes, for which every household has their own special recipe and their own traditions surrounding when they cook/prepare it.  But, one key characteristic of this dish is that it is cooked with leftover meats.  So, most households will make it after Christmas Day - a good way to use up all that leftover turkey!  I must admit that in my household, we don't cook this particular dish.  We normally don't have turkey on Christmas Day in the first place.  It's roast lamb and cold ham for us.  That's why I often end making gammon curry instead.  And for some reason, we just don't make it other times of the year.  

This year, however, my uncle turned up on Christmas Day with a lovely roast turkey, complete with all the accompaniments of stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce and even a lovely little cranberry and apple relish.  Of course, we could not finish the turkey.  I turned to my recipe books for a good Curry Devil. I read through the lengthy lists of ingredients (including roast pork, potatoes, cucumber and even cabbage).  But my mother had only one recipe in mind - Ellice Handy's recipe out of her 'My Favourite Recipes" cookbook.  That was the version her mother used and if was good enough for her mother, it was good enough for us.  No potatoes, no cucumber, no cabbage.  No roast pork even (my mother wouldn't have minded, but we didn't have any in the house).  It was just the leftover roast turkey meat and some sausages.  

This is a nice, simple recipe to cook.  And since the meat is all cooked up, it's pretty fast too.  I doubled the quantities in Ellice Handy's recipe since I was using far more than 1/2 pound of meat.  Also some slight variations here and there. It's one wicked dish!

Here we go:

Ingredients:

4 slices of ginger, cut into short strips

2 large onions, sliced

Leftover meats (I used about a quarter of a turkey, plus 3 sausages, sliced)

(1 tablespoon of brown mustard seeds, optional)

3 tablespoons of tomato paste (or use 2 large tomatoes, sliced)

2 teaspoons of mustard (Coleman's)

4 tablespoons vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

Spice paste

12 shallots, peeled

2 cloves of garlic

10 dried chillis, soaked in warm water till soft and cut up (add more chillis for extra wickedness!)

4 fresh chillis 

1 teaspoon of tumeric powder

1 teaspoon of belacan, toasted

3-4 buah keras (candlenuts)

Directions:

1.  Prepare the spice paste, pounding ingredients together (or use a food processor like me). 

2. Fry the ginger and large onions in a large pan till soft.  Add in the mustard seeds (cover the pan until they have popped).

3.  Add the spice paste, fry till fragrant.  Add the leftover meat and sausages.

4.  Add the remaining ingredients.  Continue to cook, adding a little water (keep it a dry curry though) for some gravy.  Ready when the gravy thickens a little.