Award Presentation at the Purple Pakora

The Purple Pakora of Poynton (Stockport) was presented with the coveted currycouncil.com restaurant of the year award on the evening of Monday 25th January.

The awards are designed to recognise the very best Indian restaurants in the South Manchester and Cheshire region, from cheaper balti houses to upmarket fine-dining establishments.

The build up to the awards was covered by local radio channel Pure 107.8 FM. The winner was highly anticipated and the announcement made the half hourly news bulletin on the radio channel throughout the day.

David Marchbank-Smith co-founder of Currycouncil paid tribute "The awards are designed to recognise the very best Indian restaurants in the South Manchester region. The team at the Purple Pakora have created an stylish contemporary dining arena which is complimented with exemplary food and a high standard of service. "

The team at the Purple Pakora were presented with the contemporary glass award by Martin Noble, co-founder of the Currycouncil.

The owners of the Purple Pakora, Ash Choudhury and Bob Bakht, were pleased to receive the award at the special presentation.

Ash Choudhury said: “We are very proud to receive the very first currycouncil award. It’s nice to be recognised as the best Indian restaurant in the area”

“The standard of restaurants that have been reviewed by the currycouncil is extremely high and we were competing against many long standing and established restaurants. It’s nice to know that what we are doing here at the Purple Pakora is being noticed and it's a credit to my staff for all their hard work and the service that they deliver”.

The currycouncil.com annual awards honors the best restaurants as voted by the currycouncil.com members.

Finalists were chosen from a list of eleven South-Manchester-based restaurants visited by the currycouncil in 2009.

Each restaurant was then rated by the currycouncil council in the following areas: Atmosphere, value for money, originality and most of all; exemplarily food and service.

The Purple Pakora was ranked the highest and was declared the winner of the award. The management team and chefs (Robin Khan and Naeem Choudhury) at the Poynton restaurant have clearly set the benchmark for a quality dining experience.

The restaurant was officially reviewed in January 2009 and was also visited for the first currycouncil WAGS curry in November 2009.

The Newcomer of the Year award 2009 will be presented to the Cinnamon Tree restaurant in Heald Green.

ABOUT THE CURRYCOUNCIL

Founded in the 90’s currycouncil.com is a non-profit independent restaurant review site and knowledge base.

The “currycouncil” consist of eight members from various backgrounds, employment and interests, but with a common interest in eating curry, having a beer or two and hopefully improving and ensuring quality in South Manchester curry houses.

The currycouncil.com site also encourages our visitors to post comments and exchange opinions on their own experiences.

Purple Pakora (Poynton) wins Restaurant of the Year Award

The Purple Pakora - Poynton, Stockport are the winners of the coveted currycouncil.com restaurant of the year 2009.

The award, which is in its inaugural year will be presented to the Purple Pakora team this evening (Monday 25th January 2009).

David Marchbank-Smith co-founder of Currycouncil paid tribute "The awards are designed to recognize the very best Indian restaurants in the South Manchester region. The team at the Purple Pakora have created an stylish contemporary dining arena which is complimented with exemplary food and a high standard of service. "

The Newcomer of the Year award 2009 will be presented to the Cinnamon Tree restaurant in Heald Green.

A full report on the presentation will be published soon. Listen to PureFM 107.9 tomorrow to hear details of the award and a radio interview with currycouncil co-founder Martin Noble.

ABOUT THE CURRYCOUNCIL.COM AWARDS

The currycouncil.com annual awards honors the best restaurants as voted by the currycouncil.com members.

Finalists were chosen from a list of eleven South-Manchester-based restaurants visited by the currycouncil in 2009.

Each restaurant was then rated by the currycouncil council in the following areas: Atmosphere, value for money, originality and most of all; exemplarily food and service.

FINALISTS

Purple Pakora (Poynton)
Jalfrezi (Bramhall)
Dilli (Altrincham)
Zumar (Sale)
Kulshi (Urmston)
Lal Qila (Rusholme)
Eastern Revive (Wilmslow)
Kushoom Koly (Heaton Moor)
Cinnamon Tree (Heald Green)
Moon (Withington)
Barinda (Cheadle)

ABOUT THE CURRYCOUNCIL

Founded in the 90’s currycouncil.com is a non-profit independent restaurant review site and knowledge base.

The “currycouncil” consist of eight members from various backgrounds, employment and interests, but with a common interest in eating curry, having a beer or two and hopefully improving and ensuring quality in South Manchester curry houses.

The currycouncil.com site also encourages our visitors to post comments and exchange opinions on their own experiences.

CurryCouncil Interview on Pure 107.8 FM radio

Stay tuned to the Pure 107.8 FM radio channel on the afternoon of Monday 25th January.

The currycouncil are pleased to announce that a currycouncil member will be interviewed live on air about the inaugural currycouncil "restaurant of the year" award.

Pure 107.8 FM is the only station to concentrate exclusively on the Stockport area.

The award winner will be announced live on the website (& Twitter) on the evening of Monday 25 January. This will be followed by a trophy presentation ceremony at the winning restaurant at 20:00.

The podcast of the interview will soon be available on this website.

Chilli Massala (Edgeley) Review

T 0161 477 1443
A 36 Castle Street, Edgeley, Stockport, SK3 9AD

The first curry of 2010 was held at the Chilli Massala restaurant in Edgeley (Stockport).

In July 2009 the restaurant was awarded the "Stockport Curry Chef" award by Stockport Council's Environmental Health and Trading Standards Department.

This small “British” Indian restaurant is located on Castle Street with several free parking spaces being available a short distance away.

The main draw to this restaurant was the award mentioned above and the added bonus that the restaurant is unlicensed for alcohol. A "bring your own booze" policy can often greatly reduce the financial outlay of your meal and should really give the restaurant more time to concentrate on the more important aspects of an indian meal – the food and service.

The small restaurant is quite modern and tastefully decorated with sunken neon spot lights on the ceiling that softly light the dining area.

We had not booked a table on this occasion and arrived unannounced. The restaurant was quite busy with a few other large groups dining. After a short wait we were taken to our table at the back of the restaurant. The surrounding space around the table was quite compact with not much space for 6 people to comfortably sit at their seats.

The evening started well when we spotted the mid week special. It was advertised at £7.95 for poppodums and dips, a choice of starter, main course, rice or naan, coffee and ice cream. It was clearly going to be a very cheap night.

Poppodums were served by our waiter whilst he waited to take our order. The pops were fresh and came accompanied with a good selection of dips including a nice spicy red chilli dip.

A mixture of starters were selected. The chicken chaat was one of the most popular choices. Its portion size was good and its small pieces of chicken being flavoursome without being too heavy. The wrapped chapatti was fresh and crisp. The chaat was also presented with a small side salad.

The other starters included sheek kebab and onionj bhajis. These were given the thumbs up by all and so far the Chilli Massala restaurant was looking like a fine choice.

There was a very long wait between our starters and main courses. This was a bit of a disappointment but provided us with the opportunity to discuss the finer details of the inaugural currycouncil award ceremony which is due to take place at the end of January. We also again resumed our usual conversations at to why Dayo was not in attendance at the monthly curry (this months excuse was that he was doing his Asda shop!).

The waiter brought out our main courses and the side dishes. The empty beer bottles were not removed by the waiter throughout the meal and things were becoming to get a bit cramped at the table. We pushed the bottles to the side and decided that the food quality and price were more important than the slow service.

A variety of different curries were sampled including the madras, jalrezi, balti and pathia. We all opted for the chicken tikka versions of the dishes which meant that an extra £1.50 per person would be added to the bill for the "tikka" option.

The main courses were a bit of a disappointment. The portion sizes were more than adequate but the curries themselves lacked the award winning touch and were quite ordinary.

The madras, although extra hot, was watery and had quite a runny texture. The sauce was good for mopping up the plate with a nice bit of naan bread but the madras sauce had no consistency and tended to swim around our plates.

The milder baltis faired a little better but overall the group were disappointed with the standard of their main dishes. The side dishes (rice and naan) were of a good standard and portion size.

The waiter informed us that they had ran out of ice cream and we had to settle for just the coffee to finish off the meal.

The Chilli Massala is a restaurant firmly for the mainstream with adequate food served at a low price. This restaurant surely cannot be beaten for price.

The bill for 6 people came in at a lowly £63 including a tip. If you each bring a couple of 330ml bottles of Cobra from your local supermarket, you can expect to walk out of the Chilli Massala with a little bit of change from just a tenner.

The service overall was slow with the waiter not once clearing the mass of empty beer bottles from our table. The food was OK for the price that we paid but we may have been a little disappointed if we had paid the full menu price for the main course.

Restaurant Of The Year Winner To Be Announced on 25/01/10

The winner of the 2009 Currycouncil.com “Restaurant Of The Year” award is to be announced very soon.

Eleven restaurants in the North West of England were visited and reviewed by the currycouncil last year. Each of the restaurants were rated in the following areas:

• Food


• Service


• Atmosphere


• Value for money


• Originality



The restaurants visited in 2009 and contenders for the award are as follows:

Purple Pakora (Poynton)
Jalfrezi (Bramhall)
Dilli (Altrincham)
Zumar (Sale)
Kulshi (Urmston)
Lal Qila (Rusholme)
Eastern Revive (Wilmslow)
Kushoom Koly (Heaton Moor)
Cinnamon Tree (Heald Green)
Moon (Withington)
Barinda (Cheadle)

The winner will be announced live on the website (& Twitter) on the evening of Monday 25 January and will be followed by a trophy presentation at the chosen award winning restaurant.

Gordon tries to curry favour in India - TV alert

The currycouncil recommend that all curry lovers stay tuned to Channel 4 on Monday 18th January through to Wednesday 20th January.

Gordon's Ramsay's kicking up his heels and heading to India on a culinary quest to discover the delicious history behind his favourite cuisine.

Curry lover Gordon Ramsay embarks on his first ever trip to India, for Gordon's Great Escape.

His gastronomic quest showcases the stunning variety of India's culinary traditions, as he submerges himself in all aspects of Indian culture - no matter how challenging, unfamiliar or extreme.

This epic journey showcases India's stunning scenery, diverse people and an abundance of delicious, mouth-watering food that will put our take-away curries in the shade.

From balti to biryani Gordon will be tasting the real deal versions of Britain's favourite dishes and finding his normally revered cooking skills put to the test.

Gordon's Great Escape starts Monday 18th January on Channel 4. Watch the exclusive interview with Gordon about his new show here.

Source: Channel4.com

Lasan chicken with tandoori style masala and mint chutney recipe

The currycouncil are pleased to bring you yet another recipe from Lasan, the Gordon Ramsay's "F Word" award winning restaurant in Birmingham.

Lasan (which means garlic) opened in 2002 and is owned by two entrepreneurial, Asian young professionals, Jabbar and Aktar (head chef).

Lasan got the competition underway with a spicy chicken starter complemented by their special tandoori marinade on the F Word.

Serves 4

Ingredients

* 4 chicken supremes, skinned and scored
* 4 chicken drumsticks, skinned and scored

1st stage Tandoori marinade:

* 1 tsp salt
* ½ tsp garlic puree
* ½ tsp ginger puree
* 1 lime juice

2nd stage Tandoori marinade:

* 3 tbsp Greek yoghurt
* 2 green chillies, finely chopped
* 1" piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
* 1 handful chopped coriander
* 1 tsp black salt
* ¾ tbsp ground cumin
* 1 tsp garam masala
* 1 tbsp tandoori masala
* ½ tsp ground fennel seeds
* 1 pinch white pepper
* 50ml mustard oil *

For the green mint chutney:

* 150g coriander leaves
* 20g mint leaves
* 10g fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
* 1 clove garlic, crushed
* 1 green chilli, deseeded
* ½ tsp chat masala
* ½ tsp black salt
* 150ml Greek yoghurt
* ½ tsp roasted cumin seed

For the salad:

* 25g baby Swiss chard
* 25g coriander cress

Coriander oil dressing:

* 150ml olive oil
* 30g coriander, blended with oil
* Squeeze of lemon juice
* Pinch of chat masala
* Pinch of cracked black pepper

Method: How to make adraki murgh chicken marinated in garlic and ginger with Tandoori style masala

1. Preheat oven to 200°C.

2. Trim the thin end of the drumstick by cutting the sinew, scraping the meat halfway down the bone towards the thick end of the drumstick. Blanch the chicken in simmering water infused with turmeric, salt and mild red chilli powder for 3-5 minutes and remove using a slotted spoon and let the meat cool down.

3. To then marinate the chicken, dry the pieces and sprinkle with salt. Rub with garlic and ginger paste and a squeeze of lime and leave to marinade for 30 minutes.

4. Add 3 tablespoons of yoghurt into a large bowl, add all the 2nd stage tandoori spice ingredients and massage into the chicken, then leave to marinade overnight.
For the mint chutney

5. For the mint chutney, blend all chutney ingredients together in a food processor until smooth, adjust seasoning to taste and refrigerate in an airtight container overnight.
To cook

6. Heat a frying pan with a small amount of oil then place the marinated drumstick in to seal for 1 minute on each side followed by the scored chicken breasts and again cook for a minute on each side. Place the browned chicken pieces in the pre-heated oven and roast for 6-8 minutes, turn the chicken pieces now and again to ensure they cook evenly.

7. Mix the coriander and olive oils and season with the lemon juice, chat masala and black pepper. Dress the baby leaves and serve alongside the chicken with the mint chutney.

* The EU doesn't recommend the use of mustard oil in cooking so we would recommend you use ghee or another oil as an alternative.

Source: Channel4.com

What to quaff... with curry

Curry fans usually succumb to tinny, burp-making lager or boring, watery jasmine tea, when wine makes a much happier marriage with fiery food than gourmets care to admit. Key ingredients in Indian or Indian-inspired dishes may be fiery and demanding but they are also perfectly wine-friendly.

By contrast, the fizz in lagers whizzes the searingly hot spice in chilli-laden curries round the tongue and soft palate in seconds, while the tannin in jasmine and other teas clashes with highly spiced foods.

If you want to douse the fire in your throat when eating curry, go for a light, high-acid, low-tannin, easy-swigging red wine that takes happily to chilling, or a similarly styled but off-dry pink or white wine. It helps if you skip those highly spiced garlic and chilli-laden pickles and chutneys. The good news is that as most curry ingredients are cheap, budget wines will do fine. Balance is all with the best wine and food marriages.

The big problem with wine and Indian food is that everyone cooks, or orders, a host of dishes and side dishes, making perfect wine matches impossible. Of course purists can avoid this at home by cooking one main dish from Gordon Ramsay’s seductive spicy selection.

After decades of enjoying Indian takeaways at home and eating out, the best one-size-fits-all bottle that I have found is forgiving beaujolais, so dive into the Château Laforêt below. Pink wines are as popular as ever and thankfully the new-era versions are made from flavour-packed grapes grown in decent locations by winemakers who are at long last taking these wines seriously. Traditionalists in search of an Indian lager with flavour and less gas can take their pick from two great beer buys.

Best wines for Indian food

2008 Château Laforêt, Beaujolais, France Waitrose, £6.99 Delicious, soft, ripe, gamey, plummy, accommodating red beaujolais with wide curry and spicy food appeal. This one is suitable for vegans and vegetarians.

2008 Gran López Rosado, Castillo La Mancha, Spain Waitrose, £4.49 Terrific off-dry pink made from the tempranillo grape and oozing bubblegum-scented fruit. Again vegan and vegetarian-friendly.

Best beer with curry

Kingfisher Premium 4.8 per cent 660ml bottle Sainsbury’s and Waitrose, £1.98; Tesco, £2.02 Kingfisher, brewed under licence in the UK, is the biggest-selling beer in India, so if you want an authentic, yeasty, malty, fuller-flavoured lager, this is for you.

Cobra Premium, 5 per cent 4x330ml bottles Tesco £3.64; Sainsbury’s, £3.67 Cobra, originally brewed in India, is now brewed in the UK. It is less gassy and so is more suited to spicy food. Worth seeking out for its hoppy scent and gentle barley malt flavour.

Source: TimesOnline

Birmingham's Balti Triangle makes it the UK's Curry Capital

If you are planning a foodie break, head for Britain's second city, which has a well-founded reputation for providing good food.

The city stages the BBC Good Food Show at the National Exhibition Centre - Britain's biggest and most extensive food event - and the Taste of Birmingham festival.

It is also known as the Curry Capital of the UK and is home to the balti, a spicy, aromatic Kashmiri dish.

There are more than 100 balti houses which attract 20,000 visitors a week. Birmingham's 'Balti Triangle' - an area around Sparkbrook, Balsall Heath and Moseley - was even listed at No15 in the top 25 travel experiences in Britain in the Rough Guide's '25s' series. The Triangle has about 50 restaurants.

Balti means 'bucket' but is usually served in a flatbottomed wok.

The Indian restaurants are just part of more than 200 restaurants in the city centre that serve food from 27 countries, from Europe and the East, to the Caribbean and the Americas.

Birmingham is also home to the canal-boat restaurant away2dine, where diners can have a five-course meal during a three-hour cruise of the city's canals.

Other critically acclaimed restaurants include Opus, which won best newcomer at the Taste of Birmingham festival, and fine-dining Indian restaurant Itihaas ,which scooped Best UK Indian Restaurant and Best in Midlands at the 2007 Cobra Good Curry Awards.

Famous food brands that originated in Birmingham include Typhoo Tea, Bird's Custard, Bluebird toffee, Bournville cocoa, Cadbury chocolate and HP Sauce. George Cadbury began making chocolate in Birmingham in 1824. At that time it was considered an aphrodisiac and therefore not suitable for a lady's diet.

The city still produces some of the UK's leading food and drink products. Lashford's award-winning sausages of Hall Green originated in 1889 and were a favourite dish of the late Queen Mother.

Lashford's received a letter of thanks from Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, after they were sent sausages as a wedding gift.

Birmingham University was the first university in the country to obtain a licence to hold a regular farmers' market.

But fairs and festivals dedicated to food were held in the Bullring as far back as the18th and 19th Centuries, the most popular of which was the Onion Fair.

www.visitbirmingham.com

Source: Daily Mail

Brits ditch English grub for pasta and curry

Pasta and curry restaurants topped the poll for most popular places to dine, followed by French, while English came in tenth.

The survey was conducted by toptable.com, who researched the favourite restaurants of three million diners who booked and ate at one of toptable's 5,000 restaurants during 2009.

Thai eateries came in fifth place and Japanese in sixth, showing that Brits definitely like variety over English grub.

The top 100 restaurant awards also covered 10 categories: top diner rated, value, under £25, over £45, parties, celebrity chefs, romance, hidden gems, international restaurant and cuisine.

Users of the site voted and Gidleigh Park Restaurant in Chagford, Devon, won the top diner-rated award as well as the 'best for romance' and 'best over £45' award.

Kendells Bistro in Leeds won the top restaurant under £25 and Martin Wishart, from Restaurant Martin Wishart in Edinburgh, won best celebrity chef restaurant, beating Gordon Ramsay's Claridges in London.

Toptable lists 20,000 restaurants in 14 countries and receives three million visits per month.

Source: Metro

Glasgow restaurant promises a hot date as it puts chocolate curry on the menu

It is the ultimate hot date: a Glasgow Indian restaurant has put a chocolate curry on the menu.

The dish combines two of the most powerful aphrodisiacs known to man - or woman - curry and chocolate.

Restaurant boss Johnnie Ginda has launched the dish in the run-up to Valentine's Day, but it will remain a firm fixture on the all-year menu.

'If you want your date to be really hot you will not fail with this dish,' he said.

The Nakodari is a medium hot king prawn curry that comes complete with a chocolate and strawberry naan bread and costs £16.95. An accompanying strawberry pakora is also available at £4.95.

Mr Ginda, 38, has launched the dishes at his new Nakodar Grill in Glasgow's Dennistoun district.

The Nakodari is named after Mr Ginda's home village in the Punjab area of India where it was perfected by his late grandfather and passed down through the generations.

'Only three people now know of this family recipe - myself, my father Bajen and head chef Minto Singh, and he has it in his contract not to reveal its secrets," said Mr Ginda, whose family has been in Scotland for 35 years.

'We believe we are the first restaurant in Britain that offers chocolate curry. We use dark chocolate with 85 per cent cocoa and it cooks up pretty brown but tastes absolutely delicious. Anybody on a hot date will feel the benefits immediately!

'There are two very distinct flavours - chocolate and the curry - and it tastes brilliant,' Mr Ginda said.

The chocolate is combined with ground coriander seeds, garlic, chilli, ginger and other spices.

Chocolate, the 'food of the gods', contains theobromine, a stimulating alkaloid similar to caffeine. Chocolate also helps the brain produce feel-good serotonin - which is believed to put people in an aroused mood.

Dietician Alex Bow, who has travelled the world investigating the sex properties of various foods, recently placed curry as the number one love food.

'Asian mythology refers to "the carnal spices" which are present in most forms of curry,' he said.

Turmeric's main active ingredient, curcumin, even helps loss of libido.

In a study of 1,000 people, researchers from the National University of Singapore found that curcumin may protect brain cells from age-related changes.

Nutmeg also boosts male sex drive, according to research at Aligarh University in India.

Source: Daily Mail

Lasan from Birmingham "F Word Winner" Recipes & Video

The Lasan Indian Restaurant of Birmingham this week claimed the title of "Best Local Restaurant" from Gordon Ramsay.

If you missed Gordon Ramsay's F Word programme on Channel 4, you can watch the episode here at the 4-on-demand website.

If you are feeling adventurous you could try to recreate the winning recipe of "masala beef with curried pumpkin" here. The Lasan chicken with tandoori style masala and mint chutney starter recipe is also here.

You can also view another one of Aktar Islam's recipes for the tasty Nawabi Pilau here (thanks to our friends at the Cobra Curry blog).

Lasan in Birmingham wins F Word "Local Restaurant Of The Year"

An Indian restaurant in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter is celebrating after winning Gordon Ramsay's The F Word competition on Channel 4.

Lasan head chef Aktar Islam secured victory with his Masala beef and curried pumpkin, broadcast on Thursday.

He said despite falling out with Ramsay and crying on network TV he had enjoyed the experience of working with him.

The restaurant serves modern Indian cuisine and beat 10,000 other entrants to be Britain's best local restaurant.

Eighteen restaurants were shortlisted for the series filmed in the summer.

Dessert 'a disaster'

Mr Islam said when the food "god that is Gordon Ramsay" crowned Lasan the best restaurant in Britain, it was very difficult keeping it a secret from his friends, family and colleagues.

Lasan was named the best local Indian restaurant in the country earlier in the series.

It went up against the Pheasant restaurant at Keyston in Cambridgeshire, which was the series winner in the British cuisine category.

In the final, the Pheasant served a main course featuring a trio of beef cuts that included rib, braised blade and grilled heart, followed by a tarte tatin of Braeburn apples for dessert.

Mr Islam followed his main with a Punjab-style pastry puff, which he said was "a bit of a disaster".

"I am not a man with a sweet tooth," he said.

"We had issues with the pastry, but in the end it didn't matter. We won on points but it was ultimately down to chef Ramsay's choice."

Source: BBC

The currycouncil have yet to review this restaurant. If you have visited this restaurant, please feel free to add your comments below.

address
3-4 Dakota Buildings
James Street
St Paul's Square
BIRMINGHAM
B3 1SD

web www.lasangroup.com/restaurant
email info@lasan.co.uk

tel 0121 212 3664 and 0121 247 8570
fax 0121 212 3665