Chilli-free curry recipes

[HolidaysQueen]

DS (12mo) really likes spicy food, and tends to eat more veggies when they are in a nice sauce. So, I'm looking for curry recipes that don't contain chilli or where I can at least drop down the chilli content significantly, as he hasn't really had chilli yet. Any ideas?

Madhur Jaffrey is great and you can cook almost all her recipes without the chilli. She uses the full range of spices so they are very flavourful even without the chilli.

I particularly like her vindaloo recipe which is delicious without the chilli - fragrant rather than hot.

Nigel Slater also has some nice curry recipes - his creamy chicken curry is delish, I can c&p the recipe if you want.

My dcs like a chick pea curry recipe I found in a book by Lucy Burney. Its very quick and easy - has a tin of chickpeas, one of tomatoes, couple of onions, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, cloves, ground coriander and bay leaves and honey then you stir some creamed coconut in at the end. If you think its the kind of thing he'd like I'll dig out the proper quantities.

oh both of those sound delish (for me and DH as well!) if you could post that would be great, and i'm heading to library now so i'll dig out madhur jaffrey.

You can make curry without chili. Black pepper is an alternative.

Here are the spices I would put in an Indonesian lamb curry:

cumin (whole)
coriander (whole)
black pepper (whole)
nutmeg (whole)
garlic
shallots (buy from Indian shop)
galangal (fresh or frozen)
ginger (fresh)
turmeric (preferably fresh)
star anise (whole)
cinnamon (whole, buy from Indian shop, supermarkets are a rip off)
cardamom (whole)
lemon grass
kaffir lime leaves (dried or frozen, they sell frozen in Chinese supermarkets, dried in jars)
daun salam leaves (very hard to find, possible in Chinese supermarkets)

Basically grind 1 tsp cumin, 1 tbsp coriander, half nutmeg, 1 tbsp (may be too spicy, you can use less) black pepper. You could grind in a spice mill, food processor, or mortar & pestle. Then add 150g peeled shallots, 6 garlic cloves, 1 inch of peeled galangal (optional, if you can't find it), same of peeled ginger root, 1/2 inch of fresh peeled turmeric (it's a much thinner root than ginger, this is about 1/2 tsp's worth if you use dried). Add one red Thai (or other) chili for a bit of heat, about half-a-dozen for a more authentic (HOT) spiciness. Blend to a smooth paste.

Fry in 1 tbsp of oil, then add the kaffir lime leaves, a 4-inch cinnamon stick, 5 whole star anise, 1 or 2 heavily bruised lemon grass stalks (definitely two if you don't have the lime leaves), 5 bruised cardamom pods, daun salam leaves, and fry until fragrant.

Then add about 1kg of lamb (chopped leg of lamb works, you could also try lamb shanks, stewing lamb, etc.), brown in the sauce. When browned, add a can of coconut milk, and perhaps half a can of water (you could add more coconut milk, but I find it too rich). Bring to a simmer, then cook, covered, until tender (you could put it in oven at about 150C if you prefer).

Finish with coriander leaves and a squeeze of lime juice.

In any recipe for children, follow the instructions, but just drop the chilli
Now you can cook anything

My daughter is 20 months and eats chili. I've seen 2-year-olds eating bird's eye chilis (the tiny, super-spicy ones). It's just a question of getting used to it. Chili provides vital flavour to foods, it's not just spiciness. One alternative is to use the fat red Dutch chilis, which are less spicy by weight, but provide as much flavour.

The nigel slater is not very authentic but it is very tasty and pretty quick to prepare. He says it can be cooked in 30 mins although I think that's pushing it, I usually allow an hour. If preparing for a child I would probably slightly reduce the amount of spices, none of them are hot but the cardamom and turmeric both have slightly mouth-numbing qualities.

Take 6 chicken pieces (drumsticks and thighs) and slash to the bone. (you can use breast but thighs are much softer and easier for children to gum - however remove the meat from the bone before serving)

Brown in a pan and remove.

Chop one onion, 4 cloves of garlic and a 1 inch chunk of fresh ginger, and one fresh red chilli (optional). Fry in the pan with the chicken juices and a little oil.

(A note - when I am cooking for children I don't use the red chilli but I often add a chopped up red pepper, sliced into strips, for added veg and colour)

Remove the black inner seeds from 8 cardamom pods and crush in a pestle and mortar. Add the cardamom powder to the onions in the pan, along with 1tsp ground cumin and 1 tblsp turmeric powder. Fry for a few minutes then add chicken pieces and 7 fluid oz of chicken stock. Simmer until the chicken is tender (about 30-40 mins)

(Another note here - I don't use real chicken stock because I rarely have it to hand, I use a kallo organic salt-free chicken stock cube and a glass of water, I also use slightly more liquid than he specifies as it burns off)

When the chicken is tender remove from teh heat and stir in 100 ml of good quality full fat yoghurt (greek yoghurt is good) and 75ml double cream, as well as the juice of half a lemon. You can reheat if it is a bit too cold now but don't allow it to boil or the sauce can curdle.

Sprinkle with fresh coriander leaves (optional but looks and tastes nice)

Serve with plain boiled rice, or rice studded with peas.

Knorr chicken stock is very convenient, 79p for a long-life vaccum pack. Also Sainsburys do a slightly stronger stock for about £1.29.

vacuum even

I think they are too salty though Someguy - a 12 month old shouldn't have commercial stock or ordinary stock cubes added to food.

The best options are homemade stock (prepared without salt) or salt-free stock cubes, of which the Kallo ones are the best out of the ones I've tried.

It's about 2 grams salt in a half-litre of stock. I believe.

unfortunately it's quite a lot more than that.

The Knorr Simply Stock you mention has almost 5g per half litre. (0.87g per 100ml)

Their stock gels have even more - 5.6g per half litre when diluted according to instructions. Stock cubes are similar.

Even a small portion can quite easily exceed a child's salt limit for the whole day (recommended limit for a 12 month old is between 1-2g per day).

Actually this recipe only calls for 200ml so the total amount would not be too bad - but it's still a good idea not to use ordinary stock products while they are tiny.

Just had a look in the cupboard, don't have any Simply Stock ATM. We've got 'Sainsburys Signature Stock', which is more expensive and tastier (about £1.29/pack). No salt in the ingredients, SALT (not sodium) is listed as 0.1g per 100g, that is presumably naturally in the chicken, and may be rounded up so the actual amount could be lower.

It's not advertised as a low-salt product, but it doesn't contain any.

Marigold powder is quite good if you get the low salt version.

good for Sainsburys! And thanks for the tip, I'll look out for sig stock next time I'm there.

I promise I'm not fibbing about Knorr though - they are incredibly salty. You can look up the nutritional content on Sains online if you wan t to check.

£1.18/pack in fact.

Get the 500g packet stuff, keeps forever, rather than the more expensive 300g fresh variety.

Otherwise I missed cloves out of my recipe, add 5 whole. Also curry leaves, about a dozen.

Thanks for suggestions! He has had chilli but just in the chilli con carne my mum makes where she basically shows some chilli powder to the sauce and then shoves it back in the cupboard ;) I want to start introducing him to chilli in small quantities and build up, but because we did BLW and he eats what we eat, I wanted some recipes that DH and I could eat without feeling like we are missing out on the chilli IYSWIM. Black pepper is a great idea, someguy - DS really likes pepper!

On stock, I tend to use Kallo very low salt which is really good but it can be difficult to get hold of any other than the veg one. Boots do salt free veg, chicken and beef stock in their baby range which seems reasonably natural (about as chemically as it gets it maize starch) and easy to get hold of even in quite small Boots.

Chick pea curry recipe is
Gently cook 2 medium onions in 2 tbps olive oil. When soft add 0.5 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp ground coriander, 4 cloves, 2 tsp grated fresh ginger, 5cm piece cinnamon stick and 3 bay leaves. Cook for a couple of minutes then add 1 tin chopped tomatoes, 1 tin chickpeas and 1 tbsp honey. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove cloves, bay leaves and cinnamon then stir in 5cm cube creamed coconut and serve.

I usually only drain half the water off the chickpeas or else its a bit dry.

Even my dh loves this and he's usually a vindaloo kinda guy.

nellyup that sounds delish. Just written it down and will try asap. We love curries but want to reduce meat intake so this is perfect. Thanks