Unusual ingredients in curry: Shatkora

The first time I came across shatkora was in India a few years ago. We were leaving for the airport one of the hotel chefs came up to us and proudly presented us with a a bag of green and knobbly looking fruit as a gift. He explained shatkora was hard to find in the UK and much more expensive. We put the bag into our suitcase but, sadly, had to ditch it later as our luggage was too heavy. Since then, shatkora has become much easier to find in the UK and features in many dishes in Indian restaurants. From the outside it certainly is not an object of beauty but, as far as flavours go, the shatkora is a veritable swan of the culinary world. A cross between grapefruit, lime and lemon, it adds a tanginess and exotic taste to curry dishes and lifts them into the sublime.

  

Otherwise known as the citrus macroptera or ‘wild orange’, the fruit is about is 6-7cm in diameter and oval in shape with pointed ends. The variant grown in Bangladesh is called annamensis and is commonly used in the area of Sylhet. It grows on thorny trees which can reach 5m in height. Although it looks and smells more like a lime, its juice is sour and bitter and tastes more like that of a grapefruit. The pith is thick and dry and the outer skin becomes yellow when the fruit is ripe.

Delicious Shatkora curry cooked by Chef Mahbub Rahman
of Dine Bangla  in Beverley.

Preparation of the fruit is tricky and requires some culinary skill. Perhaps the easiest way is to cut the shatkora in half lengthways and then cut each half into three, also along the length. Then the main fruit can be pared away from the peel and outer pith with a sharp knife.

Chefs recommend the skin is pre cooked to soften the texture. In Bangladesh the rind is eaten as a vegetable and the pulp is usually discarded because of its bitter taste. The thick rind is cut into small pieces and cooked in beef mutton, fish curries and stews whilst the fruit is often used in shatkora pickles.

Curries cooked with shatkora are now becoming more and more popular in Bangladeshi and Indian restaurants in the UK.  The fruit can now be bought in many Asian food stores that serve the Indian and Bangladeshi community. It’s also available in frozen form.

Shatkora’s beneficial values don’t stop there – as a citrus fruit, rich in Vitamin C in India and Bangladesh, it has long been known for its medicinal value. It’s very strong in antioxidants and is reputed to be a sure cure for colds and flu when cooked in curry.

Recipe for Aromatic Venison Curry with Shatkora

from The Kennington Tandoori

Haunch of roast venison slow cooked to melting tenderness with tangy citrus shatkora in a deliciously rich, juicy sauce. 

Serves 6

Preparation time: 20-30 minutes

Cooking time: approx 3 hours

Ingredients

• 3 tbs vegetable/olive oil

• Whole spices:
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 piece cinnamon bark (not quills)
• 4 green cardamom pods, bruised
• 1tsp salt

• 1 tbs garlic paste
• 1 tbs ginger paste
• 5 large shallots, very finely diced

• 1 ½ lb venison haunch, trimmed of fat and cut into 1 ½ inch chunks

• Approx 1 ½ pints water (see method)

• Ground powdered spices:
• 1 rounded tsp brown cumin powder
• 1 ½ rounded tsp coriander powder
• 1 rounded tsp chilli powder
• Scant ½ tsp turmeric powder

• 2 slices shatkora, flesh removed and cut into pieces

Method

• Warm the oil in a large heavy-bottomed pan or casserole dish.  Add the whole spices and gently heat, swirling in the oil to heat and release their flavours, adding a tsp of salt as you do so. Take care not to let the spices burn as this will make the dish taste bitter.

• Add the garlic and ginger pastes, continuing to stir on a gentle heat. (For small quantities crush garlic bulbs and grind to a paste, fresh ginger root can be grated with a fine microplane; for larger quantities it is easier to use a food processor.) Add the diced shallots, stir and cook on a medium heat until opaque and just starting to colour, but do not brown.

• Add the meat and brown all over in the spices and onion mix (approx 7-10 minutes), whilst enjoying the delicious aroma.

• Add sufficient water to fully cover the meat, stir thoroughly to deglaze the pan and to ensure nothing sticks or burns on the base. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for ½ an hour.

• Add the mixed spice powder and stir in to the curry, using a wooden spoon or spatula (not metal – to avoid cutting the meat). Cover and slow cook on a gentle bubble for 2 hours until the sauce has thickened and the meat is meltingly tender (longer if using a cheaper cut).

• About 15 minutes before the curry is ready, add shatkora and allow it to scent the dish.

The Kennington Tandoori, 313 Kennington Rd, London SE11 4QE

Aroma Spice - Hampstead's Hidden Gem

 

Mohammed Bakth and his son Karim of Aroma Spice are justly proud of their family business. For the past 16 years, Aroma Spice has been successfully satisfying diners with an appetite for fine Indian cuisine in one of London’s most affluent areas.  With a rapidly changing demographic and burgeoning local competition, Aroma Spice has not only retained its loyal customer base, it has also continued to attract new fans – including Oasis’s Liam Gallagher and self confessed curry lover and actor, Phil Daniels.

From outside the restaurant blends in well with Hampstead’s eclectic coterie of exclusive shop fronts and village atmosphere – and amazingly, there is parking right outside the door! Inside the theme is chic and urban. Black leather seats, modern paintings and crisp white linen tablecloths add to the sense of style, augmented by fresh flowers, quality dinner settings and - a nice touch - Norwegian sparkling water.

Karim, 26, tells us that Indian restaurants have always been an integral part of his life and he has vivid memories of being carried on his father’s shoulders to work when he was a young boy. “I still recall running round the restaurant, going in and out of the kitchen and the spice stores and watching the chefs cook. “From the age of five I knew that this was where I wanted to be,” he says.

Confident, engaging and somewhat snazzily dressed, Karim is an ideal front man for any business and thrives on interacting with customers. Unlike his older brother who decided to take a different path as a property developer, Karim’s ambition was to carry on the family business. After graduating from university in Business Management he seized the opportunity to join his father “with both hands and legs” realising he was very fortunate to jump straight into a running concern. “Not many people get to step on a plateau like this. It’s the only freehold restaurant in Hampstead and I would have been foolish to waste such an opportunity.”

Mohammed, understandably, prefers to take more of a sideline these days having managed restaurants for some 30-40 years including Poppadom in Belsize Park. But Karim recognises the huge debt he owes to his dad: “I think the level of experience gained by working with my father has been better than anything I could learn at school or read in any book. My father has been my copy book; you can’t top that kind of training.”

Even so you get the impression that both men have a very hands-on role in the business. “If there’s anything for us to get involved we will do,” Mohammed says. “We may look up market but we are a very unpretentious family restaurant. We like to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere here so that people feel at home and then we make them as comfortable as we can. If you come in at the weekend you’ll find grandmothers, granddad’s, parents and kids in here – that’s what I really love about this place. Our food and service is paramount and everything else is a bonus. If you don’t care about what you’re serving you shouldn’t be here.”

When they’re not raving about the cuisine, diners talk about Aroma Spice with great affection. Many original customers of Aroma Spice followed Mohammed when he came from Poppadom to run his own place. As Karim says, he’s such a lovely bloke they would happily support him anywhere.  He tells the story of one regular customer who was a competitor in the Iron Man race and whose mother visited from the US. As soon as she arrived she made a beeline for Aroma Spice, demanding to speak to the manager. When (with some trepidation) he identified himself, she thanked him profusely for looking after her son so well. Apparently he had told her all about them and she wanted to come in to thank them personally. Yes - they like to look after their customers at Aroma Spice.

They are, perhaps, fortunate in their affluent clientele, even if some have become slightly less affluent in recent years. Being in the celebrity epicentre of the UK, Aroma Spice has more than its fair share of famous guests.  These include Kate Winslet and Russell Crowe. Liam Gallagher has even given a personal recommendation via a video on the restaurant website whilst Phil Daniels of EastEnders and Blur’s Parklife fame, cited Aroma Spice as his favourite Indian restaurant ever.

The descriptive menu has some intriguing choices and chef Suhel Ahmed, who recently represented Britain at the Taste of Britain Curry Festival in Slovenia, at the helm diners are always in for a treat. Tawa dishes - a “secret family recipe passed through the generations” - are cooked on a flat, concave griddle made of cast iron. Delectable signatures such as Banaroshi Lamb: a recipe with roots in Nepal baked with garlic, fresh coriander and crushed pineapple, or Badami Gosht: tender lamb pieces in pistachios, almond and coconut milk sauce, are balanced with exotic Xacuti chicken or Kachi Biryani, mutton marinated and cooked in layers in a cooking pot with spiced basmati.

Selections of grilled meat dishes are an option for health conscious diners as is the spicy grilled Paneer salad. Tandoori mains include local trout. The Goan dish Khali Mirch Murgh draws flavours from the sun dried chillies while Kuko Koko Palu, another Nepalese dish, tempts the taste buds with tender chicken in a coconut pulp, coconut cream and almond sauce. Mohammed buys food fresh from a well respected wholesaler and he personally oversees and ensures the quality of all ingredients.

Sampling the wonderful mixed starters, chicken Tawa dish and grilled salmon, coated in a secret blend of herbs and spices, with Peshwari naan bread and side dishes, we experience a taste to remember. And despite the restaurant’s well heeled location, the prices are surprisingly modest, representing great value for money.

It’s easy to understand why diners love Aroma Spice. The warm and welcoming atmosphere created by the owners permeates the whole place. And, as locals are only too well aware, Aroma Spice is Hampstead’s hidden gem.

Aroma Spice, 98 Fleet Road, Hampstead, London NW3 2QX  Tel: 020 7485 6908 & 020 7267 0444