Curry Dinner | The French Chef Season 7 | Julia Child

Julia Child shows you how leftover almost anything becomes an exotic Indian curry.

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Cooking legend and cultural icon Julia Child, along with her pioneering public television series from the 1960s, The French Chef, introduced French cuisine to American kitchens. In her signature passionate way, Julia forever changed the way we cook, eat and think about food.

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-Cucumber, pinolis, bananas,
spiced lentils,
hard-boiled eggs,
Bombay ducks, and…
coconut.
These are just some
of the condiments
for curry dinner today
on "The French Chef."
♪♪
♪♪
-"The French Chef"
is made possible
by a grant from
the Polaroid Corporation.
♪♪
-Welcome to "The French Chef."
I’m Julia Child.
We’re gonna do
a curry dinner today.
It’s been all the way to India
and come back again.
It’s called cari danyo
le’tour de zan.
And it has stops
all along the way,
’cause I don’t pretend to be
an Indian-Hindu cook at all.
So this is — I don’t make
no pretensions
of having this
a traditional curry.
It has Indian influences
and French influences
and English influences.
But the main thing is to show
you what fun you can have
with the idea of curry.
And our word curry
comes from kare,
k-a-r-e, which means —
in Tamil, which is
one of the Indian languages —
a flavor or a sauce.
And we know curry usually
as curry powder.
But there isn’t any spice
that’s called curry.
It’s actually — It’s a blend
of a whole lot of things —
about a dozen of them.
And in India, if you’re making
curry, you make your own mix —
sort of a house blend —
and it always contains turmeric
and coriander and cardamom.
And here’s some of the seeds
of cardamom.
And these are only 3
of about the 12 things
that go into curry.
And I’m not going to use —
I’m not gonna grind
my own this time.
I’m gonna use an imported ready
mix, which comes from Madras.
And Madras is Tamil country.
And I’m gonna read you
what it has on the label.
It has coriander, turmeric,
chili, salt, cumin,
fennel, pepper, cloves,
anise, fenugreek, cinnamon,
mustard, cashews,
chili powder, garlic,
ground nuts, and dried ginger.
And it’s all free from coloring
or adulteration.
Thank heaven.
So, I’m gonna show you
what it looks like.
And that is this
tremendous mixture.
And whatever recipe
you are gonna use
that has curry powder in it,
it’s always called a curry,
like a lamb curry
and chicken curry
or a shrimp curry.
And what we’re gonna do
is a lamb curry,
just because I happen
to have some leftover lamb.
And the first thing
you have to do
is to make your curry sauce,
which starts out —
even in India
or Greece or Boston
or any place else —
with some onions.
In this case, I’m gonna have
about 2 cups of sliced onions
cooked in about
3 tablespoons of oil
and stirred
with an orange spoon,
which is very important.
And you can — And in India,
you would use ghee,
spelled g-h-e-e,
which is clarified butter.
I imagine that’s butter
clarified
from water buffalo milk.
I don’t know.
But it’s rather expensive,
even in India,
so that you would use
any kind of an oil,
like cotton seed oil
or mustard oil.
And I’m using olive oil.
And I’m gonna cover this pan
and let the onions
cook quietly over here.
And while they cook,
I’m gonna start some rice
’cause you can hardly have
a curry without rice.
And we have 1 1/2 cups of plain,
ordinary long-grain rice
in a pan.
And that was 1 1/2 cups of rice
and 3 cups of water.
You always want to have twice
as much water.
And this is a very easy system
for doing rice,
which I think you will enjoy
just because it’s so simple,
and I like being able to use
just plain, ordinary rice
rather than one
of those treated ones.
And that has 2 tablespoons
of butter in it
and 2 teaspoons of salt.
And I’m gonna have a little,
tiny bit of saffron in it
because that’ll make a nice —
a pretty color.
And this gets stirred up once
and then covered.
And it’s gonna cook for
just about 15 minutes.
And that’s all you have
to do for it.
And if that isn’t about
the easiest way of doing rice,
I don’t know what is.
And now that we got the onions
cooking,
we got to get to
what we’re gonna curry,
which is lamb.
And I’m gonna show you.
This is —
I happened to have lamb
because we had a leftover leg
of lamb — Gigot d’Agneau.
But you can use pork, veal,
turkey, duck, roast beef.
And I think what is good about
this is that it has been —
it’s cooked rare so that all it
needs to be is warmed through.
And this is a wonderful way
of using leftovers.
And you got a bone —
and this is one
of your kitchen treasures.
Doesn’t look like a treasure,
but it actually is.
And one reason the European
cooking is so good,
’cause they never
waste anything.
And we’re always throwing bones
to the dogs.
And we should put them
in the stockpot.
Brown it with some onions
and carrots
and simmer it
for two or three hours,
and you have a wonderful stock.
And that’s what’s gonna make
your curry very good indeed.
And now we’re gonna brown
the lamb in a little bit of oil.
I’m just gonna film
the pan with oil.
And then in goes the lamb.
And be sure that whatever meat
you use is dry.
And this,
because you have your —
I almost had a problem here.
Your meat is fully cooked.
This is a roast.
And it’s tender meat
to begin with.
So, in this case, you want only
just to brown it
with a little salt and pepper.
And all that’s gonna be done —
is gonna happen to it —
is it’s gonna heat through
in a curry sauce.
It’s some nice, fresh pepper.
And the initial browning
gives it a little more flavor.
But the important thing is,
when you have meat like, say,
a very good roast of beef
or chicken
or something like that,
and you’re gonna re-cook it
or use it in leftovers,
either you have to cook it
just to warm it through again
or you have to cook it
for about an hour to —
I mean, that’s just
the way it works.
And this is just cooked
to warm through
so that’s browned enough.
And I’m gonna set it aside,
and then finish the sauce.
And these are the onions.
And you let your onions cook
for about 10 minutes,
until they’re nice and tender.
And then you put your curry in.
Now, this is a very important
part of curry cookery,
which is that you always have to
cook the curry powder —
even if it’s homemade —
for two or three minutes
before you add anything else
’cause that takes away
the raw taste of it.
And, I think,
how much curry to use
depends on your own taste of it.
This happens to be not
too strong of curry powder,
but some of them
are terribly peppery.
In this case, I’ve put in about
2 or 3 tablespoons.
And that should cook around
for two or three minutes.
But if you aren’t —
if you hadn’t done much curry
before, don’t put in too much,
’cause you can always add
a little bit more later,
even if you haven’t —
though you’re supposed to be —
if you haven’t cooked it,
because you might find
that it’s terribly peppery.
And in Solan, where we were,
they always said
the curry wasn’t any good
unless it was so hot
it made the sweat stand out
on the top of your head.
That’s too strong for me.
And now this is to have about
3 tablespoons of flour.
This is,
as usual with leftovers,
proportions are rather loose.
And I want to have about
3 cups of sauce,
so I put in about
3 tablespoons of flour.
And that has to turn around
and cook a little bit.
And then, I’ve got
some excellent stock
that was made with —
made with lamb bones and I had
some leftover roast beef bones.
And I cooked it up.
And I’m gonna put in just about
3 cups of it.
And this is —
I think this is the capital
part of your cooking.
This is why, as I said before,
European cooking is awfully good
because they use the kind of —
they use the stock and flavor
up things
the way
they really should taste.
I think the good thing about
making your own stock
is that it tastes like you —
if you feel that you have a good
taste, that’s the way to do it
’cause it doesn’t taste like
canned bouillon all the time.
And now we’re gonna put in
about 1/2 cup of wine.
I’m using some red wine just
’cause I happen to have some.
And then we want
to have some garlic.
What’s interesting to me —
that the Indians use a lot
of garlic and a lot of onions,
and I think that’s one reason —
if you’re gonna be a vegetarian,
Indian cooking is pretty nice.
And there’s peeled
garlic cloves.
And I’m gonna go, "Wham!"
And then chop it up.
I’m — I love the garlic press,
but I don’t use it every minute.
This has a more Indian feel
to me.
I’m mincing it.
And now you want this
to simmer up.
And I hope I’ve got enough —
Hope I’ve got enough
thickening in it,
which I think I have.
I may have to put a little —
I may put a little
tiny bit more in,
’cause I don’t want to.
This is just in case you feel
you may have slipped up,
this is a little wine
and flour paste.
‘Cause I’m not sure
that’s gonna be thick enough.
I’m just gonna set
that aside in case
I need a little thickening
at the end.
That’s a little bit
of insurance.
Then I’m gonna put
in some raisins.
I like the idea of the sweet
and sour.
And these are just plain,
ordinary black seedless raisins.
And then one little,
small sour apple.
The raisins are the sweet,
and the apple is the sour.
I don’t know.
I think this is more Indonesian,
like a rijsttafel of pudding —
apples and raisins in —
than it is Hindu Indian.
I’m not sure.
Anyway, it’s very good
’cause I think the curry powder
needs a little sweetening up.
And then we’ll have to have
some herbs.
I want some thyme and some bay.
That’s about 1/2 teaspoon
of thyme.
And I’m gonna put
in one bay leaf.
And I always use imported
bay leaves.
I believe these come
from Persia.
Now that does seem
to be thickening, I see.
So I’m probably not gonna need
my emergency flour paste.
Now, you want to taste it
at this point.
If it needs more salt,
put it in.
It needs more salt,
very definitely.
I have to use another spoon now.
I have to be hygienic.
If I put the spoon in,
I can’t eat from it —
at least,
that’s what I’ve been told.
And one has to practice
being careful in private
so that one would also
always be careful in public.
See how that is now.
I think that’s gonna be
very good.
Now, another capital and a very
important part
of the curry is coconut.
Curry’s a little,
tiny bit strong.
And we’re gonna —
I want you to see
how to prepare fresh coconut.
Now, what have I got here?
Yes.
We have — Excuse me.
I think that curry is a little
peppier than I thought.
Now, if you’re gonna buy
a coconut,
which are in-season all year —
but not so much in summer
as in winter —
you want to be sure that they’re
heavy and that they slosh.
[ Liquid sloshing ]
Can you hear that sloshing?
That’s the coconut water inside,
and you got to have that if
it’s gonna be a good coconut.
And then, you got to get
the water out,
and so these three
little things are its eyes.
And you’re gonna punch out
the eyes with an ice pick.
Punch right in there.
That practically
cracked the nut,
but that’s quite all right.
And there, the third eye.
And then you drain
that in a cup.
And here’s some of the water
in there.
I wanted you to see
what it looks like.
And this is coconut water,
this stuff.
It’s not coconut milk.
I always thought it was
coconut milk,
but this is just the water.
And the water has
a very mild taste.
It’s good for babies
and invalids.
And now what you got to do
with your drained coconut
is to be able
to open it up and —
because you want to get
the meat out.
And there are coconut purists
who say
that you should do nothing
but hammer the coconut open
and then dig out the meat,
and it takes a long time.
But a much easier way
is to use the oven.
Put it in a 400-degree oven
and leave it for 20 minutes
until the shell cracks,
just like that.
And then, put it in a towel.
And you’ll see why.
Wrap it all up.
And then take a big wacker
of any type and go, "Rum!"
And there you are.
The shell is opened up.
And what the reason
that you wanted the heat,
is because
that the meat comes —
the meat gets separated
very easily from the shell.
And if you don’t heat it,
you have a terrible time.
The meat is all attached
to the shell, like that.
You have to take a knife
and you go.
And you usually cut yourself.
But in this way,
you’re perfectly safe.
And some people leave
this brown skin on,
but I’ve tasted the brown skin,
and it doesn’t have
any taste at all.
And I think it’s much better
to take it off.
And the easiest way
to take it off
is to take a vegetable peeler
and just peel it off.
But if you were gonna —
when you’re gonna use
grated coconut for cakes,
you certainly wouldn’t want
to leave any brown skin on.
And, you see, this is really
very easy to do.
And I think it takes
the tears off of coconut.
Now, if you’re gonna —
for a curry,
you want to have
some freshly grated coconut
that’s part of the condiment,
which looks like that.
And you can grate it
by hand in a grater
and that takes a long time.
The best way is to grate it
in the blender,
which I’m now going to do.
You take your meat
and cut it up
into little pieces, like that.
And put it in the blender.
And it grates up very nicely,
just like that.
And now we’re gonna
make the milk.
And this is what
the milk looks like.
And this is a mixture
of the coconut meat
and water
that’s allowed to settle.
And I’m gonna use boiling water.
And this is —
there’s a boiling water gadget
on my sink,
which is very useful.
And put about a cup in there.
And in no time at all,
you got the whole thing
grated up with the water.
And if you don’t have a blender,
you just grate it up —
bring it up to the boil
in a saucepan,
and then let it stand.
But in this case,
the easy way to get —
you got to strain it.
So you pour this right into
a big old-fashioned
potato masher and go…"Rrr."
In a lot of recipes, you see
that they say to squeeze it
by handfuls in a…cheesecloth.
But there you are — that’s just
a plain residue
that is really not
much good for anything.
You can make a second pressing
by putting all of this
into a saucepan
and moistening it with water,
bringing it up just to the boil,
and then squeezing it out again.
And you’ll get a rather
pale milk out of it.
You’ll see this, as well.
Oh.
And what’s interesting about
this milk is that
if you pour it into a glass jar
and then put it in the icebox,
it separates,
and you got your pure
coconut cream or coconut butter.
Which is — There you are.
This is absolutely lovely.
And that’s just really primitive
cocoa butter,
and you can use that
in cake frostings.
But I’m gonna use this milk
just as it is
and put it into our curry sauce.
I think that’s fun.
I hadn’t realized
how that was all done.
Now, there’s our curry sauce.
I’m just gonna put
a little bit of this in.
And then, if you need to thin
the sauce out later,
you can put in some more.
And now I’m gonna put the lamb
in the sauce.
And now, the trick here
in this lamb,
because you do not want it
to overcook,
is just to let it
come up to the simmer
so that it is just heated
through in the sauce.
And then set it aside.
And if you can let it
do it ahead,
say for about half an hour,
or so —
you want the meat
to steep in the sauce,
and then the meat
will have absorbed its flavor.
So you can even, say,
do this the day ahead.
And I’m gonna take a look
and see how our rice is doing.
There she is.
That has the little clam holes.
And that is —
I’m gonna stir that up with —
See, yeah, that’s just fine.
And so, this you can take off
the heat and leave covered
and it’ll finish its cooking.
And now we have the condiments
that go with the curry.
And you can have your usual
things like chopped nuts
and coconut and other things.
And then you can be very exotic
and you can have poppadums.
And these are
these brown wafers.
They’re made —
you won’t believe it —
they’re made out
of lentil flour.
And you fry them in deep flat —
deep flat — deep fat.
And this is very hot.
And then you take a spatula,
which the British call
one of these things a "slice" —
I love it, that’s very British,
isn’t it?
And then turn it over.
And as you see,
it only takes about…
…just about 2 or 3 seconds.
And dip it out.
And drain it on paper towels.
I’m gonna do you one more.
And these you can buy
at any of the import stores.
And there are a lot
of Indian ones around.
And these all come from Madras,
again —
that great Tamil country.
And I think it’s best to do
these one at a time,
’cause they go so quickly.
And this is just ordinary
vegetable oil that I’m using.
Then turn them over.
And then another…
another exotic
is Bombay duck.
And they come in a package,
or a pan —
a package or a little
can like this.
And what they are —
what they are is,
or what they is are —
little, tiny, very thin fish
that are about 8 inches long.
And they skim over the water
in the bay of Bombay.
And, I think, because they skim
over the surface,
some wag said
that they were Bombay ducks.
But they aren’t, they’re little,
tiny fishes
that have been filleted.
And these also get
put into deep fat.
And they have a rather somewhat
disagreeable smell
while they are frying.
But then as soon
as they’re fried,
they taste and look
just like bacon.
And these, again,
just take 2 or 3 minutes.
But this is one of the most
typical and desirable
of the really
authentic Indian condiments.
If you don’t happen to be able
to run into Bombay duck,
just use bacon.
But you need something that
has — it’s a lovely —
has a little crispness to it,
like these.
There.
And then, as with both of them,
flip them over.
And as you see, they both
browned a little bit more
after you have taken them out.
And other condiments
you will see
when we’re in the dining room.
And we’re now —
the curry’s all done.
And that, you just would
reheat again.
And the rice is all done, so we
are ready to serve the curry.
Take this over.
Now I’m gonna put the rice
onto the platter.
Isn’t that a — that’s really
so wonderfully easy.
An effective way
of cooking rice.
And this, the rice,
you can do way ahead of time,
and just reheat
over simmering water.
Then on goes the curry.
There’s that bay leaf,
which I’ll have to take out.
And I have a little more rice
to go on the sides, here.
And I’m gonna put a little bit
of parsley on.
I don’t know whether in India —
I guess they must
use parsley in India.
They probably have something
that has a more exotic flavor.
I might put a little,
tiny bit more rice there.
Of course, you could serve
the curry separately,
and not on the same platter.
Now, ready to serve.
Now I want you to see
the other condiments we have.
There.
Now, the rice onto a plate.
Get this wonderful-smelling
curry on, also.
And then, the accompaniments,
or condiments,
whatever you like to call them.
And here’s a poppadum.
And there’s a little bit
of fresh coconut.
And, usually, these things are
all piled on top of each other.
And a bit of chutney,
’cause, then again, you have
your wonderful sweet and sour.
And now, these are — this is
a cucumber and green pepper
with a little bit of salt,
pepper, and onion.
And here are a few little
sautéed pine nuts.
And diced bananas,
which are lovely.
And with this,
you can serve beer or lemonade.
And here are
some spiced lentils.
And there’s a little egg.
And also, here is a Bombay duck,
which I’m just gonna
crumble all over everything.
And that’s all for today
on "The French Chef."
This is Julia Child.
Bon appétit!
♪♪
-"The French Chef"
has been made possible
by a grant
from the Polaroid Corporation.
Julie Child is coauthor
of "Mastering the Art
of French Cooking,"
Volumes 1 and 2.
♪♪