100 garlic clove curry

We had recently gotten the Made in India cookbook by Meera Sodha and I had been dying to try out her 100 garlic clove curry.  I couldn’t find any photos online (nor is there one in the book) or anything and I was just so curious to find out what a dish centred around garlic would be like.  So we tried it!

Well for such a crazy huge amount of garlic, this curry is actually not overpowering but kind of more like roasted garlic all sauced up in a coconut-tamarind curry.  Which is delicious.  However, the recipe says it can be for 2 as a main dish, which is what we did, but we think it’d be better off as a side dish for a bunch of people.  After all, it is about 50 cloves of garlic per person which is pretty damn intense!  Anyway, if you love garlic and are feeling adventurous, give this a try.  It’s a very easy recipe with the only laborious part being peeling all the garlic!

100 cloves of garlic, peeled  /  3/4 tsp mustard seeds  /  3 tbsp oil (we used avocado but the recipe is for canola)  /  10 fresh curry leaves (which we couldn’t find but managed to snatch up some dried ones.  I just used a few pinches of that but I’m sure fresh ones would be much better if you can find them!)  /  1/2 tsp salt  /  1/2 tsp hot chilli powder  /  1 tsp ground turmeric  /  1 tsp tamarind paste  /  1/2 cup coconut milk (I used 1/2 a can ‘cus I wanted it saucier!)

Heat up the oil in a large lidded pan over medium heat and then add the mustard seeds.  When the seeds start to pop, toss in the curry leaves and the garlic cloves.  Let the garlic sear a bit on both sides then turn the heat down to low and add 1/2 a cup of water.  Cover with the lid and let the garlic cook for about 20 minutes.  You can check every now and again to make sure the garlic isn’t burning and if it is, you can add a bit of water.

Gently (as you don’t want to smush up the garlic!) stir in the salt, chilli powder, turmeric and tamarind paste and cover with the lid for another couple of minutes.  Next, stir in the coconut milk and just let it cook away for another 5 minutes or so.  And that’s it!  We ate it with freshly made naan.