Curry and tortilla bowls?
Goan chicken curry with rice in tortilla bowls
It’s never easy to cook for large groups but recently I had the pleasurable challenge of cooking for 20 discerning ladies at a baby shower.
Mom-to-be Krista decided that she wanted curry and I thought, I’d do something different and not cook a typical Trinidad curry. I took my inspiration from Cook Sister’s blog, and her recipe for Durban Bunny Chows, one of South Africa’s favourite street foods.
The bunny chow is a curry served in a bowl made from a hollowed out loaf of bread.
Cook Sister’s curry was a basic lamb curry but I felt I needed something a bit spicy and creamy. So I turned to our friend Anita Samtani, one of the brains behind Geeta’s Foods who make delicious cooking sauces, spice rubs and chutneys.
After consulting with Anita, I decided the main course would be Goan chicken curry and Keralan spiced vegetables. She kindly donated some Geeta’s products including Goan sauce, Rogan Josh spice mix and Keralan spice mix.
Tortilla option
With the main course out of the way, putting the rest of the meal together was easy. Krista requested a quinoa based salad similar to one I had done last Christmas, so that was the starter. Dessert was going to be a pre-bought vanilla cake but I felt a palate cleansing lemon sorbet would be perfect right after the curry.
In the end, I didn’t use bread bowls, but opted for tortilla bowls instead. I stole the idea from Wahaca restaurant, where I was very impressed by a salad served in a baked tortilla bowl.
In the States, there are special baking tins to make tortilla bowls, but they’re not readily available in the UK, so after a tip from someone on Twitter, I substituted tortilla tins with a brioche tin.
To make the tortilla bowls, I used large wraps, gently moulded them into a large brioche tin and baked for 7-8 minutes at 180C.
As the wraps cooled, they got firmer and held the bowl shape very well. Most importantly, the bowls were perfect for the portion size I wanted to serve and they didn’t leak. That was a fantastic result!