Restaurant Review - Red Onion Essex & Indian Food in the UK

I was recently contacted by a new Indian restaurant in Saffron Walden (Essex / Cambridgeshire border), Red Onion, to try out their menu. This post is two things really, a review of the restaurant and some ponderings about Indian food in the UK.

First, the Red Onion. It is a curry house based just around the corner from Saffron Walden Common, which opened last year.

For starters we had onion bhaji and Aloo Chaat. The onion bhaji was pretty textbook, they were crispy and quite big and not too oily- and served with that random salad that no one ever eats. My aloo chaat, was just a plain potato curry - what I had hoped for is spicy potatoes with crispy sev (chickpea noodles) or fried chapati with yoghurt and tamarind, that is what chaat normally consists of - it's about textures. This was unfortunately a potato curry with cucumber in it, bizarrely. It was good to see it on the menu but unfortunately it wasn't an aloo chaat.

For mains I ordered a lamb achari - the lamb was nice and tender and the sauce was tomato based with good heat and a lemony kick. Mr had a vegetable bhuna - a nice tomatoey sauce with good heat, but the vegetables seemed to be from those frozen 'vegetable mixes' you get in big bags. We also ordered muttar paneer, usually cooked with onions and a little tomato with plenty of chilli, and peas of course, our dish was coconut based, which I like with paneer, but unfortunately it was cloyingly sweet. I wouldn't have minded a little chilli powder!

We decided to try out some different breads - garlic naan, roti and chapati. The naan was really nice, fluffy inside and crispy on the bottom. The chapati was good, nice and soft and mopped up the curry well. The roti, I think it differs from the chapati as it is cooked on a tandoor, was nice too, possibly a bit too crispy.

To finish we decided not to go for the oddly presented kulfis (in coconut shells, plastic pineapple shells etc) that you always find in curry houses, but for a cup of masala chai each. Like the aloo chaat it was nice to see it on the menu, the tea was good although, I think, made from a spiced tea bag rather than brewed with a masala mix, meaning it wasn't as strong as it should be.

Overall it was a nice meal, and if you're after a 'British Curry' then that is what it will offer you. We really liked the breads and the sauces in each of our curries were good. The starters could use some work and the paneer was a little bizarre.

I think food in general has improved tenfold UK over the past 10 years, British food is better than ever, but I feel understanding about what Indian food, and probably that of other countries, is seriously lagging behind. A curry house will tell you that you are eating authentic Indian food when you're tucking into a chicken korma, dipping plain poppadoms into mango chutney, and that strange thin yoghurt sauce. When you're eating orange pilau rice and fighting your way through an oil soaked onion bhaji.

For me a curry house curry is a bit of a guilty pleasure, a bit like MacDonald's or a fish finger sandwich. It's mostly not authentic (a lot of Indian restaurants dishes are actually based on Bangladeshi cooking with Anglicised additions) but it is comforting in a way.

I think curry houses can give Indian food a bad rep. Indian food is different in each region you visit - and it is not always as unhealthy as it has a reputation for - yes we like our samosas and sugary snacks, and ghee is used - but everyday Indian food is fresh and nourishing. Lentils, fresh vegetables, wholewheat chapatis and pickles. It's not just cubed meat in a sauce served with a naan or rice.

This article in the Guardian about 'how to eat curry' is great - it explains what to look out for (south Indian food, pure vegetarian food) and what to order. Searching out restaurants like this is nearly always a good idea - you'll find plenty of them in Leicester, parts of Birmingham, Southall, Wembley and Ilford. South Indian restaurants will offer you a thali (plate) filled with different dishes, or a crispy dosa stuffed with homemade paneer or spicy potato. Pure vegetarian restaurants, which are often Gujarati (like me!) will serve chilli paneer, the best daal, chaat and sometimes gulab jamun for pudding.

Thanks to the Red Onion, Saffron Walden for inviting us for dinner. You can find out more about them here.

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Kashmiri Dum Aloo

One of the tastiest but also the most disappointing dishes we ate in Mumbai was Dum Aloo. That might sound a little strange, but let me explain, some of the potatoes were cooked and others were raw, which ruined what was otherwise a tasty meal - the sauce was still delicious.

Dum Aloo is a potato in a creamy tomato spiced sauce, cooked for a long time til the potatoes are tender. I believe 'Dum' refers to cooking in a pot sealed with dough, so the moisture remains inside during cooking. Aloo means potato.

The potatoes are first deep fried, although I shallow fried mine in a couple of tablespoons of oil which worked out just fine and removed some of the faff from the recipe. Then you fry onion, garlic, tomato paste and ground spices before adding tomatoes and a little water, and then the potatoes.
You can then either make a dough or make a cartouche, which is a lot easier, to 'seal' the dish and keep the moisture in. I used a large heavy casserole dish which has a tight fitting lid, along with my cartouche - made of a round of greaseproof paper placed directly on top of the simmering potato and sauce. The cartouche is then removed, and the sauce thickened by simmering without the lid, before cream and fresh coriander is added to finish.

We ate it with freshly made rotli (or chapatis which is what you may know them as) - more on that soon! In Mumbai we had them with soft naan and juicy limes. I made the entire recipe, that serves 4, and there were lots of leftovers which tasted even better the next day.

It is important to use really good quality potatoes here, they are the centre of the dish and I think any old spuds might not tastes as good as a Jersey royal or a similarly good new potato. I adapted the recipe from the brilliant Ko Rasoi blog, missing out some of the spices and using a little less sugar, salt and cream to my taste.

Kashmiri Dum Aloo
recipe adapted from Ko Rasoi
serves 4

450g Jersey royals or good quality new potatoes
2 tbsp of groundnut or sunflower oil
2 tbsp of tomato puree
1 tin of plum tomatoes
250ml water
1 tbsp of grated ginger
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tsp of sugar
2 tsp of salt
150ml of double cream

Spices - grind these in a pestle and mortar together
2 tsp of fennel seeds
2 tsp of chilli flakes
1/2 tsp of cumin seeds
1 tsp of coriander seeds
1/2 tsp of ground ginger

Chopped coriander to garnish

1. Keep your potatoes whole for this recipe, if you have any large ones cut them up to around 2-3 inches long, and keep the skins on. Heat the oil in a large casserole dish and fry the potatoes til they are golden brown on all sides. Remove the potatoes and set aside.

2. Fry your ginger then garlic, and then add in the tomato puree and fry for 1 minute. Then add the spices and fry for a few minutes, add a little water if it starts to stick. Add the tin of tomatoes, sugar, salt and water. Bring to the boil and then down to a gentle simmer.

3. Make your cartouche by cutting greaseproof paper to the same size as the pot and place over the bubbling dish. Put the lid onto the pot and turn down to the lowest heat. Simmer for at least 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are completely cooked.

4. The sauce might need thickening at this point, if so just simmer til it is the right consistency. Then add in the cream and simmer for a few minutes more, being careful not to over boil. Season if needed and then add in some fresh coriander before serving.

This is a lovely comforting dish for a very cold day, and it isn't too spicy - if you aren't keen on chilli you can dial it back a little and it will taste just as aromatic but without the kick.

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