Go Exotic, Save Money - Fiji Islands Style Curry

For me one of the best aspects of life in the tropics is an abundance of some of my favourite produce at a very good price. For years I've been pissed off by the Eurocentricity of food media in this country. So much sunshine blown up the backsides of "cool climate" producers. A significant percentage of our land mass enjoys either tropical, sub tropical, Mediterranean or warm temperate climates. If you look at the bulk of Australian food media, you'd think we only grow produce in Tasmania and mainland regions above 700 metres. 

I love being able to shop at roadside stores in Far North Queensland and easily find cassava, yams, galangal, turmeric, ginger, Asian greens and whole host other exotic favourites. Not only does it allow me to make authentic Asian, Pacific Island and African dishes, it's also generally quite inexpensive. 

A good day at the markets

The availability of such produce isn't strictly limited to the tropics. A lot of this kind of produce is grown by market gardeners as far south as Sydney. Whilst it's readily available in a lot of up market grocers in our cities, it can be rather expensive. Thankfully our cities are extremely multicultural. If you make the effort to seek out the locations where people from various cultures shop, you'll not only find an abundance of exotic produce, but you'll also find some incredible bargains. 

Asian, Pacific Island, African, Middle Eastern, Latin American and Mediterranean cultures make up a significant percentage of Australia's working class. These are people who tend to have a very strong sense of their own food culture. People who are very discerning when it comes to produce, but who also tend to be quite frugal. You'd be wise to shop where they do; start exploring.

I love dishes that make the absolute most of available produce here in FNQ. One of my favourites is an Island style curry that I learned to make whilst working in Fiji. It can be made using a variety of meats, but goat is by far my favourite meat for this dish. 

Whilst goat does enjoy some attention from the food media, they don't really know what to do with it, so it hasn't attracted a middle class following and exorbitant pricing as a result..

Most widely published recipes for goat tend to go down the curry path. There's an odd urban myth that goat meat is "strong" and that currying it covers up the flavour. I realise that I'm hardly dispelling it by sharing a curry recipe, but I can say with conviction that goat is every bit as versatile as lamb. In fact I'll share some quite diverse recipes in due course, just to prove my point. 

Curry in the pot

The best places to purchase goat meat from are Halal butchers, which are fairly easy to find in major cities and regional centres. Australia is one of the world's largest exporter of Halal produce and value added products. It's estimated that in the financial year 2014 / 2015, Halal exports were worth a whopping $13 Billion! Anti halal rhetoric frequently rears it's ugly head on social media and by means of small scale protests. Personally I'd like to see those people take their argument to a room full of Australian farmers. Thousands of them would be in a pretty precarious position without the security that the Halal food industry offers them. The same goes for value adders. The money paid for Halal certification increases their market share massively. There's absolutely no validity in the argument that the cost of Halal certification is passed on to the consumer. Products that enjoy a high turnover tend to be very cost effective to manufacturer. The more cost effective a product is, the lower the retail price tends to be. Halal certification without a doubt, helps to increase product turnover. The equation is fairly simple. 

So, there you have a few tips on accessing produce. Let's get on with the recipe.

Fresh cassava

Peeled Cassava

2kg of goat neck and best end. Sawn into chops, left on the bone.
2 large Spanish onions, chopped
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
10 hot green Thai chilies, chopped
1 piece of fresh ginger, about 8cm long, peeled and chopped
1 piece of fresh turmeric, about 6cm long, peeled and chopped 
A handful of fresh curry leaves
1kg of fresh cassava. Peeled with outer bark removed, chopped into 6cm pieces and soaked for 4 hours. Preferably with the water changed a few times. If you can't find fresh cassava, you can find it frozen at good Indian and Pacific Island grocers
1 litre of chicken stock
2 tablespoons of tamarind pulp, seeds removed
5 tablespoons of ghee
10 green cardamom pods
8 cloves
4 heaped teaspoons of good curry powder (Bolsts is good, Keens will do)

Fry the onions until really soft and shiny, in the ghee with plenty of salt. Add the chilies, turmeric, ginger, cloves, cardamom and half of the curry leaves. Fry those for another few minutes then add the meat and fry it until it has plenty of colour. Add the garlic and stir it through, then add the curry powder and stir until it coats the meat. Once the meat is coated, add enough chicken stock to half cover it and deglaze the fried on curry powder from the bottom of the pot. reduce to a gentle simmer and gradually add the rest of the stock, maintaining a simmer. Add the tamarind pulp, stir well and cover. Let it all simmer quite vigorously for about 20 minutes with the lid on, then reduce to a gentle simmer for another hour and 40 minutes. After the curry has been cooking for 2 hours, add the cassava. Remove the lid from the pot and simmer / reduce for another hour, until the cassava is very soft, just like spuds in a good stew. Add the rest of the curry leaves about 20 minutes before the end of the cooking time. 

This should be a thick oily curry. Very reduced with the meat literally falling apart. There's no need to serve it on rice as the cassava serves that purpose very well, although it's great with biryani. Serve with a tamarind chutney and a kachumber salad on the side. Kachumber is a simple salad of finely chopped tomato, cucumber and onion, dressed with fresh lime juice, chopped coriander and seasoned with salt.