The Village Indian Restaurant

- Alex Leave a comment

date of visit: Friday 30 April 2010

We were tootling around town doing a bit of after work shopping and decided to grab something to eat. Andy nominated Indian and we headed down to The Village, on Gouger Street (close to Morphett Street).

The decision was driven by the fact that we’ve eaten at The Village once before, with a group of friends and possibly after more than one beer, but the overall impression had been positive.

At The Village there’s no specialisation in one particular area of Indian cuisine and every dish on the menu is annotated with its area of origin. There are plenty of dishes you’ll recognise (such as butter chicken and chicken vindaloo) and others that may be new (chicken 65 – chicken fried with coriander seeds and pepper which was on our list to try but was unavailable).

In typical curry eating style we over ordered …

We started with pappadums, which were served with mint and tamarind chutneys. I always say that I make my mind up about a curry house based on the mint chutney and/or the hot lime pickle. The Village’s mint chutney definitely passed muster.

For entrée, I chose, unimaginatively, the vegetable pakoras while Andy opted for the chutney chicken kebab. We were going to share but I didn’t like the sound of this … Actually, I would have been perfectly happy with the kebab but I did prefer my vegetable pakoras. They had a good heat about them and, laced with the mint chutney, they were absolutely delicious. It was a large serve, of four big patties. If you were expecting individual pieces of battered vegetable (as pakora sometimes appears) you would be disappointed but there were enough distinct pieces of vegetable in the patties to keep me happy.

For main course, with no chicken 65 available, I opted for the lamb dhansak and Andy chose the chicken kadai. The dhansak came on a large tray, with the lentils (dhal makhani) on the side, rice and even a piece of chicken tikka. I accompanied this with a really good paratha – flaky and super buttery. The sauce was tart and spicy. Andy’s kadai sauce was also reasonably spicy and very tomatoey. In both cases, the meat was tender and juicy, well sized and nicely proportioned.

As usual, after stuffing myself on entrée and pappadums, I struggled a little with my main course bit I made sure to finish the paratha!

A standout feature of The Village is the cheerful, attentive service. My water was kept topped up, after our entrées, both our waiter and front of house checked we were enjoying our food, and at no point did we feel either forgotten or suffocated.

At the end of the evening, we left feeling extremely well fed for around $80 (this included a couple of beers). And obviously, we have to go back again to check out that Chicken 65 …

The Village Indian Restaurant

Diverse Indian cuisine on Gouger Street

The Village offers dishes from across India, pairing generous portions with sensible prices and excellent, friendly service.

Rating:4.0 stars
****

The Village Indian Restaurant on Urbanspoon
The Village, 125 Gouger Street, Adelaide, SA, 5000
phone: +61 8 8212 2536

Prawn Pad Thai

- Alex 2 Comments

Prawn Pad Thai

date:  April 2010

Pad thai is such a staple of Thai restaurant menus that it’s something I’ve never thought of making at home.  To be honest, I very rarely even order it.  But we had some prawns in the freezer and I found a simple pad thai recipe on the UK Delicious website.

At short notice we weren’t able to pull together all the ingredients from the local supermarket, so you may want to consult the original recipe.  However, we were really impressed with our finished product so don’t panic if you can’t rustle up all the ingredients.

I started by soaking some rice vermicilli in hot water.  I suspect that I either did this for too long (or the noodles spent a little too long in the wok) because they ended up rather short and clumpy – so I advise you to read the instructions for whatever noodles you use!

Make a dressing by mixing together 1½ tbsp fish sauce, 1½ tbsp palm sugar (we found this in our small local supermarket and I really recommend seeking it out – the taste is amazing and distinctly caramel like), and 1½ tbsp of rice wine vinegar. This is the sweet/sour/salty combination that Thai food is well known for.

Heat some oil (we use peanut) in a wok and add chopped garlic (to taste) and one chopped onion. Cook for a few minutes and then add chilli flakes (also to taste – I opted for hot!) and then the drained noodles. Stir fry for a couple of minutes and then push to one side. Now, tip a lightly beaten egg into the wok and scramble, before mixing in to the noodles.

Mix through the dressing before adding your prawns (or chicken, or vegetables – no reason why you can’t turn this into a vegetarian pad thai!). Toss well to ensure prawns are cooked (if green) or warmed through (if already cooked).

Finish with chopped spring onions and serve dressed with chopped coriander.

How easy is that?

Make more than you think you’ll need – I was expecting leftovers for lunch the next day but we scoffed the whole lot in a single sitting!

Pork Fillet with White Wine and Cream

- Alex Leave a comment

Saturday 3 April

Pork is one of my favourite meats, and I’m often frustrated by people who claim it is dry and tough.  Like most things, it’s all in the cooking and if you insist on turning your piece of pork into a crisp then, yes, it is dry and tough.  But many people have a horror

I find pork fillet a little more tolerant than other cuts (with pork chops the most truculent), so even though it’s expensive I don’t find myself fretting when I cook it.

Unfortunately, though, pork fillet needs something doing to it … you can’t just fry it up and whack it on a plate like you can with a nice piece of steak. I turned to The Silver Spoon* for inspiration. This is a brilliant, Italian reference manual – most of the recipes are extremely simple, so you’ll either have all the ingredients for a dish or you’ll be able to muddle through with little difficulty. This is a great example of that simplicity.

First, heat some olive oil and butter in a pan and brown your pork fillet on all sides. Don’t play with it – pop it in the hot fat and leave it until it comes away of its own free will – that’s when it will be nicely brown. Once browned all over, put the pork in a baking dish and finish the cooking in a hot oven. At 180°C our 400g pork fillet took about 30 minutes: we did allow some resting time and we prefer our pork a little less cooked. If all else fails, jabbing a knife in the fattest part of the fillet should give you a good idea of how things are progressing.

While the pork is finishing in the oven, deglaze the pan with a generous splash of dry white wine** (I’d reckon at around the 100mL mark). Scrape up all the good brown bits from the bottom of the pan and reduce the wine by about half. Reduce the heat and add about 100mL of cream and a heaped teaspoon of grainy mustard. Stir or whisk to combine. You don’t need to be too fussed about quantities here – simply make as much sauce as you want and don’t forget to taste as you go along!

pork fillet with cream & mustard sauce

Set the sauce aside and reheat gently when the pork is ready. We served the fillet sliced on puy lentils, with roasted rosemary potato wedges. And, of course, the remainder of the bottle of white!

* The Silver Spoon is also available through Amazon US and Amazon UK.

** I’d recommend using a white with a bit of weight and acidity, to match and cut through the creamy sauce. On this occasion I used a Hunter Valley Semillon with rather too much age on it. A younger Semillon would work really well, as would a very lightly oaked Chardonnay.