We know, we know ... every week is curry week here at TATTGOC. But once a year, the rest of the country gets as excited about the spicy stuff as we do, and that's what they call National Curry Week, which runs November 21-27. What does it mean? It means we'll find out who is the winner of Curry Capital 2010. It means a lot of money raised for The Curry Tree Charitable Fund, a very worthy cause. (It means you won't read about our second anniversary curry until next Thursday.) And it means a whole range of upbeat, curry-related stories in the media. So, once again, it's time to phall your boots at the curry news buffet. Around this time last year, Trampy memorably managed to alienate the founder of National Curry Week by describing their website as "a bit low-rent" – so which person or organisation will be carelessly slighted this year? Place your bets ...



You cannae beat a good poll, and one such handy survey recently revealed that UK citizens spend around £500 on curry each year, covering takeaways, visits to restaurants and ingredients for making meals at home. Over a third of those sampled said they had experienced physical cravings for curry while 23% confessed to getting ''cranky'' if they weren't allowed to chow down on some spicy fare. One in five polled claimed to eat out for a curry at least once a fortnight, with men three times more likely to head for the curryhouse than women. This highly scientific poll also revealed that Lamb Rogan Josh was moving up the league table of Britain's favourite curries – and there was some chat about this on Tuesday's episode of Radio Scotland's MacAulay & Co, with insight from the manager of The Dhabba in Merchant City (the item starts about 40 minutes in). Check it out here, until next Tuesday at least.


The big news about National Curry Week 2010 is that it helped revive the Curry Capital competition, a story we've covered previously with our usual churnalistic rigour. The result will be announced on December 8, but there are plenty of other special events taking place across the country for restaurants to have a go at, including the return of the World Poppadom Tower Record Attempt and the Samosa Speed Challenge. When we were checking out the full list of 2009 winners here, one particular result caught our attention. If you've ever heard tell of Rumpole Of The Balti's infamous journey to the farthest reaches of mixology when the stars aligned and the oceans rolled back to herald the birth of his unforgettable Hot Prawn Tsunami, you might appreciate the 2009 runner-up in the Best Signature Dish (Innovative) category, courtesy of Ashwani Kumar of the Mango Lounge in Windsor. It's the rice-crusted King Prawn martini. Rumpole, the scampi is in your court ...



A lager brand that isn't our friends Kingfisher are offering a 2-for-1 offer for the duration of National Curry Week, so long as you buy a bottle of their brew. As far as we can gather, the nearest curryhouses taking part in Glasgow are Papa Gill's in Partick and Bombay Blues down near Central Station. This entire item is probably redundant, however, as it looks as if the offer runs out tonight. Full details here, in any case. But if you have a real hankering for 2-for-1 curry in association with a commercial brand, you could always hitch your wagon to McCoy's, whose vaguely similar offer runs until January 2011 or something.


To launch National Curry Week, ten of Britain's most popular regional dishes were given a piquant spin, with some pretty impressive results judging from this promo video. Certainly, the massive Yorkshire Chilli Pepper Pudding looks amazing, and they even tried their hand at puddings, including the Bombay Bakewell Tart, replacing the traditional jam filling with ginger preserve and almonds. If you're interested, here's the recipe for Ha-ghee-s, a pun worthy of TATTGOC itself.


While we're open to pretty much any sort of curry-related product for Tastin' With The Tramps, it was a little bit surprising when a representative from Rubicon phoned up to tell us about National Curry Week. Turns out the exotic juice brand – recently acquired by oor ain Barr's – is massive in India, and they'd come up with a Rubicon-related curry recipe to mark the occasion, which we are delighted to reprint in full. Would it be possible to create a curry using Irn-Bru? Perhaps a classic Lamb Bru-na?


Rubicon King Prawn Mango Curry

Serves: 4
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

For the curry
15g butter
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
3cm piece root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 Alphonso mango, peeled, pitted and chopped
2 green cardamom pods, crushed
1 cinnamon stick
½ tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp medium chilli powder
500g raw king prawns, thawed if frozen
200ml Rubicon Mango Drink
2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

For the cumin-spiced rice
300g basmati rice
25g butter
1 tsp cumin seeds
6 cloves
2 bay leaves, torn into pieces

Method
– Put the rice on to cook in plenty of lightly salted boiling water. It will take about 12 minutes.
– Meanwhile, start the curry. Melt the butter in a large saucepan and gently fry the onion for 4-5 minutes, until soft and golden.
– Add the garlic, ginger, mango, cardamom and cinnamon stick and cook gently for another 2-3 minutes. Stir in the turmeric and chilli powder, then add the prawns and Rubicon Mango Drink. Heat until simmering and cook for 5 minutes.
– When the rice is almost cooked, melt the butter in a large frying pan and add the cumin seeds, cloves and bay leaves. Fry gently for 2-3 minutes. Drain the rice thoroughly and add it to the frying pan, stirring to coat in the spice mixture.
– Season the prawns with a little salt and stir in the coriander. Serve with the rice.

Cook’s tip: You can also make the curry with 300g chopped paneer instead of prawns

SOME OTHER RECENT TATTGOC NEWS POSTS
Could Glasgow Be Curry Capital Of Britain ... Again?
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