National Curry Week winners

World Poppadom Tower Challenge :
A fantastic effort by Tipu Rahman and his team from Tamarind Northampton smashed the world record to set a new level.

Samosa Speed Challenge :
Once again the current record held by Nirmala Chudasama from 2009 still remains.

Customer Restaurant of the Year
The event this year saw an amazing number of votes for restaurants all over the country. Two restaurants in Glasgow were initially the front runners then Shimla Spice, Keighley, last year's winner, gradually took over and look set for a second win. The winner and runner up both came with a late surge towards the closing date of the event and Café Rickshaw registered just enough votes to push Shimla Spice into fourth at the last gasp. A fantastic effort by all concerned.

Winner Cinnamon Culture, Bromley
Runner - Up Sands of Glenfield Leicester
Third Place - Café Rickshaw, Wolverhampton

Best Signature Dish (Traditional)
This year the judges, led by Anjali Pathak of Patak's, were spoilt for choice. Previous winners Sunil Sinha of Masala Cobham and Ashwai Kumar of Mango Lounge Windsor once again submitted strong contenders but were both narrowly beaten into second place by first-timers Koolba, Glasgow and Saffron, Birmingham.
Winner - Goan Fish Curry (Shabu Natarajan, Koolba Glasgow)

Runner-Up - Goan Prawn Curry (Sunil Sinha, Massala, Cobham)
Highly Commended - Lamb Shanks with Coconut Milk & Bengali mashed potato (Sam Hussain Café Rickshaw, Wolverhampton.

Best Signature Dish (Innovative)
Winner - Finnbrogue of venison loin, spiced celeriac porival, nigella seeds, tempered red onion compote, stir fry spinach and achari sauce (Sudha Shankar Saffron Birmingham)
Runner Up - Lamb Knuckle with masala fig sauce (Ashwani Kumar Mango Lounge Windsor.
Highly Commended - Meen Pappas (Cinnamon Culture, Bromley)

World Poppadom Tower Challenge :
Despite several valiant attempts the record remains with Indian Ocean, Ashton under Lyne at 1075 set earlier this year.

Samosa Speed Challenge :
Once again the current record held by Nirmala Chudasama from 2009 still remains.

Best Signature Dish 2011 :
This year's event brought forth hundreds of entries from chefs around the country and a few from members of the public showing the innovation and quality in the industry. After careful consideration the judges chose the following : (click here to view pdf of finalist entries)

Best Signature Dish(Innovative) 2011
Winner - Chef Aswani Kumar, Mango Lounge Windor
Pan seared chilli and chive scallop with orange masala dip
Runner Up - Chef Stephen Gomes, Moksh Cardiff
Mini Spicy Galawati Fillers
3rd Place - Chef Praveen Gupta, Babur SE23
Coffee crusted canon of lamb with crushed, smoked aubergine and wild rice.

Winner - Chef Sunil Sinha, Massala Cobham
Dal Makhani
Runner Up - Chef Ashwani Kumar, Mango Lounge Windsor
Jardaloo Sali boti
3rd Place - Chef Jiwan Lal, Cinnamon Culture Bromley
Goat Vindaloo

We had great fun with this competition and the entries were many and varied. The top two poems can seen (click to Poem to Curry).

The entries for the 2011 title were amazing but one stood out from the rest with thousands of email checkable votes and that is :

This event produced some really exciting entries and a panel of senior schoolteachers with considerable experience of eating out were assembled to judge. It was decided that the Challenge should be broken down into two sections due to the wide range of entry styles : The finalists were Chilli Fusion, Saltaire ; Massala Cobham ; Mango Lounge, Windsor ; Babur London SE23 ; Brilliant, Southall ; Chilli Pickle, Brighton.

Chilli Pickle, Brighton with its Red Chilli Jam deemed by the judges to be one of the most versatile creations they have ever tried – even with mini doughnuts!) and a commendation for their Ginger Chutney

Poppadom Express broke the 2008 record in 2009 in a friendly competition between City councillors and parliamentary candidates Royston Smith and Jeremy Moulton, pictured below. They joined forces with Steve Fry and Rashmi Chande from Southampton and Fareham Chamber of Commerce to take on the challenge at Poppadom Express. The competition was won on behalf of Poppadom Express by the City Council team who obliterated the restaurant's record of 230, a national record in 2007, as well as the current UK record of 282 by piling up a whopping 450 poppadoms into a static tower.

Aazaz Khan and his Poppadom Express in Southampton broke his own 2007 record and the 2008 record with a whopping 450 in a friendly challenge covered by the Daily Echo.

Nirmala Chudasama, contested the Samosa Speed Challenge at Tiffinbites, St Paul's, where she prepared a whopping 80 samosas in a staggering 10 minutes. Gulu Anand of Brilliant in Southall was second with 50 samosas.

Winner : Chef Sunil Sinha Massala, Cobham with Monkfish with Pepper Sauce & julienne potato

Ingredients
Monk Fish - 2 Fillets, 200gm each
Onion - 500gm
Tomato - 125gm
Chopped Ginger - 2gm
Chopped Garlic - 2gm
Ginger and Garlic Paste - 10gm
Turmeric Powder - 3gm
Garam Masala - 1gm
Deli Chilli Powder - 3gm
Coriander and Chilli Powder - 2gm
Vegetable Oil - 30ml and for frying
Tamarind - 40gm
Coconut Milk - 200ml
Coconut Milk Powder - 50gm
Mustard Seed - 1gm
Curry Leaves - 1gm
Salt - To Taste
Potato - 30gm

Pepper Sauce

Preparation Time - 10 Minutes
Cooking Time - 35 Minutes Serves - 4

Ingredients
Red Capsicum - 200gm
Crushed Black Pepper - 2gm
Sugar - 20gm
Salt - to taste
Olive Oil - 10ml
Vinegar - 200ml

Method
Peel and slice the onion, wash and chop the tomato, soak tamrind in water. Put sliced onion in a handi, add chopped ginger, garlic, ginger and garlic paste, turmeric, chilli powder, coriander and cumin powder, chopped tomato, salt and oil. Mix it well and put on the fire. Cook it until onion is tender and tamarind pulp. Cook it for 5 minutes, add coconut milk and coconut powder, cook it until oil separates the gravy.

Heat oil in a pan, put mustard seed and curry leaf in and tempered the sauce. Cut monk fish into chunks; add salt, oil and a pinch of turmeric powder, deep fry it and ad in gravy. Make the juliennes of potato, fry it for garnish.

Method
Wash the red pepper, slice it and put in a handi, add crushed black pepper, sugar, salt olive oil and vinegar. Put in the handi on fire, bring it to the boil, reduce the vinegar and cook it till black pepper becomes tender, cool it and grind it.

Winner : Chef Ashwani Kumar, Mango Lounge, Windsor with Chettinad Chicken from South India

Ingredients
Chicken thigh lean boneless - 720 gm
Chettinad Masala - 10 gm (aniseed, black pepper, clove, red chilli whole, cardamom, corianderseeds, cinnamon stick)
Tamarind - 100 gm
Lemon juice - 30 ml
Turmeric - 1 tsp
Oil - 150 ml
Mustard seeds - 20 gm
Curry leaves - 20 gm
Onions - 400 gm
Garlic - 30 gm
Tomatoes - 400 gms
Ginger - 30 gm
Green chilli - 30 gm
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Salt - To taste
Red chilli powder - 1 table spoon
Black pepper - 1 tsp crushed
Fresh coriander - 2 table spoon
Coconut milk - 3 table spoon

Method
Marinate the chicken with salt, chettinad masala, turmeric, lemon juice for half and hour. Heat pan add oil, add mustard seeds, let it crackle, add curry leaf, cook, add chopped onions and garlic and cook until light brown â€“ add tomatoes, and all ingredients and chicken and cook on slow fire for 20 minutes and serve with rice or bread.

Winner: Chef Ashwani Kumar - Mango Lounge, Windsor Lal Maas (a fiery hot lamb dish from north of India)

Won last year by Brilliant in Southall, this title is the only one in Britain that is totally based on the opinion and enthusiasm of customers. This year votes poured in the tens of thousands with several restaurants having 1000 votes or more. The clear winner for 2010 is the very exciting Massala in Cobham with a fantastic kitchen and front of house team under Executive Chef Sunil Sinha. The food is exciting and cutting edge but still wholesome and the service exemplary blending friendliness, politeness and knowledge. Massala customers obviously agree shown by the shear number of votes received both collected by the restaurant and via email