Jalfrezi

Jalfrezi (also jhal frezi, zalfrezi, jaffrazi, and many alternative spellings) is a type of South Asian curry which involves frying marinated pieces of meat, fish or vegetables in oil and spices to produce a dry, thick sauce. As the dish includes green chillies, a jalfrezi can range in heat from a medium dish to a very hot one. Typically those eating jalfrezi cool it down by combining it with cream. Other main ingredients include bell pepper, onion and tomato.

Jalfrezi recipes originally appeared in cookbooks of the British Raj as a way of using up leftovers (a practice taboo to Hindus) by frying them in chilli and onion. This English language usage derived from the colloquial Bengali word jhālpharezī: in Bengali, jhāl means spicy food; in Urdu/Persian, parhezī means suitable for a diet. In South Asia, chicken jalfrezi is considered an Indian Chinese or Pakistani Chinese dish, with a mix of Chinese and South Asian cooking techniques used in its preparation.

In a survey in 2011, Jalfrezi was rated the most popular dish in UK Indian restaurants.