Curry Recipes Online
Curry Photos & Videos => Curry Videos => Topic started by: Cory Ander on January 29, 2008, 02:43 PM
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posted by Lorrydo and moved to this section by CA
This might be useful, A BIR in action;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp_px2yY7cw
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Thanks for the link Lorrydo.
Interesting to note:
- How vigorously they are boiling their curry bases (presumably this is what they are?)
- How stiff their onion bhaji/pakora batter is
- Their use of el-cheapo aluminium pans (yet again)
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How vigorously they are boiling their curry bases
And do you see them skimming scum, not a bit of it. Also notice how thin and anaemic they are!
How stiff their onion bhaji/pakora batter is
Haven't got around to my scientific study of bhaji making yet, but this makes complete sense to me. The old style round bhaji were not wet or mushy in the middle and it makes sense to have little fluidity to the mix to achieve this.
Their use of el-cheapo aluminium pans (yet again)
Yep, cheap as chips high sided aluminium pans, there's got to be a reason why the majority use these. Is it just cos they're cheap?
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And do you see them skimming scum, not a bit of it
You're not wrong :P
Also notice how thin and anaemic they are!
Who? The chefs? ;)
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Who? The chefs? ;)
I read it back after I'd typed it and saw that too, didn't change it though to see who'd pick up on it. :)
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Re Skimming the scum
Could it POSSIBLY be that this is BEFORE they have liquidised the gravy.
SnS ;D
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Did you see the darn gas burners huge blue flames.
Everything is done on an industrial scale, bucket of Chicken Tikka ready for the Tandoor Oven.
Now the question is where can i purchase one of those aluminium pans?
There is no secret, there is no mystery it just plain old heat, cooking and knowledge of spices.
I did not see any oil in their base sauce at all, floating
Now why cant i do it at home like a pro?
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Now the question is where can i purchase one of those aluminium pans?
That really is a good question. I've looked in all the asian shops I've been to and not one has them. Is this the "secret"?
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I would imagine that you could get them easily at any professional catering supply place. There's a place in Dublin I was in the other day and they had a very wide range of types--including aluminum stock pots and aluminum pans. I don't remember how much they were, because that wasn't what I was looking for.
Maybe I'm just being cynical, but I really still believe it's down to getting a consistent/improved technique with whatever equipment you're trying to use rather than aluminum vs. other types--unless you have something that doesn't heat evenly or isn't of decent-ish quality (and this means cooking quality vs. brand/price quality).
Hope this helps,
ast
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Good video!
Regards
George
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A local cash and carry sells those cooking pans. They supply to a lot of the local Indian restaurants here.
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If you're in london head to brick lane. There's taj stores, bangla city, bangla town and another shop off brick lane which sells these pans. They seem to generaly just have small pans but they're the ones used in the takeaways. They're very cheap, maybe ?7.
Stainless steel is a bad conductor of heat - you need another metal as a base of the pan to make them work properly. This is usually iron or aluminium and is what they use in more expensive pans (le creuset, jamie oliver's ones etc). Lots of shops sell pure stainless steel pans now which is basically a con which they get away with because of lack of knowledge. Ikea pans would be a good example of a complete con.
BIRs know what they're doing which is why they use the aluminium pans. Iron pans are good too, and cheap. BIRs use these as well (karahi/balti pans).
It's best to buy equipment at asian supermarkets IMO as they dont rip you off.
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Hi All
read all the posts and watched the video, I have in the past worked in many a BIR not as a chef may I add but seeing as my father was a chef a lot has passed on to me, and I love cooking inc curry, right back to me working in the kitchens, I was a refrigeration engineer and as a lot of the work involved being there for 2 to 4 hours I saw a lot of what went on and believe me each chef in each BIR had his own way of doing things, yes lots of things where similar but I doubt if 2 where exactly the same, re the aluminium pans as stated best to buy in Indian shops and the reason they use them is cheapness and it's what they are used to in India by pure luck they also work well for what they want, BIR kitchens tend to be small with a table in the middle the cooking ranges (normally second hand) big old cast iron ones on one side and the refrigeration on the other side hence why I saw and learnt so much.
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frdgedoc,
thanks for adding the extra context. my interest is most down to the cooking but the background to it all is always interesting and i guess part of the attraction.
the link was particularly good for me as although i've watched it before at the mo i was interested in how to cook my tikka in the UB fashion (read semi pro and back garden tandoori post). i thought i read/seen to leave thye chicken in big pieces for marinating and cooking (as opposed to my norm of cutting up into pieces). this is what i've now done for my 1st attempt with my new skewer.
best wishes.