Curry Recipes Online
Curry Chat => Lets Talk Curry => Topic started by: JerryM on March 13, 2009, 08:24 AM
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i switched this week from mainly cooking curry sauce to cooking dishes with the aim of improving recipe.
i've always had difficulty cooking the onion/pepper (they don't cook out enough ie too hard in the cooking time ~5 mins). i'd previously come to the conclusion that i'm better pre frying which allows it to be added as the base goes in.
however i don't believe BIR's would do this down to effort. trouble is despite using Bobby B's onion cutting technique (which helps greatly) i still can't to be honest chop the onion fine enough or consistently enough (this being the greater of the 2). i'm on the look out for a mechanical chopper but not willing to pay silly money or for something cheap and no good.
this week i had the brainy idea of grating the onion - big mistake. thanks to the advice of a verty good friend i now put this down to the reason i had a very bad night of cooking last monday when i got loads of black "burnt" debris in the pan. this was a real blow as i now pride myself in mastering the cooking to avoid this at all cost.
in summary grated onion works in the right circumstances but is a big NO NO for curry dish cooking.
all thoughts going fwd appreciated.
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hi jerry try the original V-slicer. it is a little expensive but oyu get all the gadgets with it and compared to the imitations that you used to be able to get in woolies. i know wilkinsons do one for 5pounds. alternatively use your multichef to finely cut the onion and pepper. when you say that restaurants would not pre fry the onion and peppers i would disagree remember that the scale they are cooking on anything they can prepare in advance they do, use your fryer or do them in the pan you are cooking with shallow frying until coloured at the edges.
some birs boil the above in water and turmeric and salt for 30 mins until soft.
btw the guy who demonstrates the v-slicer goes to all the county shows and has been on ideal shopping channel doing these in a deal with them says it it is the fastest chipper in the world, sad as it may sound i could watch him do the demos for hours and have done as it used to be in a loop on 1 of the tv channels after normal programming has finished ;D
regards
gary
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gary,
many thanks - i will have a look in wilkinson for the V Slicer.
on restaurants pre frying onion/pepper - this would suit me if they do as so far i get the best result by Pre frying. given what u say i think i may be better forgeting about the slicer and just continuing the pre frying.
ps i did check out wilkinson for the small deep fryer but alas no stock.
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hi jerry will see if my local wilkinson have any in stock and may be able to send 1 to you. will let you know. forgot to say the original v-slicer costs about 20gbp but you do get all the gadgets aswell.
regards
gary
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Hi JerryM,
I also have a V slicer, couldn't live without it! Try ' boerner-germany.de' I bought mine from the Ideal Home exhibition 2 years ago. I think i've attached a pic
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many thanks for the pic OnionB.
given it's called "V slicer" does it actually chop or what is the smallest size of onion piece produced - i'm looking for around 3 to 5 mm square ie not slices.
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some birs boil the above in water and turmeric and salt for 30 mins until soft.
i've been thinking about what to do going fwd and think i will give this a try.
the size of the "chunk" i get by cutting manually with a knife isn't a problem visually in the finished dish. it's the range on the size as some parts end up difficult to chop finely. as a consequence i get inconsistency during the dish cooking - some "chunks" don't cook through enough before the dish is ready.
i use the above par boil method for pre cooked chicken and that works well. i only cook the chicken for 5 mins and then leave it to cool in the liquid. i'll give the onions the same time as a 1st go (i want to keep texture).
if this does not look like working then i'm going to go back to pre frying as this works well but is just a bit more hassle up front of cooking the dishes. i find this small amount of pre frying just like the ashoka garlic/ginger paste seems to take the hit and miss out during the final dish cooking.
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Hi JerryM,
As you see in the photo it comes with chopping attachments. It chops approx 5mm chunks, this is the one I use, it also does approx 2mm (a bit too thin).
Also good for salads
Onion B ;)
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thanks Onion B. looks impressive.
i will give the par boil a try and keep a look out locally (online seems around ?10 + del). have been looking for the nicer dicer at a good price for a while but no luck yet.
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hi jerry this will do the dicing for you as well, especially if the original V-slicer.
regards
gary
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hi jerry
just had a look on you tube for the demo for this and it is on there. just type in v-slicer and this is the guy who demos it!
regards
gary ;)
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thanks gary brilliant effort.
the u tube video was well worth it - it confirmed alas it's not for me. the opening shot spirallying the cucumber and potato got my back up straight away.
looks good on chips though but we tend to buy the frozen nowadays for ease (ASDA).
it's that end piece under the v slicer bonnet that's the issue for me (the last bit that u can't quite hold onto and cut consistently).
defo going with the par boil.
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Hi Jerry,
Not sure if this might help, but Pampered Chef do a chopper....
https://www.pamperedchef.com/ordering/prod_details.tpc?prodId=1702&catId=4&parentCatId=4&outletSubCat=&viewAllOutlet= (https://www.pamperedchef.com/ordering/prod_details.tpc?prodId=1702&catId=4&parentCatId=4&outletSubCat=&viewAllOutlet=)
Not cheap but it's very effective for finley chopping onions & garlic etc. It can tend to pulp it if you go overboard with it.
I personally prefer a a nice quality veg knife... but obviously this takes more time.
cheers
Jay
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thanks JayR.
the food chopper is just what i have in my mind as being needed.
i too prefer a knife. it's just that i always end up with some biggish lumps when cutting at the ends. from the v slicer video i realised i could just throw the end pieces away but that does not feel right either.
i'll have base next week to have another go at cooking a few dishes which need "chopped" onion. i'm going to try the par boil 1st. if this fails then i'm happy to continue to pre fry until i find the same type of food chopper in the UK. i've used pre frying for a long time and it works for me. i've only recently switched to cooking raw at frying stage as i thought BIR's would not pre fry. now from the above posts i'm not sure.
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i've tried out the par boil method.
there's good and bad.
the good - it worked a treat. the bad - it ponged (just like making the KD base) - boiling onion is not good at all for the nose or your house.
i added a tsp of spice mix and par boiled for 5 mins. next time intend trying just turmeric - this being what i've used previously when pre frying in oil.
i'd love to know how to stop the onion pong though.
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i tried the par boil again with v.good results. i've adopted this going fwd.
i used turmeric (1 tsp), a little oil (1 tbsp), ~300ml water and 3 off "fine" chopped "5mm" onion.
big surprise - no onion pong. i'm not sure which stopped the pong - i guess the turmeric given the small amount of oil in comparison to water.
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i used turmeric (1 tsp), a little oil (1 tbsp), ~300ml water and 3 off "fine" chopped "5mm" onion.
just a little caution on this. i made pre cooked onion again yesterday. the onions turned out very yellow - too yellow. this yellow then made the cooked curry dishes Orange instead of their normal colour.
i must have put more than 1 tsp of turmeric or used too little water (i did not measure). i would reduce the turmeric to say 1/4 tsp going fwd as u only need a hint.
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Hi,
That "V" thing will take your fingers off :-(
No way.
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thanks Graeme for the warning. i've now completely abandoned the idea of getting any form of chopper/slicer. the pre cook/par boil is working fine for me and needs no further improvement.
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update,
i now find i don't need to pre cook/par boil onion. i put this down to using more oil and having a thinner base. the raw onion now cooks fine within 5 min dish cooking time.
the pre cook/par boil does work fine and if u're struggling with getting the fine chopped onion (~5mm) to cook through it is a good way of sorting.