Curry Recipes Online
Curry Chat => Lets Talk Curry => Topic started by: chriswg on May 23, 2010, 06:05 PM
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I was at a local restaurant for a BIR buffet today. As it was so hot we were the only ones in there - usually they have 40 booked plus the same in walk-ins. I got chatting to the owner and the chef at the till while the kids were in the loo. I asked about their Madras and what is the secret. I explained what I already knew which he was quite surprised with.
His top tip for every single curry on their menu was getting the garlic ginger paste right. Without it, everything tastes bland apparently. I didn't have time to push much on this but he did say if I pop in one lunchtime in the week he'll let me cook my meal under the guidance of his head chef. The downside is today was the last blow out meal before a 4 week crunch diet. No curries for a month -aaarrgggh. He also made reference to getting the cooking method right. Once you master the cooking method everything comes a lot easier.
Anyway, I think it's worth exploring further. I've always used a jar of g/g paste which is presumably a terrible idea to start with. I might start asking a few more questions around this element to see what the general consensus is.
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Chris,
With all respect, F**K the diet mate lol. You can't pass up an opportunity like this, noway :o
Wonder what he means with the Garlic and ginger paste? Could it be ratio's or do they precook in someway like the Ashoka?
Please tell me that you going to take him up on his offer lol?
Ray
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Chris, can I offer some advice...... strike while the iron is hot. You'll find it very hard to go back if you leave it a month. Your diet can wait a week no? Arrange it sooner than later, this will show your keen and you might get further invites.
Biggest problem with bought GG is the preservatives.
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Chris, Chris, Chris..........
What are we to do with you? If Churchill had the same mind as you we would all be Germans now!!!!!!!!!
Get in there my son, for King and Country!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok for fellow curry cookers :)
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Chris, Chris, Chris..........
What are we to do with you? If Churchill had the same mind as you we would all be Germans now!!!!!!!!!
Get in there my son, for King and Country!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok for fellow curry cookers :)
Hehe, but yeah i agree with the others, if you leave it they'll forget what they agreed to
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Damn you all! I'll see what I can do, but it wont be for a couple of weeks. They know me quite well so I'm sure they won't forget.
Another interesting thing he said was that food you cook yourself will never taste as good as food cooked by someone else. All of those spices frying away will have a negative effect (temporarily) on your sense of smell which in turn messes up your sense of taste.
It's an interesting point and goes some way to explaining why the leftover fridge curry tastes better the day after (ideally for lunch at work). Maybe it actually tastes exactly the same, our taste buds are just working better.
If that is the case, and it explains why no-one can get that last 5%, how do we solve it? How do we even test the theory? I don't think any of us have partners with suitable skills to cook a curry for us. I don't fancy cooking with a gas mask on. I suppose a nose plug might work. Any suggestions welcome.
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Perhaps you could test the theory by cooking the dish the day before and keeping it refrigerated to be eaten the following day?
I think there is alot of truth in what has been mentioned, though I wouldn't want to hazard a guess as to how much it might affect ones sense of smell and taste. It's certainly more enjoyable to have your favourite dish cooked for you.
If it is the case that our senses are numbed by the cooking process we undertake, it would certainly add to the problems we face when trying to create the dish. not being able to correctly identify if the dish is made correctly, would certainly be a problem.
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Or we could try trusting our own judgement, just like say a chef.
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We could trust our judgement, but we wouldnt know for 24 hours if it was right.
An interesting experiment (if anyone has the time) would be to cook a curry, then eat half of it the following day in a neutral smelling environment. Then cook another curry but then eat the other half of the one cooked the day before in the smelly kitchen environment. That would be a very quick way of proving or disproving the theory.
JerryM? You always like an experiment and you are always excellent at monitoring results. Do you, or anyone else, fancy giving it a go?
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I've always used a jar of g/g paste which is presumably a terrible idea to start with.
Yes, it is a terrible idea.
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Hi Chris,
All of those spices frying away will have a negative effect (temporarily) on your sense of smell which in turn messes up your sense of taste.
I have always suspected this for a long time, and suggested it on another thread. A curry, without doubt, does taste better the next day but, the texture also changes and the meat can get tougher.
I don't think any of us have partners with suitable skills to cook a curry for us
That is oh so true. My other half could burn ice cream :(
We could trust our judgement
Chris, I absolutely do trust my own judgement and I put up a thread a while back entitled "Are we being too harsh on ourselves" whereby I raised the subject of our cooking skills and how our dishes REALLY compare with the BIR's and TA's. I believed then, and still do, that I could knock up most curries and have someone blind taste both mine and a restaurant curry, and come out of it in pretty good shape.
Georges 'come dine with me' idea, would be great to prove that point out. The only trouble with it as I see it, is this, the person hosting the evening, will no doubt be totally unhappy with their cooking on the night but, the guest's will be thinking "shit, I've got to go some to better this"
Ray :)
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IIRC it was Bruce Edwards in his posts on here that first mentioned 'olfactory overload' and the effect on the way we perceive our success or otherwise, suggesting it is always better to make the curry ahead of time.
Taking his advice, I always make my curries early evening and then retire to a suitable hostelry to prepare for the forthcoming repast in the time honoured fashion, i.e. a swift half (a gallon!), works a treat.
Cheers
CoR
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Razor - I've done a little experiment to test this. Before starting to cook the curry, I put a clothespin on my nose to prevent inhaling the cooking fumes, and removed only right before serving.
It was tough to say if the curry was "better", but I can tell you I felt I enjoyed the curry more than usual. I used my usual Madras recipe and technique for consistency.
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I'd also like to chime in on the garlic/ginger paste comment made by the chef.
I always use fresh g/g, and simply grate a little of each into a small lump using a fine cheese grater before starting the curry.
However, it was the Ashoka that got me first thinking there may be more to it (precooked), and I noticed that Dipuraja goes out of his way to describe his g/g paste (blended).
I made the Ashoka paste once, and have never blended the garlic / ginger otherwise. Even in my spice grinder you need quite a mass of g/g to get it to suitably blend.
Maybe there is something to blending/pre-cooking the paste...
Josh
ps - and yes Chris, get in there mate! Sod the diet.
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I'm sorry but the theory of tasting better next day doesn't quite work the same way for me, and this is why, for many years before cooking my own BIR my family would always order too much, because we all thought the BOUGHT curry left overs tasted better the day after.
So yes, curry does without doubt taste better the following day but that also goes for curries I didn't cook ???
Rob.
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Thinking on this further, I am sure the chef is on the money about senses. Smell and taste work hand in hand. Try eating your favourite dish with said clothes peg on your nose, you'll notice a big difference.
If you have spent time over the pan cooking your spices, the aroma is going to almost pre-load your sense of smell. So when the dish hits the meal table and you sit down to enjoy it, you don't notice it's aroma so much. This being the case, it will be a little like the clothes peg sitting on your nose and the resulting experience will lesser to a degree. Rather like aftershave, you put it on and can smell it but fairly soon you don't notice it at all, yet people may comment on it.
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I've been giving it plenty of thought too and I'm tending to agree. I bet even a 30 min break in the garden would help reset the smell sensors. The problem with that is the rest of the bits, bhajis, naans etc are best eaten fresh. Tough one, but it does explain a lot.
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My other half only has CTM, so when i cook my fav curry the recipe is always (mostly) for 4 people, so i put the rest of the "sauce" in the fridge for up to 4 days by only using amount for 1 person , must say they do taste different in the sense of spices and texture, towards the 4th day the sauce has a more dark looking sauce but the taste is still great, which means i can have a curry 4 days in a row just by adding the meat and veg if recipe demands it (mushrooms etc...)
I do this every time i have a curry and the taste does "change", a little more spicier, a little more thickness to the texture but having said that i have had jalfrezi and the spice has not been quite so spicy reason for this i do not know.
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chriswg,
it'll be interesting if u do get the opportunity to follow up on the g/g paste.
as i said in the HC post i'm searching for a taste in the BIR TA that i don't think i get at home - i had thought it might have been swapping the garlic/ginger proportions round - but i'm no longer convinced. i need a TA to get my thoughts clearer.
i only tried the swapped proportion in the dipuraja method and probably need to try with the hot method - the ginger produced a hotness that i did not want.
after that i'm back to some adjustment to the tom puree but i don't have any real clear ideas. the roasted garlic did not deliver any discernable difference.
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i,m pleased i stumbled across this thread,cos i always found it strange that my currys tasted better not just the next day but just by letting it cool right down then re-heating it...the indian taste is a lot better and more like a resturant or take away
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Tasting curry the next day is not the same as tasting curry the same day because you are not comparing like with like. A day old curry is not the same as a freshly made curry. The same goes for day old soup or day old casseroles - they always taste different (better).