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Messages - Davegrc

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Lets Talk Curry / Curry Pastes ( Pataks style )

« on: August 17, 2014, 03:02 PM »

I have attached a PDF file that covers my current methodology to produce curry pastes !

these are fermented pastes so the Lactic acid you see on the label of the commercial curry paste jars is a byproduct of the fermentation process !

I have many different spice blends but the process is the same as described in the attached in producing spice pastes !

The object is to get as close as possible to that perfect curry as you can from a paste and I have set Pataks pastes as my standard ! given I can not buy these where I live

Please I am open to any comments suggestions and questions ! least it be about my spelling or grammar

Cheers

Lets Talk Curry / Re: Early British curry powder history

« on: August 14, 2014, 06:04 PM »

I love the whiskey bit !

dram1
dram/
noun
1.
a small drink of whiskey or other spirits (often used in humorous imitation of Scottish speech).
"a wee dram to ward off the winter chill"
synonyms: drink, nip, sip, drop, finger, splash, little, spot, taste
"a dram of peach brandy"
2.
another term for drachm (sense 1).

How you are suppose to measure this I will have to study ! But sounds like you drink whiskey and add a little !

Lets Talk Curry / Re: Early British curry powder history

« on: August 14, 2014, 05:56 PM »

Dram ! Ha ha I think that's an old English term ! You will have to google that one !

$:-\$

Spices / Re: use of salt in currys

« on: August 14, 2014, 05:49 PM »

I know I will have to take shit on my spelling and grammar ! This site being British based is like having to correspond to my English teacher ;D ;D

Just Joined? Introduce Yourself / Re: Greetings from an Expat in Asia

« on: August 14, 2014, 05:42 PM »

Garp please excuse spelling ! Some iPad auto correction ! I constantly fight with that ! Some colonial education ! $:-\$ and I knew if I joined this group I would have to take the heat on this one !!!

Expat because it's a term used by foreigners living in Asia of course the Asians have there own names for us

No not trying to sell anything it's more a purist pursuit ! But living in the third world I have had to learn how to grow my own ! Make my own and buy things online !

Curry making and spice has been a life time thing for my me ! I read every recipe I can and have learned to put aside any that include the words " add a teaspoon of curry powder "

And like the matrix can see through the list f spices in a recipe and methods of perpetration to know if it's the real thing

I know enough to know that most the curry pastes recipe online are not even close to commercial pastes in there construction irrespective of how fresh the spices and condiments in them are .

Comments on commercial pastes you make may be true but thy would not have started out that way I am sure ! How many great boutique brands end up that way as thy buckle to commercialism ! I see even Pataks is now sold to a multi national

What I would like to do is render down those points that commercial pasts have that home made pasts do not have , into something that those experienced enough can repeat in our own kitchens !

I am a hole fresh spice person ! I roast and grind from fresh hole spice and I do not follow any recipe any more ! But I also appreciate what Pataks did for me over the years when I did not have the time ! And I think that good pastes can help some one who dose not have the knowledge and spice to make very
expectable curries !

I will post what I have and where I am up to and hope that you all can help take this forward

I was a cook in the Air Force and have a background in chemistry ! So I will get to the bottom of this ! But for sure it will be easier with this curry group on my side !

Lets Talk Curry / Early British curry powder history

« on: August 14, 2014, 04:48 PM »

Penned on my iPad as the image was two large to attach !

The opening chapter from a turn of the century chemist recipe book on curry powder recipes

Quote

This condiment is one of the things England gained when she concurred India , that is to say the taste or it ! Because no Indian chief worth his salt would tell how he makes his curry !

And he generally has several compositions , yet every maker of curry powder considers his own particular article the only true original condiment .

Of such we give more than a score of recipes which have come from Hindoo cooks , east India missionaries and military heroes --- men who have suffered there country in curry as well as in warfare . It should be noted that it is a mistake to have the powder a pure yellow !!!

Rather should it be brownish, with a yellow tinge . Hence it should contain not more than 25% . Of turmeric , nor must it be forgotten that flavor is important above all other requirements . This is to be obtained by using fresh condiment , freshly ground ,and ( herein lies the secret of Ritchie flavor ) ground together ! Pungency is a matter of cayenne pepper, and can be controlled at will . Preference is given to these powders containing cardamon and cummin , but all the formulas that are tabulated require modification of the proportion of turmeric .

For all practical purposes the first two formulas are quite suitable . The powders are well even richly - flavored and are exceptionally adapted for retailing .

Coriander ........... 6 oz
Cardamoms ........1/2 oz
Madras turmeric ..3 oz
Jamaica ginger ....3 dr
Cayenne pepper ..3 dr
Cummin ................1oz
Fenugreek .............1 1/2 oz
Cinnamon ..............2 oz
Pimento .................2 dr
Black pepper .........1 dr
Long pepper ..........1dr
Cloves ....................1 dr
Nutmeg ...................1 dr

The whole to be in a powder mixed intimately in a mortar and sifted .

Spices / Re: use of salt in currys

« on: August 14, 2014, 03:59 PM »

I think salt is too big a subject not to comment on so I will add this

there are some important points to note in building the layers to a perfect curry and Salt is one of them !

In the very beginning before there where oceans on this planet salts was everywhere . Without the debate of how the ocean got here ! Thy did and with it came the rain ! Rain washed out all the soluble salts from the land , down to the ocean ! Result being ocean salty ! land not !

By definition that which remains when sea water evaporates is salt ! Only if man could just leave it like that !!! Salts are however deliquescent ? Thy absorb water out of the air ! And dam this makes it hard to get out of the salt shaker sometimes ! Enter mr Saxa, who figures Sodium chloride , one of the components of sea salt , Is not so deliquescent so I will remove all the other important minerals from sea salt except sodium chloride and sell that to the people ! Thy will love it as there salt shakers will not clog up !

So here's the thing, and the curry connection for those still following this ! How many times have you heard some one say " I love curry but it has to much salt in it so I have to avoid it "

Thanks to mr Saxa we all get far to much refined sodium in our diets ! But if we used sea salt ! we would not only get sodium but a lot more of the other very important salts and minerals that up until 1911 we all got naturally from sea salt ! Man we upset the balance for the dumbest reasons !

So when I say Salt !! I mean sea salt ! Not common table salt ! ,

The difference in depth between the two salts to cooking is one of those things that makes a difference ! Yes some will argue that sea salt will not lower your sodium but it sure provides you with a balance of important minerals that also react in some way with the cooking chemistry and those favors balancing in a curry .

Himalayan pink salt same thing as sea salt ! Beats me how salt got up that high though !

Humans could not survive without salt ! It is one thing we can not get from what we eat ! Our dependence and need for it has shaped our evolution !

It is part of food chemistry ! We all know what porridge taste like with salt added and without salt !

I wish I could be as strong as some and remove as much salt from my diet as I could but would not remove it all and not from a curry !

Grow Your Own Spices and Herbs / Coriander ! If you can't grow it ! Preserve it

« on: August 14, 2014, 11:03 AM »

I am all for growing what I can ! Actually when you live away from modern cities it's a matter of having to some times !

For me t was that the local markets did not always have it when I needed it so I had to start learning how to buy plenty when it was fresh and preserve it in a manor that was except able n flavor and aesthetics ! Freezing it is just don't go there !

So far my best solution has been ferment it in a probiotic brine ! Simple ! I wash it and pack it in a sterilized jar and cover it in salty water ! Leave it a couple of days out of the ref so the natural fermentation get under way ! Then put it in the ref it will stay full flavor and green for weeks ! Not to mention healthy natural way to preserve !

Love t hear any other methods keeping coriander ready for the kitchen !

This serves both for those who manage to grow more than thy can use ! And those who simply get fed up searching the supermarket for a condiment that curries simply can not substitute !

Dave

Just Joined? Introduce Yourself / Re: Greetings from an Expat in Asia

« on: August 14, 2014, 02:23 AM »

age ? i don't like to count borne 1959 ! language English ! Ancestors Scottish !
20 years a New Zealander ! 20 years an Australian and 15 years in Asia !

Dave

Just Joined? Introduce Yourself / Greetings from an Expat in Asia

« on: August 13, 2014, 10:45 AM »

Kiwi actually ! Grate grandfather, Scottish expat in Fiji , Grandfather and father borne there , Engineers in Lautoka Sugar mills where Indians where emigrated into Fiji to work the sugar plantations . the Indian Cooks servants and Yayos past on to my ancestors the culture of Indian food , that I intern picked up and ran with from a very young man ! my father then a high school student was sent to New Zealand to escape Japanese menace in the 1940s and never returned , this did not stop him befriending every Indian green grocer in New Zealand at that time to hunt down the spices , herbs and vegetables he needed to fuel his addiction in Indian food ! and it seems as I look back at 35 years of cooking and studying spice that this pursuit of spice has been my endless task as well ! Living in Cebu I have to travel to Singapore ( Mustafa in little India ) several times a year just to bring back a Port full of spice ! today I grow my own curry leaves , Kiffer Lime , Bay leaves , Galangou . we are blessed with fresh coconut and I produce my own oil ! Living in a country that was ruled for 300 years by the Spanish , there is a surprising shortage of spice in local markets

I joined this Forum for two reasons ! one, we all share this interest in spice and two because I have taken on an interest in spice pastes ! Not being able to get Pataks or any other good brands in this region ,I have started to make my own !

I will not except those who shoot down pastes as second to fresh whole spice, as fermented paste and pickels have been part of Indian culture for a millennium and Pataks speaks for itself . Mango and lime pickles , fermented producing natural lactic acids , and flavors absorbed into oils in spice paste jars somehow add to the culture and have earned there Place .

I hope that as I make my way through the archives here I can open and expand this subject beyond simply adding ground herbs and spice into vinegar and oil into something that gets closer to what Partakes do in a jar !

I ticked the "open to anyone emailing back" box when I joined ! and I look forward meeting you all and to mining the Archive

Cheers

Dave

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