Hi Jerry, BB etal,

I am keen on having a pop at a few baltis, what are you guys using as your Balti spice mixes currently?  Also, how much of each per meal?

My own experience of BIR and Balti House Balti is similar to that of any other recipie in BIR cooking - varied! One resto has a wildly different interpretation of what Balti should taste like to the next it appears.  But i do agree aniseed and a freshly ground spices hit near to the end of the cooking fits the bill.

Thanks for the help,

Steve

Being as the malliard reaction is essential to BIR cooking, I thought you'd find this article an interesting read.  Especially the bit about sodium bicarbonate and onions.

http://blog.khymos.org/2012/06/04/maximizing-food-flavor-by-speeding-up-the-maillard-reaction/

Also wondering about the practicality/desirability of a 'Malliard Pan', ie a temperature controlled sauce pan set to sustain Malliard temperatures? Hmm...

Steve

Thanks Mick, ordered the latest ebook.

Does anyone have bengali bobs video link? i was reading that he and another had a bad experince with kushi training and spent the day with another chef and took some vids.  I'd love to see them.

Ta peeps,

Steve

Hi peeps,

It's been a while since I last visited this forum with a vengeance, due to the other half going off curry when she was preggers five years ago.

I have dabbled on occasion, making an impromptu base on the fly and it has been ok.

I bought mick crawford's ebook and have only just got round to seriously testing out the recipes and methods in there. I am quite impressed really! Easy to follow and some nice meals had out of it.
However, has mick done any updates to it(I think Mick posts on here)? It also hasn't got a balti recipe, so I want to have a go at one.

To me balti is rather like mick's madras recipe but with more prominent aromatics, ie aniseed or fennel seed, cinnamon etc, but not so much to overload the olfactory senses.

Anyway, what are the most upto date or recomened methods, recipes etc please chaps?

I note that most of mick's mains use the same method- hot oil, fry garlic for a minute, add tomato pur?e, fry then add spices, cook, add meat and gravy, reduce.  It seems to work nicely.

Anyway, a bit of a ramble.

Ta

Steve

Hi chaps, my friend has an invention on Kickstarter he is trying to get noticed by foodies and I wonder if you'd have a look see if it's something you'd find useful?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/968891328/the-oven-spit-guard-no-more-oven-cleaning

Ta peeps,

Steve

Fancied a change last night, so did Vindaloo and Dansak! 

Firstly i made up a Dansak paste-

I boiled up for 45mins a cup of red split lentils and mixed in a tin(500g) of pinaple chunks in juice and 2 tbs of sugar and let it boil a little longer until it was reduced to a loose paste kind of consistancy.  There was far too much dansak paste, so i froze two thirds of it.

Made my usual BIR style basic curry with moderate spices, and then halfed it into 2 pans.  Half went into the vindaloo pan and half into the dansak paste.

I added some butter to the dansak pan and fenugreek, extra garlic and chillies to the vindaloo.

I was amazed how simple it was and very pleased with the result of both!

So it just goes to show how easy it is to knock up very different curries from a basic base.

Steve

Interesting method, i was in Kerala for a month last November on cookery courses and a culinary holiday.  Without exeption, the first stage of all currys was heating the oil till smoking lightly and chucking in the mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds if used.  Curry leaves next but only after most of the mustard seeds had popped.

Curry leaf is a major ingredient in Keralan cooking, and commonly just pop outside the house and pull a sprig off a nearby bush!  Also, they are much much stronger than the dried ones we have here, so where it says 10 leaves, you'd need more like 30! 

Most curries were cooked within an hour and a half of eating, so lamb was normaly quite firm.  Maybe go with the water content they mention and let it cook longer, give the lamb time to tenderise and sauce time to thicken and see what its like.

Steve

Curry King, id like to make  ctm for a mate of mine in a few days, do you recomend any changes to the recipe posted at the begining of this thread?

Chhers!

Steve

I came across the bitterness quite frequently, but in my case it turned out to be not frying the onions in hot enough oil before the boiling stages of cooking my base which is based on Darth's base.  I don't think of it as biterness though, more a 'harshness' that catches you at the back of your nose. 

If you think about frying onions for a burger or hot dog, there is never any harshness, just lovely oily sweet fried onions, so i concluded you have to fry them at quite a high heat and in small batches before adding them to the boiling pan.

Just my experience.

steve

I recon that real BIR style curry, if sold in jars or tins, wouldnt sell due to the oil content!  If BIR had to state thier oil content, sales would drop massivly defo!

Steve