https://www.thecaterer.com/news/trade-deal-chef-visas

QuoteToday there are more Indian restaurants in Greater London than in Delhi and Mumbai combined.

Source: https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/The-British-Curry/

As I have a fair amount of pre-cooked cull yaw to use up, and as I wanted a change from cull yaw biriani, I though I would attempt to make a cull yaw dhansak.  As far as I can tell there are no dedicated recipes for either lamb or mutton dhansak on the forum, so I decided to try Richard Sayce's version, which calls for "pre-cooked dhal".  And serendepitously, when I was in Farmfoods yesterday, I noticed that they had 300gm packs of Laila dal tadka which I thought might (a) fit the bill, and (b) cut down on preparation.  So a simple question, "does anyone have experience of Laila dal tadka ?", and if so "what do you think of it, and do you think it would work well in Richard's recipe ?  And I suppose I should ask at the same time "does anyone think that there is a better dhansak recipe than Richard's on which I should base my attempt ?".
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** Phil.

I have been using an induction hob for more years than I care to remember, and whenever I use it for something as simple as boiling a couple of eggs I cannot help but be struck by the hob's continual on-off cycle.  As a result, although I have always started the eggs at 100%, I can never finish them off at less than 30% (or 20% if I am willing to risk their being undercooked).  But today I had a breakthrough.  I have a number of pieces of galvanised steel, maybe 10" square by 3/32" thick, and today I tried interposing one of these between my smallest (egg) saucepan and the hob.  Oh joy, oh bliss.  The thermal inertia of the galvanised steel was far greater than that of the saucepan, and as a result I was able to turn the hob down to 10% and still observe a continuous gentle stream of bubbles.  The eggs were cooked to perfection, and I clearly saved electricity/energy in the process.  Give it a try, if you have an induction hob, and let me know what you think.
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** Phil.

I was in Great Cornish Food (adjacent to Waitrose in Truro) recently, and was looking at the butchery counter where I saw "cull yaw".  Having no idea what "cull yaw" was, I asked the butcher and he explained that when a ewe gets too old to breed, some farmers will give her an extra year of life at pasture, after which she is culled and hung.  The result is meat that is as tender as lamb but with all the flavour of mutton and arguably more.  This sounded perfect for a biryani, so I bought 3/4kg shoulder which I then skinned and diced.  The following is basically the recipe from a Shan Mutton Biryani mix, with notes where I deviated.  The results were out of this world.

CULL YAW BIRYANI

1.   Heat 1 cup of ghee/oil and fry 3-4 medium, finely sliced onions (400gm) until light golden.
2.   Add 750 gm bone-in cull yaw, three tablespoons fresh garlic paste, two tablespoons fresh ginger paste and stir-fry for a minute. Add one packet Shan Memoni Mutton Biryani Mix and stir-fry for 5-6 mins.
3.   Add 3-4 cups of water, 1¼ cup (250g) of plain, whipped yoghurt and two medium (250g), peeled and halved potatoes - [I omitted the potatoes]. Cover and cook on low heat until the meat is tender [For this I used an "Instant Pot" clone, slow cook setting, two hours duration].
4.   Add four medium (300g) diced tomatoes [I probably used less], 10 medium/large whole green chillies and 3-4 tablespoons lemon juice (two lemons) [I forgot to add the lemon]. Stir and remove from heat.
5.   Separately:  wash 3½ cups (750g) of Shan Basmati Rice and soak for 30 minutes [or Laila — I didn't bother to wash or soak].  Boil 15 cups (three litres) of water ]Fairly certain that I used far less water than this — 1 cup of basmati rice needs 300 ml water when cooked on the rice setting in an "Instant Pot" or clone if you want no excess water at the end of the cooking period] and stir three tablespoons of Shan salt [I used pink Himalaya] and the soaked rice.  Boil the rice until ¾ cooked [Again, in the Instant Pot clone, 4 minutes on rice setting, with the addition of mixed whole masala — this would have been better put in a strainer container].  Remove and drain thoroughly.
6.   Spread ¾ of the boiled rice in a pot and pour the cooked meat curry over it [I didn't pour most of the sauce — there was far too much].  Then spread and cover with the remaining rice. Cover and cook on low heat for 10 minutes.
7.   Heat ½ cup of ghee/oil and pour over the rice [I just poured on some of the fatty layer from the sauce — I also added a little green, yellow and red powder food colouring at this stage, and allowed 20 minutes for it to set before stirring].  Mix the rice well bottom to top. Cover and cook for five minutes.

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** Phil.

Whenever I eat chicken karaage in a Japanese restaurant, the taste and texture are superb.  Whenever I try to re-create it at home (e.g., this evening) the results are poor beyond belief.  Does anyone here cook chicken karaage, and if so, could they please share their recipe and technique ?
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** Phil.

Masala Chicken

In this chicken dish from Chetna Makan, a crispy, well-seasoned exterior gives way to juicy meat inside. Makan says that after she developed this recipe, she couldn't stop eating it, and we can see why.

Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup (1 ounce) chickpea flour
• 1/4 cup plain whole-milk yogurt (see Notes)
• 1 teaspoon Kashmiri chili powder
• 1 teaspoon kasoori methi
• 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
• 1/2 teaspoon kala namak
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 4 to 6 chicken thighs, halved, or quartered if large (1 1/4 pounds total)
• 3 tablespoons sunflower or vegetable oil
• Ginger-chili chutney, for serving (optional)
• Cooked white or brown rice, for serving (optional)
• Naan or flatbreads, for serving (optional)

Directions
Total: 30 mins

• In a large cast-iron or non-stick skillet over a low heat, toast the chickpea flour, stirring constantly, until it starts to darken, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl and carefully wipe the hot pan clean.
• To the bowl with the flour, add the yogurt, chili powder, fenugreek, garam masala, kala namak and cumin and stir until well combined. Add the chicken and toss until well coated.
• In a skillet over a medium heat, heat the oil until shimmering. Add the chicken in a single layer — it's okay if some pieces are touching. Cook, undisturbed, until the chicken turns brown and crisp, 4 to 5 minutes. Watch carefully and reduce the heat if the chicken starts to burn. Flip the pieces and continue cooking until the chicken is golden on all sides and cooked through to an internal temperature of 165 degrees C, 3 to 5 minutes. (Thicker pieces of chicken may take a bit longer.) Divide among shallow bowls and serve with chutney, rice and/or naan, if using.

Notes

Be sure to use plain yogurt, not Greek yogurt, when making this recipe. If you have only the latter, thin it with a few tablespoons of water or chicken stock until it is the consistency of plain yogurt.

Storage: Refrigerate for up to 3 days. Reheat in a 350-degree oven or toaster oven for about 10 minutes, or until heated through.

Adapted from "Chetna's 30 Minute Indian: Quick and Easy Everyday Meals" by Chetna Makan (Mitchell Beazley, 2021).

My wife and I went out for a curry recently, and returned to a restaurant where the simple, basic, chicken curry is always superb.  Fancying something different, she started looking for a suitable lamb curry, but with only a couple of exceptions, all lamb curries were listed as being made with lamb tikka.  Hoping against hope, I asked the proprietor if the two exceptions were indeed made with "real" lamb rather than lamb tikka, and was not surprised to learn that the answer was "no".  "Our beef curries are made with topside, and not pre-cooked in the tandoor" he said, but as neither of us fancied beef, and as king prawn was twice the price of chicken, we settled for a chicken curry and a chicken dhansak.  Both were superb (as always), but what a disappointment not to be able to get a single lamb curry made with lamb rather than with lamb tikka.
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** Phil.

QuoteIn modern Indian cookery, "curry" refers to spice blends with turmeric as their key ingredient; spice blends without turmeric are called masala.

Source:  https://www.etymonline.com/word/curry#etymonline_v_491
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** Phil.

"Mapping the Language of Spices: A Corpus-Based, Philological Study on the Words of the Spice Domain" by Gábor Parti.

ABSTRACT

Most of the existing literature on spices is to be found in the areas of gastronomy, botany, and history. This study instead investigates spices on a linguistic level. It aims to be a comprehensive linguistic account of the items of the spice trade. Because of their attractive aroma and medicinal value, at certain points in history these pieces of dried plant matter have been highly desired, and from early on, they were ideal products for trade. Cultural contact and exchange and the introduction of new cultural items beget situations of language contact and linguistic acculturation. In the case of spices, not only do we have a set of items that traveled around the world, but also a set of names. This language domain is very rich in loanwords and Wanderwörter. In addition, it supplies us with myriad cases in which spice names are innovations. Still more interesting is that examples in English, Arabic, and Chinese — languages that represent major powers in the spice trade at different times — are here compared.

FULL TEXT: https://sino-platonic.org/complete/spp338_spices_linguistics.pdf

My wife's hotel has just been gifted four brace of freshly-shot pheasant, and I have been asked to "do the necessary".  I know that they need to be hung, but for how long ?  I have improvised with road-kill pheasants in the past, and of course have cooked pre-hung, drawn and plucked pheasants, but never had to deal with multiple pheasants all requiring the full process.  All advice welcome.
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** Phil.

The BBC are currently offering a promotion on their Mæstro courses, and I have taken out a one-year subscription for just £72 including VAT.  And I have just started watching Vineet Bhatia's Modern Indian Cooking.  Report to follow, but an amuse bouche to start —

QuoteDe-mystifying Spices
1. Garam Masala Spice Blend
Building Blocks
2. Ginger Paste & Garlic Paste
3. Red Chilli Paste & Cashew Nut Paste
Chutney Dips & Raitas
4. Herb Chutney
5. Tomato Chutney
6. Raita
7. Beetroot Pachadi
Vegetarian
8. Spiced Potatoes
9. Malai Broccoli
10. Keralan Veg Stir Fry
11. Punjabi Chickpea Stew
12. Tadka Dal
Indian Grills
13. Banana Leaf Cod
14. Chicken Tikka
15. Mustard Chicken
16. Ginger Lamb Chops
Indian Stews
17. Coastal Prawn Stew
18. Butter Chicken
19. Lamb Morel Korma
Street Food
20. Onion Bhaji
21. Potato & Green Pea Tikki
22. Bombay Omelette
23. Fish Pakora
24. Lamb Kheema
Pulao & Biriyani
25. Cauliflower Pulao
26. Chicken Biriyani
Bread
27. Pao
28. Naan
Dessert
29. Lassi
30. Kulfi

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** Phil.

As my lack of contributions has undoubtedly revealed, my motivation for cookery (Indian or otherwise) much diminished after my enforced move to Cornwall, and my last two attempts at something as simple as a steak-and-kidney pie, or steak-and-kidney with dumplings, were not a patch on my previous efforts when I lived in Kent.  However, the permanent closure of my local butcher (George Hawkes) last Saturday motived me to buy up all of the ox kidney that he could get before closing, and since then I have made both a steak-and-kidney pie and steak-and-kidney with parsley dumplings.  The pie was OK, but the crust was a bit thin because I had insufficient S.R. flour, but the last was absolutely superb.  My dumplings floated like little clouds, and the flavour and texture were out of this world; it was followed by equally superb freshly poached (and chilled) Victoria plums.  I now wonder whether I can perhaps recapture my former interest in BIR cuisine ...
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** Phil.

I have tried a number of allegedly "hot" instant noodles over the years, none of which did much for me, but today I finally hit gold — "Yumsu chilli fire extreme flavour instant noodles".  Just stirring the spice mix into the sesame oil caused the heat to enter my nose, and after eating a single portion I found it necessary to drink half a litre of mango lassi — give them a go, if you are into that sort of thing !
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** Phil.

It is now some time since I last cooked a curry (sufficiently long, in fact, that I no longer remember when I last did so), but it is not that which inspires my question.  Rather, it is something that I experienced over the last two or three days.  On Sunday I played a bowls match in Newquay (Cornwall) and, as I always do when I am in Newquay, I later dined at Zaman's restaurant.  It is, as far as I am concerned, the best BIR in Cornwall, both food and service being beyond compare.  But after eating my starter (two extremely nice seekh kebabs, served with grilled onions which I wrapped in a chapati to eat), I felt too full to want to start on my main course, so asked the restaurant to pack it up for me to eat later.  I didn't eat it when I arrived home, I didn't eat it yesterday, but I ate it this evening.  It comprised a beautifully fragrant pulao rice, a well-textured sag aloo, and a lamb dhansak that clearly contained at least two different sorts of pulse/lentil.  But I didn't enjoy it (I ate barely one third).  Even after adding lime pickle (my standard accompaniment to a lamb dhansak) it just did nothing for me.  I am therefore beginning to think that I have tired of curries, and now need to find some other staple food on which to exist.  I realise that a BIR forum is perhaps not the best place to ask such a question, but I do wonder whether any current members of CR0 have ever had a similar experience.
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** Phil.

I don't think that I was really aware of akhni stock until the recent discussion about "++++MDB's Birmingham Balti Gravy 100% Clone Al Frash Balti Restaurant ++++", but I just happened to be looking at the menu from one of my local T/A BIRs ("Victoria Indian To Go") and noticed that under "Rice" it offered "Yakhni Pilau", described as "Basmati rice cooked in home-made stock and peppercorns".  Now I think it is pretty clear that MDB's "akhni" and VITG's "yakhni" are one and the same thing, so I wonder whether anyone else has encountered "akhni pilau" or "yakhni pilau" on a BIR menu ?
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** Phil.

A few nights ago my wife brought home the remains of a portion of lamb dhansak from the Himalayan Spice in Liskeard.  Unfortunately she had eaten all but one piece of the lamb, so using 976bar's methdology for pre-cooking lamb, I cut up and pre-cooked a whole shoulder.  My wife was apprehensive, believing that the volume of bone would make the £7/kilo price uneconomic, but of a whole shoulder weighing 1,28kg the scapula weighed in at just over 90gm and and the shoulder joint at even less, so a very good price indeed IMHO. 

Unfortunately Rob's spicing didn't seem to complement the flavour of the dhansak, so I decided instead to turn it into a lamb biryani.  Now, ever since I acquired a Silvercrest "Instant pot" clone I have used it for cooking rice, no matter whether steamed, fried or pulao, and it does a first-class job, so this evening I used my "Perfect pulao" recipe (with added saffron) to make pulao rice in the Instant Pot, sautéeing the spices with the lid off before putting the lid on and switching to "Rice" mode ("less" setting, just six minutes, plus 10 or so to allow the safety interlock to release).  I then added the diced lamb (cut to roughly 3/4" pieces from Rob's initial 2" cubes), mixed it all together, put the lid back on and left it on its tickover/keep warm setting for maybe a further 30 minutes.  Overall the dish was very successful, with beautifully tender lamb pieces in a fragrant pulao, but the flavour was not as intense as I would have wished.  Next time I will use my MDH Bombay biryani mix and see how that works ...
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** Phil.

On 18 April 2023, 19:12:41 I reported on a rather poor attempt at chicken bhuna which had been made with pre-velvetted chicken, as opposed to normal BIR-style pre-cooked chicken.  I later discovered that it had not only been velvetted but also marinated in soya sauce. whence the rather poor chicken bhuna.  So, with quite a lot of the velvetted chicken left over, I made a chicken with chilli and black bean sauce earlier this week, which lasted me two or three days, after which I made a further (and final) portion today, using up the last of the velvetted chicken.  Now, this chicken was already two days past its hotel "use-by" date when I received it, and that was about a fortnight ago, yet the chicken with chilli and black bean sauce that I made this evening lacked any trace of taint, and tasted just as good as if I had used fresh chicken.  Now I do keep my refrigerator at a steady 3℃ rather than the more normal 5℃, but even so, for chicken to last this long without any decay whatsoever seems quite remarkable to me.  To what extent it was the marination, to what extent the velvetting, or to the lower-than-average storage temperature we shall never know, but it certainly confirms my belief that, as I wrote in an earlier post, "use-by dates are for the guidance of the wise and the blind obedience of fools".
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** Phil.

I saw one of these on offer in the Truro branch of Waitrose recently and brought it home to try.  I finally got around to eating it this evening, and I have to say it was not bad at all, especially at the current offer price of £3.75.  Considerably thicker than the average BIR curry (presumably due to the presence of cashew nut paste) but quite good despite that.  I cooked mine in my normal steel curry pan in some butter ghee, and accompanied it by a frozen paratha, and it certainly made for a pleasant meal.  I have about 1/3 left, which I plan to mix with the remains of the chicken Madras which I ate yesterday in a restaurant called "Indian Queen" (which is, of course, situated in Indian Queens !).
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** Phil.

Merry Christmas, one and all ! / सभी को मैरी क्रिसमस ! / ! میری کرسمس ، ایک اور سب / મેરી ક્રિસમસ, એક અને બધા ! / ಮೆರ್ರಿ ಕ್ರಿಸ್ಮಸ್, ಒಂದು ಮತ್ತು ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ! / आनंददायी ख्रिसमस, एक आणि सर्व ! / ! میری کرسمس، یو او ټول