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Messages - Peripatetic Phil

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7721
Trainee Chefs / Beginners Questions / Re: Potato's
« on: October 24, 2010, 10:43 PM »
Rooster's for me make the best roasties without a shadow of doubt.  crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside.

Ray :)
Seconded !

7722
Lets Talk Curry / Re: Wondering about BIR Chicken Tikka
« on: October 24, 2010, 10:41 PM »
Interesting (both replies, that is).  I really can't see bone-in/bone-out making the sort of difference that I am used to (Tandoori with a much deeper flavour, tikka mild and delicate), but regional variations are certainly a possibility.  I cut my teeth on Tandoori Chicken in the Agra, Whitfield Street (London), but have no recollection of ever trying Chicken Tikka there; now in Kent, I often have Chicken Tikka as a starter, or Tandoori Chicken as a main course, and I can think of nowhere decent around here where the two are the same.  I also use two different marinades when I make them myself, with the tikka marinade containing curd, chilli, curry masala, ginger, garlic, salt, sugar, oil and colouring whilst the tandoori marinade contains in addition black cumin, garam masala  and sherry vinegar (the quantities and ratios vary as well).

Ray : yes, lamb tikka probably needs a fuller marinade than chicken, so I could imagine the full tandoori marinade being used for that.

** Phil.

7723
Trainee Chefs / Beginners Questions / Re: Potato's
« on: October 24, 2010, 10:18 PM »
I'm surprised at the recommendation of Rooster potatoes. The only pack I ever bought was from LIDL and I tried to boil them to make mashed potato. The damned things completely disintegrated in the water, I'd never had a disaster like it before or since!

Perhaps I got a duff batch?   ???
I think you must have done, Santa (although Lidl seem to have discontinued stocking Roosters of late).  Since discovering them a few years ago, my wife and I have used them in preference to virtually everything, including King Edwards by which I swore until then.  Roosters really do seem to be the best yet "one potato does all", and they have an ever better flavour than KE.  We roast them, boil them, mash them, make Bratkartoffeln from them, and even use them for chips if we run out of ready-made (cut into slices, parboil slices, cut into chips and flash-fry at 190C).

** Phil.

7724
Lets Talk Curry / Re: Wondering about BIR Chicken Tikka
« on: October 24, 2010, 06:41 PM »
Very helpful information, Ifindforu : thank you.  My last attempt at Chicken Tikka used Chef Harpal Singh Sokhi's recipe/methodology, but I was not very impressed with the results; I had had more success on previous occasions using a modified Kris Dhillon recipe (a part of the problem with the CHSS version may have been that I forgot to adjust for the difference in the size of American and British tablespoons).  But would you agree with me that the marinade for Chicken Tikka is quite different to the marinade for Tandoori Chicken ?  I ask because I am amazed at the number of places in which I find it stated that the same marinade is used for both, yet to me the two dishes taste as different as chalk and cheese.

** Phil.

7725
Trainee Chefs / Beginners Questions / Re: Potato's
« on: October 24, 2010, 05:02 PM »
Hi, Which is the best type of potato to put in a curry?
For BIR curries, maybe Roosters ?  We used those last night, and they seemed fine.  You need a waxy rather than a floury potato so that it doesn't break up, and Roosters straddle the waxy/floury divide.  For Thai curries, little new potatoes are excellent, but they need to be large enough to peel.

7726
Lets Talk Curry / Re: Undercover Curry - Anyone heard of it?
« on: October 24, 2010, 09:04 AM »
That's one ugly dude.
Well, until you post a picture of yourself, we shall just have to assume that this is a classic case of the (curry) pot calling the kettle black !

7727
Talk About Anything Other Than Curry / Re: Oil Temperature
« on: October 23, 2010, 09:37 PM »
Thanks for you reply.  You've told me everything I needed to know.  I took the said deep pan fryer back, and will consider which brand to buy next.  The last one was made by Asda.  I will check the next one with a thermometer when I get it.  Thanks again
You're very welcome.  I haven't cooked papadum since you replied, but I did this evening, and took the opportunity to check the temperature at which they cooked best.  This was indeed 375F/190C, as previously reported; at 180C they are too oily, at 200C they go brown too quickly.

** Phil.

7728
Lets Talk Curry / Re: Undercover Curry - Anyone heard of it?
« on: October 23, 2010, 09:04 PM »
Just cooked Dave Loyden's pulao rice from Undercover Curry, and was very surprised to find that his "don't wash the rice" method is a complete success  :)  I followed his instructions up to and including the point of adding milk, but was uncertain just how much milk to add (Dave writes "pour in enough milk to make it bubble up"), but that really gave me no idea how much, so I added some (enough to see it bubble up) but nowhere near enough to cover the rice.  I have now sought his advice on this and will report back.  I then added the spices and water (water by eye, not by ratio), brought it to the boil, allowed it to cook for a few minutes and then transferred it a covered pyrex casserole dish and transferred it to the microwave oven, which is how I normally prepare rice.  It needed a further eight minutes on full power, after which I added about a dozen drops of food colouring (yellow, red, green) and then put the casserole dish into the pre-warmed top oven where it remained until we were ready to eat.  The results were excellent, with every grain firm and separate, and a real "pulao" taste/feel/smell to it (my test is to eat it with lime pickle alone : if it goes well with that, it is a good pulao rice).  My wife says that it would have benefited from a little salt and ghee, and I may try adding those next time.  But for those who, like me, have always believed that basmati rice must be washed and soaked first, try this method : I think you will be very agreeably surprised !

** Phil.

P.S. Having now read this thread in its entirety, I am surprised that no-one has yet linked to an image of the author : http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/driver-delivers-the-secrets-of-the-perfect-curry-1.746915?referrerPath=news

7729
Lets Talk Curry / Re: It's curry gold - Main Dish "skimmings"
« on: October 23, 2010, 01:37 PM »
Just one comment :

2) I don't agree that an excess is needed (defined as more than a hint of oil on the surface or small amount of pooling). at my local TA if an "excess" occurs which don't seem that often (observing from the counter) the chef skims off the excess into a tin (from the frying pan)

In my experience, it is almost a case of "the more oil the better", in the sense that the flavour improves as the excess of oil increases up to some (unknown) limit, but as a matter of course I remove (and recycle) most of that "excess oil" before serving, although on the last occasion I left all the oil in and the dish was none the worse for that (but we were serving ourselves direct from the pressure cooker, so it was easy to pour back excess oil from the ladle when helping oneself).  I am reasonably confident that most of my failures [1] have resulted from using insufficient oil.  When I re-spice a take-away curry that has failed to meet my expectations, I invariably add extra oil during the re-spicing process which is then skimmed off again before serving.

[1] The other failures have occurred when the final curry is too thick.

** Phil.

7730
Just Joined? Introduce Yourself / Re: Hello From Perth WA
« on: October 22, 2010, 10:23 AM »
We moved to Tassie 18 months ago. Great site for curry this though.
Ah, that would explain your earlier reference to prices in dollars; I assumed (clearly wrongly) that you were resident in America : all is now forgiven :)  I spent a long weekend in Tasmania in 1987, mainly visiting the South West wilderness, but I could not stay there for the whole weekend so decided to move on to Queenstown.  Never have I felt so devastated in my whole life : having just left the vibrant, fertile, primeval rain forest, Queenstown was like a vision of hell -- 25 square miles of sterile nothingness : no birds, no grass, not a living creature anywhere.  Cancelling my reservation, I drove out of there like a bat out of hell, and finally ended up in Strahan on the Gordon River, but I will never forget to my dying day the nightmare that was Queenstown.

Reply to PaulP, added above to avoid increasing my total number of O/T posts : I think it was primarily mining, Paul : WP has this to say -- "Owing to a combination of tree removal for use in the smelters, the smelter fumes (for about 40 years), and the heavy annual rainfall, the erosion of the shallow horizon topsoil back to the harder rock profile contributed to the stark state of the mountains for many decades."

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