Quote from: George on December 15, 2013, 02:19 PM
The quality of the video really is incredible, especially on full(1080) HD. It's quite an advert for the Sony Z1.

But youtube report that: "This video is unlisted. Be considerate and think twice before sharing."!

How good did these dishes taste? Perfectly respectable or up there with the best?

The vids are unlisted and only viewable to those you have the links, i.e. here.  I hope  I don't really want to plaster them all over the internet.  Just for peeps who have a genuine interest I suppose.  How did they taste?  Well, all very subjective.  But I thought they were all really good, under the circumstances.  Not surprising, as I rate the chef very highly.  They tasted something like what I make, again not that surprising, I use Moike's mix powder and have followed him cook many times.  He generally does somehow produce that extra "sparkle" though.  I have tasted "better" jalfrezi(s) with more depth of flavour, but I can't make better myself. The ex-hot is made pretty much exclusively for me.  I like it!  Very hot, very, very smooth.  There's a lot going on for this one.  Moike's training as a chef seems to involve much emphasis on the bagar technique.  In fact, everything involves bagar of powdered/whole spices.  The base gravy, all the pre-cooks, even most of the pastes he uses. So, the pre-cooked chicken in the ex-hot is loaded with flavour, as is pre-cooked potato (mustard seeds in particular).  I felt it was was phenomenal. I can make as good, but it takes me a lot longer to do, and I have been known to mess it up (burn it) on occasion.  Key of course is extracting the flavour from the chilli powder successfully. The Pathia?  I can't get anyway near the standard/quality of Moike's pathia.  Miles off. As good as it gets in my opinion. So a mix of perfectly respectable and up there with the best.  Hope that makes sense.  We were a bit pushed for time at the end and had to eat most luke warm, which I suppose didn't help.  I like to clean up a bit first for my own efforts, and re-heat.  Also allows time for airborne chilli powder and other aerosols to clear from the old nostrils. 

Rob     

Couple of short vids of Chef Moike working in a TA.  Sony Experia Mini Pro.  Like, VHS quality. 


Ex-hot vindaloo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjSjlFnnSTM


Vindaloo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO_dw-ktFnY


Rob 


Will check on the pathia paste (red sauce in the earlier vids).  We missed most of it.  Fairly simple this one I think though.  G/G, Asian bay, cassia, (bagar), lots of undiluted tomato puree, shed loads of lemon, salt, red food colouring. Water, or possibly blended onion/green pepper. Possibly butter too.

Cheers Bob and Goncalo.

A couple of questions about the first vindaloo recipe:- He uses (it appears) the stock from the pre-cooked chicken in the first reduction, Is this a standard procedure,if so how much? and do you have the pre-cook recipe?

Quote from: jb on December 16, 2013, 11:41 AM
Excellent videos Bob,it's hard enough trying to get info out of a BIR chef so I how you persuaded him to come and cook in your own kitchen is definitely an achievement.I could watch these videos all day(my wife says great it's only some bloke cooking curry!).The dishes,especially the pathia looked lovely.

I have a couple of questions if you don't mind.Did you cook the base gravy or did the chef??  In any case was it just standard ingredients?,ie nothing went in it that doesn't go into most gravy recipes.Also what was the red sauce,I could see the bay leaves poking out,was it just a standard massala sauce??

cheers JB.

Hi JB.  I was lucky to meet Moike.  He was brought in temporarily to bail out a local TA that was struggling.  The previous chef had lost the plot and was sending out sub-standard food to customers.  I became one of the delivery drivers at the TA.  He doesn't work there any more, but we have remained friends.  He mainly works in restaurants.  Spent quite a bit of time at a well-known restaurant in Knowle amongst others. If you ever fancy getting a chef to your house you could try bribing them with cash.    Moike didn't want to take any money off us, but we insisted on him having something. It wasn't even his day off. He was picked up later in the day to go to work and wouldn't have finished until midnight.  It seemed only fair, especially as the previous day we had forked out 50 quid (each) for the Kushi cooking course, which didn't amount to much. 

Seriously though if anyone is lucky enough to find a decent chef it can be worth enquiring if they offer a home catering service.  For example, for an outside summer party.  You can hear Moike in one of the vids saying he can cook for 60 people (that would be all by himself).  Works out very reasonable I believe, perhaps 4 quid per head, and this would involve a load of food. Plus, you get to see how it's done. Coincidently, Goncalo and I went to the Adil balti house after the Kushi course. We mentioned to the owner there we had just paid 100 quid (for a couple of hours in another kitchen).  He was totally bewildered by this and immediately offered us a whole day in their kitchen, with everything they do explained (including the GM etc) in as much detail as we wanted.  Might look into this one day.  Who knows? All good fun!

For Moike's visit I made the first (boil) stage of the base the night before.  Chef was happy with my prep and finished off the main spicing/bagar.  Nothing unusual/special in the base.  Similarities to the Zaal, Mouchak, etc.  The red sauce is pathia paste, which I am checking out.

Rob 

Bob, is the chef's name actually Mikey and it was just goncalo's Irish accent made it sound like Moike?

(no offence intended)