Axe,

That was a suprise.  I always make my G/G paste heavier on the garlic roughly 60:40 split.

Cant believe he said that the black sesame seed made the dish look appetising it looked like a plate of mud to me!

Ray

Jerry, its definitely on there just after 4m30s.

Ray, I was very surprised myself, like you I would have favoured the paste bias towards Garlic. Perhaps it was just for the dish in question or maybe what that village is use to.

His comments on the black finish also surprised me, it looked awful and I would struggle to to take a bite. but I bet it tastes good though.

It looked pretty easy and as mentioned must taste lovely but it looked absolutely filthy though. I'd be up for giving it a go but I can only imagine it tastes very heavily of the burnt sesame seeds with a side of heat from those green chillies.

Chris, its just a shame we're not all local as I would love to share this experience.

Axe,

finally got there @4.30 on the video (the previous one was on biryani). i can't believe all the oil would be mustard - must be mostly veg oil.

hoping to make base this week and will try adding in some mustard at dish frying ~10% to start with - need it subtle.

the garlic:ginger proportion is certainly different. it's not something i feel i have a need to try. i wrestled for some time with just using fine chopped garlic on it's own. i've finally adopted g/g as std liking what the ginger brings but too much would not be good in terms of BIR taste (getting towards Chinese for me).

What I would love to have seen is Rick recreating the dish at home. Would he have used Mustard Oil given it's not approved for consumption in the EU?

Given the amount of flavour in the dish (mustard oil and sesame paste), I think the bias weighted towards ginger would be needed to balance the dish. I only bought attention to it as it surprised me, given the quest for BIR. I certainly don't think it is representative of BIR but it does give good insight into how the Bangladeshi use Garlic & Ginger pastes, not to mention Mustard Oil.

I'd love to give the dish a go but doubt i'll ever get the chance and I don't have anything to measure it. Something else that I picked up on Rick saying, that it is important for chef's to visit countries to see how the cuisine actually tastes.

Ive got a few recipes in books that call for you to use 4tbsp's of mustard oil for frying with, so its not that weird.

Finally, i've managed to get some oil. Had a choice of oils so I asked the Indian stgore owner for the best quality oil to cook with and he pointed towards this: http://www.pranfoods.net/culinary_mustard.html

(on the left)

I've just opened it in anticipation of the aroma and was somehow totally surprised by the fact it smells almost exactly like Colemans English Mustard! Don't ask me why I was surprised but there you go. I just had it in my mind that it would be a a very musty smell, anything but not mustard. How bizarre is that! ;D

Anyway, I am very much looking forward to trying out Chicken Tikka with it.

Just a quick question:

Given the pungent aroma of the oil, has anyone tried using Colemans Mustard in a tikka recipe?

Quote from: Axe on February 18, 2011, 03:31 PM
Given the pungent aroma of the oil, has anyone tried using Colemans Mustard in a tikka recipe?

certainly blinkers off idea - veg oil and mustard powder to give same effect as mustard oil.

i can't see me trying it as i can get the mustard oil easily but i guess for anyone who can't then got to be worth a try.

I was going to use mustard oil with my chicken tikka about a year ago but found it not recomended due to its high erucic acid content i think, but intrestingly enough i was too confused to bother and found most bottles of mustard oil to display the warning 'FOR EXTERNAL USE ONLY' as your bottle does in the picture, what a coincedence.  I searched to see if it was safe and healthy to use in cooking but too many conflicting issues hence i never used it.  Take a look at the bottom right of your bottle in the picture and you'll see what i mean.  Lots of traditional indian dishes use it anyway but i stayed away. Funny that.