I'm a VIRGIN at BIR style cooking..

Tonight will be my first foray.. I'm going to try CA's base sauce and Korma recipe..  :-)

Maybe not the best example (since it has sugar and cream)

But, generally, wondering how healthy or unhealthy BIR types recipes are??

In my opinion Fat duck, I wouldn't necessarily say unhealthy if the right ingredients are used. However generally lots of oil's used in the dishes which makes them very high in calories.

So if you use vegetable oil / sunflower oil, this is not necessarily bad for you but is high in calories. On the other hand if you choose a dish and make it with butter ghee, cream and sugar then its not only high in calories but also generally unhealthy.

IMO of course

Hope this helps

Quote from: FatDuck on January 25, 2012, 03:48 PM
But, generally, wondering how healthy or unhealthy BIR types recipes are??

Generally not very healthy in my opinion - far too much oil and salt being used for my liking and I've put on weight since I've been experimenting with some of the recipes here - so be warned!

It seems particularly difficult to replicate the same kind of flavours as achieved in your local BIR without using fairly large quantities (relatively) of both ingredients, which seem to add a lot to the overall flavour. Fortunately my tolerance to salt is probably far lower than most peoples, so I can get away with less quantities of it, but I'm finding it tricky to reduce the oil content and get the same results.

The only healthy oil option is olive oil and I wouldn't use that in Indian cookery for two reasons - 1/ its flavour is too powerful for Indian spices and 2/ its smoke point is lower than veg/corn/nut oils and that means you can't really use it at the high temperatures required for BIR cookery.

I would say pretty healthy if you go easy on the salt and oil, and make the oil part of a managed diet/lifestyle.
People are so scared of oil and fat these days but you will die if you don't eat any oil or fat.

Most BIR ingredients are good for you generally: Garlic, ginger, onions, turmeric etc.

Regarding the oil olive oil (extra virgin or virgin) has too much flavour and light olive oil has lost most of the health benefits. Two other oils to consider are virgin coconut oil if you are a "believer" or this one is quite new:

http://www.glutenfreeshoponline.com/gluten-free-diets/macadamia-nut-oil/

Macadamia nut oil sounds pretty good so I'll give that a shot next.

I've put myself on a reduced sodium diet and only allow myself 3 grams of salt per day. Hard going but I'm trying to avoid blood pressure meds.

Paul

Thanks chaps,

Yes Paul I thought most of the ingredients should be good for you, so I guess one needs to think about the oil, cream, yoghurt, sugar content. I need to lose weight, so it looks like I will be looking to use as little oil as possible, and chasing smokey and deep flavours, rather than BIR  " swimming in oil " style

Also salt, but I'm already on top of that. BTW I heard a top doctor discussing salt on radio 4 recently, and he recommended that EVERYONE should aim for 3g or less a day, which is half the RDA. He says tribes who eat natural diets routinely have BP ridiculously lower than western diets, and you can't have too low a BP, so long as you are not light headed when you get up etc.

That said, my first " experiment " with BIR went off the recipe, due to lack of raw ingredients, and involved lots of cream.. quite far from the BIR but tasted nice anyway I licked the plate. That's something I like about curry -you can deviate in many different directions and still end up with something edible 

Just off up to the curry mile today, going to pick up some tinned lotus roots (trying to recreate the awesome lotus root curry I used to get from gaylords) and that Jalpur spice.


Base sauce : onion, tomato, shitloads of garlic, chunk of ginger, red pepper.. simmered for 40 minute by this stage covered..


30 mins later uncovered, water added as needed, garam masala, curry leaves, cumin powder, fresh coriander


Frying up some okra, pepper, butter beans, more garlic, tumeric, chilli, cumin seeds, curry lea ves


Forgot to blend the base, mashed the two togethr, 1/2 tin coconut milk, sugar, salt,  cream


Slop as served on Mumtaz Saffron rice with coriander and oops, more cream
[/quote]

Hi Fatduck,

I should have clarified that I don't consider curries healthy that have a lot of sugar, coconut powder and dairy products such as ghee, butter, cream, yoghurt etc in large quantities. So a korma or chicken tikka masalla would be way down my list of healthy curries.

The oil can be a problem as it is high in calories but when I cook a modestly sized curry for 2 people there is about 2 tablespoons of oil in each portion so I don't worry about that much.

Cutting back to less than 3 grams of salt is quite tricky as it is present in so many products you buy.
So far I've had to give up corned beef, ham, bacon, pies, pastries, tinned soups, virtually all ready meals (usually 2 grams+), resticted bread intake - the list goes on! I think I'll have to make my own bread as well eventually.

The good news is that my reduced salt curries still taste pretty good. I was never a fan of salty tastes anyway.

Cheers,

Paul

Ah yes, coconut.. forgot about that.. insanely heavy on the fats!! 

Staying below 3g is very doable - but puts a lot of rstrictions.

I see your experience of things to avoid. I've been down the same road.. I'm vegetarian, so it could be easier for me, but I do buy prepared stuff and that's usually loaded with salt. I've certainly had a brain freeze in Sainsburys thinking " what can I actually buy here ?? "

Bread was the shocker for me, half a gram a slice.. some sandwiches contain 3g or near enough already! Should we not be hand making unleavened bread...

Pepper or pepper and tomato soup tends to have considerably less salt I've noticed.

The oil I always use is Rice Bran oil. It's got a high smoke point, clean flavour and claims equal health benefits to olive oil. I buy it here for around $A19 in a 4L tin, I guess the equivalent of ?11.
I'm on a low sodium diet and find BIR style restaurant curries to be far too salty for me.
I find with many recipes that some tamarind paste gives a sharpness that compensates for low salt.

Many

just googled this lot from the fat chicks site

1. Eases Swelling in Joints
Turmeric, the primary ingredient in curry, is responsible for many of the dish