Oil & Spice Frying trials

[Unclebuck]

Jerry, my wife would rip my b***s off if I made that much mess 
-- Josh

;D  LOL  ;D

[JerryM]

Why do you say the chef's spoon is a must?

the initial reason was to stop my arms/hands getting burnt. when cooking with my new stove with a thinner base i get a lot more evaporation and splashes that go along with it. hence the mess - i have to clean it up myself so good lady is happy providing i mop the floor as well. what a skivie for the cause.

having use the "big" spoon i felt it was naturally changing the way i cook ie the Malik's way in that i was sort of sloshing about to mix the sauce and then scrap the rim (what i'd sloshed).

i had it on my mind that the scraping was caramalisation causing the sort of smoky taste i find in a real BIR. from what Secret Santa has seen then it must be something else or i'm imagining a difference - i need to cook a bit more to be sure myself - hence the request for a sanity check from others.

[joshallen2k]

Thanks Jerry.

I've looked for something here called a "chef's spoon" but haven't found anything. The closest to what I saw in your pic (and other pics in the past) is a serving ladle.

Anyone have an internet link to a "chef's spoon"?

-- Josh

[Unclebuck]

I've looked for something here called a "chef's spoon" but haven't found anything. The closest to what I saw in your pic (and other pics in the past) is a serving ladle.

same thing

http://www.nevilleuk.com/product_list.asp?p_subcategory=KU18

[JerryM]

Josh,

those are they in UB's link. i went for the longest i could get (around 16").

[chowie]

Yeah I bought a chef spoon around 5 weeks ago and love it, I can't really explain why it just feels better when cooking.

[Bobby Bhuna]

i went for the longest i could get (around 16").

;D I'll bet you did...

[Bobby Bhuna]

love it, I can't really explain why it just feels better

;D 16" is very long!

[JerryM]

have revisited this. the question on my mind was: does hot fry spice in oil produce better result than hot fry spice in free water.

the answer is that they produce the same result. the hot fry in oil is far quicker.

any thoughts or ideas for further experiment appreciated.

these were the detail conclusions:
Conclusions
1) use spoon side to fry spice in oil. Use flat for rest of fry
2) fry spices in oil until foaming stops typ 15 sec then quench watered Tom puree (adopted 11 secs)
2a) typ 20 sec toffee smell "almost burn"
3) quench fry off 1 chef base is good enough. If more Caramelisation needed Additional 2nd and 3rd fry off do help
4) no difference between hot fry spice in oil c/w base and or puree
5) ingredient proportions have far greater impact than fry method
6) toffee smell occurs after the spice aroma has gone and just before burn
7) black mustard seeds big no no - crunchy and bitter. Black cumin possibly ok but not a step improvement
8 ) water : puree of 3:1 makes 4 and 1 chef if use unit tbsp
9) passata worked better than blended tin toms

reference points:
1) chef at Zaman restaurant end point frying spices  "when nice smell is coming"
2) take "singe" as fry spices until they start to stick to the bottom of the pan. not sure where i got this from