Topic: Glasgow curry base sauce

[Cory Ander]

To my mind, cooking (at least repeatability in cooking) is a science and a process, not an art form.  It's all about understanding and controlling variables and reproducibility.

Artistry plays a part in recipe creation and dish presentation, but not in reproducing established recipes and procedures in a controlled manner.

That said, I respectfully ask that BB1 please confirms the size of his "chef's spoons" and whether the measures are level, rounded or heaped. 

Clearly this is significant and important (and maybe more so than batch size) in being able to successfully recreate this base.  My "chef's spoon (level) is 40ml.

Once BB1 has confirmed that, I will be happy to make and assess a full scale batch of this base and compare it with a small scale (scaled) version and others.

Until BB1 confirms the size of a chef's spoon and whether it's level, rounded or heaped, I believe that trying to reproduce it is erroneous.

PS:  I presume that this is from a Punjabi owned (rather than a Bangladeshi owned) restaurant BB1?  Either way, that's a lot for posting; looks sufficiently different to be interesting and worth trying 

Cheers,

[Martinwhynot]

CA,

We'll have to respectfully agree to disagree .  I actually kinda believe we are on the same page as I obviously have to agree that you need to keep consistency high on the list of anything you do - but there is measuring and there's MEASURING!  I'm just not visualising a BIR chef sitting thinking, "no, that's not quite a level spoon, but it is more humped than heaped", or "etc.  I think that the level of questioning, not just on this recipe but plenty of others too, is sometimes a bit challenging for the OP.  I believe a chef looks at an amount on his spoon and through experience gets a margin for acceptable error (if this didn't work they'd all be seen using a knife to scrape off excesses, etc.  I'm just trying to get people to remember that if you want 1 TBS of X you can go into a tub and pull out your spoon, look at it and think "yeah, that's fine".  I know there is a passion to get things as the chef wants it to be but there is a line!

To keep the peace, I will post no more on the matter    .....unless provoked 

[Secret Santa]

To keep the peace, I will post no more on the matter    .....unless provoked 

Happy to oblige.

We're not BIR chefs and we weren't there when the base, curries etc. were being made. That being the case it's normal practise (see any cookbook) to provide teaspoon, tablespoon or mL measures so that you can make what the recipe author intended and not some 'nearly but not quite' copy.

If you and other hippies (Phil to name but one) choose to prep your meals with buckets, ladles or shoes' worth of ingredients well bully for you, but if you want to relate anything to others about your or other's recipes how about falling in line with the way 99.99999% of the rest of the world does things. God forbid you might even drag yourselves into the 21st...nay...20th century and use the metric system too!

[Martinwhynot]

 

[DalPuri]

If you watch any videos of white guys cooking in a BIR kitchen, the chefs ALWAYS corrects the trainees dips.
"a little less, a bit more less"
"no, more. bit more, again."
They KNOW the difference between a teaspoon, half teasoon and a tablesoon.
They just know it from a pile on a large spoon.
So for the inexperienced yes, it does help to know exactly what amount of spices are going in.
In time, it becomes second nature.

ermmm, i forgot the point i was trying to make  ;D ;D

edit: They recognise the margin for error is very small. 

[adamski]

"To my mind, cooking (at least repeatability in cooking) is a science and a process"

For McDonald's this may be true, they have perfected the science of ensuring that no matter which McDonald's you visit the food will be consistent and recognisable.

Take two people give them the same recipe and if they follow it to the letter you would assume that the end result would be identical.

I think that there are many other factors that would ensure that would not be true.

There is a skill/art in cooking something that comes with experience. I work in IT and understand your view that a recipe like a computer program should produce the same result if followed correctly, but sadly there are too many variables that cannot be written down.

McDonald's however have eradicated these variables much to the detriment of taste and quality.

But a Big Mac will always taste like a Big Mac even in Glasgow 

[Cory Ander]

That said, I respectfully ask that BB1 please confirms the size of his "chef's spoons" and whether the measures are level, rounded or heaped

For anyone wishing to try this base, BB1 has confirmed (in another thread) the following measures for his "chef's spoon":

"1 LEVEL CHEF SPOON  2 TBLS
1 ROUNDED CHEF SPOON 3 TBLS
1 HEAPED CHEF SPOON   4 TBLS

My measures in my recipe are heaped"

BB1 has also confirmed that the weight of onions is, in fact, before peeling.

[Achille17]

Is the sauce cooked WITH or WITHOUT lid?

[Martinwhynot]

I was fairly quick to use this recipe and it was a dream...I did not use a lid. (If you use a pot as suggested by OP it wouldn't fit anyway - the onions have to sink down. I believe the final result was more important so you could always add water at the end if ou felt it was too thick. But not forgetting it should be as thick as thick lentil soup anyway.

[bigboaby1]

I was fairly quick to use this recipe and it was a dream...I did not use a lid. (If you use a pot as suggested by OP it wouldn't fit anyway - the onions have to sink down. I believe the final result was more important so you could always add water at the end if ou felt it was too thick. But not forgetting it should be as thick as thick lentil soup anyway.

Good stuff Martin..If too much water is added then you are in danger of going back to the Garhbi but in saying that the amount of onions that are in in it will prevent that from happening...When making a portion size water can be added then if think your sauce is too thick or adding some seasoned oil..As i've said in a number of posts the sauce loosens anyway when it hits the pan..The base sauce looks after itself don't worry about it being too thick that's normal..I know your more than happy with it Martin and thanks to yourself for getting it of the ground and to everyone else