Topic: Secret Recipe Group Test

[fried]

Another excellent report. The bar has been set high!

[Kashmiri Bob]

Crikey that Ceylon looks the business!

Rob 

[Naga]

Thanks for all the comments! I'm really looking forward to all the other reviews now.

...I must say the end result looks great but does seem to have some texture / lumpiness to the sauce. Is that just the photography as I ended up with a really smooth sauce when I did this...

Aye, RD, it was a smooth sauce right enough. I would put the apparent surface texture down to rushed photography and poor lighting.

...if I remember rightly involves the murdering pounder of numerous green cardamon seeds unless you have the powdered version to hand...

Thankfully, my pounding days are over - I have a small packet of the powder.

EDIT: I should also add that I made up about 800ml of CA's base gravy for this dish, even though my freezer is bursting full with Zaal base! Looks like a few more curry nights for me!

[DalPuri]

Damn Naga, Excellent write up! 
I thought we were only going to say a few lines each, Not give front page spreads.   
Well done!
Just Ten more reviews to go.

Cheers, Frank. 

[fried]

I finally had a hole in my schedule yesterday and decided to get on with my test recipe. I'm busy for the next couple of weekends, so it looked like the best opportunity.

I was to make CA's Chicken Dhansak - http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,3869.0.html

Now I thought I'd have all afternoon free and had planned to do it to spec as much as possible. I intended to make the spiced oil which I've never bothered with before. Unfortunately, she who must be obeyed had an errand for me to run which although short, made making the oil impossible.

I'll also mention that due to having a fridge freezer, space is limited and I made this using CT's base, as I still have some ready. Also to free up some freezer space I used pre-cooked chicken tikka.

The photos are not the best, taken with my phone in not great lighting conditions. I tried to tidy them up a bit.

I've made this recipe before but the last time I had one of those induction related cooking incidents where the cooker starts for no apparent reason and burned the bottom of the Dhansak. I haven't made it since then, I can still taste that nasty burnt odour just by thinking about it.

I made the Dhal as per Blade's recipe, without the tomato as I'd forgotten to buy one. I scaled right sown to 150g of dhal but I still used a too small pan. Luckily I was alone. The Mrs wanted you to see this photo, so you knew how she suffered.

Usual mess


The dhal was delicious, I kept eating spoons of it to taste, really moreish, lovely amount of garlic and a nice kick with the onion/ chilli mixture. Later on the Missus tasted it (she's never relly been a big fan) and agreed. She nicked the rest of it to eat in the evening.

Finished dhal


The Chicken dhansak was straightforwards to make, but I haven't made one of CAs recipes for a while and I'd forgotten how much oil is used. At one point I thought I'd over done it, but It all disappeared while cooking. It was also the first time I've used a commercial 'curry' powder, I normally just use Ca's mix powder. I can't say I noticed any great difference.

The recipe turned out really well, I had a bit too much taste, so I made a bit more up, doubled the chilli, but kept the sugar as stated. Apart from that it was to spec. This is a really good recipe (although in fact I've never tasted a BIR dhansak), lovely sweet and sour taste with the moreishness of the dhal coming through. My only misgiving is that dhal always leaves that dry sensation in the mouth. I'd prefer to make this as part of a selection of currys rather than on its own.

The other problem was my chicken tikka. Against my better judgement I'd used chicken breast and I find this is too dry after freezing/ reheating, even undercooked. Eating the rest tonight (with chips!).

Finished

[RubyDoo]

Well it sure looks ok after all that. Love the pic of the splattered pan and can relate and sympathise. Will note the comments re the the dry chicken. What stage did you add it? I have always found that the pre  cooked tikka is ok if just added only to reheat in a previously done sauce, otherwise it overcooks. I lean now towards CA principle of using raw chicken in dishes unless I want it tikka'd  and then it goes into a precooked sauce.

Well done..

[RubyDoo]

Oh -  get gas .. 

[Naga]

Excellent report and the final result looks very nice indeed! Interesting to see that 2 of the 3 test recipes reported so far come from Cory Ander.

Interesting what you say about the chicken turning out to be too dry. I've never experienced that problem with my usual - Abdul Mohed's pre-cooking method - but I was recently swayed by a general recommendation from a forum member (whose views I respect) to try IFFU's pre-cooked chicken. Maybe it was just me, but it turned out to be very dry in the curry. Pity, because I've got another 4 double portions in the freezer!

I haven't tried Blade's Dal to date, but I must give it a shot once I've finished my frozen stock.

...The Mrs wanted you to see this photo, so you knew how she suffered...Usual mess...

Like RubyDoo, I enjoyed this photo too. It gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling to see that everyone else has a splatter disaster from time to time as well! I might add that it's me who does the cooking and me who suffers when the splatter needs cleaning up! Ooooh! My hands are red raw lol!

[Peripatetic Phil]

Having found that pre-marinading in lemon juice appeared to have a very beneficial effect on preventing the chicken from going over-firm, I have made my last two curries like that but without removing the chicken from the sauce during the final reduction.  On both occasions, one from pre-cooked, one from raw, the chicken remained beautifully soft.  Whether this was the innate quality of the bird (same bird on each occasion) or the result of the lemon-juice marinade I do not yet know, but I incline towards the latter.

** Phil.

[Naga]

Just another point about cooking chicken from raw at the beginning of the dish. I generally cook the chicken first and then remove it from the pan while the spices and other stuff gets done. I only return it to the pan at the stage that pre-cooked chicken would usually be added to the pan, i.e. round about when the first base gravy gets added in.

I hadn't really considered it before, but once I cooked the chicken from raw and left it in the pan right through the veg and spice stages and I found it had over-cooked and become a little tough.

Now I do what I do when making paella and risotto etc., and that's to remove it until it's ready to go back in towards the end of the cooking time.