Topic: What would you do if, you held the secret to BIR?

[Kashmiri Bob]

The curry recipe contains lots of beef dripping, curry powder, and onions  Could make a nice thick curry if I remember correctly; it was just the raisins that spoiled it.

That reminds me of the Vesta beef curry I used to eat (and love) as a kid. I saw a packet in LIDL when I was in there the other day...I was sorely tempted.  ;D

Yes, that'll be the one.  The recipe also states, arrange the rice in a circle on the plate and put the curry sauce in the middle.  Those were the days!

Rob 

[dammag]

I thought the burger part was just mass produced in a factory somewhere, boxed, then distributed to the various outlets, and heated up by someone exploited on minimum wage.

Exploited is the word. McDonalds use zero-hour contracts where they call their staff in at their whim. One month you might get a couple of hours work another month sixteen! How are you supposed to make a living like that. Add to that that they use forced labour from the dole office because the job seekers have to work for free or lose their dole money. They're a f*****g disgrace and anyone who eats there deserves the deliciously toxic nag-meat they've been tucking into recently for supporting this abomination!

The chef in the local Aussie Indian Restaurant that I was eating at in the last couple of years was "sponsored" for his visa by the owner. All he had to do was work 6 and a half days a week. If you want to talk exploitation this is it. He is a great cook but is now driving a taxi. One day he just didn't come into to the restaurant.

[curryhell]

I'd start conspiracy theory thread and then p!ss off everyone who dared to disagree with me!

Oh, wait a minute...that's already been done... 

 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
..................................the secret is in the cucumber don't you know 

[Salvador Dhali]

Didnt Julian C2GO claim his recipes deliver the secret to the takeaway taste? Well they didnt for me

I think it depends on when you started to eat curries as to whether you'll think the books deliver or not. If, like me and several others on the forum, you ate in the 70's and 80's they won't even come close to producing the taste and smell of that era. If you started in the 90's or later they may fit the bill.

The real test for me is always the bhuna. All of the 'secret' books give laughably poor bhunas in comparison to the rich, savoury unmistakably delicious flavour of old style bhunas. Now they think chucking a few pepper and onion chunks into the curry and cooking it to a thick consistency is a bhuna...well it ain't! 

If there is a 'secret', then I think it is simply technique and skill backed up by knowledge gained over many years of experience working in a professional kitchen environment, day in, day out. In other words, the chef is the 'secret'. 

And this is admirably demonstrated by Secret Santa's bhuna example above.

In the 80s and into the early 90s the bhuna (specifically, lamb bhuna gosht, as it was described on the menu) was my curry of choice. Rich, intense, savoury and with a depth of flavour to die for, it was the benchmark I used to determine the quality of a chef in a restaurant, and when I found a good one I stuck to them like glue.

Sadly, the last decent bhuna I had was back in the early 90s, when the head chef of my favourite local restaurant went back to Bangladesh to visit an ailing relative, and never returned.

Since then, while the food at that establishment has remained above average, the classic bhuna is, sadly, no more. In it's place is the now industry standard curry which has merely been reduced over a high heat to produce a thick, cloying sauce.

Not one of the chefs taken on by that restaurant over the years can make the dish that the old chef made. For it wasn't a secret ingredient that made that bhuna what it was - it was the man who made it.

If I could find him and get him to teach me how he did it I would die a happy man...

[natterjak]

I thought the burger part was just mass produced in a factory somewhere, boxed, then distributed to the various outlets, and heated up by someone exploited on minimum wage.

The chef in the local Aussie Indian Restaurant that I was eating at in the last couple of years was "sponsored" for his visa by the owner. All he had to do was work 6 and a half days a week. If you want to talk exploitation this is it. He is a great cook but is now driving a taxi. One day he just didn't come into to the restaurant.

To be honest I think that kind of arrangement was a standard feature of the BIR industry in the 80s and early 90s. Chefs brought over from Bangladesh & given accommodation over the restaurant and working for peanuts to pay their passage.  Tighter immigration and workplace laws have changed all that and is it any wonder the BIR flavours of yesteryear are dying out, as more shortcuts get taken to reduce the time taken to make the food.  After all, if you only needed to pay your chef

[DalPuri]

I'd like to throw an experiment out there for all those with a pressure cooker who are struggling to get "the taste"
How about doing a side by side test with the same recipe?
One cooked in the dolls house sized pan,
and the other cooked in a pressure cooker.
All the usual suspects to start then lid on after the gravy goes in.

Had a good feeling about using a pressure cooker for single curries, just haven't bought one myself yet.

Cheers, Frank. 

[Malc.]

That reminds me of the Vesta beef curry I used to eat (and love) as a kid. I saw a packet in LIDL when I was in there the other day...I was sorely tempted.  ;D

I did just that a few months back as a nostalgia thing, wish I hadn't though. I'm sure they haven't changed but I just couldn't bring myself to enjoy it. Strange as I too loved them for years.

[Naga]

...the secret is in the cucumber don't you know 

Bullseye, CH!

[Peripatetic Phil]

The chef in the local Aussie Indian Restaurant that I was eating at in the last couple of years was "sponsored" for his visa by the owner. All he had to do was work 6 and a half days a week. If you want to talk exploitation this is it.

But is it ?  The chef got his visa.  The chef got his work permit.  And the chef probably worked no longer hours than he had been working at home back in India/Pakistan/Bangladesh/wherever. The five-day week, eight-hour day is a modern Western luxury : read Jim Corbett and you will learn that both he /and/ his Indian team worked from 4am to 8pm 7 days a week, 364 days a year and moved a million tons of good a year without mechanical aids.  A 6 1/2 day week working a a restaurant kitchen would have seemed like a lifelong holiday to one of them.

** Phil.

[h4ppy-chris]

Thank you everyone for your replies.
I have had a word with the chef, he has agreed to work with me on an Ebook.

I will try to answer some of your questions now;

How will i know that i am buying the real thing?.
how do you know the chef is not holding ingredients back?.
how do you know what he is showing you is right?.

When i asked him about doing a book i was blown away by his answer.
Answer "What for? no body is going to want it" You try to figure that out.

He spent 5 hours at my house in the kitchen cooking.

First thing to make mixed powder. Nothing special went in but, the different quantities was an eye opener.

Base gravy, now this is were the magic starts. From this point on I knew something special was going to

happen in my kitchen. It's not made like any base on here, in any book i have read or video watched.

The spiced oil is made, not scraped of the top of the base gravy. The oil on its own is worth its weight

in gold.

pre cooked chicken, again the real thing. cooked and made in a way i have never come across. It is to

die for. If he had only showed me how to make this, i would be a long way down the BIR road. 

The curries, there is two main things to get right, again i have not seen anywhere.

To some it up the real BIR was achieved in my kitchen and can be in yours.
You do not need a big burner, it is not where the BIR is coming from!

anyone interested?