Topic: CBM's chicken tikka jalfrezi

[goncalo]

So, yesterday I prepared cbm's base, red massala and marinated about 3-4 breasts using CBM's tikka recipe. So today I prepared a chicken jalfrezi, which, sadly, fled off the top of a tray and splattered all over the kitchen floor. I didn't even get to taste it and nearly lost my will to live!! :-(

I have a video of it's execution, but I don't think it's worth uploading 1.8g again.

So unhappy and starving, I decided to redo it again but as I was running out of precooked chicken, I quickly grilled some tikka pieces and embarked  towards making another jalfrezi, fixing some of the mistakes I had done during the previous execution. The video is below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppOLzTA93Xk

Some notes: as you will be able to hear and notice, not only my breathing is quite "deep", my head is just below the cellphone which causes my breathing noise to be picked up and be quite present throughout the video, so please disregard that. The curry was very good, but not my best.

[spiceyokooko]

Interesting.

Thanks for taking the time and trouble to make the video and upload it and sorry to hear you never got a chance to even taste the dish - I'd have been interested to hear what the taste was like.

A few general observations:

- I thought your addition of different ingredients was quite curious and I didn't really understand the logic behind them. Why did the methi leaves go in first, then the spice mix and salt and then the chilli powder? I'd have cooked out the spice mix, salt and chilli powder right after the g/g paste was ready. Then the methi leaves later.

- I didn't see much oil separation take place at any stage and why was the 3 ladles of base introduced at 3 different stages? I tend to add and reduce base all in one stage.

- Why the two separate additions of chopped coriander? I tend to add this right at the end once it's finished cooking and off the heat.

- I also felt each stage was too short, I'd have cooked things for longer and at a higher heat. I'd question whether the spices were cooked out correctly.

Please don't view these as criticisms, we all have different ways of doing things, I'm merely curious about how you arrived at that cooking technique and those various stages.

[goncalo]

Not a problem and thanks for the questions. I don't really have a lot of experience. I've started cooking this type of food back in November and can't say I've gotten all the technique down or repeated the processes enough times to feel confident. The only dish where I can generally reliably obtain similar results is korma, but I'll try to answer your questions one by one

- I thought your addition of different ingredients was quite curious and I didn't really understand the logic behind them. Why did the methi leaves go in first, then the spice mix and salt and then the chilli powder? I'd have cooked out the spice mix, salt and chilli powder right after the g/g paste was ready. Then the methi leaves later.

Maybe I'm misunderstood, but I thought the methi would generally be added before the tomato puree, spice mix and salt and that may be just confusion. On the first dish (the one that flew) I did happen to add methi after the spice mix, but that was because I forgot to add earlier...then again.. I didn't get to try that one.

- I didn't see much oil separation take place at any stage and why was the 3 ladles of base introduced at 3 different stages? I tend to add and reduce base all in one stage.

Interesting question with regards to the oil separation. I think you are right, but that has been something that only occasionally I have managed to do and I don't really know what causes it. I presume this is also lack of technique, so if you could elaborate more on that, I would appreciate to try it on my next attempt.

I tend to add a laddle every time the existing sauce starts to thicken up, or simply because I happened to think the ingredients had cooked enough and I want more sauce, but perhaps I'm being naive in doing so.  Again, I would like to hear more thoughts on this

- Why the two separate additions of chopped coriander? I tend to add this right at the end once it's finished cooking and off the heat.

From experience it appears that if you add coriander early on, the flavour will infuse better than at the end, however, as coriander can be overpowering if too much, I add another bit at the end which hopefully won't cook long enough to overpower the dish but still be present.

- I also felt each stage was too short, I'd have cooked things for longer and at a higher heat. I'd question whether the spices were cooked out correctly.

By spices,do you mean the birds eye chillies which I added very close to the end?

If so, I agree. I got carried away and didn't manage to get the chillies cooked properly. This was indeed a big lapse !

Thanks a lot for questioning the things I did and why I did them!

[RubyDoo]

Feel the need to comment on the adding of base all at once or in stages. I have always found it much better to add in stages as this not only gives a more intense flavour with each reduction but more importantly gives control not only over that but also consistency of the final sauce. Each 'attempt' at a recipe differs slightly whether due to my incompetence or from other reasons but at least the sauce can be tweaked in this way.

Will add, not seen vid yet.

[RubyDoo]

Flicked through the vid as things to do but must also agree. Needs much more heat. Note that when the base went in, nothing happened. This should sizzle baby. Splatter the walls. Tom paste seemed thick to me too. Agree with Spicey's other comments for the most part apart from the base all at once bit. Sorry to be brief.

[PaulP]

I don't know the reason for sure but I've seen loads of BIR chefs doing the double fresh coriander thing where they add some early on, and then add a final garnish to the finished dish.

[Peripatetic Phil]

I don't know the reason for sure but I've seen loads of BIR chefs doing the double fresh coriander thing where they add some early on, and then add a final garnish to the finished dish.

My variant of this is to add the chopped stalks a few minutes before serving, but add the chopped leaf after the dish has been removed from the heat.

** Phil.

[spiceyokooko]

Agree with Spicey's other comments for the most part apart from the base all at once bit. Sorry to be brief.

I think you may have misunderstood me, which is quite possible because I didn't make it clear what I meant. When I said reducing the base in one stage, I meant adding a ladle, reducing it, adding another, reducing it, adding another reducing it, adding the remainder and carrying on with the dish. In other words, all in one stage. I didn't mean, bung all the base in all in one go.

What I was querying with gagomes was why he added a ladle of base, more ingredients, 5 mins later another ladle etc., rather than doing all the ladle reductions in one stage.

gagomes, I will answer your comments when I get a bit more time, but regarding the oil separation, have a read of the thread in Starters and beginners questions on that topic for what I mean.

[goncalo]

Thanks guys!

Flicked through the vid as things to do but must also agree. Needs much more heat. Note that when the base went in, nothing happened. This should sizzle baby. Splatter the walls. Tom paste seemed thick to me too. Agree with Spicey's other comments for the most part apart from the base all at once bit. Sorry to be brief.

So, this is where I don't understand it quite well. I tend to pull the pan out of the flame shortly after adding the spice mix + any extra powders/mixes to avoid the burning, which can happen at this stage. I generally follow it up with a laddle of base, but as I pulled the pan out of the stove to "cool and prevent roasted spice-mix", it's quite unlikely that  the base is not gonna go all sizzly. Is there anything I might be missing here? I think I will have a look at some vids again to analyse this bit.

Thanks

[goncalo]

gagomes, I will answer your comments when I get a bit more time, but regarding the oil separation, have a read of the thread in Starters and beginners questions on that topic for what I mean.

Thanks, I'll appreciate it