Topic: how do you go about preparing several curries at once?

[goncalo]

I get extremely nervous/stressed when I start cooking. I Just get that nervousness of "this all needs to be done, fast, make no mistake" and on top of that, I tend to always forget something in the heat of the moment or simply just change the order of things (which sometimes is not so much of a problem.)

With that said, I have a big friend of mine coming over to visit my new house and I'm tasked to make a jalfrezi/garlic chili and a ctm.

As I can't cook more than a curry at the same time, I plan on buying some foil containers and once I finish the first portion of jalfrezi, I'll be putting it into the container and shove it into the oven, pre-heated but not turned on (or gas mark 1, in case I forget to pre-heat it in advance.) and so on for the next

What are some tricks that help you prepare "large" quantities of food quickly and as hassle-free as possible?

[RubyDoo]

I get extremely nervous/stressed when I start cooking. I Just get that nervousness of "this all needs to be done, fast, make no mistake" and on top of that, I tend to always forget something in the heat of the moment or simply just change the order of things (which sometimes is not so much of a problem.)

With that said, I have a big friend of mine coming over to visit my new house and I'm tasked to make a jalfrezi/garlic chili and a ctm.

As I can't cook more than a curry at the same time, I plan on buying some foil containers and once I finish the first portion of jalfrezi, I'll be putting it into the container and shove it into the oven, pre-heated but not turned on (or gas mark 1, in case I forget to pre-heat it in advance.) and so on for the next

What are some tricks that help you prepare "large" quantities of food quickly and as hassle-free as possible?

 Normally cook for 4 or 6 on Saturday night and will do 2 or 3 different main courses with pilau rice and normally onion bhaji, mushroom bhaji, sheek kebabs, mint sauce and pappadums etc. oh and chappatis.

Main dishes I do 2 portions at a time in my Sonex 4 pan then put in serving bowls. I do this in the morning. Pre prepared.
All kebabs and rice are pre cooked, the kebabs defrosted over night and the rice during the day.

Come dinner
Main courses get 4 or 5 minutes on high in micro then into the oven with a plate on top because the temp is set at 200c to reheat the onion bhajis and sheek kebabs for 10 mins. The plate seems to stop them cooking too much more and bubbling. Stay nice and hot though.
Rice gets 3 mins or so on high in microwave then straight onto hot steel serving platters and into bottom of oven which now gets turned off.
Just time now to give the pre cooked chappatis 30 seconds three at a time in the microwave.

Voila, open the beer. Simples.  .

[meggeth]

I prepare all the veggies, then put the veg for each dish separately. Then measure out the g/g paste, tomato dilute for each dish and put each in its own small pot. Then measure out spices for each dish, and put each in its own small pot. Then line each group of items for each particular dish, in order of cooking, eg, onions/peppers, spices, tomato dilute, meat, any other items. So, for example, cooking 3 separate curries ends up with 3 "production lines" of all items, in order of cooking. Then cook like a madman, and makes lots of mess! 

Still get stressed though.      But the wine helps!   

[goncalo]

Cool tips there! I hadn't considered the pilau rice, so now it's another headache!! haha

[fried]

If I'm cooking a few up for mates, I'll make them in the afternoon and leave them in saucepans with the lid on. Then simply reheat and add a bit more base as needed. Tastes better after it's stood for a bit, too.

[Unclefrank]

I do mine along the same lines has meggeth, i wouldn't recommend leaving your curries in those stainless steel sonex pans or any other pan like them, they can leave a metallic taste to the curry if left overnight.

If you do plan on cooking for a few people then you could always try one of these
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,6207.msg61828.html#msg61828

This thing really is so helpful to have.

[fried]

I had a nasty experience once leaving curry in an iron wok overnight....

[goncalo]

Interesting. Thanks for your additions and tips!  I think the production line is in order for tonight.

Strangely, I've been using a pressure cooker for the base and I never take the base out of it for its lifetime (granted I don't actually go through one entire stockpot of base as I end up throwing away a few ladles of it at the end, before the 3rd day in the fridge)  and I've never experienced any metallic taste in my base or curries. Though, you referred to "stainless steel" and wok (which I assume is tefal coated?)

[goncalo]

So it went better than expected. I made CTM and a medium-mild tikka jalfrezi and pilau rice using a different method to cook the rice which is probably going to be my favorite from now on. I managed to keep calm and though I nearly lost it when I realized that I hadn't added the tomatos to the taz base by the time I was blending it, I decided to still add the tomatoes at that stage and cook them for about 10mins and finish the blending then. The results were quite good.

[RubyDoo]

So it went better than expected. I made CTM and a medium-mild tikka jalfrezi and pilau rice using a different method to cook the rice which is probably going to be my favorite from now on. I managed to keep calm and though I nearly lost it when I realized that I hadn't added the tomatos to the taz base by the time I was blending it, I decided to still add the tomatoes at that stage and cook them for about 10mins and finish the blending then. The results were quite good.

Gagomes. Glad it went well. Bit confused though. Are you saying you made the base as well? If so you are really adding to the pressure unnecessarily. Best prep the base in advance and have it hot in a separate pan ready to use. Rice is, arguably, better when allowed to cool then reheated. Did you use Phil's microwave mrthod? method