Topic: CBM's Garlic Meat Tikka

[goncalo]

This one didn't go so well and I'm sure it is because of my experiments and not because of this recipe itself, which I have cooked before with great success.

I followed CBM's recipe with only a few changes at the end, where I added 1 tsp ghee and 1 hpd tsp of mr. naga. Another thing I did differently, was the use of the 2nd mix powder in the book which I have never used before and due to a bit of ghee's flavour and heat overpowering the dish, it was not possible to tell how much I like it.

Possible reasons for the failure:
* Addition of mr. naga which I've not used before (and honestly couldn't tell anything out of)
* The addition of butter ghee at the end
* The mix powder #2 off of CBM's book, which I have never used before
* Too much reduction caused by the fact that I forgot to chop coriander and was doing it at the end
* Frozen tikka defrosted on microwave using Blade's recipe

My gut feeling is that  extra reduction along with butter ghee caused the dish to be quite below my expectations. It was edible, but not quite interesting. On the contrary, the looks are not quite bad, as far as I can tell   :

[StoneCut]

Looks like a german restaurant curry ... might need some totally unrelated peas in it to qualify, though

You didn't say what exactly was wrong with it but I don't think that the defrosted tikka are a problem. At most they'll become a little rubbery but taste usually remains good (at least to me).

Personally, I like my curries fairly "dry", so for me the reduction is not too heavy in the image. Not ideal but also not much of a problem unless something got burnt in the process?

I've never used Mr. Naga but have used a different chili pickle for various (non-BIR) dishes and it ruined every single dish once I put it in. So, unless you are a Mr. Naga lover I wouldn't start adding it to curries myself. If you need it hot then add some fresh chilis or chili powder instead.

Since the mix powder contains most of the spicing I personally suspect it to be the "problem". Maybe the other mix powder simply works better with the dishes in the book. It could explain why you didn't find the dish "interesting".

I don't think the Butter Ghee caused the dish to be "not quite interesting". I would actually expect either a "Yuk" or a "Yummy" regarding the butter ghee instead. Surely not a "not interesting".

[goncalo]

Oh, I figured out the annoying taste but never got back to describe it (although did a reference to it on my follow post, I think.)

The dish was OK, the consistency was a bit thick and I figured it was because initially when I cooked the base, I didn't water it down enough (though I thought I had, but apparently after taking it out of the fridge, it felt even thicker). The thing that tainted the flavour was not ghee, it was the mr naga pickle. I don't think I will use it again, to be quite honest.

One question I've been meaning to ask, but didn't thought was worth a thread, is whether you guys melt the ghee and keep it liquidy in the tin or leave it in the solid form? mine's solid, but I've bought it before  melted already.