Topic: goncalo's BIR food diary

[spiceyokooko]

Yes, I have encountered garam masala being used in both forms, but never panch phoran, so I was interested to learn in which dishes you would advocate its use in ground form.

I don't generally use Panch Phoran or any other whole spice seed mixes but when I do the whole seeds would be fried in oil, left to cool and ground up in a pestle and mortar and used as a paste tempering for a Dal.

As you know, I don't generally hold to the opinion that this name has to mean this or that, Panch Phoran to me just means a five spice mix, what those spices are and how you use them is up to the individual to decide as and when.

This is supported by the view that you'll struggle to find two people who'll even agree on what whole spices should be in Garam Masala or Panch Phoran for that matter.

[goncalo]

I made a korma for myself tonight. I really enjoy my chicken kormas (nothing non-standard), more than the ones I used to get from the BIRs themselves and I already was a huge fan of kormas then. It's the single dish I feel the most competent with.

[Malc.]

It looks quite brown to the more blonde looking Korma I have enjoyed since the 80's. What recipe did you follow?

[chewytikka]

Just the photo Malc.
Looks a good smooth saucy Korma, I've seen a lot worse in my time.
Korma, Madras, CTM, still up there in the top ten curries sold.
I had a Makoni for a change the other night and it looked just like your Korma Gongalo.

curry on 
Chewy

[goncalo]

It looks quite brown to the more blonde looking Korma I have enjoyed since the 80's. What recipe did you follow?

Besides what chewy said, other possible reasons include: the chicken stock which was a little burned and not enough cream.

I followed my own concoction, which is itself based off of CA's/Julians recipe. I used a mixture of both creamed coconut block, coconut flower and almond powder, cooking cream and viceroy' brasserie pre-cooked chicken + SnS Saffron base. This is the kind of dish in which I taste several times throughout until I feel I am getting to the right consistency/flavor out of.

[spiceyokooko]

I made a korma for myself tonight.

Looks good to me Goncalo, I think the photo perhaps makes it look darker than it should be, but you know me, I don't care too much about the colour of things - it's what it tastes like that matters.

I rarely to never make Korma, or Chicken Tikka Masala I'm just not really into creamy mild dishes like those, I like mine with a bit of welly to them. Not searingly Phall like hot, but around Madras strength is about right for me.

But your Korma looks the business and plain boiled rice very nice as well.

I think you're knocking out some pretty decent dishes in the short time you've been here.

[Malc.]

Just the photo Malc.

Your right Mike and looks different again on my monitor here at work.

...other possible reasons include: the chicken stock which was a little burned and not enough cream.

When you say chicken stock, is this from the pre-cooked chicken?

I played around with Korma when I first started on the site. Had some fairly good results but could never quite get the right type of sweetness and thick consistency that I was use to. Korma was the only dish I had in the early years of my curry experiences. I still enjoy a good one on rare occasions but sadly, most outlets around me these days produce very thin pale dishes that are far too sweet. Funny enough, I used the Korma and the Sag Aloo as a measure of a restaurants quality.

Got any left over, it's making me hungry! 

[goncalo]

When you say chicken stock, is this from the pre-cooked chicken?

Yes, and maybe stock isn't the exact word, but it's the "debris" sticking to the chicken made up of oil/onion/whole spices. As I didn't flip the chicken enough times, a part of it was mildly darker on the bottom, but it tasted almost like toffee.

I played around with Korma when I first started on the site. Had some fairly good results but could never quite get the right type of sweetness and thick consistency that I was use to. Korma was the only dish I had in the early years of my curry experiences. I still enjoy a good one on rare occasions but sadly, most outlets around me these days produce very thin pale dishes that are far too sweet. Funny enough, I used the Korma and the Sag Aloo as a measure of a restaurants quality.

I can understand. Korma was by far the dish I longed to get right, but it only comes to prove that once you overcome something that used to feel complicated, you move on to something else. I have not yet tackled the perfect Jalfrezi, but I'm on its track.

Although this is always subjective, this korma had the perfect consistency as far as I'm concerned, which was somewhere between the texture of cream and the yogurt, closer to the former though. I presume you already been thru the recommendations of using condensed milk (carnation) ? I have a tin at home but haven't gone about trying it yet, but I think chewy claimed it to be the way to get true 80s bir korma.

I think I only liked kormas from restaurants a handful of times. They'd always be a bit too bland. I also recommend you to try adding banana slices in the last 1-2 minutes of cooking, as it adds some sort of sweetness too.

[goncalo]

I rarely to never make Korma, or Chicken Tikka Masala I'm just not really into creamy mild dishes like those, I like mine with a bit of welly to them. Not searingly Phall like hot, but around Madras strength is about right for me.

I'm not a regular creamy curry fan, but the missus is which is one of the main reasons why I make kormas at least once in every batch of base. I am more keen on jalfrezi/madras type of dishes these days, but lately I've been a little tired of my lack of progress and not being able to put my finger on what's wrong. I need to book a flight over to UK to try and talk with some TAs and re-visit the food.

[goncalo]

tl;dr: Made one of the best curries today!

Ok, so my girlfriend was studying with a friend when I arrived from work and that seemed like the perfect excuse to make a curry for all of us (not like I need any excuses, but to add some storyteller seasoning to the story) - I precooked a bunch of breasts using viceroy's method with a slight twist: I've added lemon to the chicken to help tenderize it. I don't know whether this makes the difference with the viceroy's method to precook chicken, but it's a practice I've developed from long ago, as soon as I buy some chicken, I slice the breasts (I only eat breast), rinse and then squeeze half a lemon (depending on quantity) on top and let it sit until needed. Anyways, last time this friend was around, I offered to make a curry, a chicken korma, but as I didn't have space to precook chicken on the stove top, I followed a method that chewy recommended, to precook the chicken using olive oil in the oven. I just didn't realize immediately that he meant it when using a whole chicken, in which case I would expect to have made a difference because of the chicken fats and what not and so my oven-precooked-chicken had a huge bite (i.e rubbery) to it and olive flavor, which tainted the chicken korma I made then. I had to eat it myself and regretted it.  My girlfriend's friend offered some praise on the food, but I think she was being kind. My girlfriend who isn't very picky agreed then that it wasn't the best korma she's ever had from the ones made I made so far. So today I asked her friend what the curries she used to have when she lived in UK, she said "I can't think of the names, other than korma.." so I asked, what heat level she liked and she said 3/10 and I asked whether she'd go for a bhuna, dhansak, dopiaza..etc in the hopes to find out what she used to get, she said "Uh, I can't think of the names, sorry. It was back in 86-89!" that told me 2 things, she doesn't eat a lot of indian, but that she had (judging from what I hear around this forum, not from personal experience) experienced the best time of BIR food and as such, impressing her would probably be quite hard.



As she couldn't tell me a dish name I said, I'm going cook a chicken ceylon, seeing as she likes her kormas and enjoys a bit of heat. I used stephen lindsay's fail-proof recipe, with a few small changes, namely:

1. Used ktc pure coconut oil instead of my standard veg oil, which I've ran out of while pre-cooking.
2. Used SnS Saffron' base
3. I fried some onion.
4. I used 1/2 tbsp of deggi mirch (MDH)
5. I used 1 tsp of east-end mild madras curry powder (my rahah tin ran out and I just bought this one) and 1 tsp of BE, which is my current mix spice.
6. I watered town my tom puree further and my base a little, which meant longer reduction time.

The resultant curry was mild/medium-heat, with a mild coconut and madras-esque BIR curry smell with a bit of a tangyness from the lemon, but everything in the right balance, that kinda balance that our favorite takeaways seem to nail nearly every time. If only I had added less coconut, it would taste like my favorite bhuna! On top of that, my girlfriend still had 2 portions from yesterday's korma (or 1 portion if you eat like me) and my girlfriend ran across to our local takeaway and picked up 2 peshawari naans and pilau rice.

The reaction when she started eating (she didn't wait for me or my girlfriend to be ready to eat) was "Wow", she said "This is the best curry I've ever had in Ireland, potentially one of the best I've ever had." and I could tell by the way she was eating how satisfied she was and the praise didn't stop there. She had some of yesterdays korma and she asked me if my girlfriend had bought it in the takeaway just now as by her standards it was just perfect.



For me, it was without a doubt my best curry yet and I judge myself very very heavily. I can say that, if I understand what worked right today and be able to make it repeatable, it may very well move my cooking to my end goal or close enough. I'm quite confident that the point 5 and 6 contributed highly, but viceroy's precooking method is a big winner too. The texture always comes out phenomenal and on that note, I would like to thank every single one of you for the endless amounts of help/advice and motivation as well as recipes.

cheers!