Topic: Our recent lesson

[natterjak]

So JB was the guy with the notebook and I'm hoping he got some details down, but from my recollection here are some of the distinctive features of the Zaman cuisine:

- Extensive use of spiced oil, starting each main dish
- spiced oil is made by adding extra oil when pre cooking chicken and is spooned off at the end
- they use whole spices in their base, definately white and black cumin and fennel, not sure which others (JB?)
- creamed coconut block is added to their base
- they precook their chicken for around 45 mins and add some of the chicken gravy when adding chunks of chicken. Lamb is precooked around 90 mins to make it tender.
- they start each dish with fine julienne strips of fresh garlic and ginger (not G&G paste)
- their (uncooked) red masala sauce is added to nearly everything,in varying proportions from a tsp full up to nearly a chef's spoon depending on which dish, I thought I had this on video but on reviewing the footage don't have the ingredients, maybe JB does?
- they make frequent use of precooked chopped onions (what chewy has in the past called service onions) which have been fried with spices including mustard seeds
- on tasting their base sauce I found it surprisingly spicey compared to what I'm used to, doubtless due to the whole spices
- they make their pilau rice with milk, topped up with water
- The bhuna cooked by the head chef blew my socks off with the depth of flavour it had! Not hot, but spicey and gorgeous.

[curryhell]

And the head chef's CTM was delicious.  I would actually order a portion and enjoy it.  It's nothing like the sweet sickly stodge that is traditionally served up and enjoyed by the CTM fans . Just as many calories but so much flavour and depth
Not sure what JB's notes will reveal about the masala sauce but it contains blended plumb tomatoes, chillis and coriander amongst a couple of other ingredients that escape me  :

[Malc.]

If it doesn't contain tomato, I would be very interested to learn of the recipe for it.

Sorry Axe, but this, in the form of blended plumb tomatoes, went in the tarka and was then added.

Thanks CH, oh well, no worries, still looking forward to reading about your exploits.

[Secret Santa]

- Extensive use of spiced oil, starting each dish (including the veg curry!)
- spiced oil is made by adding extra oil when pre cooking chicken and is spooned off at the end
- they precook their chicken for around 45 mins and add some of the chicken gravy when adding chunks of chicken. Lamb is precooked around 90 mins to make it tender.

That's exactly how I've been cooking my curries for some time now and it's definitely part of the 'secret'.

- The bhuna cooked by the head chef blew my socks off with the depth of flavour it had! Not hot, but spicey and gorgeous.

I'm really looking forward to the recipe for that - do you have it? 

[Stephen Lindsay]

Leading from the front gentlemen - great post!

[ELW]

Leading from the front gentlemen - great post!

No Question SL, these few guys are blazing a trail. We should try & credit them somehow down the line. Panpot(spiced oil) /Zaal/BB1 have solved this puzzle for me.

[jb]

Like I said there was so much going on at once,I wanted to try and accurately record what was going on as well as trying to observe the chef's technique,he did make it look so easy.

A couple of things Natterjack mentioned caught my attention as well.The chef made a lot of use of strips of garlic and ginger to start his dishes,they looked like they were stored in water.He didn't really use much ginger/garlic paste,I guess it's just his way of doing it.

The whole spices he put into the base consisted of black and white cumin,ajowan seeds,fennel,black mustard and cloves.

He cooked a large portion of pilau rice(which was absolutely spot on),he used the usual array of whole spices but he cooked the rice in a mixture of milk and water.The Undercover Curry book mentions this method and I more or less dismissed it but here was an actual BIR chef doing it this way.

The bhuna was of the dishes I wanted to see being cooked.The chef actually cooked one in front of us for a customer and then Chris cooked one with the chef's guidance.I'm afraid to say I can't say there was any special ingredient or technique that went into them,they both certainly had a great depth of flavour(we actually got to taste a few dishes that the chef was cooking for the afternoon's paying customers as well).It was just a case of the usual method/ingredients and a highly skilled chef.However,what I'm certain of now is the fact that the spiced oil thing definitely plays a major part.Not only did he start the dish of with some but I'm sure he added a touch more halfway through cooking.

The chef actually had a pre made massala paste that he used for tikka massala dishes,it looked at lot like the one we made on the Zaal lesson.The other 'massala' sauce was indeed an uncooked tomato based sauce.Quite runny in texture,from memory the chef said it consisted of blended tomatoes,corriander and his home-made garam massala.

[Secret Santa]

The whole spices he put into the base consisted of black and white cumin,ajowan seeds,fennel,black mustard and cloves.

So the two pictures at the start of the thread, one is the GM and the other is?

[gazman1976]

- Extensive use of spiced oil, starting each dish (including the veg curry!)
- spiced oil is made by adding extra oil when pre cooking chicken and is spooned off at the end
- they precook their chicken for around 45 mins and add some of the chicken gravy when adding chunks of chicken. Lamb is precooked around 90 mins to make it tender.

Hi guys and gals, i was on the other site as i am interested in the Glasgow curries, below is the link for the recipe for pre-cooking chicken, i tried this last night and its fantastic, really flavoursome and very tender chicken indeed. I made the glasgow base 3.5kg version to spec and made the glasgow madras. I have found my curry nirvana, true glasgow BIR. Also tried the Glasgow Korma for the kids and the wife said the same. Exactly like our favourite takeaway. Going to save a fortune now lol

http://www.secretcurryrecipes.com/curryforum/showthread.php?7101-Glasgow-pre-cooked-chicken&s=7a5e1bf7c79d9222a621df8192001e6a

Garry

[jb]

The whole spices he put into the base consisted of black and white cumin,ajowan seeds,fennel,black mustard and cloves.

So the two pictures at the start of the thread, one is the GM and the other is?

Both pictures are for the garam massala,can't give you quantities though as he didn't give us any.