Just had a demonstration by the chef at my local restaurant

[George]

Further to my previous posting, here are details of the training course:

http://www.tvu.ac.uk/courses/Course_details.jsp?course=650

It says one year, part time days. It sounds a doddle, especially if one is after practical knowledge, rather than to pick up a piece of paper with 'NVQ level 2 pass' written on it.

[Mark J]

Im going to enquire if we can do it online or get the course materials, Ill let you know

[Mark J]

I was told it cant be done online nor can you buy the course materials.

[George]

I'm waiting for the prospectus to arrive by Royal Mail. Pity they couldn't send outline details of course hours and fees by e-mail. They must wonder why there's a sudden surge of interest!

[George]

I have just received the prospectus for the course mentioned above. It's a 'year' (September-June presumably) of attendance on Mondays only from 10am - 2pm. It's free for UK and EU students 16-19 years of age, and ?450 for UK and EU students aged 19 or over. All ingredients are supplied, which sounds good. They mention 'traditional food preparation'. My guess is that the course would teach a lot about cooking fine quality food, like if you have a great curry in a hotel, but I wonder if they even touch on curry house techniques.

[thomashenry]

Ok, tongiht I cooked the Balti, as described by Mark in the first post of the thread. The gravy used was Dhillon gravy. My impressions:

- Generous portion!
- Looks the *business*
- Texture/consistency spot on
- Taste: I think I over did it a bit on flavourings. It was over spiced. I shall try again tomorrow, and halve the amount of Pataks, redue the amount of salt, and reduce the amount of Curry power used. Maybe I heaped my teaspoons a bit too much!

I like very much the onion/tomato technique to get the dish going. I'm gonna stick with this methodology for a few nights, and try varying the spices a bit to see what I can get.

[Blondie]

Hi thomashenry,

I find that over spicing is a frequent problem.  After I have produced a dish from whatever recipe, I often have to adjust the taste to suit my taste or adjust towards BIR and inevitably the dish ends up over spiced.  As you say the best approach is to redo the dish but use a smaller quantity of the suggested ingredients or omitt / add some to get closer to the required taste.

This does emphasise that as much as we love our BIRs, when it comes down to it they do not have a very strong taste and this delicate / froogle spicing may be why we struggle to achieve perfection.

Anyway, keep up the good work,

cheers thomashenry,

Blondie

[Mark J]

On reflection Im not sure that the balti did have curry powder added as well as Pataks, I cooked it recently and just used pataks and it was great.

[thomashenry]

Ok, just had another attempt.

Followed the Balti recipie, but omitted the pataks, used a heaped teaspoon of curry blend instead (equal parts paprika, turmeric, Rajah curry power, cumin and coriander). Blown away! That meal *had* the taste, no doubt about it. If I were a resturanter, I spose I;d be selling it as a Bhuna. To recap then:

Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in yuor pan. Squirt in a teaspoon or so of garlic puree, spread and stir. After 20 secs, add in a ladle of pre fried, finely chopped onions, and a lug of blended tomatoes. Fry for 30 seconds. Add a ladle of Dhillon base, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, heaped teaspoon of spice mix, heaped teaspoon of dried fenugreek leaves, 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar, and a teaspoon of chilli powder. Also, half a chopped tomato, and I also put in a choopped green chilli. Mixed it all round, then added the meat and aladle of pre fried onion and green pepper chunks. Fried for 30 sseconds or so, then added a good handful of chopped coriander. 20 seconds later I added two further ladles of Dhillon base, and simmered for a few more minutes. Added a another generous pinch of coriander, stirred through, transferred to servinf dish. sprinked with more coriander.

It was magic. It felt like every ingredient was doing a job, and contributing to the flavour.

The pre fried onions are obviously important, as they lend a natural sweetness other wise missing. The fenugreek adds body in a subtle way - the kind of thing that you notice in its absence. The stregnth of spicing was spot on, and the heat was just right for a medium dish.

It looked fantastic, and smelt great too.

One thing I advise is to use a nice looking Balti serving dish, and to leave it a few minutes after cooking, to allow it to cool a bit - when it is piping hot, you can taste as much.

As you can probably tell, I'm rather excited. Big thanks to MarkJ for posting his observations! For the first time ever, I got 'the taste'. Now I need to be able to repeat it.

[Mark J]

Excellent! I serve it in sizzling cast iron balti dishes