Topic: Chicken jalfrezi vs Ex hot chicken vindaloo

[Kashmiri Bob]

The quality of the video really is incredible, especially on full(1080) HD. It's quite an advert for the Sony Z1.

But youtube report that: "This video is unlisted. Be considerate and think twice before sharing."!

How good did these dishes taste? Perfectly respectable or up there with the best?

The vids are unlisted and only viewable to those you have the links, i.e. here.  I hope  I don't really want to plaster them all over the internet.  Just for peeps who have a genuine interest I suppose.  How did they taste?  Well, all very subjective.  But I thought they were all really good, under the circumstances.  Not surprising, as I rate the chef very highly.  They tasted something like what I make, again not that surprising, I use Moike's mix powder and have followed him cook many times.  He generally does somehow produce that extra "sparkle" though.  I have tasted "better" jalfrezi(s) with more depth of flavour, but I can't make better myself. The ex-hot is made pretty much exclusively for me.  I like it!  Very hot, very, very smooth.  There's a lot going on for this one.  Moike's training as a chef seems to involve much emphasis on the bagar technique.  In fact, everything involves bagar of powdered/whole spices.  The base gravy, all the pre-cooks, even most of the pastes he uses. So, the pre-cooked chicken in the ex-hot is loaded with flavour, as is pre-cooked potato (mustard seeds in particular).  I felt it was was phenomenal. I can make as good, but it takes me a lot longer to do, and I have been known to mess it up (burn it) on occasion.  Key of course is extracting the flavour from the chilli powder successfully. The Pathia?  I can't get anyway near the standard/quality of Moike's pathia.  Miles off. As good as it gets in my opinion. So a mix of perfectly respectable and up there with the best.  Hope that makes sense.  We were a bit pushed for time at the end and had to eat most luke warm, which I suppose didn't help.  I like to clean up a bit first for my own efforts, and re-heat.  Also allows time for airborne chilli powder and other aerosols to clear from the old nostrils. 

Rob     

[jb]

Excellent videos Bob,it's hard enough trying to get info out of a BIR chef so I how you persuaded him to come and cook in your own kitchen is definitely an achievement.I could watch these videos all day(my wife says great it's only some bloke cooking curry!).The dishes,especially the pathia looked lovely.

I have a couple of questions if you don't mind.Did you cook the base gravy or did the chef??  In any case was it just standard ingredients?,ie nothing went in it that doesn't go into most gravy recipes.Also what was the red sauce,I could see the bay leaves poking out,was it just a standard massala sauce??

cheers JB.

[Kashmiri Bob]

Couple of short vids of Chef Moike working in a TA.  Sony Experia Mini Pro.  Like, VHS quality. 


Ex-hot vindaloo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjSjlFnnSTM


Vindaloo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO_dw-ktFnY


Rob 


Will check on the pathia paste (red sauce in the earlier vids).  We missed most of it.  Fairly simple this one I think though.  G/G, Asian bay, cassia, (bagar), lots of undiluted tomato puree, shed loads of lemon, salt, red food colouring. Water, or possibly blended onion/green pepper. Possibly butter too.

[Kashmiri Bob]

Meanwhile, back in the home kitchen.


Bombay aloo and Vegetable bhaji

http://youtu.be/jZQB3ahQmzU


Classic BIR (Bangladeshi) potato and veg pre-cooks for these.  G/G, Asian bay, cassia, green cardamom, tomato puree, mix powder, and a little salt. Bagar. Very hot handi. With brown mustard seeds (potato) or panch phoran (veg). Doused using a mix of blended onion/green pepper/water. Not sure if chef added additional turmeric for these.  I'll check. Goncalo may have spotted it. Red spuds in Birmingham.  I think this must be a regional thing.  Sort of more fluffy outside, than inside.  Very nice.  Have to say (in my limited experience) this is good way to go for pre-cooks.  Just boiling spuds in, for example, turmeric powder, can lead to bitterness in the finished dish. 

Rob 

[fried]

Cheers Bob and Goncalo.

A couple of questions about the first vindaloo recipe:- He uses (it appears) the stock from the pre-cooked chicken in the first reduction, Is this a standard procedure,if so how much? and do you have the pre-cook recipe?

[Micky Tikka]

Great Videos Bob as jb says I could watch these all day 
I hope you made him polish your hob before he left  ;D

[Kashmiri Bob]

Excellent videos Bob,it's hard enough trying to get info out of a BIR chef so I how you persuaded him to come and cook in your own kitchen is definitely an achievement.I could watch these videos all day(my wife says great it's only some bloke cooking curry!).The dishes,especially the pathia looked lovely.

I have a couple of questions if you don't mind.Did you cook the base gravy or did the chef??  In any case was it just standard ingredients?,ie nothing went in it that doesn't go into most gravy recipes.Also what was the red sauce,I could see the bay leaves poking out,was it just a standard massala sauce??

cheers JB.

Hi JB.  I was lucky to meet Moike.  He was brought in temporarily to bail out a local TA that was struggling.  The previous chef had lost the plot and was sending out sub-standard food to customers.  I became one of the delivery drivers at the TA.  He doesn't work there any more, but we have remained friends.  He mainly works in restaurants.  Spent quite a bit of time at a well-known restaurant in Knowle amongst others. If you ever fancy getting a chef to your house you could try bribing them with cash.    Moike didn't want to take any money off us, but we insisted on him having something. It wasn't even his day off. He was picked up later in the day to go to work and wouldn't have finished until midnight.  It seemed only fair, especially as the previous day we had forked out 50 quid (each) for the Kushi cooking course, which didn't amount to much. 

Seriously though if anyone is lucky enough to find a decent chef it can be worth enquiring if they offer a home catering service.  For example, for an outside summer party.  You can hear Moike in one of the vids saying he can cook for 60 people (that would be all by himself).  Works out very reasonable I believe, perhaps 4 quid per head, and this would involve a load of food. Plus, you get to see how it's done. Coincidently, Goncalo and I went to the Adil balti house after the Kushi course. We mentioned to the owner there we had just paid 100 quid (for a couple of hours in another kitchen).  He was totally bewildered by this and immediately offered us a whole day in their kitchen, with everything they do explained (including the GM etc) in as much detail as we wanted.  Might look into this one day.  Who knows? All good fun!

For Moike's visit I made the first (boil) stage of the base the night before.  Chef was happy with my prep and finished off the main spicing/bagar.  Nothing unusual/special in the base.  Similarities to the Zaal, Mouchak, etc.  The red sauce is pathia paste, which I am checking out.

Rob 

[jb]

Thanks for the info Bob.Really suprised at the outcome of the Kushi,was expecting a lot more to come out of it as I guess you guys were.

[Garp]

Bob, is the chef's name actually Mikey and it was just goncalo's Irish accent made it sound like Moike?

(no offence intended)

[Kashmiri Bob]

Cheers Bob and Goncalo.

A couple of questions about the first vindaloo recipe:- He uses (it appears) the stock from the pre-cooked chicken in the first reduction, Is this a standard procedure,if so how much? and do you have the pre-cook recipe?

I think adding stock from the pre-cooks is pretty much a standard approach for many Bengali chefs fried.  Looks to be a good 2 chef's spoons going in, plus more when the chicken was first added.  Quite a lot, but this is a rich dish.  The stock itself is loaded with spiced oil, from the bagar.  This stock/oil adds depth of flavour (Bengali flavours) to any dish and, in this case, I think the amount used also prevents the chilli powder from burning.  You can also see the chef adding stock/spiced oil from the potato pre-cook in the Bombay aloo vid, where the spiced oil is perhaps more apparent than for the chicken.  I've got some pictures somewhere of the chef's pre-cooks made at a TA (chicken, lamb, potato) and will post them.  These show them straight from the fridge (left over from the previous night) and the spiced oil separated/pooled. 

Moike uses a very similar recipe (and bagar) as shown in the Chef Imran (Viceroy Brasserie) pre-cooked chicken video.  Moike used tomato puree at my house, but I've seen him use plum.  No star anise.  Moike fried the spices and the G/G paste at the start for longer. Another difference is that Moike uses blended onion/green pepper/water at the stage where Chef Imran just adds water.  Good video and well worth watching. This method, or similar, can/is used (with appropriate changes to the spicing and cooking duration) for pre-cooking most meats, and veg.  I stand corrected though, if any of the more experienced forum members want to add anything.

Rob 

Viceroy pre-cooked chicken:

http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,11787.msg93209.html#msg93209