Topic: Pre-cooking rewards and by-product.

[livo]

OK, so I've just done my first batch of pre-cooks in the Kushi style and what a huge advancement it made to my search for perfection. If you haven't yet done it, you certainly should.  The dishes I made from the pre-cooked Lamb, Chicken and Vegetables were delicious and by far much better than other pre-cooks I've tried.

The question I pose is one that I suppose is self evident really. 
What does everybody do with the left over cooking liquid?

I hate waste but yesterday I didn't have the inclination to keep any of it but 3 times I reluctantly poured these rich juices down the sinkhole.  It strikes me as being very poor management and I'm thinking that surely these spiced soups must be useful in some way.

Any thoughts?

[Invisible Mike]

Hi Livo I'm glad you've also had the Kushi "epiphany". I have also found that the pre-cooked meat means you have lots of left over sauce. I've tried adding all the sauce to the end dish and tried adding just a little with mixed results...What I tend to do nowadays is make half the recommend amount of sauce proportionate to however much meat in grams/kilos you are using and cook it slowly in an open pan until it reduces right down to a thick sauce. That way you literally have just enough juice to coat the meat which is enough to add extra flavour to the dish without adding too much liquid which dilutes the finished dish. And obviously you don't end up with all that waste.

PS. I take it you've not long been using the Kushi recipes. Do you think they get you closer to the goal than most?

[DalPuri]

Any thoughts?

Instant(ish) biryani. Just add the pre-cooked's. (Meat and/or Veg) 

[Invisible Mike]

Yep biriyani....or you could add some cooked potatoes and coriander to it to make a kind of Bombay potato...

[Sverige]

Reduce the excess cooking liquid down till it's concentrated and put it into your next batch of base as stock

[livo]

PS. I take it you've not long been using the Kushi recipes. Do you think they get you closer to the goal than most?

Yes and yes. First time using the Kushi and certainly made a huge difference.  The pleasure I had from cooking and eating was a game changer for me. Anybody who hasn't done it yet needs to straight away.

[Invisible Mike]

Yup! 

[JerryM]

i think Sverige is most likely to be right.

i've tried adding the residue to dishes and it dont work - takes me further from BIR.

ive not tried adding it to base and dont really plan to.

ive also found that "posh" methods of pre cooking whilst making the meat taste better have limited effect on the eating of the finished dish.

in short i simple pre cook in salt, turmeric and water.

i think it's as someone else said on the chemistry of cooking - the method/technique of cooking is far more important than the ingredients (with the exception of tikka).

[Invisible Mike]

I think in this case some of the sauce is key to the flavour of the overall dish. Due to the amount of garlic and ginger in it. But this is definitely in part to how it is cooked. Kushi recipes utilise the Tarka/baghaar technique which makes a big difference. I think lots of gently fried garlic is a big key to bir flavour. Hence why JBs base is so popular.

[livo]

Some interesting comments here. Next time I'll reserve the pre-cook liquids and do some experimentation with using them for different things.  I didn't add any liquids from the pre-cook into the dishes other than what was clinging to the meats, but I must say that the process made significant difference to the dishes overall.

JerryM, I've tried simpler methods of pre-cook and always been underwhelmed by them.