Topic: Lamb bhuna

[George]

Gonna give it a whirl tonight. Dead right though: spices, then meat is the order of the day...

Be sure to use lamb if you seek my result of approx 75% as good as a BIR buffet bhuna. Mix spices with some water to form a paste and fry carefully on low heat. Then add a small amount of the sauce at a time, remaining on low heat. The overall cooking time should be dragged out for as long as possible to maximise the flavour of the end result.

[Onions]

Ah! Thanks, George. Can't help but wish you happened to have said that 10" earlier... I've just got out the kitchen! Having said that, vis a vis what you were saying at the beginning of this thread, I deliberately used lamb-which of course withstands a longer cook, doesn't it. Mind you, I used pre-cooked lamb-did you too?

I'll post a pic when it's plated up, but I wish i'd thought of turning the powder into a paste: I followed the-kind of generic, I admit-bhuna in my head (probably implanted there by Mick Crawford from my earliest days on the forum!). So used the Aldi mix in place of our own spice mix, adding onions, peppers, garlic paste, other powders, chopped coriander etc, at the usual points. And, I admit, the Aldi sauce went in in three dollops, with some hot water which had "cleaned" the jar.

Pre-eating conclusions:I didn't get the caramelisation I'd usually expect to see with a normal (of course thinner) base, but on the other hand, cooking off their own spice mix at the beginning definitely smelt like the "real thing", so the sauce is looking good.

On the other hand, I grabbed the last eight of nine jars on the shelf earlier*, so I'll be doing another one-and this time I'll be following your advice there George. How long woould you suggest overall cooking time be?

(*always feel a bit bad clearing the entire shelf!)

[George]

I used pre-cooked lamb-did you too?

No, I should have stressed to use raw lamb because I'm fairly sure it's the lamb juices which provide much of the flavour in this dish.

Whereas with chicken I often think the juices from raw poultry detract from a 'curry' type flavour. I mean the use of chicken in general. I've never used it with the Aldi bhuna sauce but I did with other sauces in the range and maybe that explains why they tasted so disapppointing.

For total cooking time, maybe 30 or 45 mins, not least to make sure the raw lamb is cooked through.

[Garp]

30-45 minutes to cook lamb? Surely it will still be bleating!!!

[Peripatetic Phil]

[D]oes anyone else have problems with the Aldi site? E.G: I requested a new password half an hour ago... still waiting on the reset link  it often seems prett poor, with circular links etc. Still, mustn't grumble!

I've made two "online special" orders, and both have been very successful.  In particular, I can highly recommend the Scheppach compressor which was on offer a few weeks ago

[George]

I followed the-kind of generic, I admit-bhuna in my head (probably implanted there by Mick Crawford from my earliest days on the forum!). So used the Aldi mix in place of our own spice mix, adding onions, peppers, garlic paste, other powders, chopped coriander etc, at the usual points.

I tried adding the same extra ingredients in a further use of the Aldi sauce some time ago. To my surprise, the end result was not as good, reducing the taste down to perhaps 25% as good as a BIR bhuna buffet. Go figure! I don't know the reason. If something works by experimenting, then great. But this didn't. So I suggest sticking to the method on the jar (frying the lamb first), except for longer, slower cooking, and adding a bit of water to the ground spices, to form a paste.

[Secret Santa]

So I suggest sticking to the method on the jar (frying the lamb first), except for longer, slower cooking, and adding a bit of water to the ground spices, to form a paste.

I haven't used my first jar yet but my gut feeling would be to gently cook raw lamb in the sauce, maybe watered down a bit, until done. So 1.5 - 2 hours. I would then cook the curry as normal with spices into the oil first and then using this curry-meat-stew as the base sauce. I wouldn't fry the lamb as the spices in the sauce penetrate better, in my opinion, if just cooked raw in the sauce as if making precooked lamb. I'll do it that way in the next few days anyway except with chicken as I've got a couple of chicken legs I've got to use up and I'll report back as to the result.

[livo]

Unfortunately the Bhuna is not seen in Aldi here, or at least I've not been able to find it.  I've seen all of the others and I've actually had the Dopiaza which seems odd if it's packed with the Bhuna. Maybe it is popular and disappears from the shelf quickly.  I'll ask next time I'm in store. The website out here is useless.

[Secret Santa]

Well I made it but feeling too lazy to cook I just tipped the bhuna sauce and spices into a casserole dish with two chicken legs, gave it a good stir and cooked it covered for about 1.5 hours. So with the caveat that I didn't cook as per jar instructions or even the way I intended to cook it, the verdict is ... meh!

It was ok but really just what I expected from any jarred or tinned curry sauce. It doesn't resemble any bhuna I've ever had. I only bought it as a store cupboard item in case the Covid pandemic turned into a zombie apocalypse and it wasn't all that bad, just in no way worthy of any special praise.

[George]

Secret Santa - I could have predicted that before you almost wasted your time. This thread is about lamb bhuna. Your result sounds similar to the lacklustre results I attained using chicken with various other sauces in the same range.