Topic: Recent visit to my local BIRs kitchen

[Mark J]

Just had a really interesting night at my local BIR, as a one off for the regulars and to raise money they did a race night which was good fun with a buffet of various dishes, at the end of the night one of the owners invited me into the kitchen for a natter and a look around.

I quized him on pastes added at the end of the final dish cooking and he said generally they dont but do in some dishes like rogan josh, I have already asked him about preparing tomato paste and they do fry it with garlic much as CP described.

He knows about cr0 and is thinking of doing a cooking course for us, this place has the taste so it maybe worthwhile if we can get enough of us to commit.

I saw a pasanda being cooked whilst I was in the kitchen and something amazed me, they had 3 x ~3 inch long casia sticks cooking in a single portion!, I saw the chef fish them out and asked him if that was a dish for staff but he said no it was for a customer.

I stuck my hand in their tandoor as well and lost all the hair on my hand, bloody hot those restaurant tandoors!

Amongst the ingredients at the side of the cooker i saw 2 tubs of goo, one was masala red sauce and the other was a pale gold. I asked him if this was the creamy nut base for pasanda, korma etc and he said yes.

He had 1 tub of ginger/garlic paste and 1 tub of just garlic paste, he also said they used the garlic flakes you can buy in the asian grocers but only for certain dishes like lamb garlic, tarka dhall etc

The pre fried onions had red bits in, I guess that was tomato.


He made a big thing about the 'stock' being the secret to any indian restaurant, I told him we had loads of different recipes for it and asked him for a sample which he gave me. It looks quite brown but on tasting it is very bland, there is the hint of spice and maybe a hint of carrot in it. Compared to our bases I would say it is more bland, more salty and a little sweet.

I cooked with this base and did a vindaloo with basaar mix, unfortunately I got the proportion of base and spice wrong and made a pigs ear of it, ah well (unfamiliar recipe)

[Jeera]

Great post Mark.

Did they have dry spices (turmeric, corriander etc) near the cooking area and did you see them adding these dry spices to the final dish ?

Could I suggest you try Jaspers base  -  use fresh turmeric & paprika. I've tried most bases on here and it is by far the best IMHO. I'd love to know if it is close to the base that the chef gave you.

[Mark J]

They certainly did, they had containers with spice mix, chilli powder, pre cooked onions, methi leaf, sugar, salt, pre cooked peppers and probably quite a few more I cant remember

[Chilli Prawn]

Excellent post Mark and lets hope they come up with the goods.

Quote...... cooked with this base and did a vindaloo with basaar mix, unfortunately I got the proportion of base and spice wrong and made a pigs ear of it, ah well (unfamiliar recipe)...........  Would that be a pigs ear vindaloo then.... new to me also ;D ;D ;D

[merrybaker]

Very interesting post, Mark.  I know this sounds off the wall, but maybe they put onion skins in the broth to give it that brown color. 

[Yellow Fingers]

Mark, was there any hint of the taste and smell in the base alone?

[Mark J]

YF: I dont think so, maybe a hint but nothing compared to the taste and smell you get from a main dish from this place

You can smell this restaurant around the town in a 300 yard radius

[Cory Ander]

He made a big thing about the 'stock' being the secret to any indian restaurant

Thanks for this MarkJ,

When he refers to it as "stock", do you think he's referring to what we call "curry base", or do you think he is inferring that there actually is some sort of stock (in it?) too?

Regards,

[George]

You can smell this restaurant around the town in a 300 yard radius

I wonder if they would let you visit the kitchen from the tme they open one day. Presumably, at that time, there is virtually no smell. Then they start undertaking various tasks and at some point the smell starts to build up. You may then be able to ascertain where the smell is coming from.

I've noticed 'that smell' coming from BIRs at least one or two hours before they open in the evening.

Regards
George

[After8]

They seem to have 2 smells - the savoury one before opening, then it all goes Smokey when the punters turn up!

A8