Topic: Syed dry-fried mix powder

[Peripatetic Phil]

I think you were thinking of this, NO:

METHOD
Put the oil, tomato puree and pepper / onion in a pan and on the heat.
When the contents of the pan are frying briskly, add the spices, and mix well with the oil. You can give the pan a good shake, stir with the spoon, or a combination of the two, it dosen't matter, as long as everything is well mixed.
The spices will fizzle and foam - this shows they are cooking properly.
The hotter the oil, the more they will foam and the quicker they will cook. [ Forget about smoking hot oil - yes it will work, but timing is crucial.] After a while, the sizzling will start to die down.  This indicates that the spices are cooked, and the process must be stopped NOW, but ideally just before this point. With practice, it is not difficult to judge the right moment.
[While all of this is going on, anyone downwind of your kitchen will be getting the full benefit of the Indian Restaurant Smell. What a shame that this is wasted on those in the kitchen.]

** Phil.

[noble ox]

Yes Phil

[Secret Santa]

However, this dry roasting of the powdered spices is a revelation for me and I just had to give feedback 

The revelation is only a consequence of you having been doing it wrong previously all those years by adding your spices to liquid and therefore missing the benefit of extracting the natural oils as effectively as by adding to hot oil or by this new proxy method of heating the spices separately beforehand.

[livo]

Care to give feedback on your attempt at the fried curry powder Phil?  I haven't had a chance to try yet.

[romain]

Romain, after 45 years of trying every method I have certainly used your approach many times also with success. However, I can cook up to 20 individual curries in one day and I prefer the small amount of liquid before dried spices as its less prone for error and everyone who eats my curries has no complaints whatsoever. This "new" method of dry roasting first helps me to maintain the safer approach but elevates the final outcome in my opinion. I can easily use your method of blooming the dried spices in oil first when I cook for myself and/or my wife so I will do a head to head at the weekend and post the flavour results.

Hugoboss, peace. I meant no offence.

I would expect the dry roasting would get you part of the way there so long as the toasted spices are used immediately. I am just curious how close it comes to a blooming spices in oil approach. Looking forward to your results. Thank you for offering to do this.

[Hugoboss]

Romain, after 45 years of trying every method I have certainly used your approach many times also with success. However, I can cook up to 20 individual curries in one day and I prefer the small amount of liquid before dried spices as its less prone for error and everyone who eats my curries has no complaints whatsoever. This "new" method of dry roasting first helps me to maintain the safer approach but elevates the final outcome in my opinion. I can easily use your method of blooming the dried spices in oil first when I cook for myself and/or my wife so I will do a head to head at the weekend and post the flavour results.

Hugoboss, peace. I meant no offence.

I would expect the dry roasting would get you part of the way there so long as the toasted spices are used immediately. I am just curious how close it comes to a blooming spices in oil approach. Looking forward to your results. Thank you for offering to do this.

No offence taken from you whatosoever Romain although other commentators seem to think that the 12000+ curries I have prepared for satisfied  and repeat customers over the past 3 years were all cooked "wrong". Cant wait to get them right and earn even more money 

[livo]

I would expect the dry roasting would get you part of the way there so long as the toasted spices are used immediately.

Maybe not.  Chef Syed says these toasted spices last, "These spice powders will last long, the same as normal powders. "

I am just curious how close it comes to a blooming spices in oil approach. Looking forward to your results. Thank you for offering to do this.

That would be the test.

We can't discount this as being wrong. He's been doing it for quite a while apparently.  According to Indian Spices 101 there is no "rule of thumb" regarding how to cook, use or blend spices.  It's a free for all and anybody can do whatever they like and whatever works in the application.

[Peripatetic Phil]

Care to give feedback on your attempt at the fried curry powder Phil?  I haven't had a chance to try yet.

Well, it went off very well indeed.  I used a brand-new Ernesto ILAG-coated 28cm pan, nothing stuck, everything smoked nicely without burning, but as the resulting vindaloo was a disaster I am not in a position to say to what extent it improves the flavour.  I also need to ask Syed to clarify his "one curry spoon = six tablespoons" equation.

** Phil.

[livo]

Phil, you can see from the video that his 1 curry spoon (ie; Chef's spoon) is well rounded if not close to heaping, but it doesn't matter at all how much it holds. The exact amount is not critical, but we get the approximate ratio being 2 : 1 : 1 for Turmeric : Coriander: Cumin and then a small amount each of the minors, being Garam Masala and RCP or Paprika (approximately 36 : 1 for Turmeric : each minor).  It doesn't need to be measured to the grain. 

We don't really need to go down the how many tablespoons in a Chef's spoon path again.  I have 3 Chef's spoons and they each hold a different volume of water.  The UK / Canadian TBSP (15 ml) is different to the US TBSP (14.8 ml or 0.5 Fl oz) is different to the Australian TBSP 20 ml etc etc.  It doesn't matter a bit. The volume is not relevant.  It is the ratios and they aren't critical.

The Tablespoon units is probably just to make the whole presentation more fuss proof for the pedantic punters of the world. He's probably watched Latif's videos and seen the flack he copped from being a bit loose with the measurement side of things using serving bowls to measure cups. 

[Peripatetic Phil]

Well, too late, I have asked Syed the question on Youtube.  But you will, I think, agree that 18:1 and 36:1 are rather different, and might have some impact on the flavour/balance/etc.

Syed replied :

Yes you are right. It should be 6 tbsp all together. 1 chefspoon equivalent to 3 tbsp. To be honest we don't use tbsp in restaurants, we always use chefspoon on everything, because of the large quantity.  that's why the mistakes happened.  I will fix it soon. Also i will put the written recipe soon on description.