Topic: Pans, ladles, methods and results- 10 year curry etc

[andy2295]

Hi all,

After a late finish last night and after reading some of the posts re pans, ladles, after 8's madras problem and vinda loos 99% success with the madras i decided to do something about it.

We were due in at 8am but i caught the chef at home at 7.30. We decided that after what we had to do it would be good to try the method posted so far with differing frying pans and simulate home cooking as most of you will do.

So after knocking on my neighbours door at 7.45am hoping i would not get a brick thrown at me, i came away with 2 of his wifes frying pans. A very thin one and a thicker tefal one.
And for being a nuisance told them they could have a free meal. I am so nice on a Sunday.

Anyway work completed, experimenting began. The thin pan first. Oh dear very difficult to control. It was to easy to over-cook ingredients especially garlic which burnt too easy. Over cooked to burnt garlic turns bitter. We did not put any meat in but first madras not the best.
Anyway after 3 more attempts and adjustments to times and heat. Hey presto result perfect.

Next up the tefal pan. It only took 2 attempts to get it right and a better pan for thickness. Still not as heavy or thick as the ones we use.

So into discussion we went and came up with the following.

1. Garlic can turn your curry bitter.
2. We tried some dried methi leaves instead of fresh ones. We knew it would not be as good but by soaking twice as many dried ones in water for a good 10 minutes then draining off the water got us very close.
3. That we would recommend a pan to people and we will get one too. We will cook all of the dishes that i post first in this pan. This will also provide a better feedback for us to solve anyones problems/results.
4. I will post an updated cooking methods post, Medium curry, Madras, vindaloo, phall and bhuna based on todays findings.
5. We will continue to post ladles but add the ml equivalent as well.

Hope this will help
Andy

[King Prawn]

Andy,

You really are very kind to go to all this trouble. You should give the restaurant and takeaway a mention, they deserve the publicity after all this.

Anyway, thanks for persevering with us and hopefully when you job here is done you can relax a hero!

(There's still a few rivers to cross though  )

Regards

KP(V)

[After8]

Yeah, thanks for going to all this trouble Andy. I'm encouraged by the fact that my house really does smell like a takeaway now. Incidentally, my pan is black iron, but quite thin.

A8

[curryqueen]

   Hi Andy,  

Thanks for this post and to all of you who are helping us out here!  With regard to the pans that you use are they available to us on the forum, can we buy them in a run of the mill shop in the high street?    This might help us towards recreating the real deal!  CQ

[Chilli Prawn]

Thanks so much Andy.  I will nominate you for a sainthood or something.
CP

[Woks Up]

 :

[Curry King]

Thanks so much Andy.  I will nominate you for a sainthood or something.
CP

Come on CP, have you actualy tried any of Andys recipes and posted the feedback? 

We all appreciate Andys efforts in posting but we have only had a handful of posts from members that have tried his stuff.  It's a little soon to be handing out a cr0 knighthood  :

[Chilli Prawn]

Hey CK, it was for effort not results, but I take your point.  No I haven't, in fact I am too busy tied up with finishing off the house to get back up to speed with my own biz : :.  I will though.

[vindaloo]

Any news on the types of pans that you can recommend Andy? I'm always looking for an excuse to buy pans, knives etc!

I have several types of pans etc that I like to cook with....my favorites are these  handmade iron karahi's. The downside is they have round bottoms, although I'm going to change my hob to a 5 ring hob with a wok burner so I can use round bottom pans etc.  ;D

I aslo have a couple of thin steel woks (exactly like the ones in Pat Chapmans book) I do like these but like Andy pointed out, you do need to be careful with temperatures when in use.

[vindaloo]

Whoops :-X Thanks CP