Topic: New Cooker

[haldi]

Ok, I know I am a bit obsessive about curry and "the  taste"
I thought, if I don't do something fairly extreme, then I will never get what I want.
So I bought a second hand indian restaurant hob.
I got it converted to propane and the burners are really really hot
I can't work out the "btu" output but it seems to be a problem to not burn things
I imagined that getting the perfect curry would be really straight forward now.
After all, I've seen the base made and loads of curries cooked too.
What can I say?
It just hasn't made that much of a difference
Everything is too spiced and thick
In fact I think the old "at home recipes" are no longer suitable
I'm seeing a few chefs for some advice
Something is wrong somewhere
Maybe it's the spice mix
Who would have thought this was so hard to do?

[Cory Ander]

 ;D ;D ;D ;D

I take my (chefs?) hat off to you Haldi!  You're a legend!  Pukka tandoor....pukka cooker......you just need the restaurant walls, soft Indain music (if there is such a thing  ) and someone to peel, chop and wash and wipe up now.....and you're sorted!  ;D ;D

[Yousef]

Ultimate respect to you Haldi ,

You have been with us since the beginning and you have a true passion for this.  Now i can not wait to find out what you learn from the Chefs about the cooking process.

Are you saying the base is to thick to start with or that the end result is that it thickens up?
Stew

[haldi]

It's a totally new ball game
Everything in the pan evaporates really quickly
The spices,tomato puree and the base
It's very hard to know when to stop adding the base
I usually add it when the curry is drying up
The curry easily ends up with far too strong a flavour
I think the base needs to be very underspiced for it to work
I am taking a sample of my base and a vindaloo sauce to a chef today.
I hope he can put me straight
I don't think my old recipes will work

[Secret Santa]

Hi Haldi, if you've now got a pro cooker you need to adjust your base to suit. I suggest you double the amount of water in whatever base sauce recipe you are using, that way it doesn't evaporate a soon as it hits the pan and you can leave it on full heat bubbling away until it gets to the consitency you require - just like the restaurants do.

[Cory Ander]

I agree...even with my 3-ring gas burner (narf  ) I find that I have to use much runnier everything (i.e. curry base, garlic puree, ginger puree and tomato puree) to control things adequately and not burn the crap out of it 

[Secret Santa]

I think it might even be appropriate to make a spice paste up too instead of using dry spices. It always amazes me when I read some recipes that suggest adding dry powdered spices to unadulterated oil that's near its smoking point. The damn spices are going to burn virtually the instant they hit the pan, you don't need a degree in physics to know that. There's only three ways to prevent burnt spices (and even then you have to be careful):
1) make them into a paste as suggested
2) add them to oil which is at a low temperature
3) add them after some fluid has already been added to the pan (this can be in many forms, e.g. onion, garlic/ginger puree, masala paste etc.)

[Cory Ander]

Damn it!  I forgot to mention that!  I happen to agree with that again! (damn it!  ).....I invariably make a mix of powdered spices up in water to avoid burning them....even on a domestic cooker.... ;D

So much for my degree in Physics then!   :

....though BIRs don't do so of course 

[Jeera]

Haldi, you are seriously unhinged.... brilliant

Some BIRs I've seen don't appear to use spice powder directly. I believe these spices are in a batch of red sauce/paste that they add during cooking of the final dish - any maybe only used for some dishes.

I'm going to try making a final BIR with no ground spices at all and see how this works out.

[Secret Santa]

I'm going to try making a final BIR with no ground spices at all and see how this works out.

I know that some BIRs use masala pastes but I can't imagine them using no dried spices or there wouldn't be much variation in the curries.

There are some places that definitely use a red masala that not surpriisingly goes into masala curries, and some use a white/yellow paste for the kormas and pasandas and such, but I doubt that there are any that use only pastes. Or are there?