Topic: Vindaloo Experiment #1 (Illustrated)

[mike travis]

Superb posts and amazing pictures. A firery red vindaloo  . well done   

[ast]

Hi AST
      Like everyone said:- Brilliant photos!
Boy, you sure like your curries hot
I like them hot, but not THAT hot!!
Thanks for the post
I put chilli sauce on nearly every meal
I use one, the other or both of these
Anyone else tried them?

Thanks Haldi.

For my curries (Indian, South African and Thai, anyway), I try and live by the "If you're not sweating, you're not eating" mantra.  Same goes for pretty much most of the other kinds of Thai food I eat--except the soups:  I like those about medium hot.

Funnily enough, I don't use hot sauce all that much.  I put it in a few dishes I make, and I'll occasionally get out the Tiger Sauce or Huy Font Sriracha "Rooster" sauce for the 2nd or 3rd round of leftover roasts of various sorts.  It's also good on fried potatoes.

I use Green and Red Tabasco sauce in my BBQ sauce and a couple of Cajun dishes I make (along with some Cayenne pepper and medium chilli powder).  I nearly always add some kind of Habanero sauce to salsa (store bought or home-made) and when I eat Mexican food out in the US (Mexican here is terrible...).  I've tried and like (in no particular order) Melinda's Extra Hot Sauce, Tropical Pepper Co's XXXXTRA Hot Habanero Sauce and El Yucateco's Chile Habanero Hot Sauce.  I'll put between 1/4 to a half a bottle into a session of salsa eating, so they don't last long!   I also have some Crystal Classic Habanero Sauce, but I haven't tried it yet.

A friend of mine used to be into hot sauces and so I've tried some of them like After Death and some of them I don't even remember.  I think a couple of them came up on the "hottest sauces" thread, but that was about 8-10 years ago now.

I've seen the one on the right, but never tried either of them.

[Secret Santa]

Lovely pics ast.

Am skimming at the moment so will read in deatail tomorrow. I dunno, your confetti-rice could become the next big thing in BIR cuisine

[Secret Santa]

My current favorite slop it on everthing suace is Maggi chilli/garlic sauce. It's utterly wimpish in the chilli department, but it's sweetish and very garlicky...mmmm!

[JerryM]

Ast, it's a brilliant post many thanks.

what garam masala mix did you use. i am trying to get one where no one spice stands out.

i to favour the KD base (but 2 tins toms and no turmeric). i think your spot on in that the missing ingredient is the cooking technique. Just like you i use a frying pan on med/high, add a little oil when the pans hot, add the base, then a simple spice mix aimed at madras (2tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp chillie, 1 tsp salt, 1 1/2 tsp coriander, 1 tsp cumin). I stir/fry the base until the spice mix is mixed in (something like 30secs moving the pan away to control the heat). I then add a little garam, stir in and serve.

I am almost there on taste. Trouble is although I?ve tried a few garam mixes I can?t get one where no spice stands out.

[ast]

what garam masala mix did you use.

Nothing very fancy at the moment, Jerry.  Just the Swartz/McCormic bog-standard one.  However, I did pick up some Fiddes Payne a couple of weeks ago, but I haven't tried it yet.  Seems to have a bit more cloves in it from the smell (personally, I think it smells much richer/better), but I've yet to try it yet.  However, that's the only one left in the house, so I'll be using it for the next experiment.  Probably too many variables with a new base, but I don't have a whole lot of choice.  I didn't time my spice quantity vs. my base quantity very well for completely controlled and scientific-like experiments, it would seem.

Interesting that you don't like turmeric.  I've never really noticed a taste from it before--certainly not by the time it gets to the finished curry!  Must be all those chillies... ;D

Thanks for the positive feedback.

Cheers,

ast

[JerryM]

thanks Ast. just for info i make my own garam based around KD. I've got to the point where I've changed cinnamon to casia bark, introduced star anise and cut the cummin to 1/2 the coriander. all giving major improvement. i suspect it's the black cardamon that's overpowering and going to cut it out on my next go.

[extrahotchillie]

One of the most interesting posts I have read on this forum; great pictures, I will be trying this one for sure.

[ast]

I just finished eating this curry (reheated in the microwave), and I'm pleased to say, I think what I'm doing now is better than this one was.  It wasn't bad, but it didn't seem to have the same depth of flavor as the last few that I made using Haldi's spice mix.  Of course, maybe it was the base too, as this was the KD base which doesn't have as much depth as the Saffron one.

One thing I did notice, however, was that I think the KD base makes smoother curries than the Saffron base.  I wonder why this might be?  Perhaps the potatoes or the carrot?  I blended the Saffron base more than I did the KD one, so they should've, in theory, turned out quite close.

I *think* I cooked them to about the same consistency, but maybe, as CA suggests, I'm cooking them a bit too long at the moment.  That would do in the texture as well.

I'll pay more attention the next time I make a batch of base (which will be quite soon since I've only enough for one more curry).  Not sure what it'll be yet though.

Taste-wise, I think this one was a tad too salty too.

I think the real conclusion of this experiment was the difference in taste the cooking techniques made using exactly the same inputs.  It was certainly a significant step in my curry making, and I thank all of you for your insights and feedback.

Cheers,

ast

[SnS]

One thing I did notice, however, was that I think the KD base makes smoother curries than the Saffron base.  I wonder why this might be?  Perhaps the potatoes or the carrot?  I blended the Saffron base more than I did the KD one, so they should've, in theory, turned out quite close.

Hi Ast

Interesting about the smoothness.

Correct me if I'm wrong Ast, but aren't you now adding chopped onion at the start of the Vindaloo curry .. whereas when you made this before with KD base,(ie: the one you mention above) you didn't add onion ??

Regards

SnS  ;D

ps: I can't imagine it is attributed to either the carrot or the potato.