Topic: Describe "The Taste"

[Mark J]

I cant believe that the tandoor would actually flavour dishes cooked near it! Surely not

[DARTHPHALL]

Nor can i you crazy people  .
Think about this will you.
This margin for error & the size of the batch etc..etc..
   I have made the same Curry time & time again..Yes with different results ( Small batch, small margin for error etc...).
       But & this is my point. No matter the variation of the same dish you new it was the same recipe
      with slight variations ON THE SAME THEME !!!
 To copy my local bir i need to get something like it to taste something like it, i now strongly believe that
       1 The Take-away recipe is very simple( Economics & Time again !!).
       2 The base gravy will more than likely be made with no particular dominating flavors so it can 
           make all the Curry based dishes.
       3 There is a small number of  ingredients in the final dish & i am not using them all yet.
       4. I am also coming to the conclusion that no oil is used in the base gravy( most of you will disagree i know) but whats the 
           point of oil in the base gravy.This conclusion is brought about by the fact that my local BIR Curry has a really light oil taste & subtle Curry flavor,r & after cooking the oil twice it turns out the wrong colour !!! MY local is a more golden oil (like Blondies !!).
So it is either cooked on low heat or without oil in first stage.

[blade1212]

Actually you might have a good point on the oil quantity and its perceived importance.

There is a local BIR I often use which has a very watery sauce (little oil) but the dish is fantastic.

Many others I use definately have loads more oil, but equally have the taste.

I'm coming round to the view then that it doesn't really matter how much oil, but I've not made the leap that says 'no oil'..yet.

[Ian S.]

I had an idea the other day, but it might be utterly stupid.  The trouble is, it's burning a hole in my head, so I've got to tell someone (and who better than you lot?! ).

I've always thought that the overpowering smell in restaurants came from the tandoor.  And I've thought that the bought curries I like best have this aroma about them.  The puzzle being, that we know meat for the plain curries (i.e. not chicken tikka vindaloo) isn't cooked in the tandoor.  It's impractical.

We know that at least some restaurants/takeaways use a chicken stock in their bases.  Pete's seen something added to his dish which he was told was 'balti paste'  but which he now thinks - on reflection - might have been chicken jelly.  So (takes deep breath and waits for howls of laughter):

Is there any reason, d'you think, why some kitchens might make a chicken stock...

...from chicken cooked in the tandoor?

Somebody said here (sorry, can't remember who) that stock made from roasted chicken was richer because the bones caramalised on the oven.  Somebody else said that the tandoor meat was cooked during the day, as the temperature of the oven needed to be lowered for breads and kebabs during the evening.  So if there was unsold tandoori chicken in the fridge at the end of the day, could it end up in next day's stock?

Or have I just boiled my brain with home-cooked vindaloos each day for the past week?!

[Dylan]

Does anybody know if tandors have drip trays to catch the cooking juices. If so, these juices would give a smoky flavor to any gravy base to which they were added.

[Yellow Fingers]

Blimey, first Pete reckons it could be tandoori smell infusing into the base and now Ian S reckons they are using tandoori bones for the curry gravy!. You'll be telling us next that they re-use the bones from customers left over tandoori chicken?

I'm open minded but I think we're stretching the limits of possibility here.

Dylan, no the tandoors don't have drip trays.

[thomashenry]

Pick up a black cardomann pod. Put it to youir nose and smell it. THAT is the smokey smell. I just can't figure a way to get it into the dish!

[Curry King]

You could add a couple of slightly opened black pods when you precook your main ingredients or what i used to do was sling a couple in when cooking the base and pull em out before blending.  Although I would say theres no big difference in using them or not.

[Yellow Fingers]

I just went and had a good sniff of my little tub of black cardamoms. It's a lovely smell but it's not anything like I've ever smelled in a finished curry. But the smell is coming from the husk of the cardamom, so if that's what you want I suggest you grind a few to a powder, probably without the seeds and sprinkle that into your curry at the very last moment. Or, try briefly frying the same powder in oil so as not to burn it and then mix it through your finished curry once it's off the heat. This is the tarka method, usually used in tarka dhall.

[Dylan]

I reckon you could get a smoky/charcoal type (like a tandoor) by shoving some halved onions on a skewer and cooking them on the barbecue. Then use these onions to make the curry base. Sounds a bit eccentric but might be worth a try. Next time ive got the barbie fired up...