Topic: Tweaking

[blade1212]

The number of times I have frozen my "failed tasteless" curries and been amazed at what thawed out.

Pete, I know what you mean, but I'm sure this is not just down to freezing the curry but by not eating the curry the same day you cook it. I don't even believe this is all down to all the flavours merging better but I do think the primary reason is your taste buds get shot to pieces when you stand over this stuff cooking all day. Go for a walk, come back to it and it smells and tastes better IMO.

I also think this is why putting the curries in the oven get praise - you don't get the 4 hour nasal blast before eating it.

[pete]

Where does the elusive Kris Dillon hang out?

I wrote to the curry secret publisher, Elliot Right Way Books.
That was back in 2001
I got a letter back saying:-

"Kris Dhillon, the author of The Curry Secret, is a lady who is currently living in Australia and I am afraid we do not have an address that we can reach her at."

The letter was from A Clive Elliot, Director

I was made a little suspicious by the letter, as it said Kris was a woman.
I am NOT a sexist but in my experience I have never seen a lady chef at a takeaway.
It's an area that is totally dominated by men.
I don't understand why.
But assuming that is true, then a woman would not be privy to curry house secrets.
Does anyone else know of takeaway lady chefs?

[Mark J]

I have heard from a number of sources that Kris is a woman

[George]

I have heard from a number of sources that Kris is a woman

So have I, but I now consider it counts for nothing. I suggest there's a 50% chance that the author is a man or even two or more persons.  Who knows?

Regards
George

[pete]

I find it really surprising that a retired indian restaurant chef hasn't written a curry house book.
It would be a real boost to their pension.
What I would really like to see is the proper quantities recipe, as used in a restaurant.
You know, "take 0ne and a half sacks of onion, 2 lbs of garlic, 3 bags of curry powder etc."

[George]

What I would really like to see is the proper quantities recipe, as used in a restaurant.
You know, "take 0ne and a half sacks of onion, 2 lbs of garlic, 3 bags of curry powder etc."

I agree. There's less of a margin for error if we could learn the large scale quantities actually used, and then decide how to scale it down ourselves.

[merrybaker]

Does anyone else know of takeaway lady chefs?

The back of the book says that Kris is "an accomplished Indian restaurateur."? I always thought she was the owner, and either she convinced the (male) chef to tell all, or she learned by observation.? Now I'm starting to wonder.? Not only have I never seen a woman chef (well, actually once in Boca Raton, Florida, but that's another story), but never a female owner or even a waitress.? ?

[joe2]

Re: The taste we desire can only be achieved by cooking in quantities.

Ok, here we go.  I don't want to offend any of the lovely people on this forum but, this whole idea is ridiculous.
Well not only ridiculous but it defies logic and inteligence.  How can you not take a quantity of any ingredients and divide by 5, 10, 20 or 30 or whatever and not expect to get a similar result?
To me this train of thought is some kind of excuse we are using in desperation at not getting the results we desire.

Come on folks, we will find the answer somewhere, somehow. But let's not bark up the wrong tree. That's just wasting time and effort.

Many people may disagree with these comments.  Sorry, I just try to speak the truth as I find it.

[merrybaker]

How can you not take a quantity of any ingredients and divide by 5, 10, 20 or 30 or whatever and not expect to get a similar result?

Unfortunately, it doesn't always work that way. ? From an article on scaling ingredients up/down:? "Spices and other seasonings, including salt, don't always need to be increased or decreased in the same proportion as the other ingredients. Instead add seasonings to taste until you get the results you want."?

[thomashenry]

Re: The taste we desire can only be achieved by cooking in quantities.

This is not true. I have achieved 'the taste', and reporduced perfect imiatation takeaway dishes 3 times now. I've made curry every night for the last month (really), with the quest of hitting the nail on the head. I've done it three times - what I can't do is reliably reproduce it. As a result, I'm unable (so far) to  identify exactly what it was bout what I did one time that wa right, and what was not etc.

Last nights was my best attempt so far, without doubt. As ever, I used Dhillon sauce ( was a bit short on onions so topped the weight up with a pepper and a stick of celery), I also added 3 heaped teaspoons of sugar into it. I followed the general principle of Mark J's curry house viewing.

I now consider the pre fried onions to as important as the base sauce. I chop 3-4 onions very finley - some finely dived, some finley sliced into small strips. I fry these gently in plenty of oil, with a bit of base sauce, and a desert spoon of *cinnamon* on them. I slowly fry them for 30-40 minutes, until they are totally soft, see through, and sweet.

My cooking procedure was as follows : hot oil -> stiry fry garlic paste -> heaped ladle of onions -> creamed tomatoes -> spice (only 1/2 a teapsoon) -> fenugreek -> salt-> chilli powder -> Ladel of curry sauce -> 1.2 chopped tomato-> sprinkling of coriander -> 3 more ladles of curry sauce -> 3 mins cooking or so. I popped in the pre cooked meat, put the whole thing in a takeaway dish, srpinkled it with coriander, put the lid on, and set it aside. I went to get a beer from the offy, and ate the curry about 1 hour later, after heating it in the micro wave. It was a 100% spot on replica of chicken Bhuna,  as served by the Bengal Spice, Oxford.

The things notable to me about my method this time were
1. Generous helping of very well cooked onions, falvouried with cinnamon - I used a lot more of these than in previous recipies
2. I flambed the pan a LOT (still dont know if this makes any difference, will have to conduct an experiment)
3. Smalll, (tiny) amount of spice used. I get the feeling that it didn't matter too much what the spice was; this time I used a regualr 'curry shop masala'
4. Tomato
5. Much more consiervative amount of chopped corinader used than I usually have.
6. Leaving it for 30 mins, leacing the house, coming to it fresh - Im sure this gives the dishj time to mellow and cool out, the flavours to come through in it.

I'm really going to nail this over the next 6 days. I intend getting exact measurments, cooking times, and eventually photos.