Topic: Hot Wok Burner Kit 7.0 kW

[George]

We are all here in the pursuit of BIR excellence, George, but we should not let that get in the way of friendliness and mutual support.

I fear the two aspects may be mutually incompatible. Even I'm reluctant to speak my mind fully for fear of creating even greater offence. So the objective of not offending 'mr nice guy' could be getting in the way of greater progress. Which is most important?

Don't you think it's odd - a fundamental problem with approach - that a whole series of declarations have been made along the lines of the 'final piece of the jigsaw' or 'remaining 1%' and then, a year later, the same person is slagging off all the recipes on this site as disappointing? How can one have confidence or faith in anything that's said? The comments aren't trustworthy and should be taken with a pinch of salt. If this was The Apprentice and we were talking about the project manager, he would definitely be fired.

[Peripatetic Phil]

We are all here in the pursuit of BIR excellence, George, but we should not let that get in the way of friendliness and mutual support.

So the objective of not offending 'mr nice guy' could be getting in the way of greater progress. Which is most important?

For me, maintaining a friendly tone, so that existing members feel encouraged to continue to contribute, and so that new members feel that they will be made welcome rather than risk scorn.  The more members we have (who want to talk about curry, and are not spammers or trolls), the more gems of wisdom the site is likely to accumulate.

Don't you think it's odd - a fundamental problem with approach - that a whole series of declarations have been made along the lines of the 'final piece of the jigsaw' or 'remaining 1%' and then, a year later, the same person is slagging off all the recipes on this site as disappointing?

Odd ?  No.  And I haven't read Jerry "slagging off" anything; all I read in his posts is that he is not yet satisfied and wants to conquer that last vital 5/2/1%.

How can one have confidence or faith in anything that's said? The comments aren't trustworthy and should be taken with a pinch of salt. If this was The Apprentice and we were talking about the project manager, he would definitely be fired.

Exactly.  But it's not "The Apprentice", and you aren't Sir Alan Sugar.  Here we are all equals -- you, me, Jerry, Ray, CA, PP, and Uncle Tom Cobley and all -- so it ill behoves any of us to pour scorn on another's efforts.  By all means doubt Jerry's input, if you find it untrustworthy, but don't assume we will all do the same, nor try to encourage us to feel as you do.  Each of us will form his/her own opinion of anything written, and none of us should believe that others will necessarily feel as we do.

** Phil.

[solarsplace]

I think the approach taken is perfectly sensible, and the one that the majority of people would take. This is regularly cooking curry at home, often several times a week and reporting on progress, experiments - good, bad and ugly. Its like driving a car, if you only drive a car once a year you are going to be pretty rusty at, no matter how much theory you read.

It is perfectly understandable that someone who has been cooking the same recipe over again can change one aspect of process and believe that that change has yielded a massive improvement. It is then perfectly reasonable that a year goes by where regular curry is being cooked and that person becomes more adept and experienced as you would naturally at any job for example. Therefore pronouncements that certain things being final pieces of puzzles, were likely very relevant to that poster at that time. Things change, we learn and progress.

I think we all need to realise, that there is no one single magic 'thing' that will suddenly give you the perfect BIR curry, it is the combination of several basic processes that are all here on the site that must come together through practice and experience. You cannot just be told how to perfect it.

IMHO speaking logically and through personal opinion, heat is a factor. Not necessarily any kind of final piece, but never the less part of the process. When you get it right, you can smell the change in the air and taste a difference in the curry. It is a small difference, but an important small difference. Lots of restaurants if not all do use powerful gas stoves as does the Mogul in Brookwood where I went on Saturday night and watched though the saloon style doors as 2 of the chefs were cooking the dishes with considerable volumes of steam and vapour being extracted by the massive fan above the cookers.

These days I always cook outside on the 8Kw gas ring. Appearances are also deceiving, the ring can appear to be on quite low and a visual observation would suggest to you that this was little different to a conventional cooker burner, this would likely be an observational mistake as the volume of heat will be considerably more than that of your average stove.

Whether we like it or not, it is part of the professional process and logically speaking it is, it must be a factor in the final product even if one thinks it is negligible. I'm not saying that you cannot get a excellent or even perfect curry from an alternative heat source, I'm sure it is possible - and that sounds like a contradiction - but when and if you get it right on the high heat you will know what I mean.

[JerryM]

fellas the focus really is the food.

i really liked George's suggestion of the come dine and it's a real shame it did not get off the ground.

i consequently make this offer to George in particular but open to all:

please come and visit my den "garage" and see for yourself.

[Curry Barking Mad]

 a shed conversion is not necessary.
[/quote]

Maybe so but it is helpful for me and allows me to have all my curry cooking equipment in one place and all to hand rather than taking up so much space in the house kitchen, which in turn keeps 'er indoors happy..... ;D

[solarsplace]

Hi AchMal

TBH - there are few, if any who can compete with the 'Curry Shed'. I openly admit I am jealous of such a possession - and have to cook outside . Although this is mainly due to fire and smoke related reasons

Out of interest, do you have roof / flame issues?







Regards

[Razor]

That shed is bigger than my back yard!  and yes, all Mancs live on Corination street and therefor only have yards, not gardens :

Ray

[Curry Barking Mad]

@ Solarsplace...
I can flame the pan whenever I want to but to be honest I don't believe it alters the taste of the finished curry so therefore I don't go out of my way to set the shed alight, If i wanted to then I would have to install some kind of extraction system as the shed would quickly fill with smoke albeit lovely smelling smoke ;D Good looking curry BTW
@ Ray...
I hear you Ray, is there room for the ferret cage? ;D

[Razor]

I hear you Ray, is there room for the ferret cage?

Just, right next to the pigeon loft ;D

Ray ;D

[George]

a shed conversion is not necessary.

Maybe so but it is helpful for me and allows me to have all my curry cooking equipment in one place and all to hand rather than taking up so much space in the house kitchen, which in turn keeps 'er indoors happy.....

I'm envious of your dedicated kitchen facility. I wasn't criticising anything like your kitchen; only doubting the justification for moving a hob outside if the primary reason is the decision to use a propane fuelled burner.