Just had a cooking lesson from Pat Chapman

[Mark J]

Just had a cooking lesson from Pat Chapman

As a suprise birthday present my wife bought me a cooking lesson with Pat at his home in Haslemere, it lasted for about 3 hours, both Pat and his wife were really friendly, it was a superb day. I realise there is strong feeling with regard Pats books on this group but I have to say he is a superb chef and has had a lot of experience with Indian cooking.

First off he went through all the spices, obviously not a lot for me to learn here but my wife enjoyed it, then mixed a standard curry masala - this was very similar to Bruce Edwards restaurant masala mix.

Then we cooked the following dishes:

Roasted vegetables with cumin and curry leaves, quite nice this one and easy to cook.
Tarka Dhal - This was gorgeous, I'm not a big fan of this dish as I find it too sour however this one was superb.
Traditional Lamb Balti - Pre cooked the lamb in yogurt in the oven then stir fried the balti
Restaurant style prawn pathia - used a curry gravy, this was exactly the same as Pete posted from the latest curry club magazine
Finally cooked pillau rice by absorption and boiling, very nice it turned out to.

All the cooking was done on a 4.5KW burner, very fierce indeed!

Afterwards I asked Pat about reproducing the restaurant taste, he said he had been in a number of such kitchens and is sure there isn't a secret ingredient although some use MSG, very interestingly he did wonder if it was the smokey atmosphere from the Tandoor infusing the gravies.

[Blondie]

Hi Mark J,

Forgive me for not knowing, but where on this site can I find the curry gravy from the latest curry club Magazine that Pete posted. I can't seem to find what I'm looking for on this site anymore even using the search facility.

I guess that the food that Pat cooked didn't have "the taste" but was it a good BIR clone apart from that.

cheers Mark,

Blondie

[Mark J]

Here it is https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=259.0

We took all the food home with us and ate it later, the balti did have something of the taste about it (and very nice it was to), but I still believe that most of 'the taste' is down to cooking it early and eating later, even better if microwaved several days later  ;D

[Blondie]

Hi Mark J,

Thanx for that,

cheers,

Blondie

[Blondie]

Hi Mark J,

Did Mr Chapman give you a copy of the recipes that they/you cooked or a reference to which of his books they were in.  Failing that, do you remember enough of the Tarka Dhal recipe to post it.  I love Tarka Dhal and also it's less intense baby brother sold in these parts Dhal Soup (in most places this is the same but without the Tarka and watered down slightly) excellent with loads of ground white pepper and a keema Naan to dip),

Thanks Mark J,

Blondie

[pete]

Just had a cooking lesson from Pat Chapman
Tarka Dhal - This was gorgeous, I'm not a big fan of this dish as I find it too sour however this one was superb.
Afterwards I asked Pat about reproducing the restaurant taste, he said he had been in a number of such kitchens and is sure there isn't a secret ingredient although some use MSG, very interestingly he did wonder if it was the smokey atmosphere from the Tandoor infusing the gravies.

I would love the tarka dhal recipe too.
I am a little dissapointed that he said some restaurants use msg.
At the demos I saw perhaps, what I thought was salt, was in fact msg
If that was the case, then it went in at the start with all the other spices
I see the tandoor idea has raised it's head again
But how dissapointed would I be, if I bought one and still didn't get the taste?
You are saying he cooked on a powerfull  electric cooker aren't you?
Are you saying that the "taste" wasn't in the curries?

[blade1212]

Guys, I made a really nice version of Tarka Dal - recipe posted here

https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=320.0

It would be interesting to see the Chapman version for comparison.

[Mark J]

Hi Folks,

Blondie - Yes got a copy of all the recipes although we didnt stick to them religiously on the day, I will post the tarka dhal recipe.

Pete - I reckon a home tandoor wouldnt cut it if this is indeed the source, you would have to have it creating an atmosphere that is only created by cooking for 100 people I reckon. If it is just in the meat then that would be fine but the taste is in all curries, not just those with tandoor cooked meat.

We cooked on a brittania range stove, the big burner was gas, by comparison Ive got what I thought was a big burner in my kupperbusch hob but it is only 3.3Kw. There was some of the taste in the curries, difficult to say.

[Blondie]

Hi Mark J,

I notice that when this base recipe was posted previously, the fact that there was no tomato in it was questioned.? Did Mr Chapman put any tomato in the base and if not, presumably he added some to the final dishes, so I would like to know in what form and how much? And while I'm about it, the same questions apply to ginger,

cheers Mark,

Blondie

[grimmo]

Hi Mark,

I'm pleased that the course is worthwhile. I had a look but couldn't really afford to take the risk. I may well now...

Did you mention this site to him at all? I wonder if he knows it exists or even frequents it...?

From what you saw/heard would you say Pat has nailed the restaurant taste himself?

cheers