Topic: Kashmiri Chicken Masala

[Secret Santa]

Hi Jerry.

I'm glad you had a success with your first attempt. Looking at the finished curry though, I can't see any banana slices...did they disintegrate? The kashmiri curries I've had always had soft, but still in one piece, slices.

I see you also only used bassar spice mix, that surprised me. The coconut is not a flavour that has been in the kasmiri curries i've had, but I can see that it would work. Also it looks very orange to me, the ones I had were light brown, which base did you use?

[JerryM]

Secret Santa,

i think u would like this curry.

i did not use any meat. i always like to get the sauce right 1st.

the slices are there for sure (key ingredient). in fact on the 2nd curry i got a tad greedy and put 1 1/2 banana's in albeit they were small canary type. the banana did pretty much stay in tack but some around the surface did disintegrate into the sauce. a very nice combination.

i often (usually) go 50:50 on bassar with Rajah Curry Powder as i feel it tones the bassar down a little. i felt the coconut and banana would do this on their own accord hence all bassar.

the carnation milk seemed to lighten the colour - it was less orange on the 2nd curry when i used 1 tbsp carnation.

i used safron base which i believe explains some of the colour.

my wife recons it was as good as in a restaurant but she's no an ardent curry fan. these ladies are quite discerning when it comes to food though.

[JerryM]

i made a further 2 off last night. the 1st was not so good. the 2nd perfect.

the reason - down to water (and hence allowable cooking time). the base i'm using was saffron which when i made it pretty much overspilled my base pan "stock pot" due to it's high yield. this meant i could not thin the base as much as i'd normally do.

so earlier in the week i added 100ml water to the 300ml of base to put the "thinness" right. last night i failed to do this on the 1st curry and the sauce dried out too early in the cooking. on the 2nd go i added the extra water and back perfect. took me by surprised how much effect the extra water made.

i think the thinner base is critical specifically when using coconut flour.

[976bar]

Ha Ha Jerry,

I just seen your Kashmiri Masala, as I could not find this post before. It looks fantastic, I'm definitely gonna give that a go.

Have you made it since?

[JerryM]

976bar,

i started with your recipe and just tweaked it towards BIR.

it really is top notch.

i only make it now with coconut flour. i add extra water (100ml) when adding the base as the flour seems to soak the liquid up and ends up too dry before the dish has cooked (extra base would work similar - depends on the base being used).

we make it all the time. it has really gelled with us.

my local TA don't have it on the menu as i was interested in how it compares. i may ask at some point but it really matters not for us. it's a dish in it's own right.

many thanks for the inspiration.
 

[JerryM]

i made 2 off last night. the 1st was not as good as normal - it's key that the banana is cooked through and starts to blend slightly into the curry sauce. the ripeness of the banana is also important and has an effect on the cooking time required.

on the 2nd go i sliced the banana thin (about 2/3rd what i normally slice something like 3mm instead of 4 or 5). i also added the water twice ie added a second 100ml after the 1st had evaped off. this had the effect of extending the cooking time and made sure the banana had started to break down.

the 2nd go was perfect.

[Malc.]

I cooked this tonight having chosen to thicken the sauce further. It was quite delicious, though the wife and I agreed my heaped tablespoon was too heaped

Thanks for the recipe, I will certainly do it again and will definitely use banana next time, you can almost sense it would go well. Would have done it this time round, but we didn't have any.

PS Shhhh, don't tell anyone I used paste


 

[JerryM]

Axe,

we make this all the time. i've dropped using the coconut block and only use the flour (3 htbsp). the banana's ideally need to be just ripe (getting black on the skin and ideally the small variety like from the canaries and sliced thin). i add 100ml of water to the base to help cook out the coconut flour. i use either g/g paste or chopped garlic whichever i have on the go (must admit i'm pretty much using only g/g paste at the mo).

[Malc.]

I did have block but ended up using a tin of coconut milk that the wife picked up. I haven't as yet bought any flour/powder but it is on my list of things to get.

Its worth keeping a little paste in the fridge just for the ease of making this dish. I have a few ideas that I am going to toy with like adding Cashew Nuts or Toasted Almond Flakes, Yoghurt instead of Cream, etc. (I didn't use cream yesterday either).

[JerryM]

discussion in the powerhouse post led me to chk this is upto date. i have tweaked the onion paste from 1 tsp to 1 tbsp, sometimes i don't use the carnation milk, i use g/g paste in place of the garlic down to ease. 

2 off tips that i feel important: slice the banana thin and use 100ml of extra water to help cook out the coconut flour.

exact recipe as my yellow sticky (in the order they are added):

1)
4 tbsp oil
1 chef spoon chopped onion (4 tbsp)

2)
1 tsp garlic/ginger paste

3)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp bassar
1/4 tsp chilli
1 tbsp tom puree
1 chef spoon base (to go in with spices) 4 tbsp

4)
300ml base
100ml water
1 chef coconut flour (4 tbsp)
2 tbsp carnation (can leave out)
thin sliced banana (ripe ideally and small canary type if possible)
1 tbsp onion paste
2 pinch frozen coriander