Topic: CA's Chicken Madras

[joshallen2k]

Great stuff Ray! Excellent looking meal. Everything looks spot on. Looking forward to the seekh kebab recipe.

[Cory Ander]

Great post Ray, thanks for sharing your cooking experience and photos..glad you liked it again 

I like you final photo of "the finished article", it looks awesome (colour, consistency and texture).  Did you use the tandoori masala? 

[Razor]

Hi CA,

Yes, i did use tandoori masala but, i did cheat a bit and used "Rajah's Tandoori masala".  Also, the spiced oil wasn't to your spec.  I made the Ashoka Bunjara in the week but didn't really like what it added to my final dishes, so I basically retrieved about 150ml of the oil by compressing it through a filter and a sieve. It gave me a very clear, BIR smelling oil with a much higher smoking point!

What I like about all of your dishes CA, is that every component has the "BIR" smell to it, so it stands to reason that the final dish will be spot on.  I've always been pro "precooked meat" but your recipes prove that you don't need to.  I think the whole Madras took me about 12 mins to cook from start to finish and that was with me faffing around taking pictures. 

But for me, the key is the base.  If you can get this "bang on", (and this is "bang on"), I think the rest of the dish pretty much takes care of itself, just as long as you don't burn anything!

Brilliant recipe CA, thanks again.

Josh,

I will try to get the seekh recipe on here today with pictures

Ray

[Secret Santa]

Great sequence of pictures Ray and the final setup looks lush. Lovely looking kebabs. Well done.

[Razor]

Hi SS,

Thanks for the kind comments.  Here's the kebab recipe if you're interested http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4393.0

Ray

[Deadman]

I made this last night using your base recipe too CA. Didn't work for me personally, I found the consistency a little runny and the flavour under - spiced.
Next time I'll reduce the oil, double the spice and fry off the chicken separately.
Cheers though 

[Razor]

Hi Deadman,

I made this last night using your base recipe too CA. Didn't work for me personally, I found the consistency a little runny and the flavour under - spiced.
Next time I'll reduce the oil, double the spice and fry off the chicken separately.
Cheers though 

Did you follow the recipe to spec? the spice masala, base, spiced oil?

I make this all the time but I've never really experienced the consistency as being 'runny'? Quite the opposite really, my sauce clings to the meat.  Maybe you're not reducing the final dish enough or maybe your adding too much base at a time?

With regards to the spicing, why not try replace the tsp of curry powder with an extra tsp of CA's Spice Masala?  that may give you the what you're looking for?

If you post back your cooking method, I'm sure CA will advise or If I can help in anyway, I will

Ray

[Secret Santa]

fry off the chicken separately.

I'm not sure what you mean by that Deadman. If you mean literally fry the meat before adding then that isn't BIR style. You can pre cook using one of the many recipes on this site as per BIR practise, or you can throw it in raw (for chicken anyway) with the spices and cook it up that way before adding base etc.

[Razor]

I just don't bother anymore with pre-cooking chicken.  I know BIR's do it but, I'm still not sure why?

I don't think it reduces the final cook time by that much and I think you have more control over the tenderness if you cook it from raw in the final dish!

The only benefit that I can see it having from a BIR point of view is that it will last longer cooked? But a decent night's service should take care of meat turnover!

Ray

[Secret Santa]

I just don't bother anymore with pre-cooking chicken.  I know BIR's do it but, I'm still not sure why?

I think it's a food hygiene issue Ray. They don't want to be handling raw chicken next to finished food, or even risk not cooking it enough.

I agree with you about home cooking though, no real need to precook unless it's lamb which needs that long cooking to get it tender.