Topic: The Balti Kitchen Video Review

[raygraham]

Balti Kitchen Video Review

 It is obviously not a high budget video and as mentioned in a previous post is set in a fairly sterile kitchen and doesn?t appear to tell us any more ?secrets? than has already been talked about on the forum.
Having said that I feel it does show us something, and will be particularly interesting for those starting out on this fascinating hobby. Perhaps it is not deep enough for the more experienced but is a good reference to us all and reinforces the basics I think we need to remember and return to sometimes.
It gives an important  and very welcome visual experience of a real chef?s methods and techniques and an idea of sizes, weight, proportion, colour, texture, amounts etc that we all strive to know. For instance what size and type are the Onions? What should my base look like?  Well now we can see it first hand.
And of course the ultimate end to it all a view of the final base sauce and consequent curries that evolve from it so we can visually compare our own efforts?
I for one love pictures as they give me a ?real? comparison of how things should be and an idea if I am on track. The other notable thing is the ease the chef has doing things. He is relaxed, comfortable and a master of his skills which sends the message creating a Curry should be simple, enjoyable and fun and the rewards will follow.

From the outset instructions are clear and the chef works slowly enough to see how he chops, slices, dices and measures. You could follow the tape while you prepare and pause along the way. Once all the spices and prepared ingredients are done and Onions cooking it doesn?t take long before the kitchen will smell powerful enough to attract comments from neighbours in the next village and a frown from the wife.
However, once over this the cooked blended Onion Base looks just like on the tape and after the spices go in it is exact in colour and texture with an underlying smell which says ?my local? take -away.
Pre-Cooking of the Chicken / Meat comes next and this simple technique gives really succulent moist chunky meat that smells and tastes delicious. All that is then needed is to choose your recipe from about a dozen or more and ?marry? the Base Sauce and Pre-Cooked Meat together with a few spices to enhance it.
And the final taste??? 

Well, I made the standard Chicken Balti which is shown first. The smell, looks, texture and taste were strikingly close to the restaurant. I tried the taste test on at least ten friends at work and told them I had bought it from a local take-away. They all wanted to know which one it came from and did I have a menu!!
My own opinion is that it comes very close to what I want to achieve and a strong contender for one of the better sauces I have made. Not exact but certainly a good start and a good base to work from. I feel there may be one of the more powerful spices missing, perhaps a hint of Ajwain or Cardamon needed. However, I will put it on my list of ones to do again and experiment more with slight changes to see if I can get it that bit closer to the true restaurant taste! Overall this is a very good Base Sauce to follow especially a good starter for the newcomer with the additional bonus of ?seeing? how it?s done. And just in case you were wondering, I am not a sales rep for Castle Home Entertainment. Can anyone give us a review of the Bruce Edwards base, that?s my next project.

Regards

Ray G

[Mark J]

Nice report ray

The bruce edwards base is very good IMHO, one of the best, I would rank it close to peets 600ml oil base which is one of my favourites

[raygraham]

Thanks for that Mark,
I am getting the hang of this site now and realise the trend towards a few tried and trusted base sauces. I am going to have a try at Bruce Edwards one and then either your's or Pete's.
Can't wait for the Kushi book to arrive. At present it is due to hit the shops mid-Sept. Lets wait and see!

Ray

[Yousef]

I am just making my way through the video today, but it does make the base sauce look easy and it's got very clear instructions.
I agree as a back to basics everyone should see this video.

Stew

[blade1212]

Can someone please convert to an AVI and upload / seed via bittorrent ?

tia

[pete]

This is the curry base
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=26.0

[Mark J]

The guy refers to methi in some dishes, is this seed or leaf?

[raygraham]

I often ask this question as no recipe seems to make itself clear which to use. I have always assumed it was Methi leaf. There is mention of "a pinch" of Methi which I reckon must be the leaf. My local shop always gives me the leaf when I ask for Methi. Some recipes suggest adding the leaf to a small amount of water first to soften it before adding to the curry. I have always wanted to know, does the seed melt in curries as it is as hard as a stone?

[Blondie]

Hi all,

Just to add to the cunfussion about methi, it is quite hard to get hold of, but, it also comes in powder form and has a very strong taste.? In most cases a pinch would be plenty.

cheers all,

Blondie

[raygraham]

So, do you think Methi powder is ground seeds? The seeds do have a pretty strong bitter taste!