Topic: Are we being too harsh on ourselves?

[JerryM]

very much agree on all that's said.

i am sure there is no secret we just need a better handle on those processes. there is considerable variation within BIR land which makes our task that much more difficult.

it's been said before but for me i'm aiming top notch BIR - not the average which is unfortunately is in most towns in high numbers. top notch is very rare and as we know well worth that extra mile both in the car or our personal efforts.

[Malc.]

Jerry, i'm with you on this, I want nothing more than to be able to reproduce the food that comes from my favourite restaurant.

I have formulated an opinion whilst being here, that curry falls into two brackets.

Old School which is, as I consider, the top notch food you mention. Perhaps following the more traditional Bangladesh style of restaurants.

New Wave which is now the generalised cook from a paste modern take on cooking TA.

Would you consider this as an appropriate statement?

[emin-j]

Axe , if when you say ' paste ' you mean the Pataks type of paste from a jar then I don't think you would find any T/A using much of that , but there are two types of cooking when it comes to Curry's , your usual BIR style using a pre - made Base Sauce and then there's the traditional Curry which is made ' from scratch ' where Onions , Tomatoes ,etc are cooked down at the start of the Curry to make the Sauce , this type of Curry is usually found in the top class Indian Restaurants like this -

http://www.myristica.co.uk/

[Cory Ander]

Axe , if when you say ' paste ' you mean the Pataks type of paste from a jar then I don't think you would find any T/A using much of that

I take it that this is what Axe means.  I think there are many using such pastes nowadays emin-j (from the numerous reports of seeing them in BIR kitchens), Dipuraja (Dial a Curry) obviously being one of them.  And I would agree with Axe.  Use of these commercially prepared pastes and ingredients is far more prevalent nowadays than it was before the 90s (when they were commercially far less available, if at all).

[Malc.]

emin-j yes I do mean Pataks. Perhaps its my miss-conception of what BIR means, before I arrived on this site, I had never heard the term BIR.

Forgive me if i'm wrong but I understand BIR to mean restaurants that cook Indian Cuisine in a way associated to a typical British Indian Restaurant. This is far different to a restaurant cooking Indian Cuisine in a Traditional way, or TIR for want of an abbreviation.

So on that basis, I divide BIR into two categories, old school and new wave. The latter lending themselves to commercially available pre-made alternatives such Pataks Paste etc.

[emin-j]

Jerry, i'm with you on this, I want nothing more than to be able to reproduce the food that comes from my favourite restaurant.

I have formulated an opinion whilst being here, that curry falls into two brackets.

Old School which is, as I consider, the top notch food you mention. Perhaps following the more traditional Bangladesh style of restaurants.

New Wave which is now the generalised cook from a paste modern take on cooking TA.

Would you consider this as an appropriate statement?

Sorry Axe it was the word ' Traditional ' that threw me there 

[JerryM]

Axe,

i do agree totally on the BIR classification - old school & new wave. i don't think it's just down to paste either - much depends like anything on the people behind the BIR. the one's with the passion are the clear leaders.

i know what emin-j is getting at too - these i call posh BIR's. u need very deep pockets to visit them. we have one in warrington (the cottage). it's a very busy place don't get me wrong it's just not for me.

[fridgedoc]

Hi All

just want to add my tuppy pennyworth.

from what I have read in this forum, I have to agree with all that has been said in this thread I would guess I would be well satisfied with any dish you guys prepared the same as I am sure any I made.

I was lucky in the sense that as a fridge engineer I have worked in many a curry house so saw first hand how things where done and how secretive they could be if you asked questions, used to make me laugh as sometimes they would throw me out of the kitchen for 10/15 mins while they did certain things but I did see quite a bit and it was much as we all do, nothing that special.

I think the difference comes in when it's home made and again Ive been in homes where nanny makes the meal she is normally 70+ and speaks very little english, loads of stainless steel tins or jars filled with her mixes, very little info from her (only big smiles) but you do see what she is doing.
so don't knock yourselves, I think your doing a great job.


fridgdoc

[JerryM]

fridgedoc,

i can relate fully to this. i knew an Italian chef briefly a while ago - no secrets but on the ingredient front had skill in combining and cooking them that u ordinarily would not take sufficient notice of eg browning onions.

anyhow reason for post given u're experience. 2 things always in mind of BIR's - fridges full of base and rooms full of spice. would appreciate u're thoughts on both. my thinking being that somehow in processing and storing base they do something that's not obvious at home. the owner of my local TA always say we won't master the taste down to spice. he's not clear on whether this is down to the smaller volume (of base) we produce or the greater variety of spice they have to use.

[George]

I am a newcomer to cooking BIR but not to cooking. It is always easy to be critical about things. But I have always compared my curry skills against that of my favourite BIR. So I am, so far anyway, permanently disappointed. Don't get me wrong, we've enjoyed many good home cooked meals, but that BIR something is always missing.

I've changed my opinion on this recently and may be more in line with Razor's thinking. I find that much BIR output is nothing special and I'm sure that most of the recipes on this site produce food which is t least as good, and probably better.  For most BIRs output, I don't detect any special BIR flavour at all. I'd go as far as saying that many chilled food dishes are better from supermarkets, with the exception of food which really needs to be fresh, like naan bread.

This leaves the exceptional BIRs, but they are are now few and far between. It's like any field - there are always experts, who may be hard to match, e.g. you might be able to sing, play an instrument, do cake icing or plaster a wall - but can you produce results which match the top professionals in those fields? It's never easy.