Topic: Bulk cooking

[foureyes1941]

I am looking for some posts from a while ago on here, they were recipes submitted by a chap who I believe worked in a university as a chef and were all bulk meals to serve lots of people. I'm talking about a few years ago so may have been taken off in the change round, just hoping that I've just missed the post and they're still here.

I have offered to help my Sister out with the curries she's doing, her and her family are all veggies but lots of the guests are not so I'll be doing the meat versions along with kebabs and tandoori chicken etc. I intend to cook most of it the week before and freeze everything then on the day, heat and keep hot just before the intended feeding time, a bit like the Indian weddings do lol!
 I thought of some mild curries, korma and butter chicken, pathia and jalfezi's (med) and madras and chennai (hot) and whilst I have cooked all these before as Indian family meals I was wondering if it would be best to do a whole batch of base sauce for each batch and do it like that? My biggest problem before making large amounts was doubling up with the spices, I could never adjust the spices reliably, 4 curries x 4   1 tsp amounts of coriander doesn't come out the same as 1 x 1 1 tsp coriander made in batch(ie 4 lots)

Can anyone help me with this please?

[Peripatetic Phil]

Try 976bar's "London Olympics 2012" thread, Anita.
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** Phil.

[foureyes1941]

Phil, thank you so much, that appears a good place to make a start, this was the chap I was referring to. I have got six weeks to get practicing now and daresay lots of trials and errors along the way, here's to one fantastic night in the making, just the weather to behave on the night now x

[Peripatetic Phil]

You are most welcome, Anita — I just hope that the thread has not suffered majorly from bit-rot, unlike much of the forum ...

[pap rika]

Anita,

           look at this guy on YouTube.  https://youtu.be/uIaDjQjGClU  he has quite a few posts on bulk cooking that you may find of interest.

Regards pap rika

[Peripatetic Phil]

A bit difficult to follow his recipes with any accuracy, Pap, unless one is willing to invest in his not-inexpensive "currybyair" spices.  To give an example, here is his ingredient list for saag aloo — whilst I am certain that any decent turmeric powder can be substituted for his "ha ha haldi", what should one substitute for his "ha ha haldi mix powder" (which, when one follows the link, appears to also be just turmeric, but in an tin) and his "Desi-Style mix powder" ?

Ingredients:

PREPARED POTATOES:
8 Potatoes
2-3 Table Spoons Oil
1 Table Spoon Garlic And Ginger Paste   
1 tsp Ha Ha Haldi 
1/4 tsp Garam Masala
1/2 tsp Salt
Water

PRE-COOKED SAAG:
Spinach
3-4 tsps Oil
1 tsp Garlic and Ginger Paste -   
1 bowlful Chopped Onions
1 tsp Ha Ha Haldi (Tumeric) Mix Powder

SAAG ALOO:
2 tsps Oil
1 clove Garlic
Chopped Onions and Peppers
1 sprinkle Salt
4-5 tbsps pre-cooked Potatoes
Pre-cooked Saag
2 tsps Desi-Style mix powder
2 tsps Butter Ghee
2-3 slices Chopped Tomato

[livo]

It's Turmeric and Mixed Powder Phil.  I asked him a few years back.

Foureyes, this year would have been my 3rd time doing bulk catering for my wife's work (4 year cycle) but the new faculty administration has decided to do it without me this year.  On the previous 2 occasions I catered for 40 - 50 people with 4 different mains dishes, rice, Tikka, naan and sides, so I'm not too disappointed to be relieved of my duty this time around.  Most were kids so it was all very mild dishes which makes it somewhat easier than hot curries.

I have been involved in this discussion here before, not without controversy, but I'd done it while others who argued the negative had not.

Tip number 1.  Do not increase spices to a linear scale.  Each spice is somewhat different, and some like ground cumin and coriander, can be almost just directly scaled up, while others like chilli, pepper and strong aromatics cannot.  Then there are those which fall in between like turmeric.  There are food science resources which state that spices should be increased at a ratio of 1.4 to 1.5 times for each doubling of quantity, but I found that this only begins to make a noticeable difference when you get up to 8 - 10 servings.  In other words, doubling from 1 to 2 serves is fine and even 2 to 4 serves will be OK. However, once you go up to around 8 serves you really need to be dropping back on the strong spices.  This was my experience anyway.  I never used much chilli, but I'd be going even further in knocking it back to around 1.2 X.  It depends on the tolerance levels of your target diners.

Tip number 2.  If I had been asked to do it again this year, I would approach it quite differently.  I would have committed the cardinal sin of using commercial sized "paste" packs. Pataks makes at least 3 that I have used, and they are perfectly fine, easy to use and designed to be utilised in commercial settings where bulk cooking is essential.  The 3 I've used previously are the Korma, the Butter Chicken and the Mild Curry.  The Korma is not like a BIR dull korma but a really nice flavour.  The Butter Chicken is also very good as is the Mild Curry.

Combine these pastes in a ratio proportionate to the instructions on the jar, with a bulk cooked Base Onion Gravy and loads of pre-cooked meats and vegetables and you'll be pleasantly surprised.  I have just recently cooked both Chicken and Lamb Korma over the last weekend along with 7 other main BIR style dishes for a lunch on Sunday and the Lamb Korma was the most liked dish.  I used Misty Ricardo's pre-cook recipes for both chicken and lamb as well as doing beef the same as the lamb.  You do not need to scale linearly for bulk pre-cooks either.  Just use a bit of common sense.

Tip number 3.  Base gravy is able to be scaled linearly regardless of any instruction or argument to the contrary.  However, use less gravy the more you make.  You simply will not get the same amount of reduction for large quantity cooking and it will end up too loose and wet.  You could deliberately keep your gravy thick to start with.

I know a chap who used to frequent this forum. I can ask him about scaling up spices.  I'll do so and report back to you.

If you have a few weeks, get ready and do a practice.  You can always freeze and bring it out later to be included in the actual preparations for the day.

Good luck. From experience I know it's a lot of work but very rewarding when everybody enjoys your efforts.

[Peripatetic Phil]

It's Turmeric and Mixed Powder Phil.  I asked him a few years back.

As you've presumably made this dish, Livo, a few questions if I may ?

• Was it a success ? (If not, go no further !).
• What did you use in place of the "Desi-Style mix powder" ?
• Was the end product of a dry, medium or runny consistency ?
• Did it taste noticeably different (from the spicing perspective) to any meat curries that you made at the same time ?

Sag aloo is very much one of my favourite dishes, so I would love to be able to turn out a good one as easily as I can turn out (say) a good chicken with chilli and black bean sauce ...
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** Phil.