Prawn Madras & Chicken Balti demo

[pete]

I managed to get another demo at a restaurant.
The chef even let me cook some of it!
Here you are:-

Prawn Madras

Thawed Frozen ?Ocean Beauty? Prawns (about twenty)
Curry gravy oil (kept in a ghee pot on stove)
1 tablespoon garlic ginger puree (very runny)
1 desertspoon chilli powder
1 desertspoon curry powder mix
2 desertspoons tomato puree (very thick paste)
Curry gravy (soup consistency)

Gas ring on maximum all the time
Heat 2 tablespoons of curry gravy oil for a minute
Add 1 tablespoons of garlic ginger puree
Cook for a couple of minutes
It doesn?t brown at all, just turns a bit darker and small bits solidify
Add the chilli powder, curry powder, tomato puree and half a ladle of curry gravy (in that order)
Stir then let bubble away for five minutes
Stir and add two more ladles of curry gravy
Five more minutes than get the prawns and squeeze the water out of them, before adding to the pan
Cook another three minutes then add a little curry gravy oil
All in all it takes about 15 minutes

No lemon juice, coconut or fresh coriander used!


Chicken Balti

Ten pieces of spoon sized precooked chicken
2 desertspoons prefried onions (Hi Mark!)
Curry gravy oil (kept in a ghee pot on stove)
1 ?? tablespoon finely chopped garlic
1 desertspoon curry powder mix
1 ?? desertspoon tomato puree (very thick paste)
1 tablespoon dried fenugreek
1 teaspoon ground coriander
Curry gravy (soup consistency)
? a takeaway carton of cold water
1 sliced (like a cucumber) tomato
Sliced mushroom (probably one big one)
Fresh coriander

Gas ring on full
The ring is about 5 inches wide
Heat 2 tablespoons of curry gravy oil
Add the garlic
Cook for a couple of minutes
Add the prefried onions
These are yellow strings of onion, 3mm wide
Stir in for a couple of minutes
Add the tomato puree, curry powder mix and cook till it gets a little dry
Add the water (secret ingredient!)
Let it bubble away for a couple of minutes
It takes no time on their cookers to reboil
It should reduce by about half then add the fresh tomato
Add the chicken soon after and bring back to the boil
Cook for three minutes
Add fresh coriander
Add 1 ladle of curry gravy bring back to the boil
Add the mushroom, dried fenugreek and ground coriander.
Add another ladle and a half of curry gravy
Cook another 5 minutes and its ready


Other Observations

The oil drum was KTC veg oil in a very large drum
Cartons about were full of chopped garlic (bit blue), precooked lamb, precooked chicken, precooked veg, dried fenugreek, thick tomato paste, mixed tandoori marinade, garlic ginger puree (bit oily), chopped fresh coriander, curry mix (yellow but darker than turmeric), chilli powder, turmeric, salt, coconut powder and sugar mix (new to me), single cream, ground coriander, precooked spinach, precooked onions, peas, chopped uncooked onions, chopped mushrooms, chopped fresh chillies

The rice is all micro waved back
It clearly has been cooked earlier
Very nice it is too
The cooking pans are made of aluminium
About 12 inches wide and 2 ? inch deep
They are not as light as I thought they would be

The chef told me the difficulty of getting the same flavour at home
He reckons (here we go again) you can?t do it in small quantities
He clearly has tried himself
He said his base comes out a different colour
It?s more yellow if you make it at home
His curry gravy pots are not the massive size we have heard of
About 15 inches tall by 12 inches wide
They are loaded with oil too (which he saves for cooking)

I reckon the most important restaurant tecnique is reusing the curry gravy oil
It might also be worth noting that this curry gravy was not new
It had therefore had time to mature
If it had been new the ?taste? might not have been there

I have tasted the curries
The prawn madras is very hot!
Both are brilliant
Complete with the ?taste?
One flavour in it, is that distinctive ?Kris Dhillon? curry base
That book never goes away does it?

[woodpecker21]

hi pete
the vindaloo i saw cooked was very hot and the onion gravy as i said in my post it reminded me of kds' gravy. do you believe that it is more in the technique now having hands on experience (lucky git ). which dish did you help cook? how did you feel when you were cooking it  because i know from my 2 visits to Rajver that on each occasion my heart was racing with adrenalin & i was only watching, did you flambe the pan (not having the luxury of having a gas cooker no chance for me  ) but Miah the chef @ Rajver flambed my vindaloo four times in the space of 10mins without batting a eyelid or singe-ing?

will stick to using onion gravy that i posted for now but again like everyone else i will going back to where it all started curry secret here i comeeeeeeeee. now i believe in my ability to create a copy. but if there is one critisism of kds' cooking style ie putting the gravy in before the spices have been through the bhoona....he he!

anyway time is was writing up those recipes

regards

gary

[raygraham]

Hi All,

A nice report Pete with loads of interesting observations! The questions raised for me are "what's in the curry mixes" and is the "curry oil" simply a by-product of cooking the base sauce? It also sounds like the Garlic is pre-bought puree!
It would be a shame to think we could never re-create the exact taste at home due to volume restrictions but with more reports from undercover spies like Pete we might get pretty close. Thanks for the time and effort you have made for us all!

Yep, Kriss Dhillon keeps rearing it's (or her) head doesn't it!!

My next project is Pete's 600mls Oil base, probably next week then I think back to Kriss for another visit as it needs a bit more exploration I think.

Don't forget folks the Kushi Balti book is due out mid-month..........we hope. Who's gonna be first to try the recipes and review it?

Ray

[pete]

which dish did you help cook?
did you flambe the pan

I cooked most of the prawn madras but the restaurant suddenly got busy and the proper chef had to take over
It still was a magic moment
There was flambeing but not big style
The chef shook the pan quite aggressively on about four occasions
There were flames happening around the edge of the pan

The whole pan never set fire

what's in the curry mixes" and is the "curry oil" simply a by-product of cooking the base sauce? It also sounds like the Garlic is pre-bought puree!
It would be a shame to think we could never re-create the exact taste at home due to volume restrictions

Yep, Kriss Dhillon keeps rearing it's (or her) head doesn't it!!

I believe the curry mix is very similar to Bruce Edwards Curry House Cookery recipe
It's just a slightly darker version of turmeric
Turmeric and coriander have got to be the biggest ingredients in it

The curry oil is a byproduct, but they intentionally put a lot in, with a view to cook with it later.

The garlic ginger puree is definitely restaurant made

I don't see why we can't? make the curry base at home

The chef was probably thinking we are only trying with 4 onions
He doesn't realise that some of us are going the whole hog
Some people have done a thirty onion gravy,haven't they?
I'm going to revisit Kris Dhillons gravy
But I think it needs a lot more oil, if I want it to be like this restaurants version

[Curry King]

Nice one Pete, it seems a lot of tom puree to be putting a single curry Ive slipped with the tube before myself and put in too much you could taste it.  Im assuming that if you couldnt then its not a very strong concentrate?

[pete]

It wasn't noticable as a bad flavour
I don't know what tomato puree they use but it looks like it's from a can
It's very thick
Every meal, I saw prepared, used the curry gravy oil
Curry Queen said the oil used at Bengal Cuisine (brick Lane) was from the curry gravy too.
They kept theirs in an old ghee pot, just like this place.
I thought, at my Bengal Cuisine demo, they were using ghee but they obviously weren't
Last night I saw them also using their tandoor.
It's half as big as mine again!
You should have seen the naans
They were massive
Maybe thirteen inches across
The chef was pouring some sticky sauce onto it
It looked a bit like a runny mango chutney
He then folded the naan in half and said "peshwari"
It looked fantastic
I got one other recipe from last night which I shall post tonight

[Curry King]

I had given up on using oil from the curry gravy but maybe it is worth another try now I think I have my final currys better.  I have been making my base with as little oil as possible to try and cut it down to minimum.

[Ashes]

The chef?s curries will come out lighter at home if he isnt using a 100 curries recycled oil
maybe thats the answer?

[pete]

It's worth noting that nearly all the oil sems to be scooped off the curry gravy, after it's cooked.
It's set to one side for later use
This leaves the curry gravy pretty oil free, and gives you control to make an "un oily" curry if you want.
The gravy at this place was a brown colour.
I was told that this was the last night they would use this gravy
Any left over would be chucked
The new curry gravy, which was already being prepared, had the lots of the yellow/red oil on top

[Mark J]

Great stuff, nice one pete