Topic: Making Chinois's Jalfrezi

[natterjak]

As some of you know from my other posts I've recently been occupied with making garlic/ginger paste, bunjara and ashoka base sauce, all in preparation for having a crack at a Jalfrezi recipe that CR0 user Chinois kindly emailed me.  When I say Ashoka base it's actually Chinois's variation of it, but virtually the same so no matter.

So how did it go?

Well, uhh... not great really!  Not that I can criticise Chinois and his recipes because I reckon I ballsed it up spectacularly.  I'll explain......

The base sauce was ok, I boiled it up in my 8 litre stockpot this morning and didn't even get the hellish stink of boiling onions that I remember from Kris Dhillon's base sauce of years gone by.  The taste was kind of mild curry, with a velvety texture, just as Chinois said it should be.  (image attached)

I was a little nervous of cooking the curry itself.  So many things to add, all at the right time in the right order.  I did my prep well and watched Chinois's excellent Madras video several times:

Indian Restaurant Chicken Madras Curry

I even noted down on post it notes each stage and the number of seconds between each.  It was all written up like a stage manager's running order.

So - what could go wrong?  Cooking by numbers isn't it?  Just portion off all your ingredients into little pots next to the cooker and follow your running order.

Problem 1 was I started with oil skimmed off the top of my bunjara as Chinois suggests.  This was great but it seems impossible to do this without getting some bits of bunjara in the pan too.  As my hob and frying pan heated up the bunjara started to fry and darken.  My hob is electric and takes a while to get going and my pan has a really thick base which also slows down the warming up process.  I realised that due to the bits of bunjara floating in the oil if I left it on the heat for too long I'd end up nice burnt bunjara undertones to the dish, so had to put ingredient no.1 (garlic) in while the pan was still medium hot. 

Never mind, I'd just lengthen some of the timings and all would be well.... 

A few ingredients down and still quite a number to go and my post it note running order was proving invaluable as i was in a right old flap with only 10 or 20 seconds between some "cues".  Meanwhile I was boiling rice on another hob ring.  My curry frying pan still wasn't exactly setting the world on fire, distinctly lacking in temperature.  One thing Chinois is clear on is the importance of getting that pan sizzling, so I was somewhat dismayed, realising it was all going a bit wrong 

I've got to say my mood didn't improve much when my post it notes decided that sticking to the wall in the face of all the steam rising off the hob was outside their job description and fluttered down into my pan of base sauce.  Blooming marvellous, now I was flying blind.

Meanwhile my rice was going great guns, pan bubbling over and distracting me from the curry.  Needless to say I was so stressed out I could do without this but every time I turned the rice down and the curry up it just seemed to get worse and the curry had gone off the boil entirely...

Yeah you got it - I had my cooker knobs mixed up and had been turning the curry pan down and the rice up throughout. 

So anyway, long story short I did cook my curry on a rather low heat and taking 50% longer than Chinois does on his video.  The result wasn't cracking if I'm honest.  It was swimming in oil (I spooned off about 3 TBS at the end) and the flavour was nothing to write home about.  I'm assuming this is because I didn't get my pan sizzling.

Anyhow, this is what it looked like - I'll give it another try some other day.

 (image attached)

[emin-j]

OMG mate did you eat that   
I remember the first Curry I made and like you got myself in a right o'l state !
Next time just concentrate on 1 dish at a time and reheat it all when all the dishes are finished.

[Stephen Lindsay]

natterjack - love the fact that you were willing to do this post - keep on working away at it, you have plenty base by the sound of it.

[natterjak]

Ha - I'm not proud!  Still not sure why it ended up so oily though, the pic was taken after I'd spooned off 3 tbs excess oil at the end of cooking.

Anyway I'm probably in trouble with Chinois now for giving his recipe a bad name by association with my cock up, but things can only get better in future attempts.

[Malc.]

Next time just concentrate on 1 dish at a time and reheat it all when all the dishes are finished.

This is good advice. Start with the rice and then transfer it to a small roasting dish and leave it in the oven to keep it warm. this will allow you to concentrate on the next dish.

I run on an electric hob and turn the heat full up to preheat, then turn down to half. The oil is then put in and off I go. Allowing everything to preheat will give you better control.

I don't know if this is any help, but when I tried the ABC recipes, I started as the book suggests, at a basic dish first, to get the hang of it. From this, I then progressed on to the more technical dishes. This might help you get a better feeling for the cooking in hand. It's not so much about specific times but adjusting accordingly to heat and ingredients in the pan.

It's hard to tell form the pic but the base should be watered down quite a bit. Having a thicker base like the Kushi, can lave you caking up your curry if you add and too much and reduce the volume down. This I learnt the hard way.

Chin up natterjak, if I had a pound for every blunder I have made in the kitchen, I wouldn't have to be cooking my own curries, i'd already have bought my own BIR! 

[martinvic]

Hi natterjack

Don't know the base and recipe you were using, but as for the excess oil, how much oil did you put into the pan to start with?

Is the base an oily one?

Were the onions/peppers pre-cooked/fried?

Were any other oily ingredients like the Bunjara/onion paste added?

I've found all these add oil to the curry, so I think sometimes you have to compensate for these when cooking.

If it's an oily base I don't put too much oil into the pan to start with - 1 to 1 1/2 Tblsp.
Normally I only use about 2 Tblsp of oil max, with a low oil base.

If you pre-cook/fry veg don't use too much oil, or remove as much as possible before use.

When I made the Bunjara I skimmed off as much oil as possible from it before jarring it up.
Even then I still tipped out more oil after it had settled in the jar for a bit.
Must add I didn't store it in the jar so no oil was added on top, I froze it shortly after.
The oil was put into a small jug and allowed to settle, so any bits sunk, and only the clear oil from the top was used to start a curry.


Anyway hope that helps, that is just my way of doing things, it might not be totally correct, but I don't like my curries with too much oil, so you have to skim it off the final dish.

Cheers
Martin

[peterandjen]

Hi natterjack, persevere, at least you know things cant go much worse next time. You have more patience than me, i have been looking at the bunjarra recipes for ages here but never can seem to find the get up and go to have a bash at it, so well done for that
How did the post it notes taste? ive never tried them curried, do they dissolve as a thinckening agent or add texture to the sauce?

[Razor]

Hi NJ,

Well done mate for posting a "failure", many wouldn't.  Very refreshing to see an honest account.  We always see the success stories but rarely see the "cock up's" much kudos!

A tip for rice, cook it up in large batches, then portion out into the plastic takeaway tubs.  Cool it down as quick as you can, then freeze.

When you need rice, simply place frozen rice into the microwave (900w) cook on high for one minute, stir and cook again for two further minutes.  The rice should be absolutely steaming when served.  For me, this method produces better results, than fresh rice straight from the pan, invaluable when you have a few dishes on the go.

Another tip, if I may?  why not try one of the little camping stoves like this one http://www.stephensandbower.com/2010/12/choosing-the-right-camping-stove/

You can pick these up for about a fiver. It will give you a little more control  than you have with your electric hob!  I think the canisters are about a quid?

Ray

[natterjak]

Next time just concentrate on 1 dish at a time and reheat it all when all the dishes are finished.

It's hard to tell form the pic but the base should be watered down quite a bit. Having a thicker base like the Kushi, can lave you caking up your curry if you add and too much and reduce the volume down. This I learnt the hard way.

Chin up natterjak, if I had a pound for every blunder I have made in the kitchen, I wouldn't have to be cooking my own curries, i'd already have bought my own BIR! 

Yep, base sauce was thinned before being used in the curry.  I think the main reason for the poor result was lack of temperature, meaning I was more boiling than frying the bunjara and base sauce.  I'm not really discouraged, I'll have another crack and as suggested will get the rice done and in a warm oven so I can fully focus on the curry.

[natterjak]

Hi natterjack

Don't know the base and recipe you were using, but as for the excess oil, how much oil did you put into the pan to start with?

Is the base an oily one?

Were the onions/peppers pre-cooked/fried?

Were any other oily ingredients like the Bunjara/onion paste added?

I've found all these add oil to the curry, so I think sometimes you have to compensate for these when cooking.

If it's an oily base I don't put too much oil into the pan to start with - 1 to 1 1/2 Tblsp.
Normally I only use about 2 Tblsp of oil max, with a low oil base.

If you pre-cook/fry veg don't use too much oil, or remove as much as possible before use.

Thanks Martin.  Yep all the base preparations have oil in, the garlic / ginger paste and bunjara had extra oil added for storage as Chinois advices a layer of oil on top helps preserve them.  Also the oil from the top of the bunjara is used to start the jalrezi off, so the bunjara taste infuses the whole dish.

This is probably why I suffered excess oil and can be adjusted next time.  In particular I found adding oil to the bunjara didn't so much form a layer on top as just dilute and mix in with the rest of the bunjara, so it was especially oily.

I didn't prefry the chiilies and onion, just added them 2nd (after garlic) and gave them a min before carrying on with the rest of the recipe as per Chinois's madras video.