Topic: Making Chinois's Jalfrezi

[natterjak]

Hi natterjack, persevere, at least you know things cant go much worse next time.

Oh I'm sure they can and I might even prove it. 

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?

Bunjara wasn't too hard to make actually.  I used the slow cooker so just left the onions to do their stuff for 8 or 9 hours, following which they're caramelised nicely.  It's the low stress option rather than taking the risk of burning them in a frying pan.

I found the Post It(tm) notes a good source of fibre, but the colouring is made with Sudan 1 and hence can't really be considered up to BIR standard.

[natterjak]

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!

Hi Ray.  Well one of the benefits of being a self-declared beginner is I have no ego about these things and feel no need to compete.  I'd rather admit to the mistakes and learn from others.  Mind you, the first time I cook a stonking curry I guess I will be on here bragging about it, so cancel the ego comment.

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.

Interesting, I didn't know you could safely store and reheat cooked rice, something about food poisoning which doesn't get killed by reheating?  Can't remember the details but if you've been doing this a while and haven't died yet maybe I should give it a 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

I actually have one of those camping stoves, if only I can find it.  I wouldn't have thought it would give enough gas flow for a truly sizzling hot frying pan though as they always seem a bit weedy.  Maybe that's just because they're used outdoors and the heat blows away.

[Razor]

Hi NJ,

I can't remember the exact details on rice but I know that my method derives from the info I sought at the time.  I think you have a 20 minute window to get it cooled down (below 5c), then freeze it.  As long as you get it past 80c when you reheat it, it seems to be safe!

I've been doing it for years, and I'm pretty sure the TA's and BIR's do something similar, and I've never suffered from an upset tummy.

With regards to the camping stove, I did a BBQ at a friends house last summer, and I used one if these stoves with a wok to cook up a curry sauce.  It was excellent, plenty of heat output for what you need. Using it indoors would be even better I guess.

All the best,

Ray

[JerryM]

natterjak,

loving your honest reports. for me it's crucial to go wrong in order to go right.

for me it's not temperature. i can chuck everything in my pan and just let it cook - just like dipuraja. it will produce a decent curry that you'd offer to friends. yes heat is something to consider but once the basics are sorted.

i would read through BE's post for a bit of background http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=2815


it's very difficult to pinpoint what's going wrong. i would never use the oil from bunjarra though to cook - just use plain veg oil for starters.

after that you need to pick off each part of the jigsaw and ask when you need ie each particular aspect from start to finish. for me CA's recipes are well proven and top notch.

ps it took me 3 months to get comfortable and i'm still learning

[Stephen Lindsay]

I too reheat rice that has been in the fridge. I make sure its piping hot when brought out of the microwave and have never had a bad tummy. Also bear in mind that Chinese fried rice is made from cold cooked rice.

[solarsplace]

Hi natterjak

Great post, I bet you have already learnt a lot from this.

I bet the next time you try, if you do what the others have suggested and focus on one thing at a time to start, you will surprise yourself with some great results!

Take your time, and do not go mad on the heat to start with. Better to calm the heat down and watch what happens at each stage of the cook while you find your feet.

All the best

[natterjak]

Ok, someone said persevere (or was it that I was perverse?), so anyway tonight I had another crack at it.  Same recipe, same ingredients except I reduced the oil at the start of the dish to 2 tbs and made sure the pan was very hot before I started frying garlic. 

I should have listened to Axe and solarspace amongst others because I over did it with the heat and as soon as the garlic hit the pan I knew I had to act fast to stop things burning.  I really could have done with using 3 tbs of oil as the recipe says because by the time the curry and chilli powders hit the pan things were looking very dry.  BUT... by whipping through my cue sheet ignoring the timings just adding ingredients as required to keep the action in the pan going and to stop anything burning I managed to achieve an end result much better than before.  It even looked like a curry!

At the end of the recipe I still had a bit too much oil on the surface of the dish so I may reduce the amount of oil-rich bunjara I add next time.  The taste was pretty good, maybe 7 out of 10 but one thing I noticed was that on the plate water separated out of the curry and gathered amongst the rice.   I spooned off about 5 or 6 tbs from the plate.  What would cause this?

All in all a big improvement and definately a curry I wouldn't have been disappointed with if served at a restaurant, so very pleasing progress. 

Loving close up photo follows.

[Malc.]

water separated out of the curry and gathered amongst the rice.   I spooned off about 5 or 6 tbs from the plate.  What would cause this?

It's hard to say without knowing exactly what you cooked and how. Did you use pre-cooked chicken? Did you use pre-cooked peppers? Chicken from supermarks is generally pumped full of water (and other various cocktails) to make it look plump. When cooked in a pan, the water releases from the meat. Peppers also contain quite alot of moisture.

I'm glad your happier with tonight's results. I've had some real highs, but all of these were preceded by many lows.

Jerry summed it up nicely, you learn from mistakes than anything else. Unless of course you have a friendly Bangladeshi BIR Chef to hand , which I don't sadly.

Onwards and upwards.

[Stephen Lindsay]

hey natterjak - this looks much better than your earlier post - as for the water - pre-cooking veg by frying first can help especially if you've a lot in the curry, e.g. onions, peppers etc. I wonder if your base is the right consistency, e.g. not too watery. I usually go for a "soup" texture. It's hard to find the right words, but not too thin and not too gloopy.

[natterjak]

water separated out of the curry and gathered amongst the rice.   I spooned off about 5 or 6 tbs from the plate.  What would cause this?

It's hard to say without knowing exactly what you cooked and how. Did you use pre-cooked chicken? Did you use pre-cooked peppers? Chicken from supermarks is generally pumped full of water (and other various cocktails) to make it look plump. When cooked in a pan, the water releases from the meat. Peppers also contain quite alot of moisture.

Hi, chicken, onions and green chillis were all cooked from raw within the pan.  I didn't have any green sweet peppers so left them out.  My base sauce was thinned with water to the consistency of milk as per the directions in Chinois's video.

Not sure how I can end up with too much oil floating on the top and also too much water in it, surely as the water boils off the oil comes through.  I'm just going to have to try this a few more times and see what effect varying the oil and water content has.