Topic: Making Chinois's Jalfrezi

[JerryM]

natterjak,

for bunjarra i use 50ml veg oil per 550g of onion - you don't need loads of oil to get the best taste.

water in the cooked dish is something i don't like myself at all. i think it's down to not cooking the dish long enough to evaporate off the excess water that the onion in the base can't retain. either use less thin base or longer cooking are the 1st things to try.

on the frying as said previously and as you are clearly doing - the importance is to respond quickly to what the pan is say - if in doubt take it off the heat. this post might help on spice frying http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=2968.0

[Malc.]

You get oil back from the base when you cook it. The more oil in the base recipe, the more you get back. Of course if you cook the base out and skim the resulting oil floating on the surface, this will affect how much oil is actually in the base. But this is a point to consider. When you cooked the Ashoka base, did you notice any oil rise to the surface? If a base is cooked out long enough (once blended), the oil within it will rise to the surface. If you blend the oil back in or don't cook it out, then this will appear in your final dish.

I do remember you saying you put too much water in the base when making it. As Jerry says, you'd have to cook this out longer when creating the final dish. Consistency of base is something you need to experiment with, as this will have an effect on how you cook with it. The thinner the base the more reduction it requires. The thicker the base, the less time you have to work with it. It's a hard thing to explain but I make mine to a loose tomato soup if that makes any sense.

Best thing to do is take a ladle or two of base an reduce it in the pan and see how it is affected the longer you cook it and reduce it.

I always pre cook my chicken now before adding it and use an alternative method I came up with that gives great results, only my opinion of course. The advantage is that any excess moisture is drawn out but leaves the chicken succulent and tasty. If you want to take a look at it, i've listed the method here: quick Pre-cook Chicken

[natterjak]

I cooked it again tonight, much the same result - very tasty curry but excess oil and water "leaks" out of it (filtered through the rice) when plated up.  It was made from the same base sauce so understandable that the result would be the same.  Next time I'll try a thicker base sauce but after the same curry 3 days on the trot it's time for a brief interlude.

One thing I did include for the first time in tonight's version was the teaspoon of MSG which features in Chinois's recipe.  Does it make a difference?  Oh yeah!  Hard to explain the difference but it was like it amplified all my tastebuds.  As I was eating it I had forgotten the MSG was in and was wondering to myself why it tasted so yummy and satisfying.  I know it's controversial and some people hate the idea of cooking with MSG but I'm a convert and will include it from now on.

Oh and Axe,  thanks for the suggestion but I'm really loving the moist and tender chicken in my dishes at present - way better than the dried out chicken I've always found in BIR dishes so I'd prefer not to go the pre-cooked meat route at present.

[Tomdip]

Respect to you Brother Natterjak for posting this - taken me nearly 20 years of disasters to get to a stage I am happy with - and there are still a few disasters every now and again when I get over confident or try experimenting.    ;D

Not au-fait with the Chinois or Ashoka stuff - but respect for you starting off on what sounds a relatively tricky recipe.  I've never braved a bunjarra myself.

Can't add much to what much wiser heads have offered - but I think some of the other base/recipe combos may a bit more straight forward.

I'm loving the Taz base at the moment and all Cory Ander' recipes, Stephen Lindsays' and the Zeera madras (off the top of my head) are really clearly set-down and the stages are easy to follow - good luck in your quest mate!

[natterjak]

and water "leaks" out of it (filtered through the rice) when plated up. 

Just reporting back on this, the separation of water on the plate was certainly due to a faulty base.  I can say that with confidence now I've cooked with a new batch of base which showed no such signs of leaking.  I assume my first batch of base wasn't blended sufficiently well, leading to the particle size being larger than that required to keep the water and vegetable matter together