Topic: Can I double or triple the quantities?

[missy]

Hi everyone

I am currently in Bangkok, Thailand and I am about to open a small takeaway and delivery indian and Thai food shop.
I have been practising with great success making the curry base and main dish recipes from Kris Dhillon's book, The Curry Secret. Also, I have adapted some of the dishes and the base slightly from reading some of the posts from this website.
I have found the making of the curry base very very time consuming and hard work  and would like to make it easier for me. So, my question is can I simply triple the quantities like the following and cook it all in one big pot? And, would I have to adjust the cooking times? Also, for the main dish recipes like the chicken tikka masala can I double or triple the ingredients to make larger batches in one go?
Normal ingredients                            Ingredients tripled

900g cooking onions                         2.7 kg cooking onions
50g green ginger                              150g green ginger
50g garlic                                          150g garlic
2 3/4 pint water                                6 pint water
1 teaspoon salt                                 3 teaspoon salt
225g tin tomatoes                             675g tin tomatoes
8 tablespoon vegetable oil                24 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon tomato puree                 3 teaspoon tomato puree
1 teaspoon turmeric                          3 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon paprika                           3 teaspoon paprika


I really appreciate any replies.

Kind regards

Philip

[Razor]

Hi Missy,

With regards to your base sauce, absolutely, triple, quadruple scale up to what you can cope with.  Some would say that cooking in the larger batches makes for a better base sauce.  Remember, the restaurants use 30 - 40 litre pots, so increasing with the ingredients and cooking times would be no problem at all.

However, doubling or tripling up on a final dish, in my opinion is not such a good idea, although some will disagree.  We have discussed this before on the forum and If my memory serves me good, I think the general concensus was, for the creamier dishes such as Korma or CTM, doubling up would be ok but on the spicier dishes, like Madras, Vindaloos and so on, single portions is the way to go, purely for control reasons.  Again, I wouldn't advocate trying to double up with a Bhuna style dish because to get the correct, dryish consistency, it would take just as long as it would to cook them individually.

Hope that helps, and good luck with the restaurant.

Ray

[missy]

Thanks for that Ray, I really appreciate it.

With the usual recipe- for example I simmer the onion, ginger and garlic base for 40-45 mins. If I triple the quantities how long should I increase that time, and for roughly how much longer?

[Razor]

Hi Missy,

Here's my way judging the cooking time,I picked up this tip from forum member Chewytikka, leave the onions whole.  When you can cut them with a spoon, you're ready for the next step. Cooking them this way really helps release the natural sweetness from the onions without the need to add any sugar to the final dish.

Another tip of his, is to strain the base.  I use a sieve but if you are going to be cooking in big batches, you would be better purchasing a large food mill.  It really does make for a great consistency.  You wouldn't believe the amount of fibrous matter that comes out at the end, and it tastes disgusting, so passing my base is now standard for me.  A little time consuming but well worth the effort.

Hope that helps Missy,

Ray

[Peripatetic Phil]

General agreement with Ray, but one observation as a follower of KD -- Khris specifies portion sizes to serve three to four people :


• 5 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3/4 pint curry sauce (page 20)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Pinch of chilli powder
• 1 lb chicken cooked as on page 52
• 1 level teaspoon garam masala
• 1/2 level teaspoon ground cummin
• Pinch of ground fenugreek
• 1/2 tomato thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped green coriander

so I think that in her opinion, it is not necessary to cook one portion at a time.  I use her recommended 3/4 pint of base for a curry for two, which is how I normally cook mine, halve the chicken and double the spices.

Hope that helps :
** Phi.

[Razor]

Hi Phil,

I would agree, Khris's portion sizes do suggest that they make 3 - 4 portions but in reality, 3/4 of pint, for me, only produces 1 large portion.  I use between 300 - 350 ml of base sauce per portion and reduce to my desired consistancy.

Khris also advocates using olive oil (New Curry Secret) which for me, is a definate no no.  However, I do like the (New) Curry Secret base sauce, very simple to make and a good foundation for most types of curries.

Ray

[Peripatetic Phil]

I would agree, Khris's portion sizes do suggest that they make 3 - 4 portions but in reality, 3/4 of pint, for me, only produces 1 large portion.  I use between 300 - 350 ml of base sauce per portion and reduce to my desired consistancy.

Agreed, although your "one large portion" is my "two normal portions"

Khris also advocates using olive oil (New Curry Secret) which for me, is a definate no no.  However, I do like the (New) Curry Secret base sauce, very simple to make and a good foundation for most types of curries.

I have ignored the "use olive oil" suggestion from that book !  I've also tried the NCS base, but think I will stick to my pressure-cooked KD1 base for now -- one whole step of liquidising eliminated

** Phil.

[Tomdip]

Hi Missy,

Agree with the guys above.

I found you can cook KDs curries in bulk - even the spicier ones - but they need re-cooking to really get the flavours going.  I used to cook one whole batch of base and make a single curry from it, and then cool it and keep it in the fridge then cook individual portions of it while working in a pub kitchen and they were very good.

[missy]

Thanks for all your replies. Very big help to me.

I will try cooking the base with the onions whole next time, sounds like a good idea and will save me from having to chop them all up  . I might also try reducing the amount of onion and adding a green pepper and a couple of carrots in there instead. And the sieve idea sounds good as well. 

I have tried to look for Kris's new book from downloading it, but cant find the torrent anywhere, and there aren't many book shops in Thailand for me to buy it. Is her new base anywhere on this forum?

[missy]

General agreement with Ray, but one observation as a follower of KD -- Khris specifies portion sizes to serve three to four people :


• 5 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3/4 pint curry sauce (page 20)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Pinch of chilli powder
• 1 lb chicken cooked as on page 52
• 1 level teaspoon garam masala
• 1/2 level teaspoon ground cummin
• Pinch of ground fenugreek
• 1/2 tomato thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped green coriander

so I think that in her opinion, it is not necessary to cook one portion at a time.  I use her recommended 3/4 pint of base for a curry for two, which is how I normally cook mine, halve the chicken and double the spices.

Hope that helps :
** Phi.

Kris's recommended quantity for 3 - 4 portions is also way to small and really is only enough for 2 portions. Is it ok if I simply add more of the curry base and not too much more of the spices?