Topic: CR0 BBQ This Saturday!

[Graeme]

This sounds like a good get together with site members and friends
in mind, with a positive insight into BIR.

Next year a few more may attend.

[curryhell]

Count me in.  I'll book the day off  ;D ;D

[Ramirez]

Yeah, George is the short guy wearing the "Just Do It" T shirt 

LOL.  ;D

[solarsplace]

Hi Everyone

I appreciate this subject has limited interest for the non-participants, so - will try to keep things brief...

Thank you ChrisWG for organising & sponsoring the event. You found a great location, that is perfect for families and days out at any time.

Good to meet you Az, natterjak & 976bar

ChrisWG - Your Bhaji's and tikka looked great - never got the chance to try any though

Az - Your 'death' chicken as ChrisWG put it was superb - and not 'death' chicken at all 

976bar - Your version of Blades tikka was absolutely superb. Probably the best tikka I have ever had from anywhere. Also really liked your CTM and garlic chilli sauce too. Thank you!

I brought some portions of my own Saag Aloo, which went down very well according to feedback.

Also a good portion of Razors Seekh Kebabs to be cooked on the BBQ. I make these into burgers because they always fall off the skewers for me - but very very popular! - thanks Razor!

Also some of my own garlic chilli & vindaloo sauces. Which people seemed to like. Although it turns out that my vindaloo is actually a spot on madras rather than a vindaloo in other peoples opinions  :'(

Was also lucky enough to be able to meet Az owner of Chutneys TA - Fleet Hampshire

Az is a thoroughly great chap and was more than helpful offering advice and sampling our offerings. Thank you Az - I hope we did not pester you too much. Here are some of the snippets of his advice:

Pans, Az chooses the lightest ali pans possible, this is down to basically every chef he knows getting wrist joint / rsi type problems from handing pans in one hand all night for 20 years. This is also because of the need for speed - he chooses a pan with a very thin base - thicker is not better in his trade, takes too long to heat up and is too heavy.

Az tends to never add g&g paste during the fry as it is already incorporated into his base sauce.

The spices must be fried far longer than most people would think. Az suggests that they should be reaching the point of 'charring'.

Az - Vindaloo - No vinegar, no lemon. Nothing. Just lots of chilli powder. In fact probably a generous 1/2 chef spoon of chilli powder. It is all in the frying of the chilli powder technique.

He personally avoids Rajah spices due to excessive cost. Favouring TRS & East End as equally high quality but better value for money.

He prefers using veg ghee to start dishes.

That is about all I can remember..

Anyway, goes to show, that there were no issues - as expected, no violations of privacy or confrontation - just a civilised and very enjoyable afternoon. Hopefully we can do this again with more members attending next time

Thanks everyone.
 

[Razor]

Hi SP,

Great post as ever mate.  Some great observations too courtesy of Az.  It has been mentioned before about not starting the dish off with GG paste but I always assumed that, that technique would apply ONLY when using a base sauce heavily laden with garlic and ginger?

There was another post more recently where someone had it suggested to him (I think by a BIR chef) to 'singe' the spices?  Which to me, describes perfectly what Az is suggesting.

I am a little concerned that you are struggling with my kebabs SP, so I'm going to pm you with a few questions, and see if we can bottom this one out ;D

The question of pans has cropped up many times, and, straight from the horses mouth (Az), the light Ali ones are best.  I use the very same one that you see in Chewy's videos.  Very cheap, very durable and very good.

So SP, who was who in photo then lol.

Good post mate,

Ray

[chewytikka]

Hi All
Looks like you all had a great time currying,  ;D
I bet the aroma caused some interest to the onlookers.
I'd love to do something similar, maybe next time.

Just shows how every BIR/TA do it there way. No G&G in the tarka
No Vinegar in the Vindaloo. Veg ghee instead of oil.

No hard and fast rules in the curry game.
cheers Chewy

[curryhell]

Obviously SS you quizzed Az at length  ;D ;D.  Good man yourself.  How else are we going to get those pearls of wisdom.  And as CT said, funny how they all have their own way of doing things.  How diverse can this curry cooking lark get???   Ray, will be trying your sheek kebabs at some point.  I'll let you know if i have any probs keeping them on the skewers and will be looking for some advice if i do .  It sounds like all those who went had a fab time.  I bet the onlookers were drewling over the aroma emanating from the CRO pitch.  Good ;D ;D ;D.  I look forward to the next event which i will endeavour to attend.  Well done to all the participants

[Ramirez]

Nice post Solar. 

Crikey, I think it raises more questions than it answers. Nowadays I do tend to fry my spices longer than I used to, but I question whether that is long enough. I suppose it would be quite easy to test this - if you take it too far then you can just start again. Must admit, I've never quite understood the 'toffee' smell that many go on about.

[976bar]

Great post Solarspace, I'm glad you enjoyed the dishes

And in my opinion, I thought you're Vindaloo was spot on for taste if lacking a little in heat for a Vindaloo, but great effort.

The link you sent me for Razor's Seekh Kebab's won't open for some reason, so I'm just going to go to the Kebab's section and look for razor's recipe, but thanls for sending it in the first place

Looking forward to the next event, I might bring my burner next time to and maybe we could have a go at preparing dishes from scratch. I think I have most of the spices and could bring some base sauce along. If anyone cares to bring their meat/chicken/fish or whatever and their recipe we could get a few demo's going

[chriswg]

For those that met Az, send me an IM and I'll send you his mobile number if you want to buy any bulk ingredients from his warehouse.

Also, if you order a takeaway from Chutneys on a Monday or a Tuesday I'm sure he'd be more than happy to let you watch him cook it in the kitchen (assuming he is there).

Regarding next time, I think I heard that you can hire the Harlington Centre in Fleet by the hour including their kitchen. I'm not sure if they'd be 100% happy about having 30 people cooking curries in there but I'm sure if we left it in good condition they wouldn't mind. This would mean we could hold a Winter event without worrying about the weather and we would have plenty of gas rings to cook on. We could have a curry cook off competition for those wanting to cook.