Topic: colours in pilau

[madeinbeats]

...  Have you (for example) ever taken a mouthful of coffee, when you were expecting to drink tea ? 

This explains a lot  :   ;D

[madeinbeats]

Perhaps for the same reason that the blue ketchup Heinz used to produce tasted wrong, despite the flavour being indentical. Flavour and our perception of taste are two different things!

Pink pain killers are more effective than white ones too. Believe it or not. But I'm guessing people were just out right repulsed by a blue food stuff, it's not a natural or at least usual colour for food!

Nothing wrong with presentation of food, but IMO colouring of rice is a pretty bad practice. I like to let the food do the talking for the most part. Food colouring rice in the 70's probably gave the diner some sense of occasion and seemed slightly exotic, but it's a very old hat now and unnecessary for the most part... By all means I'm known to do it once in a blue moon for the novelty factor.

[curryhell]

You know it's a good Indian when they don't feel the need to do this  It's a little 1970's!

I obviously have a natural affinity for picking naff restaurants then  .  In fact i don't ever remember eating pilau rice from a BIR that didn't have at least the occasional coloured grain in it.  Maybe it's one of the very few things from the 70's that you can still find in BIR's of today, since the 70's taste seems to have all but disappeared according to those that were eating curries during that time .

[chewytikka]

Hi All
I'm also guilty of calling the Plain Pilau "Old Hat" But maybe I should have said Classic,
but there are so many fantastic flavoured Pilaus that a restaurant can make, I'm not talking about flavouring the Plain Pilau in a wok with some veg,
but actually adding the flavour to the rice at the beginning.



If you look at this 2011 Plain Pilau it has all the colours for the eye that the older customers are used to, but its only a garnish
alongside the crispy fried onion.(for presentation)
The rice however is moist and enhanced with delicate Indian flavours, much to the delight of customers young and old.



I've just cooked this flavoured Pilau with a little garlic, red onion and spices. Moist and just the way I like it. Very hard not to eat this
as it is, because it tastes so good on its own. But I'm making a Lamb Nihari later and this rice should go well.

cheers Chewy


and a bit later, the resulting Lamb Nihari and Pilau Rice, Bhuna Style, Luvvly Jubbly

[mak]

I used to colour my rice but now I just add Turmeric during cooking and settle for a nice yellow colour

My rice is in 2 pics here: http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3830.90

and

one here: http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1914.60

Cheers

[madeinbeats]

Both yours, Chewy and mak's look 100X better than the basic pilau food colouring trick. Chewy's added colour into his with the a real function of adding more flavour and texture, and although mak's effort is simple in itself by using a mould, it still looks so much more classy than the done to death BIR dual colour. Also see Chewy is a fan of non-oven dried rice too 

Here's a pic of my cummin and onion rice with a mixture of browns to match the nutty taste and autumn weather.

[loveitspicy]

Chewy - great looking! Madeinbeats what's in - how, etc for you rice - looks great

best, Rich

[madeinbeats]

Chewy - great looking! Madeinbeats what's in - how, etc for you rice - looks great

best, Rich

^^^
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=6227.0

[chewytikka]

Hi MiB/Rich

Thanks for the Thumbs up, Moist, definitely, especially a quality Basmati.
This Pilau was actually Steam cooked, takes about 20 mins in the steamer,
just another easy way to cook perfect rice at home. The flavouring was Garlic, Red Onion, Butter Ghee, Sea Salt and a shop bought Pilau Biryani spice mix. (SHAN)

cheersChewy

[Peripatetic Phil]

[...] a shop bought Pilau Biryani spice mix. (SHAN)

Ooh, yes, Shan : I had forgotten them.  It might be Shan who make the Nihari masala that I referred to in another thread; I had better cross-post this afterthought in there as well ...

** Phil.