Topic: Chef's Special Mixed Meat Dopiaza

[Unclefrank]

One dish i have in a TA is Chicken Tikka Murgh Masala, which is a mild dish cooked with keema meat, chicken tikka and an egg, always a wonderful taste and texture from my locals (Alok, Eastern Spice,Spice Barrel, Balti King and The Spice Cottage all in Tipton).

[bamble1976]

Locals.....I am jealous!  Only one decent restaurant/takeaway close to me now

Barry

[Unclefrank]

Those are the ones just in walking distance, got an array of TA's by where i live so i get a taste of different restaurant food, dont get me wrong some of them are well, not very nice at all but you cant tell what your meal is going to taste like unless you taste it. Dont see the point in just sticking to one TA and not experiencing different chefs takes on different dishes.
Your dish, Bhuna, reminds me of the Eastern Spice Restaurant and i like their food a lot.

[976bar]

Locals.....I am jealous!  Only one decent restaurant/takeaway close to me now

Barry

Good excuse to move if you ask me!!  ;D

[bamble1976]

Hi Curryhell

I would like your complete honest opinion on this (good and bad).  Not sensitive and have big shoulders.  If there is something you think would better it, I would love to know.  Good luck and enjoy!

Barry

[curryhell]

Hi Curryhell

I would like your complete honest opinion on this (good and bad).  Not sensitive and have big shoulders.  If there is something you think would better it, I would love to know.  Good luck and enjoy!

Barry

No worries Barry. I've never eaten a dupiaza before so i have nothing to compare it against.  I'll just have to rely on my taste buds and the look of the finished dish ;D

[curryhell]

Hi Curryhell

I would like your complete honest opinion on this (good and bad).  Not sensitive and have big shoulders.  If there is something you think would better it, I would love to know.  Good luck and enjoy!

Barry

Ok Barry.  Time to report back.  I cooked this on Sunday afternoon.  I must admit when i read through the ingredients i thought this had potential for a good tasting curry and something different from what i normally eat and your pic looked damn good.  Never eaten dupiaza before so no preconceived ideas about how it should taste and therefore no expectations.  Read through the recipe and immediately wanted to change the sequence of events.  Really had to stop myself from doing this.



Frying the keema generated additional oil which was good.  Would aid the frying of the spices and provide additonal flavour rather than just plain oil.



In went the spices for just long enough to let the oil do its work.



Followed then by the already cooked onion and tom puree.  First lot of base added and reduced.



So far so good.  Added the meat next with corriander



Cooked this for a while to reduce and increase the flavour and added a few fresh chillis for a bit of bite if i needed it. 



Everthing else added



And here is where it went wrong in my opinion.  Continued to cook now for another 10 mins or so to reduce and hopefully cook out the potential overpowering taste of raw onions and peppers added a such a late stage of the process.  The end result -



And a close up



The dish finished up looking very similar to the one you pictured.  The sauce was in fact thicker than it looks - a result of my trying to make sure the chopped onions and peppers were cooked through.  The dish tasted quite pleasant but had an overpowering flavour of green peppers coming through.  This kind of masked all the other flavours that should have been there.   

I am interested to know why you added the chopped onions and peppers at the finishing stage of the curry when they are traditionally a tarka and would be cooked out at the start to add body to the flavour of the dish.  Conversely, the cooked onion was added at the start, so by the end of cooking, any bite it may have added had long since disappeared.

The obvious change for me is to swap the adding of these ingredients around which was my instinct when i read through the recipe.  Get rid of the overpowering pepper taste by cooking raw ingredients first and then adding flavour and texture with the cooked onion towards the end.

Would i cook it again?  Most definitely but i would change the order for sure next time.  This has great potential to be a fine tasting dish bursting with different flavours but on this occasion was marred the late additon of peppers and chopped onion which tainted the overall flavour.  Maybe it was my technique?  You did ask me to be honest and i have never eaten a dupiaza before so maybe it turned out how it should be.  Will be interesting to hear others views on the dish.  I will do it again soon with my tweaks and let you know how it goes.  I am sure this could be a real winner as far as chef's specials go.

[bamble1976]

Well i have to say that is how a dish should be critiqued!  Great help with the pics of all the stages.

Did you chop your onion/pepper mix finely enough as it looks quite large from the pics??  The pieces should be just a few mm by a few mm thus only need a few minutes to cook.  They should have a bite to them whilst not being overpowering.  I Do not get an over riding taste of the peppers as they cook out quite quickly due to the size.

I have looked over my recipe wondering if my instructions have led you down the wrong route.  I have came up with:

1. I probably reduce more of the gravy at the start on a higher heat, more towards 200ml
2. Onion/pepper is more finely chopped
3. cooking time.  Usually only 4-5 mins for second reduction stage.  10 mins seems a long time to reduce down 150ml gravy???  Is your gas high enough?
4. The half onion should not really have a bite to it as can be raw tasting.  Needs to be just wilting.

I think leaving the half onions possibly until the start of the second reduction will give you the results BUT for curries I am used to from local TA, the onion pepper must be very finely chopped and only cooked out for 5 mins on a highish heat.

I know unkle frank was going to try this so after his feedback I will make this again next week and try to find out where the dish may have gone wrong for you

Thanks for feedback

Regards

Barry

[Unclefrank]

Made this last night and i loved it used this recipe for the keema http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1525.0
but didnt form into sausage shapes just cooked in a pan and then in the oven to dry it out a little.

This one for the chicken tikka and lamb tikka http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=874.0

I sliced onion and pepper for easy and fast cooking, i deep fried the quarter onions in bhaji oil then drained and allowed to cool,i added the keema when the first lot a base goes in (stage 4) then added more base when needed to give the right consistency. I did use a little bit more of the base due to the keema meat absorbing some of the sauce but it just added to the texture and taste.

Curryhell those kebabs look like shop brought ones i cant get mine to be so round.

I really liked the sweetness of the onions in this dish and with the green pepper coming through it was perfect for me, so all in all i will definitely be making this again and its going in my recipe folder.
I do make Dopiazas alot adding a little heat here and there, Bamble this again reminds me of The Eastern Spice TA, one of my locals, havent made this for my friends yet but i definitely will.
Thanks for posting.

[bamble1976]

Cheers for feedback.  How did it go with the chi and lamb tikka.  Not overpowering with the keema.  If not I will be trying it with the tikka next time as opposed to the usual plain chicken and lamb!

Barry