Topic: New videos from Curry2Go in Chorley

[bamble1976]

Hi razor.  the finished base seemed overspiced and was close to.a finished curry all by itself!
I seemed to be adding gallons of water to the base to get the desired consistency.  i am going to try the base with a korma next week and feel that this is where it.may be too strong a base for the milder dishes.

I think the good thing about sites like this is that it is sometimes a little snippet of info from someone which captures the taste that an individual is.looking for

barry

[chriswg]

So after a long and lively thread are there any specific questions that still remain unanswered?

I'm personally not a know-it-all (I wish I was) but I am good friends with a man who is. I asked specifically about the aluminium pans and as I posted previously, they are cheap and heat up quickly. I also meant to mention they are light so their chefs don't get any repetitive strain injuries. Apparently I should also have said that they are a viable cooking material. I assumed this last one went without saying but apparently not.

Regarding the science vs tips arguments - I'm on Razors side. Cooking at all but the highest level is about tips and technique. If you give a student who just left home and never cooked before, a housewife, a restaurant chef and a michellin starred chef all 3 eggs, a lump of cheese and some ham with a selection of cupboard condiments they would make very very different omlettes. The science is the same - heat + whisked egg = omlette. The difference is in the small details.

Curry cooking is exactly the same. The science is quite basic, making the science work for you is another matter. That's where the tips come in. Most of the tips and techniques will work for every dish so are well worth learning.

[haldi]

There were so many words and stress over this thread
Did spiceyyokoono learn anything at the end of it all
This was just a rerun of previously posted subjects wasn't it?
Caramilisation, reduction and aluminium pans
Or was there something else?

[Razor]

Hi Pete and Chris, hope you're enjoying the festivities

I do understand Spiceyokookos position even if our beliefs are somewhat different.  My understanding is, he wants to cook the best BIR food that he can, and possibly better his favourite restaurant.  To do that, he needs to understand the science.  He strikes me as a very meticulous person, which is no bad thing.

My own view is this; I love cooking, I love curry, I love this forum, I love the chase, I love the learning but most of all, I love the fun aspect of it.  If I was to adopt a scientific approach to my cooking then, I don't know, it would kind of take the fun out of it, for me at least.

The hints and tips that I glean from this forum have taken me from being a frustrated home cook, to a quite "accomplished" home cook (if I say so myself) producing very tasty food, enjoyed very much by my family and friends.

 I have gone from a "Jack the lad" type character, who went on the piss nearly every Friday and Saturday night (Friday with the lads, Saturday with the missus) to an amateur chef/cook, enjoying very much this curry malarkey.  Now, my house may smell more like the 'Gates of India' (local eatery) these days and I know that pisses her off no end, but I've saved an absolute fortune (not on curry stuff BTW) on beer and expensive nights out.

I wish spiceyokooko all the best in his quest and I'm confident that he is determined enough to find what it is that he requires to realise his expectations.  I feel like I'm almost there, certainly 100% with some dishes, maybe 95% with others, which I suspect is the case for a lot of you guys too, and, if we're being honest, I bet that is the case for a hell of a lot of TA's and BIR's...!

Have a great day tomorrow guys, and wishing you all a very happy new year,

Ray

[Razor]

Hi Chewy,

A good Bengali expression, there are five fingers on your hand - All different.

How very true my friend, infact, one of my fingers even looks like a thumb??

Ray ;D

[Cory Ander]

There were so many words and stress over this thread
Did spiceyyokoono learn anything at the end of it all
This was just a rerun of previously posted subjects wasn't it?
Caramilisation, reduction and aluminium pans
Or was there something else?

Good question Haldi.

As far as I can tell, it seems to me that Spicey might go buy himself an ultracheap "nonstick" pan, for 4 quid (minus a penny) and spend the next 2 hours sanding the "nonstick" surface off? 

Or, he's going to spend upwards of 20 quid (probably?) on a fancy "black steel" pan? 

Or, if he's sensible, and wants to fret about at least one of the myriad variables later, he's going to splash out around 8 quid on a bog standard aluminium pan (from the Asian markets) just like many (most) BIRs do? 

I know which I'd do....

[Cory Ander]

...& these new multi stage gravies that have appeared recently....why now???

I think that's a very good question ELW!

I've just made this C2G base.  I agree that it is relatively highly spiced compared to some other bases (as some have mentioned). 

And, in making it, I have also questioned (in my mind) why he doesn't simply add the powdered spices, sometime towards the end of cooking, with the tomatoes, at some stage (don't forget the tomatoes!), and the additional water, and then blend it all and be done with it?  I know that's what I would do with it, if I made it again in the future (to save time and faffing around) and I can't think why not?

So far, though, the base is (yet again), and despite the "sweating" of the veggies in (mostly) oil, at the initial stages, much like most other decent bases on the forum (regarding taste, aroma and texture). 

I'm a little disappointed because I was quite enthused about the "sweating" of the veggies in the oil.  That seemed to be the most significant difference, about this base, to me.  BUT, I must add, that I did not use "bhaji oil" (which might make a vast difference, of course).  I suppose that, to be fair to Julian, I will also need to try that too.

Nevertheless, it is early days, since I haven't made any curries with it yet.  I will know more when I have made curries from it.

I'm currently making his "onion sauce" (which I don't think is the same thing, or intended to be the same thing, as the Ashoka "bunjarra" JerryM)?

I have also made his vindaloo (but using my own base) and it was very respectable.  I liked the effect of the adding more garlic/ginger paste towards the end of cooking.

Other than that, I think his videos (and the fact that he is willing to share his knowledge) are excellent! 

[Cory Ander]

I'm personally not a know-it-all (I wish I was)

Come again Chris?  Surely you mean that you wish you "knew it all"? 

[spiceyokooko]

So after a long and lively thread are there any specific questions that still remain unanswered?

Yes. How do you get the smokey flavour in a BIR style curry on a standard kitchen gas hob and without resorting to high flame burners in the garden.

[PaulP]

So after a long and lively thread are there any specific questions that still remain unanswered?

Yes. How do you get the smokey flavour in a BIR style curry on a standard kitchen gas hob and without resorting to high flame burners in the garden.

Have a close look at this video from chewytikka:

http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=5634.0

Points of interest:

Standard cooker - no high heat, just steady medium heat.
Aluminium pan.
All base added in one go.
The lack of stirring the pan for several minutes - very important re: caramelisation of base. Remember when you caramelise onion in a pan it is a fine balance between stirring and not stirring as they will only caramelise when in contact with the hot metal, but of course they can be burned. Caramelisation requires about 160 degrees C for glucose/sucrose sugars.
The lid - chewy is trying to avoid reduction with the lid.

I must admit watching this I don't think I could achieve quite the same effect with my steel wok, certainly not in such a short time.

Paul