So here's the dinner menu for all 20 workers who are gonna be grafting at Keighley Ambulance Station while you lot are getting full of Xmas pud and Xmas cheer.
Ray
How did it go? I was thinking of you and your curries as we sat down for a more traditional and (I must say) less interesting lunch on Chritstmas Day
Regards
George
Hi George and everyone,
Hope you all had a really nice Christmas with your feet up and a few mulled wines and are all getting ready for the New Year.
Sorry to have been a bit slow repiying but things have been a bit hectic.
I delivered a baby girl Xmas Day morning, that was just ace ( but a bit messy!) , what could be more satisfying ?? Took some pictures for the proud Mum and Dad.
The Christmas Day Curry Extravaganza at work went really well if I do say so myself.
As I was making for about 20 with some extra left over I bought 4 kilo's of Chicken breast which I got from a large Asian supermarket in Bradford at ?2.20 p a Kilo which I thought was a pretty good price ( Payal please note!!).
For convenience I decided to pre-make parts of the two Chicken dishes so made a double batch of base sauce and used the Balti Kitchen recipe as it was simple and makes a very good CTM.
I used half of the chicken and pre-cooked this using the Balti Kitchen method and the other half went into a Tikka Marinade ( also Balti Kitchen ) for a full 36 hours.
I have never marinated chicken for so long but it really paid off with very tasty and tender meat once it was cooked.
The oven cooking of this on skewers on it?s hottest setting produces such moist tender meat and received so many good comments I shall certainly do that again.
I then made some pre-cooked potato for a Bombay Potato side dish which if I am honest was made on the day very simply with some base sauce and half a jar of? Patak?s Madras paste ( well you?ve gotta cheat sometimes!!) .
This meant that on the day I only needed to add a very few things to a quantity of base sauce along with either the pre-cooked Chicken or Tikka and it was ready in no time at all.
As the crews were eating throughout the day I could not leave it all out so I decanted it into portion sized bowls that could be blasted in a microwave when they wanted it.
Darth's Dabari rice was a doddle to make and I pre-made this and split it into 20 bowls as well ( you are now famous in West Yorkshire mate!!).
Poppadoms were easy to fry the day before and stayed crisp so with the addition of Mango Chutney, Lime Pickle and a Raita were a simple starter to leave out whenever folk wanted to have a nibble during the day.
I cheated and pre-bought Samosa?s and Onion Bhaji?s which were warmed as needed.
We were all very busy on Christmas day but everyone managed to sit down for a while and have a full meal. Comments were really nice and I felt proud of the effort I had made for the day. At least 20 people got a reward for working their Christmas and I felt it worthwhile making the effort.
If I am honest and critical I would say the Chicken Tikka Masala was absolutely ace, just what I would expect at a BIR. The Chicken Madras was very nice but lacked that ?taste? which disappointed me a bit as I wanted? to give everyone more but accept the Balti Kitchen recipe is not the best for this but for a large catering exercise ( where I needed a simple to make curry ), is a very acceptable method of producing a ?user friendly curry?.
The Bombay Potato was completely devoured so I assume was liked by most and a little party trick and cheat I will keep up my sleeve for the future.
Darths rice attracted lots of ?this is lovely? comments so will stay on my ?best of? books.
I didn?t have much curry to myself that day. It is one of those things that the chef doesn?t get time to eat his own food but what I made was enjoyed by all and a lot of requests for the recipes.
For me this was praise enough but from a critical point of view I could have done better and do think the Balti Kitchen method has it?s limitations but for the average curry lover they think they are getting a genuine restaurant offering!!
All in all a good effort but I have noted improvements and changes I will make for a re-run the next time round.
Happy New Year Everyone,
Ray