Topic: New Year Resolutions 2012

[PaulP]

Good post Masala Mark and certainly something to think about. I think when ifindforu posted his previous BIR base recipe he did say at the end of cooking taste check and adjust salt, coconut, jaggery levels to taste. Perhaps he has witnessed this at the place he works.

Cheers,

Paul

[976bar]

Hi Jerry,

Couple of things to add to the discussion so far.

In terms of the chef's being able to recreate gravies at home and in smaller quantity, they can. The chef I work with at times does a market stall on the weekends. For this he knocks up a gravy at home the night before, he lives in a small apartment with well less then restaurant standard equipment. You can taste no difference in what he has made at home to what made in the restaurant.

Further to this, at the market stall he makes the buffet dishes ( he will make 3-4 curries for sale ) in an electric fry pan, and again they taste as good as if made in the restaurant. One time he had none of the whole spices to go in and it still tasted fantastic.

So certainly for Aussie indian curry style of things it is possible to do at home.

Now here is the big secret, and unfortunately it is not what we want to hear.

When he makes the gravy and the final dishes, he tastes it, and he knows what is missing or needed to fix it. He may have used a different brand of tomato puree which is more sour, or bottled garlic instead of fresh, or the cumin powder might have been roasted and is stronger etc.

Same with the onions, they might be stronger in flavor etc, but he with his expertise/experience knows what to do to correct it.

Unfortunately that is something that only comes with years of experience, I still have to get him to taste the gravies that I make following exactly the same recipe each time, but at times he will adjust things.

Hope that doesn't put too much of a dampener on things.

Cheers,
Mark

I think that is spot on. If you look at any decent restaurant, whether it be BIR or other any top chef will taste the dish before serving....

[Peripatetic Phil]

I've recently got into Roasting my own Coffee Beans and have noticed that Beans that are much over a week old after Roasting have lost quite a lot of their flavour and Aroma when ground  and a Coffee made.

Can you tell us more about how you roast your beans, Emin-J ?  For two or more decades we had a branch of Importers Ltd in Bromley High Street (Bromley, Kent, not Bromley, Bow) and the smell of those roasting beans was to die for.  I have tried roasting at home, but never achieved either consistency or results that justified the effort, so as a coffee addict and a monsooned Malabar aficionado, I'd love to be able to roast the green beans to perfection and have freshly roast coffee every day.

** Phil.

[George]

If you then cook your pizza in a wood fired oven at the correct temperature you should get the perfect pizza crust - crispy on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside.

Do you know if Pizza Express use wood fired ovens? I agree with you that their Pizzas are very good.

[George]

When he makes the gravy and the final dishes, he tastes it, and he knows what is missing or needed to fix it.

I know this is a top tip -  I've heard it mentioned time and time again by top chefs on TV. I also agree it needs skill and experience to appreciate what you're tasting and know if anything needs to be added or somehow corrected.
One problem is that recipes only tend to go as far as a statement like 'adjust seasoning' (at the end). They don't even say what seasoning, exactly, let alone suggest other stages within the recipe where you might check how things are going, and correct as you progress.

[emin-j]

I've recently got into Roasting my own Coffee Beans and have noticed that Beans that are much over a week old after Roasting have lost quite a lot of their flavour and Aroma when ground  and a Coffee made.

Can you tell us more about how you roast your beans, Emin-J ?  For two or more decades we had a branch of Importers Ltd in Bromley High Street (Bromley, Kent, not Bromley, Bow) and the smell of those roasting beans was to die for.  I have tried roasting at home, but never achieved either consistency or results that justified the effort, so as a coffee addict and a monsooned Malabar aficionado, I'd love to be able to roast the green beans to perfection and have freshly roast coffee every day.

** Phil.

Hi Phil, To stay on topic my New Year Resolution was to roast my own coffee beans but I started early 
Being up for a challenge (curry or otherwise  ) I thought I would do a bit of research into how successful roasting beans at home could be without breaking the Bank and found that certain popcorn 'poppers' can do a cracking (no pun intended) job so bought a Severin PC3751 popper and some of my favourite beans in their green state and followed some video's on youtube - and very successful it's bean  ;D

This is the machine in action blowing the chaff into the sink while it roasts the beans.



And this is my first effort - (pre roasted bought beans in the centre )



Cant get fresher Coffee than that !

[curryhell]

Sorry guys but i can't multi task.  I can only concentrate on cracking one thing at a time.  Curry or coffee, coffee or curry.  Curry wins hands down ;D.  Besides i'd much rather have a bottle of Cobra with my curry than a cup of coffee . How did the taste comparison go??

[emin-j]

Sorry guys but i can't multi task.  I can only concentrate on cracking one thing at a time.  Curry or coffee, coffee or curry.  Curry wins hands down ;D.  Besides i'd much rather have a bottle of Cobra with my curry than a cup of coffee . How did the taste comparison go??

Excellent CH 

[Razor]

I don't mean to sound smug here but, I do taste, taste, taste all the way through?  Usually, it's quite easy to adjust the dish as long as you know what to use when making the adjustments for example; Lack of salt, add more (a pinch at a time) not sweet enough, add some sugar (a pinch at a time).

The problem arises when the dish isn't sour enough, which souring agent do you add?  You could add lemon but if you don't want a lemon flavour, then that isn't going to work.  Amchoor could be used as could tamarind but you need to know what flavour these ingredients impart, that for me, is the trickiest part.

When using ingredients such as tomatoes and onions is vital to taste test, as the strength of these veggies (I know toms are fruits ) can vary immensely.

I'm glad this came up because now it makes me wonder how many of us have tried a recipe to spec, a bit like a monkey sees, monkey does approach but have resisted a taste until the dish is on the table?

Very good point, well made Mark

Ray

[Whandsy]

I don't mean to sound smug here but, I do taste, taste, taste all the way through?  Usually, it's quite easy to adjust the dish as long as you know what to use when making the adjustments for example; Lack of salt, add more (a pinch at a time) not sweet enough, add some sugar (a pinch at a time).

The problem arises when the dish isn't sour enough, which souring agent do you add?  You could add lemon but if you don't want a lemon flavour, then that isn't going to work.  Amchoor could be used as could tamarind but you need to know what flavour these ingredients impart, that for me, is the trickiest part.

When using ingredients such as tomatoes and onions is vital to taste test, as the strength of these veggies (I know toms are fruits ) can vary immensely.

I'm glad this came up because now it makes me wonder how many of us have tried a recipe to spec, a bit like a monkey sees, monkey does approach but have resisted a taste until the dish is on the table?

Very good point, well made Mark

Ray

I agree with the theory on that 100% but in practice for me at least, the most enjoyable thing about your own curry (and T/A for that matter) is that very first taste and the OMG that's good moment. For my taste buds if I was taste taste taste prior to serving then once it was on the table i'd be less interested, like the spice overload thing

What I've been doing recently is making my curry blind and enjoying it, then experiment with remaining gravy / GG / tom puree / powders etc. Then at least I've enjoyed the moment before learning lessons.

Wayne

But maybe that's just me