Topic: Cooking Lessons with Az

[solarsplace]

To my knowledge no one except CA has wanted to talk technique before. Solarspaces thoughts would help as he has had a burner for a good while too.

Hi JerryM & Everyone

Must confess to not having used the burner since the weather went dark and horrid last autumn.

For those who have not cooked on an 8Kw burner cranked up before, they are a totally different beast to most peoples gas hobs in their kitchens. You will need to adjust considerably your speed and possibly technique between the two. The shear volume of heat produced by these things is surprising to say the least. You don't need to try to produce flames, you need to be careful to avoid them and the smoke you would not want in your kitchen without a professional kitchen extractor fan.

However - last time I used it I may have singed the spices due to the power of the device, but at the time deliberately strived to avoid singeing the spices! - so got to fire this thing up again and revisit the merits of cooking on a more powerful stove again if indeed they are any. At the time I was very pleased with the results, but lets see how this turns out again now we are focusing on singeing!

One thing I did find after getting used to the big burner was when it was raining and having to cook inside again - always found myself turning the gas on the big ring up to full power and cursing the thing for being underpowered and not fast enough. Guess its what you get used too. Just like you see in the Az videos, the moment you dump in a large ladle full of base it is immediately and violently bubbling on a big burner.

[curryhell]

  holy s**t, now that is a brute and half.  The burners on Az's stove pale into insignifcance compared that puppy ;D

[curryhell]

Making a new batch of base today and this will include whole spices as AZ's spiced water,also making my own garam masala and will be trying the 'singe method  ' ,I am expecting big things from tonight's madras 

God, i hope we don't disappoint .  I'm really interested in the spiced water that gets added to the base.  When quizzed Az said it's just for smell.  I'm sure it adds a special little something to the overall taste and effect of the gravy though.  Will be interesting to hear your comments on the smell and taste of the finished base emin-j.  We all thought it wasn't much different to those we'd made, although a hint of sweetness was detected.  Maybe this came from the cassia in the spiced water
Good luck with the singeing and look forward to your report on the Az experience.

[chewytikka]

Oh, I'm glad the penny has finally dropped with my 'Singe the spices' term.
I suppose being shown in real life is better than watching a video or reading a post.

Think you've hit the nail on the head CT.  How often do we ignore what we're told until we experience it ourselves?  It's that old saying about "horses, water, drink, isn't it".  There's nothing like saying "i told you so".  But you didn't, you just let us work that out for ourselves.  Full marks, we should have listened but like most, you prefer to learn by your own mistakes.  Futile, i know, but that's how we humans operate.
Credit where it is due CT.

I will adopt the following thought, without question.  Lesson learned  ;D

Practice, Practice, Practice and have fun
cheers Chewy

[/quote]
Hi CH, I'm not saying I told you so, but I did share this knowledge for you all.
I also shared this info directly to NJ back in October.

quote.Hi NJ
I think your spot on there.

Abdul's recipe is quite close to mine.
Just to add my thoughts - as I've cooked this Thousands of times.
There's a knack to a Good Madras
Which is what I call singeing the Tarka.

In other words you need to slightly burn the spices "Singe"
and then once you add the gravy, that too has to be cooked on high heat.

This goes against your normal cooking methods (or logic) but I think it is an essential
method to produce restaurant style dishes like Madras at home.
Watch my Madras video recipe and you will get the idea. quote.
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=6214.msg61896#msg61896

If you read my Chicken Madras for Lunch post . ? on: December 15, 2011, 04:06:23 PM ?
quote.Hi All
I knocked up a Chicken Madras for lunch yesterday, thought I'd share the cooking technique and recipe which I was first taught by a Bengali Chef over 35 years ago.
I was taught "The Knack" to a Madras and to a few other BIR dishes, was to burn the spices to get the flavour.
Which I would explain as more like "singe" and judging this just takes practice.
Once you've added the Chicken and the curry gravy, you maintain the high heat to fuse the spices (The Tarka) into the sauce.
If you don't do this, especially with chilli powder, the finished curry can taste different and sometimes taste powdery. quote.
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=7563.msg65610#msg65610

This is the sort knowledge & opinion that may be being wasted on me & many others at this stage Chewytikka. You should redo some of your vids &tuts , focussing on initial technique, its a glaring omission in bir@home
Regards
ELW

ELW.
No glaring omissions in my info sharing or Video Recipes, Reset yourself by all means. ;D ;D

cheers Chewy

[curryhell]

Do the chefs taste as they go?, to the amateur it seems like there is a small margin for error, surely they must botch a few here & there when their working at full pelt. I've had watery/too much oil/a bit bland/ too hot/not hot enough, but never bitter or powdery. How often do they bin & start over?


edit- is it tomato paste or puree? & would the supermarket brands give a different flavour to the brands suppling the trade?
ELW

I must have missed this.  One can only assume that they're  sufficiently proficient that they don't burn ;D or undercook.  But as you say you sometimes do get the occasional curry that's not up to the normal mark.
When cooking the dishes we were using tomato paste, the triple concentrate stuff in the large 800 gram tins Az told me.  He dilutes this 1 part paste to 2 parts water.  The most common being White Tower.  I managed to pick up 3 of these for

[Jeera]

CT it would be interesting comparision if you made the AZ version using the AZ mix powder and home made garamasala. I think this play a big part in the results I got but would be interested to see if it makes a significant difference vs your normal spice mix/method.

[ELW]

I hear Az, calling it puree in the phall video. Paste is sweeter isn't it? I can't find White Tower out of the big c&c's too often. Some Tescos may have it   C&C's have all the brands associated with asian foods, Natco/WT/East End, versions of puree's & pastes, but they are trade only..I've been using the Italian branded stuff , Is this anyway different?


@chewytikka, that maybe came across the wrong way, : it was meant in general. Your stuff is up with the best I've seen. The tip on leaving the sweetners out of the masala paste is something I'll be doing, rather than waiting to make a ctm's, which doesn't happen very often.

ELW

[curryhell]

I hear Az, calling it puree in the phall video. Paste is sweeter isn't it? I can't find White Tower out of the big c&c's too often. Some Tescos may have it   They have all the brands associated with asian foods, Natco/WT/East End, versions of puree's & pastes...I've been using the Italian stuff , Is this anyway different?

There is a thread and  a lot of discussion about the differences between paste, puree, pasata etc somewhere, which gets heated at one point, just for a change ;D
Az calls it puree but it is diluted concentrated paste that we were using.  I discussed this stuff at some length with him over a cigarette to see whether he did anything special in its preparaton.  In the preparation of the gravy etc we were using blended tinned tomatoes as opposed to the "puree".
It doesn't have to be the white tower brand, any will do.  I'm sure Az buys whats best priced at the time.  As for there being any difference, i'm not sure but i wouldn't think so. I've never tried anything else and have always used the paste and diluted it down.

[natterjak]

Hi CH, I'm not saying I told you so, but I did share this knowledge for you all.
I also shared this info directly to NJ back in October.

quote.Hi NJ
I think your spot on there.

Abdul's recipe is quite close to mine.
Just to add my thoughts - as I've cooked this Thousands of times.
There's a knack to a Good Madras
Which is what I call singeing the Tarka.

In other words you need to slightly burn the spices "Singe"
and then once you add the gravy, that too has to be cooked on high heat.

This goes against your normal cooking methods (or logic) but I think it is an essential
method to produce restaurant style dishes like Madras at home.
Watch my Madras video recipe and you will get the idea. quote.
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=6214.msg61896#msg61896

If you read my Chicken Madras for Lunch post . ? on: December 15, 2011, 04:06:23 PM ?
quote.Hi All
I knocked up a Chicken Madras for lunch yesterday, thought I'd share the cooking technique and recipe which I was first taught by a Bengali Chef over 35 years ago.
I was taught "The Knack" to a Madras and to a few other BIR dishes, was to burn the spices to get the flavour.
Which I would explain as more like "singe" and judging this just takes practice.

Hi CT, yes absolutely I agree, both you and other posters have mentioned this technique and to be clear I'm not claiming it as a new discovery, simply that I hadn't understood what was meant by "burn the spices" until I saw it happen in front of me and (perhaps most importantly) smelled it... I think there will be a number of forum members who, despite it having been mentioned in the past, will not have picked up on the importance of this point nor perhaps understood how to put it into practice. Maybe this is what will prove to be the most useful function served by this thread and the associated videos.

[haldi]

Well, I've done all my cooking
I'll reheat them tonight ,after my taste buds have recovered
I mixed up the Zaal spice mix, precooked chicken, curry base and spiced water
The base on it's own was far less sweet than I'd have imagined
Has anyone else found this so?
The aroma of it is really good though
Really, really good and very recognisable
I made a half quantity of base, using a 4 litre pan
I tried the phall recipe, except I had precooked chicken
I got the burn fumes
I was coughing my head off and had to open a door
The curries were cooked using my gas wok burner
I really can't tell if the curries made are my best, I'll know better when I we eat them tonight
At the moment I am curry overdosed

How is everyone else finding the recipes?