Topic: Cooking Lessons with Az

[ELW]

I don't think I'll be able to stop myself trying to recreate some of my fav local bir dishes, once I can knock out the classics time after time. Some of the special dishes here have crushed chillies/coriander seed etc tempered in oil poured over the dish, they are the business!! There is no end game really, now that I know the road
ELW

ELW - would love to see you post some recipes on here, especially some of these special dishes!

Yes Stephen, once I've got the favs down properly , I'm going to try to clone some of my local's versions & dishes, thats going to be a tall order. It's still a bit hit & miss at the moment.
Tried 2 x  madras last night, dumping 1 x heaped TBLsp kashmiri powder in with 1.5 tsp Az mix powder, quick burn, then in with the paste & gravy...maybe flinched a bit, but the powder was catching quickly - not right, raw spices coming through.

I sometimes get the aroma, but not the taste, which I think tells me the most of the aroma comes from the oil,g&g,tom & base gravy

[haldi]

I honestly believe that I singe the spices, as being described, in previous posts
I have been doing this for some time
but still feel there is a missing element to my curries
If singing the spices, turns a curry to BIR standard, then homestyle curries would taste the same
Homestyle employs similar spice frying methods
I have many Asian friends who give me curries, and I can assure you, that homestyle is not the same
Extremely good, but not the same
Singing is important, but clearly not the only factor in making a takeaway curry

[George]

Some of the special dishes here have crushed chillies/coriander seed etc tempered in oil poured over the dish, they are the business!!

That sounds interesting. Where are you based and how do you know they use "crushed chillies/coriander seed etc tempered in oil poured over the dish"?

[natterjak]

Seconding Ian S' opinion in another thread, are we likely to see the written ingredients / technique for the Roshney. I've never come across that dish before but it does look and sound delicious!!

Next on the to do list if so

Hi Wayne

I'm sure someone will do this before long. I'm not in a position to yet because I still haven't recreated the dish at home due to lack of ingredients. If I manage to recreate it a few times consistently I'll be happy to write the recipe up unless someone else has already done so. Chriswg has the most experience of creating this dish so he might choose to post the recipe but if not I'll have a go eventually. In the meantime we will all have to work from the video.

[Whandsy]

Cheers Natterjak 

[JerryM]

but still feel there is a missing element to my curries

i hope we gain more interest in this once the Zaal information gets taken on board.

i am convinced will all have different needs and it is extremely difficult to communicate through word.

the elements are not that obvious either - salt was one of mine and took ages to pin down.

i'm up for exploring these elements and hope other's are too.

[Jeera]

Salt, that's a very interesting point... I too believe this is critical for the right balance.

I used the Ashoka base in my singed AZ method curries and it definately was BIR spec (I'm a glasgow curry lover). The ashoka base has LOTS of salt... in fact I reduce the amount of salt in the base by 25% as I find it too much in the final dish.

Therefore with no added salt to the final dish, maybe this make this combo works that little bit better. It definately works for me and my experiments going forwards will be about  tweaking mix powders/garamasalas.

[curryhell]

Salt, that's a very interesting point... I too believe this is critical for the right balance.

I used the Ashoka base in my singed AZ method curries and it definately was BIR spec (I'm a glasgow curry lover). The ashoka base has LOTS of salt... in fact I reduce the amount of salt in the base by 25% as I find it too much in the final dish.

Therefore with no added salt to the final dish, maybe this make this combo works that little bit better. It definately works for me and my experiments going forwards will be about  tweaking mix powders/garamasalas.

Glad to hear you are still singeing well Jeera;).  I haven't done so since my epic moment on Saturday.  So i'm off into the kitchen to see if i can repeat the performance.  I intend to try and take the singe a little bit further plus add a couple of pinches of salt which we didn't do at Zaal's.  I also have half dozen chilli chopped ready to go in as well ;D  Hopefully, all will go well : .  If i can crack this singeing on a regular basis, for me it's about base  refinement and tweeking or at least a little experimentation followed by the mix powder, although i have yet to try Az's mix

[Jeera]

CH, nice one.... I recommend trying the AZ mix powder in your next try.. I think this was the business too... cheers

[ELW]

I honestly believe that I singe the spices, as being described, in previous posts
I have been doing this for some time
but still feel there is a missing element to my curries
If singing the spices, turns a curry to BIR standard, then homestyle curries would taste the same
Homestyle employs similar spice frying methods
I have many Asian friends who give me curries, and I can assure you, that homestyle is not the same
Extremely good, but not the same
Singing is important, but clearly not the only factor in making a takeaway curry

Hi haldi, if I compare, on paper  a homecooked to a bir curry, it looks like every element of the bir process is set up for mass production, (mix powder as opposed to differing amounts of spices, pre cooked meat, garlic & ginger mixed together in a paste etc) After that initial stage of cooking a bir curry, it  & the homecooked version more or less become the same thing, a boiling mixture, you could chuck anything you like in after that, even a boiled egg!. For example The addition of say,Ashoka Banjarra paste, which is just stirred in after the gravy doesn't make it bir, it makes it Ashoka.

The aim for alot of novices on cr0 shortly, I would imagine, will be to clone their favourite t/a stuff, which will simply come down to recipe. Thats what I'll be doing! The first couple of minutes cooking, creates what we have all been describing as 'the taste'. the rest are layers of flavour. Of this I'm sure. I hope Julian has picked up on this for his new books, as it's a waste of time without it