Topic: Chicken Vindaloo (Over singed) - Zaal - Az - Cooking Lessions

[solarsplace]

Just to remind everybody who may be using these videos to adapt / base upon / alter etc their own technique - The Vindaloo clip that you see here is the only dish cooked using pre-cooked chicken during these first round of Zaal lessons. All the other dishes used raw un-cooked chicken.

Thanks

[JerryM]

Solarsplace,

i can relate easily to the "singe" when some liquid is present ie the water in the tom paste in the phall video. i know there is a decent gap before burn to get consistent result.

if the water is taken out ie frying only spice in oil ie in the vindaloo video the time between toffee and burn is very short.

assuming this is a critical step it's going to take some mastering. i spent 3 months dry hot frying and in the end gave up. i don't know of any "sign" from the pan either visual or smell which would help. i guess you have to rely purely on judgement of time.

[emin-j]

Solarsplace,

i can relate easily to the "singe" when some liquid is present ie the water in the tom paste in the phall video. i know there is a decent gap before burn to get consistent result.

if the water is taken out ie frying only spice in oil ie in the vindaloo video the time between toffee and burn is very short.

assuming this is a critical step it's going to take some mastering. i spent 3 months dry hot frying and in the end gave up. i don't know of any "sign" from the pan either visual or smell which would help. i guess you have to rely purely on judgement of time.

Jerry,Don't know if this helps but I noticed a little bit of smoke coming from the frying pan at my first attempt at 'singeing' last night and that to me was a sign things were getting pretty hot ! I have burned spices a few times and this leads to a really dark and bitter tasting curry  At the first sign of smoke I quickly spooned in 3tbs of thinned tomato puree plus a ladle of base to quench the spices,I didn't quite get the flavour I was hoping for but curry was very nice all the same 

[Whandsy]

Not wanting to take the thread away from The vindaloo but is it possible there are 2 ways of singeing?

1 high heat (hot and quick)
2 lower heat (slow longer frying)

What does anybody else think? Looking at chewy's jalfrezi video the spices and tom puree are cooked for quite a long time on a noticeably smaller heat!!

W

[Les]

Not wanting to take the thread away from The vindaloo but is it possible there are 2 ways of singeing?

1 high heat (hot and quick)
2 lower heat (slow longer frying)

What does anybody else think? Looking at chewy's jalfrezi video the spices and tom puree are cooked for quite a long time on a noticeably smaller heat!!

W

I think that either way would work for us, But for me It's the lower heat, (Medium) which gives me a bit more time and control over what is happening in the pan, just takes a bit longer that's all, same end result, IMHO
So Yes I go with CT

Les

[emin-j]

Not wanting to take the thread away from The vindaloo but is it possible there are 2 ways of singeing?

1 high heat (hot and quick)
2 lower heat (slow longer frying)

What does anybody else think? Looking at chewy's jalfrezi video the spices and tom puree are cooked for quite a long time on a noticeably smaller heat!!

W

I think AZ did say to the guys you could create the same at home but would take a little longer,this says to me that he knows that most of us don't have monster burners like the T/A but can still produce the goods on a domestic cooker,also I watched my curry made at my favourite T/A and was stood next to the chef but there was no ultra high heat just a slow boat method and the curry was delicious.

[George]

I watched my curry made at my favourite T/A and was stood next to the chef but there was no ultra high heat just a slow boat method and the curry was delicious.

If that's right - and I suspect it may be - then doesn't it rather invalidate the grand claims that the Az lesson was sort of like the major forum breakthrough of all time? If you take the importance claimed for ultra high heat singing away, then what's new? Don't get me wrong - those lessons looked like jolly good fun at a price, and Az strikes me as a great bloke. But where will this forum be in six months time? Will information coming out of Zaal restaurant still be seen as 'best ever' or will it co-exist alongside other great contributions including the Kushi Balti book, and be largely forgotten?

[Whandsy]

I think the lesson learnt here is correct cooking of the spices is essential to the flavour we are after. It always was important, but for me just how hot/long the spices should be fried was probably neglected a bit. The fleet 5 have been shown, cooked and tasted the right flavour. How they achieve it albeit slow cooked low or fast and high is irrespective so long as it tastes right.

I'm guilty of not cooking the spices correctly if this is the holy grail as I'm nearly there but not quite  , a bit more practice along with longer frying with hopefully get me the results the others obviously are. Unfortunately a busy job and a wife that keeps appealing to me not to cook another curry is delaying the nirvana a bit longer.

Cracking threads these Az lessons and looking forward to reading about more success stories

W

[emin-j]

I watched my curry made at my favourite T/A and was stood next to the chef but there was no ultra high heat just a slow boat method and the curry was delicious.

If that's right - and I suspect it may be - then doesn't it rather invalidate the grand claims that the Az lesson was sort of like the major forum breakthrough of all time? If you take the importance claimed for ultra high heat singing away, then what's new? Don't get me wrong - those lessons looked like jolly good fun at a price, and Az strikes me as a great bloke. But where will this forum be in six months time? Will information coming out of Zaal restaurant still be seen as 'best ever' or will it co-exist alongside other great contributions including the Kushi Balti book, and be largely forgotten?

George, I think as Whandsy has said it's the cooking of the spices to the ultimate level without burning is what is important, whether this is done on high heat and in a short time or medium heat over a longer period of time as long as you reach this 'singeing' level.
I believe the Zaal lessons have highlighted the importance of this 'singeing' technique as being a major step forward in the search for 'the taste' but if I'm honest I do wonder how much using veg ghee contributes to 'the taste' 

[JerryM]

emin-j,

i reluctantly feel i'll have to give it a try just to make sure i've not missed a trick (i just can't reconcile Az making this difference for no reason). it will be good if smoke is a sign and will look out for it. i don't blast the g or g/g so my pan will be relatively cold when the spice goes in so should have a good window for watching what happens (c/w my norm method like the phall method ie water present).