Topic: Singe Demo / Practice - (ChewyTikkas Madras (Prawn))

[Salvador Dhali]

Great video, Solarsplace. Many thanks for taking the time to do it. Nice control of heat and great singeing going on there. (Love the coughing, too!) It's a source of constant delight to me to discover upon the first quench just how hot that pan is when you're singeing the spices. Lovely stuff.

I never tire of watching people cooking curries, and over the last 30-odd years, this relatively recent development has had a massively positive influence in my journey towards BIR nirvana. I've watched many a BIR chef in action, but unlike video you're unable to rewind and answer those nagging "What the hell did he do there" questions.

Hi Everyone

Glad you liked the video, I agree Chewy's madras is for me the definitive madras recipe - I just don't feel the need to ever look elsewhere.

Have to agree here. While I absolutely love trying different recipes, this is the Madras recipe I keep coming back to time and time again. Why? Because it never fails to deliver. It just works! (In fact I made one last night...)

I must admit to a certain amount of reluctance in declaring whether this was this % or that % of the perfect BIR - because no matter what disclaimers one puts around it, that statement will be quoted and you will be made accountable for it for eternity.

Bravo, sir! It is for this reason that I hate it when I'm asked if a curry I've made is 100% BIR. Apart from the fact that it never can be (simply because I am not, and never will be, a BIR chef), my quest is ultimately to produce something better. I may never attain that goal, but I sure as hell plan to enjoy the journey.

There are flavours in there that you would swear could not come from just chilli & mix powder alone - The only thing I am doing different now is cooking techniques.

This is the 'alchemy' to which I often refer when trying to explain BIR to my non-cooking mates. I don't pretend to understand it, but it has consumed much of my culinary life and it fascinates the hell out of me to this day. And always will, I believe.

Keep up the great work guys. It's inspired me to borrow a video camera and post one of my efforts for critique, too...

[Salvador Dhali]

Next time I won't cook the garlic for as long. Do others brown the garlic or stop short?

Cheers,

Paul

I guess everyone has their own take on this, but from my observation of BIR chefs I let the garlic get to the stage where it's just starting to take on colour (i.e. a very light golden brown), then it's pan off the heat and in with the spices and/or tomato paste (depending on what I'm making), then back on a high heat for the fusing/singeing/quenching (FSQ) process.

Hope that makes sense!

Cheers

Gary

[bamble1976]

Hi

Gary I'm with you on this process with the garlic etc.  I think one of the important things that people like cory have been saying is you need enough oil in the initial stages to fry the garlic/spices etc.  Any singeing of spices in a lack of oil will cause burning or sticking to the pan.

Regards

Barry

[ELW]

Thanks Russ, I've already got exactly the same pan! You're right about not claiming 100% as it leaves nowhere to improve on.

I tried the singe technique for the first time on Friday and had a partial success. Unfortunately I let the garlic go brown and ended up with a strong burnt garlic flavour. I cooked the spices quite long and hard and they didn't look or taste burned. I managed to eat the curry (just) but the burnt garlic flavour was quite a spoiler. A pity as some other nice flavours I don't normally detect had developed. I would also agree that when properly cooked the chilli powder has a hotter effect.

Next time I won't cook the garlic for as long. Do others brown the garlic or stop short?

Cheers,

Paul

Hi PaulP, I put the garlic on low to medium on the biggest burner then creep it up, just starting to colour.
Full blast for those spices!

I'll be looking to cut the oil content of my curries if possible somewhere down the line, but for the moment the  more oil, the easier i find it, especially in the 26cm pan.

I'm all out of base atm, but next batch I'll do a long medium heat fry with spices,both on their own & in the tomato paste. I'm still not sure if this method can get the bir taste out of those spices, as I can only achieve it as yet, by chucking them into a full heat pan, (I wish I could get it even hotter)....& quite possibly burning them a little
This is something I need to clear up in my own head !

ELW

[JerryM]

Solarsplace,

a picture and a thousand words. love it - well done.

i'm not sure on the seconds when the singe is done (i thought 4 mins). i am now convinced that i do the singe and possibly got the dry end of the stick (i've tried hot cooking spices in oil). the only thing i do is once the tom puree, spice and 1 chef base are in and after a real good stir i leave it on the heat full blast looking till the water has almost gone without stirring. i get consistency this way.

the garlic or g/g i rely solely on smell and stop as soon as.

i'm still sticking to cooking on my burner though - it really is chalk and cheese. in fact a bit of a battle in my house at the mo - my good lady sees no reason to do more than staff curry and chewytikka's bhuna.

ps love the flat on the pan. is it non stick coated as i'm not sure that would help develop the taste.

forgot to add for this type of dish i only add the base 1 chef at a time as this stops any heat drop.

[solarsplace]

Hi Jerry

Sorry, missed your reply.

You are absolutely right. Those burners are in a totally different league than most of our kitchen appliances. Adjusting ones speed and technique is a must when using them.

No non-stick pans in that clip Jerry just an aluminium job. I've personally gone right off non-stick pans except for eggs and omelettes and stuff like that. Even the expensive ones don't seem to last very long, and using them on a big burner will destroy them (the coating) - far too hot. (Desperately tries to avoid turning this into another what pan debate ).

Still not tried the staff curry - must give it a bash!

Cheers

[JerryM]

Solarsplace,

well pleased on the NO non stick.

for info think i will be getting an ali pan and if so will try curry in it. i'm looking for one of those neat little pan's Az cooked the garlic (for me slithers) in.

[colin grigson]

Thanks for this.. as a beginner on this site I was wondering what 'singeing' actually meant and this shows it perfectly .. I noticed you said that the following evening you left it even longer with no detrimental effects .. wow !!

This has given me the confidence to at least double the time my spices sit singeing but I'll be watching the garlic and ginger paste too 

Nice looking finished dish too.. I may even try a few prawns one day .. I've only used chicken 'til now   

[emin-j]

Thanks Russ, I've already got exactly the same pan! You're right about not claiming 100% as it leaves nowhere to improve on.

I tried the singe technique for the first time on Friday and had a partial success. Unfortunately I let the garlic go brown and ended up with a strong burnt garlic flavour. I cooked the spices quite long and hard and they didn't look or taste burned. I managed to eat the curry (just) but the burnt garlic flavour was quite a spoiler. A pity as some other nice flavours I don't normally detect had developed. I would also agree that when properly cooked the chilli powder has a hotter effect.

Next time I won't cook the garlic for as long.

Do others brown the garlic or stop short?

Cheers,

Paul

Hi PaulP, a good tip which I think came from Julian (Curry2Go) is if you make your G/G paste  with a little oil and water when you start to fry it you will hear the sizzling and this is the water cooking out of the paste,when the sizzling stops it is starting to brown lightly so then take off the heat and add your next ingredient.Until recently I would have added the spice mix/chili after the G/G but have found the spices mop up most of the oil and leaves little oil to 'singe' the spices in (I do use quite a bit of oil  ) so now I get much better results by frying G/G as above then take off heat add 1 chef spoon of thinned tomato paste then add the spice/chili mixture this then allows plenty of liquid to fry spices and I can fry this mix down to almost a dry pan without it burning.

[PaulP]

Thanks for the tips emin-j. Like I said in another thread I need to pull my finger out and do the pre-prep and make the g/g paste in a decent quantity. It seems to be the BIR way rather than hand chopping the g/g every time I make a curry.

The other thing I get bored with is dry chewy chicken breast pieces but although not BIR style I'm hoping to buy the "sous vide" equipment to allow me to cook chicken in a slow cooker with 100% control of temperature.

I'm hoping to buy this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sous-Vide-Magic-Controller-FREE-WORLDWIDE-SHIPPING?item=150622887075&cmd=ViewItem&_trksid=p5197.m7&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D3%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D7349238021723716063

Maybe I'm crazy but it looks like fun to me. 

Paul