Any new results to share?

[ELW]

Has anyone found a new level of success in bir@home by adopting the cooking techniques highlighted by the Zaal kitchen report & videos?

Some of the results I've had since I stopped hitting the spices with my handbag & cooked them with a bit of venom, are not vague in any way, they are definite & quite stark in contrast to the result of 'not cooking on full blast'. Not a 'tasty' curry, but a 'bir curry'. It's like night & day.

Whether the spices are slightly burned or simply cooked properly I'm not sure.I need to be far more consistent with my efforts on the home cooker, which upon reflection, is the only thing the bir kitchen doesn't have!

Results & ingredients up to the gravy stage would be great

I'd be also be very interested in hearing from anyone with results by adopting the low heat Sunday fry up method, which seems ingrained in the home cook when using a frying pan or those not using tomato paste
Thanks in advance

ELW

[natterjak]

I have to say my level of satisfaction with my home cooked curries is at an all time high, which I attribute to properly cooking the spices and tomato puree. Something I remember from the CR0 summer BBQ last year though is Az told me that a slow cooked curry will always taste better than one cooked fast. So it seems it's not the level of heat but the amount of cooking which counts. Ie, low & slow cooking is as valid as hard & fast.

[George]

Has anyone found a new level of success in bir@home by adopting the cooking techniques highlighted by the Zaal kitchen report & videos?

I've noticed a definite benefit from last minute frying of garlic to add to dishes as a tarka, as used in the Chicken Roshney video. I used it again this evening in a plain chicken curry made from scratch, rather than via a base sauce.

I tried using a blowlamp to ignite oils in my pan for a flambe effect but there were no flames whatsoever. I guess the oil needs to be much hotter than I feel it otherwise necessary to use. My guess is that the flambe effect is quite important for the overall BIR taste, because it features so often. I need to figure out how to deliver flambe safely in my kitchen at home.

[Terramamba]

Has anyone found a new level of success in bir@home by adopting the cooking techniques highlighted by the Zaal kitchen report & videos?

Yes, working on another post, but being a little distracted by the beer drinking!  ;D

[gary]

What I've been doing with really good results:

1: Domestic gas hob, largest burner, gas fully open.

2: 23cm Alu pan on hob for 30 seconds, then 1 and a bit chefs' spoons of veg oil in pan, heat for another 30 seconds.

3: Pan off heat, in with a heaped teaspoon of G&G paste then back on heat - shake pan back and forth while keeping spoon static (pan usually flambes here)

4: When flames die down, pan back off heat, in with spice mix and chilli powder, then back on full heat, shaking and stirring for say ten fifteen secs.

There's a definate smell coming off here: almost like a bbq smell - metal, fire, food etc it has me sneezing and coughing.

5: Then in with the tom puree and at least a minute of full heat before adding a bit of base gravy

Slightlly different to the method we've seen in some vids, but this seems to be working for me trying to kep the heat at high levels with the domestic tools I have at my disposal.

It's more like battle than cooking, quite tiring really

Gary

[curryhell]

What I've been doing with really good results:

1: Domestic gas hob, largest burner, gas fully open.

2: 23cm Alu pan on hob for 30 seconds, then 1 and a bit chefs' spoons of veg oil in pan, heat for another 30 seconds.

3: Pan off heat, in with a heaped teaspoon of G&G paste then back on heat - shake pan back and forth while keeping spoon static (pan usually flambes here)

4: When flames die down, pan back off heat, in with spice mix and chilli powder, then back on full heat, shaking and stirring for say ten fifteen secs.

There's a definate smell coming off here: almost like a bbq smell - metal, fire, food etc it has me sneezing and coughing.

5: Then in with the tom puree and at least a minute of full heat before adding a bit of base gravy

Slightlly different to the method we've seen in some vids, but this seems to be working for me trying to kep the heat at high levels with the domestic tools I have at my disposal.

It's more like battle than cooking, quite tiring really

Gary

Gary, brilliant account of how you're doing it.  Thanks for sharing this as it may help a lot of people understand the technique.  What comes across in this post is that you've a feel for what you're doing.  I don't for a moment think you're standing there with a stop watch clocking every stage .  At the end of the day, Az said to us it's about eye and feel.  It may just be for some of us it'll take a bit longer to develop the eye and the feel . Then you've got the added complicatons of us having different cooking equipment.  For me this just emphasises the need to feel what one is doing as nobody knows better the cooking environment other than the person who uses it most : Great to hear you're having success mate

[Robert]

Thanks to this thread I now think I understand my variable results in the past - some great, others just o.k. Old technique was to start by frying the spices made up into a paste with water "to prevent burning" - can't remember where that tip came from. Next G/G, then base. Tom puree added later straight from the tube if the recipe called for it.

Now starting with G/G and frying briskly until just beginning to colour, I feel this gives me a good indication that the heat is about right, then in with the spices and dilute tom puree, (big hiss). Cook until the water has evaporated off and then a bit longer until the mixture has darkened a bit and the aroma develops. This is the critical bit but thanks to these posts I'm keeping my nerve but did slightly overdo it once, after all how else can you discover how far to go? As has been said, it's all about feel and practice rather than stopwatch timing. Then quench with a dollop of base, cook out and repeat until all base in. Keep stirring on high heat and scraping sides to get caramelisation without burning. Now's the time to relax a bit, turn the heat down and add other ingredients and simmer until done.

This seems much more controllable and reproducible that my previous efforts - thanks guys!

Using a stainless pan rather than non-stick too, and looking out for an aluminium one

Still can't get out of the habit of adding "sweet" GM (aromatics only, no ground coriander or cumin) towards the end with the coriander leaf. Must try the whole spices in the base trick next.

Thanks again for all your efforts.

[ELW]

Az told me that a slow cooked curry will always taste better than one cooked fast. So it seems it's not the level of heat but the amount of cooking which counts. Ie, low & slow cooking is as valid as hard & fast.

Does anyone know if Asian chefs/homecooks, use the same method of cooking when at home?
I've tried 2 x slow fry of the spices today, on low heat 12-15mins frying... the results being very poor. When the gravy hit the pan(no tomato paste used), it it sounded like a batch of wet chips hitting the deep fat fryer, very loud 
I'll try another couple of slow fry's then I'm going to abandon this method. It's far too early for me to rule it out completely & I'd love to find it can be done this way

Ignoring the pre cooked meats & pastes for a second, a homestyle curry is really only missing the base gravy, frequently replaced by tomatoes & water & a commercial cooking appliance . If the method / process of frying spices is commonplace/second nature, as old as the hills as has been suggested, then where does the fused spice taste disappear to in the homestyle version  I've had homestyle in a Pakistani home ,cooking all day, meat on the bone, falling apart, great yes, bir no

@Gary - thats pretty much the way I've been going. I rarely add meat to a dish if it doesn't taste right after the gravy is cooked out, therefore can get through quite a bit of base gravy.

When I'm down to my last gravy portion, and it doesn't hit the mark, I'll dilute it a little with water & repeat the whole process again. I've got some great results by doing this, but as Roy Walker from Catchphrase used to say "it's good, but it's not right"

Just a thought...looking now at the ready meal supermarket versions, the makers of which should be set up more than anyone to do bir, this little process looks more like one of the reasons they can't produce bir ready meals on a grand scale 

ELW

[Micky Tikka]

O dear      If you could try and find somewhere to cook on a high flame and results turn out differently . Might answer a few questions

[gary]

Does anyone know if Asian chefs/homecooks, use the same method of cooking when at home?

--- If the method / process of frying spices is commonplace/second nature, as old as the hills as has been suggested, then where does the fused spice taste disappear to in the homestyle version  I've had homestyle in a Pakistani home ,cooking all day, meat on the bone, falling apart, great yes, bir no

To me the BIR taste is as much a result of process as it is of ingredients.

With homestyle curries (of which I'm a massive fan, and cook them regularly) the spices are cooked for a lot longer, usually being put in after the onions have been well caramelised and before the meat is added.

Sometimes they may not be fried at all but added to the simmering gravy, other times some may be fried then others added later.

I can't say I've ever come accross a big emphasis on singeing/burning spices in home cooking books or vids, though a good few really emphasise the browning of onions as the initial stage.

Gary