Hi,

I am enjoying cooking stove top naans on my tava and would like to cook them outdoors for some small outside events (in the pub garden).

Anybody here use any cast iron single gas burners?  (often used for camping) and can offer advice on which put out enough heat to cook naans on? 

thanks in advance

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cast+iron+burners&espv=2&biw=1920&bih=955&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=vJ2WVYgkhLpRstmMkAc&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg#tbm=isch&q=single+cast+iron+ring+burners

Tried my hand at making my own Terracotta Tandoor after seeing it done on Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfXXamj8lV4

Seemed cheap and easy enough, even for a cack-handed numpty like me

I won't repeat the instructions but it only took 10 minutes or so and I got all the pots at Homebase/Dobbies.

Here are some pics:


The First Collage:
1. The finished tandoor with a borrowed lid from an unused chimenea
2. My addition to the instructions, a stainless steel sink drainer for 99p to act as a 2nd grill
3. Checking the temperature with my whizz-bang new thermometer (notice I still have hair on my forearm!)  This was after 30 minutes.
4. Tweaking the bricks underneath to maximise air-flow (this is key to getting it really hot)

The Second Collage:

1. Balancing a Tikka on a slightly too-short skewer
2. Balancing the skewer on a tent peg
3. Not brave enough to stick a roti on the side in this pic - cooking on a tawa pretty well
4. Say good-bye to forearm hair!  Attempted Tandoori Roti
5 & 6 My breakfast.

Overall this worked a treat.  I used lumpwood charcoal, and this was my second attempt at firing it up.  I would recommend extra long skewers.

The chicken cooked in 5-7 minutes and I used Blade's tried and trusted marinade.

Will give this some more testing over the BBQ season

Hi all, been away a while - work, family commitments - still cooking of course   Mostly making pies, and varieties of home-tweaked peanuts to sell in my pub.

A customer today gave me a plantain - and I vindalooed (new verb) it most delightfully.



The recipe was mostly stolen from ChewyTikka's odds and ends Vindaloo post.  The plantain got boiled for half an hour before adding to the curry.  They are like a more fibrous, denser potato.

https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,13537.0.html

But as usual I was missing a few bits so I used fresh chilli, balsamic vinegar and added half a tsp of pataks kashmiri masala.  I would apologise but it tastes fantastic - maybe more like a Madras as I am not a ninja chilli head.

The base was something I found in the back of the freezer - can't even remember which it was....

Hi all, sorry for absence - not been cooking many curries lately as have been mostly making jumbo scotch eggs!

However by popular demand it's curry night in my pub tomorrow night and I have cooked up an uber batch of Pathia and Madras.  I based the Pathia recipe on Stephen L's and Curry Barking Mads and the Madras is a basic hotchpotch of Zeera and off the top of my head.

I cooked the curries the day before as I have found that I can't approach the BIR flavour I am looking for, in bulk cooking, without re-heating/storing the curries

Jobs for tomorrow include cooking up a big batch of pilau rice, and cooking 50 odd poppadoms!  Will sell the curry for a fiver a head and tend to be rather generous in my portion control.

Started off with 3 x batches of Taz base.  This is more than I needed - but I have frozen about 2 litres for later cooking.

I then boiled and diced 10 kg of chicken breast - good old Cash'n'Carry!

The pureed base along with 10kg of boiled chicken breast.


I made the curries up in the usual method found on the forum.  However without the reducing stage it is hard to pack in the BIR flavour when cooking hence the double cooking.

I like to get all my ingredients measured out and ready before I cook These are the components for the Pathia.


The Pathia is on the left, the Madras on the right.



Both curries taste pretty good - the madras needs the lemon/methi and a bit more heat.  The Pathia is a little hotter than I intended and there is a bit too much sauce.  The real tasting happens tomorrow!   Will hopefully get a few photos.

Recipes

Chicken Pathia
20 tbsp oil
4 chefs spoons of par-boiled onion/pepper
200ml diluted tomato puree
6 tbsp (heaped) of mix powder (I used Taz)
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp pataks tikka or tandoori paste (optional)
1 tsp red colour powder (optional)
3 tbsp kashmiri mirch or mild chilli powder
10 tbsp sugar
10 tbsp mango chutney
10 tbsp lemon juice
Approx 2 litres of base - I judge by eye mainly
Chicken 8-10kg

1. Heat oil
2. add onion/pepper for a few mins
3. add tomato puree for 2-3 mins
4. add mix powder/salt/chilli and cook till you get a lovely smell/consistency (about 1-2 mins)
5. add sugar/mango/lemon juice
6. add base in batches till you are happy with amount
7 add chicken and cook till oil rises
8 allow to cool.

9. reheat (the oven is useful as you can easily burn the bottom of such a deep pan)
10. add chopped coriander and 4 tsp kasuri methi and some quartered tomato.

Veggie Madras. (not particularly hot)

10 tbsp oil
5 tbsp garlic/ginger paste
20 ml tomato puree diluted
5 tsp mix powder
2 tsp kashmiri chilli
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp pataks tikka or tandoori paste (optional)
1 tsp red colour powder (optional)
2 kg pre-cooked mixed veg (I cheat and use bags of good quality frozen veg)
1 and a half litres of base
Chopped coriander
4 tsp lemon juice
3 tsp kasuri methi
2 tsp worcestershire sauce

1. Heat oil
2. fry g/g paste for 1 min
3. add tomato puree for 1 min
4. add spice mix, chilli, salt - cook stirring for 1 -2 mins till you get a lovely caramel/toffee smell
5.add half base
6 add veg and rest of base
7. cook till oil rises or at least 15 mins

8 on reheat add lemon juice/coriander/methi and worcestershire sauce 10 mins before serving

Been experimenting with some home made scotch eggs to sell in my pub.  The first batch were black pudding, the second cider & fennel.  But it was only a matter of time before I got all Indian on them  ;D

Just added spice mix, mild madras powder, chilli powder, g/g paste, pataks tandoori paste, mint, lemon juice and coriander to some sausage meat and wrapped around some hard boiled eggs. Dip in flour, egg then breadcrumbs before baking in the oven (bit healthier than deep frying - and I hate the smell!)

To make them a bit more interesting I added some Panch Poran (fennel, cumin, black onion, fenugreek, and black mustard seeds) into the breadcrumb coating.

In my own personal opinion - pretty damn good.  If anything the Indian flavours overpower any sausage flavours.  Only a few split in the oven - so I had to eat those myself

As I liked the idea of whole onions in the base - a la Chewy Tikka, and the use of the pressure cooker as mentioned by Phil and Chewy T.  I thought I would knock up a base as fast as I could - but do it all in one pan/cooking process to see who it compared with some of my faves.

I added all the usual base suspects -
3 onions (500g)
half a carrot
1 litre of water
8 tbsp oil
2 cubes of raj frozen g/g puree
1 tbsp tom puree
half tin of chopped toms
1 tsp spice mix
1 tsp salt



Bought it to a simmer, got the pressure on and gave it 30 mins then whizzed it up.



Came out pretty well on consistency, but had the taste of an onion soup as the high pressure killed all the spices and garlic/ginger flavour.

Made a nice Prawn Chasni from it to test - which went down a treat!  Not as good as when using CA's base though.



So in conclusion I would have used the pressure cooker to do the onions & any veg, but leave the spices/garlic & ginger till later in the cooking.  (or follow CTs recipe which uses a different pan).

Hi all,

Myself and new member "wineman" had a curry night tonight - here are some pics!

We started off with a pleasant couple of pints of bitter then started cooking.  The base and spice mix were CA's and we knocked up a King Prawn Vindaloo, a Mutton Madras, a Chicken Ceylon, a Chicken Chasni, Chilli paneer and some pilau rice.  We even knocked up a prawn Korma - not pictured. 

The result, two happy, and slightly fatter curry lovers!


from left to right, Mutton Madras, Chicken Ceylon, Chicken Chasni, Chilli Paneer and Prawn Vindaloo


Close up of the Chasni & the Paneer


Plateful no.1


The remains

The links:
CA's base here https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3772.0
CA's Ceylon here https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3868.0
CA's Vindaloo here https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3953.0
Zeera Madras here https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=5376.0
Micks Chicken Chasni (video) here  http://cbm-mick.blogspot.com/2011/04/chicken-chasni.html
Chilli Paneer here https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=5912.0
Dylan's pilau rice here https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=211.0
The Beer Here

Made this up this morning following Chewy's video.  Instead of using normal chilli I used a dried Naga Jolokia (apparently the hottest in the world).  It was very nice but very hot!!

Pre-Cooked Red Lentils - just water and lentils


Frying the garlic slices and dried chilli


The finished Tarka Dal


Some friends bought me the chillis from London

Hi all,

In my holy triumvirate of fave curries the Methi is up there with Dhansak and Madras. It is a smoky, musty savoury curry that really goes well with lamb in particular.

I noticed there is no recipe for it on here so thought I'd have a go.  Quite often this is missing from BIR menus but they will always make it for you.  I imagine it is a bog-standard medium curry or a bhuna with added Fenugreek leaves (that was always the KD method)

So I concocted a basic medium curry using some helpful tips from the forum!

300 ml base (Taz's this time)
portion pre-cooked meat
1 tsp restaurant masala (I used CA's this time)
1 tsp mild madras or basaar powder
1 tbsp tomato puree mixed with 2 tbsp water
half tsp chilli powder (or to taste)
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
3 tbsp Kasoori Methi (dried fenugreek leaves - try to remove any really twiggy ones or rub between hands a bit)
half tsp sugar
2 tbsp oil

1. Heat oil and add g/g paste and simmer for 1 min
2. add powdered spices and simmer stirring for 1 min
3. add tomato puree/water stir for 30 secs
4. add a ladle of base and reduce to a thickish paste
5. add pre-cooked main ingredient & sugar
6. top up base bit by bit to get desired consistency (Methi will clog it up a bit so keep it a bit runny)
7. add fenugreek leaves
5. heat for a min and serve



The dark flecks in the sauce are the fenugreek - it was delicious even if I do say myself

Notes: Fenugreek really fades fast so only add just before eating.  If reheating you will need to add more to get the real flavour

Too much fenugreek can become bitter - so add to taste if unsure.  The sugar helps balance the sauce.

I really like Chicken Tikka on its own or in a CTM, and Blade's recipe is cracking. 

But whenever I add tikka to a non creamy curry I really don't see any benefit to the curry.  I cant pick up any Tikka flavours and begrudge both the extra effort in making the tikka, and not getting the benefit of enjoying it in its unadulterated state.

I have noticed on BIR menus and on lots of recipes on here that I may be in the minority as adding Chicken Tikka to a curry seems to sex it up for a lot of people.

Do other peeps really notice the difference in adding Chicken Tikka to their madras, dansaks or vindaloos? 

Me I am happy with cheapo frozen chicken breasts, boiled and cubed

I had promised the customers in my pub a curry for our twice-annual beer fest.  However I didn't want to go the BIR route as organising a beer fest takes nearly all my time and making bulk BIR would have been too difficult.

So I returned to my curry roots in making a big pot of what an old, battered and deluded recipe book* calls a "sweet & sour balti".  The main reason this curry is so quick to cook is "no onions".  The main flavours are tomato, mango and cream.  With garam masala and garlic giving the other flavours.



I have made this curry in bulk many times using chicken or beef and it always goes down a treat.  This time I cooked up 9kg of chicken (which filled up the pictured bain-marie twice) and it all sold very quickly.   However my commercial rice cooker blew up so my advertised "Curry & Pilau Rice" become "Bowl of curry"

Happy to post the recipe for 6 servings, 15 or even 40 ish on request

*the recipe book is "Indian" by Shehzad Husain & Rafi Fernandez

I was invited to a "bring-a-plate" event this weekend and made up a 3kg batch of tandoori style (blade's recipe) chicken drumsticks.  They were ok - could of done with a bit more charring and a bit longer marinading.

However while roasting them a shed load of lovely tandoori flavoured juices were released and I decided to save it to see if they would work as a sort of re-claimed oil.

I made a slight variation on the zeera madras using 2 tbsps instead of oil tonight and it was excellent with a lovely depth of flavour.  Made enough for 2 meals but ended up scoffing the lot, then cleaning out the pan

So if you are roasting any tandoori chicken - keep the curry dripping/juices as they work a treat!







Apologies if this is teaching any grandmothers to suck eggs!

When I first discovered curries I claimed I would happily eat curry for breakfast, lunch & dinner. While I am not as bad now I still like to have one or two a week but am lucky if I can squeeze one in a fortnight!

So what stops me getting cooking? Firstly a small 9 month old boy crawling around my feet and secondly my missus would always prefer any thing non-curry (weird how she always cleans the plate though!)

So just for fun - what stops you guys cooking as much as you like? 

Not 100% sure where to post this but here goes - apols if in the wrong place.

Like many on here I enjoy homestyle indian style cooking as well as BIR  ? and like to find cross-overs and cheats  ie using curry base instead of frying onions/garlic/ginger in a traditional recipe.

While following Manjulas recipe for Chickpea curry I was happily surprised by the texture and consistency of the sauce.  By playing around a bit you get a lovely, speedy and flexible mini-curry base for tweaking into all your favourite curries.

The original recipe and video here - http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/2007/01/28/chola-chana-masala/    She uses a lot of salt! And a bit more water than I do.

Flexi Version
Serves 1
Main ingredient of choice ? veg/meat etc
3 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds (optional)
1 tablespoon gram flour (Besan)
1 large tomato
1 teaspoon ginger paste
1 teaspoon chopped green chilies
2 tsp of spice mix of your choice
half teaspoon chilli powder
half tsp sugar
half teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chopped coriander

1.Blend the tomato, and ginger to make a puree. (or add tsp ginger puree)
2.Heat the oil in a saucepan.
3.Add  cumin seeds.
4.After the cumin seeds pop add the gram flour and stir-fry for a minute.
5.Add the tomato puree, spice mix, chilli powder and cook for about 4 minutes on medium heat.
6.The mixture will start leaving the oil and will reduce to about half in quantity.
7.Add your main ingredient of choice and a 175ml water or stock and let it cook for at least 7 to 8 minutes on medium heat
8.Cook till your main ingredient is done ? add more water or simmer to get the consistency of sauce you want .  Sprinkle on the green stuff.

There is a marked similarity to BIR cooking in that you reduce the puree and spices to a thickish paste ? before adding water to make a sauce.

Sugar is needed as the tomato can make this curry a touch sour.

I have made versions of CTMs, Achars, Pathias and Vindaloos from this base ? and while not exactly BIR, it is a really quick and flexible base-less curry for 1 in a hurry!

Pics may follow

The Korma is a much maligned curry and like many of us I need at least a hint of chilli or I feel cheated.  However my missus is violently allergic to chillies/pepper and we all have curry virgin friends that we like to cook for and I personally dislike over-sweet/coconut curries.

This is my version of a 1 person korma based on KDs - I cooked this loads commercially in a pub in London and it was a firm favourite.  I would say it is better than any I have had in a restaurant (tasting other peoples you understand!)  but that depends on whether you love the sweet/coconut thing.

This only serves one - but it is easy to multiply up - I have made it for 40 in the past for a beer festival.

2 tbsp oil
1 ladle/200ml base sauce (I used KDs)
Pinch Salt
Drop yellow food colouring or pinch of turmeric
quarter tsp Garam Masala - rajahs is good
half tsp Cumin powder
2 tbsp Single Cream
Chopped coriander leaf

Heat the oil, and add the curry sauce.
When simmering add the garam masala and cumin - this always amazes me how such a tiny amount of spice made such a magic smell!
Add 1 breast/7 chunks of pre-cooked chicken breast (just boiled) and the yellow colour or turmeric.
When the chicken is hot and the oil seperates add the cream - this is where the yellow colour appears
Serve topped with chopped coriander leaf.

I like to add a pinch of chopped coriander while cooking - something about the green flecks in the curry sauce that looks really appealing.

I draw the ladle accross the bottom of the pan and if the divided sauce ran back together quickly - I cooked a bit longer.  This is just a way of seeing if your sauce is the right consistency.

If you cook at a high temp - this used to only take 7-8 mins from start to serve.

I have used this curry several times for people who say "they hate curries" and it has gone down very well, and for young nieces who said it was yummy and cleaned their plates

While I love making individual curry portions from a base sauce - doing curry nights in my pub mean I have had to make up larger amounts on occasion. 

In the past I made big 1 pot all-in curries from various traditional curry recipes but found they were lacking in the BIR flavour that I was trying to achieve. 

I then started making big pots of curries from 1 batch of KD base and multiplying my curry ingredients by 5-7 (except salt and chilli) and got some great results. 

However making even larger curries involved a lot of guess work on the spicing and this method increased the number of cooking stages - 1 make base 2. pre-cook meat  3. Make up curry.

The beauty of big batch cooking is it is quite hard to really cock it up - and reasonably easy to rectify any problems (in comparison with individual curries anyway).  There is a lot more lee-way either side with spicing, heat, saltiness etc.

So not sure you can qualify this as a BIR dhansak - though my intention was to make it as close to that as possible. 

Recipe
Started by making 2 x Bruce Edwards base, which was quite brave as I have only used KDs in the past. 

I did some multiplications of my slightly tweaked Gezh's Dhansak recipe and worked out I needed the following:

1 litre oil
2 x Bruce Edwards Base
1 kg yellow split lentils + 500g red lentils made into a basic dall
3 tsp salt
8 kg pre cooked chicken breast (just boiled)
30 tbsps Garlic/Ginger puree
300 ml tomato passata

spice mix
30 tsp Madras curry powder
20 tsp Garam Masala
9 Tbsp Kasoori Methi
12 tsp amchoor

sweet/sour mix
250 ml sugar
200 ml mango chutney
250 ml lemon juice

smokey/dark mix
20 tbsp Ketchup
20 tbsp soya sauce

Chopped coriander 1.5 bunches

The method:

I made the base the day before, and the dall which was a simple water, turmeric, lentils simmered for an hour till I got the consistency I wanted.

I then heated 3/4 of oil and fried the garlic/ginger puree for a min or 2

Then added the spice mix and stirred for another min.

I then added all the base and the cooked dall - and heated for a while to get up to temperature

At this point I added half the sweet/sour and smokey/dark mix and tasted till I got the flavour balance right in my opinion (I then whacked the lot in!)

I then poured the curry over the chicken - and chilled ready for the following day.

To reheat I heated to oil and slowly bought to a simmer - stirring regularly as the lentils tended to sink to the bottom and stick to the pan.

The curry turned out really well - needed a touch more chilli - but cooking for lots of people with various chilli tolerances means you have to keep it reasonably mild.  Sold 40 portions and still had some left over to give little pots away for seconds!

Some naff mobile phone pics attached:

cooking the base and the dall


Lots of pureed base


Cooking the curry in 2 saucepans


Curry ready for re-heating - more smokey mix making it look darker


Lots of poppadoms


Serving on the night


Was too busy afterwards to take any pics - but it looked great on the plate - and we had lots of happy customers!

I had also made up a pot of veggie curry, a rice cooker full of pilau rice, a naga-chilli sauce to spice up the curry and about 60 poppadoms!

Wow!  I have found my internet home! Great site all. Love the forums here, love the recipes ? some real experts too! Wish I had found this place years ago!

I have been curry mad since uni days when some Pathan cousins from Bradford invited me round their house to share their meals once a week.  Since then I have been trying to recreate that elusive BIR (great acronym!) flavour. 

In the 13 odd years since I've cooked some of the worst food known to man!  Only in the last 4-5 years have I began to find my feet.

For the last 3 years I ran a pub in North London (just quit), and started adding curries to the Friday menu.  Big pots to serve 10-15, then adding a veggie curry, then moving on to offering 30 different curries to order as I got more confident(cocky).  The curries were very popular and at ?4 ? 5 each (with pilau rice and popp) I could make over 25 in 2 hours on a Friday lunchtime ? and was able to have 4 pans/curries on the go at the same time!

I used a combination of Khris D's base, but ignored a lot of his faffing around (skimming etc) I tended to whack all the roughly chopped onions, in the water, add the pureed ginger/garlic and after 45 mins add the tomatoes, oil and turmeric/paprika and just place a hand-blender in till it was smooth. 

For my recipes I basically went thru a lot of books/online stuff and adapted the recipes to be able to cook in 10-15 minutes each, and serve 1 person.

Becoming bored with offering such a huge range ? I changed to doing 4-5 different curries every Friday.  With people able to request those they wanted.  My most popular curries were Chicken Achar, Chilli Paneer, Masala Dosa (using tortilla wraps), Lamb Podina, and Lamb Methi. 

I guess my style was speed and shortcuts (based on trial & error) preparation and having someone else do the washing up!  I wouldn't say I got the BIR flavour all the time, or on all the curries, but was regularly complimented on ?best curry I have ever eaten? - Which I put down mainly to our beer 

I have some photos of the some of the curries, but no web hosting.  I still have all the recipes in my head so if anyone is interested just let me know.  Look forward to many happy discussions.