Hi

Firstly apologies, I have been in the past a reasonabley frequent contributor on here, but in the last couple of years have been a bit lazy!

I remember a while back some discussion on the 'MSG is bad for you' myth (opps, dare I say that!).  One contributer supplied a link to an article that explained things very well.  Having been remiss enough not to make a note of it at the time, I now find myself unable to track it down.

I'd really appreciate any pointers on where to go!

Many thanks

Adrian

BBQ weather tomorrow (well later to day by now I 'spose); had steak earlier this evening and want to try something different next:  anyone know of a good marinade recipie fpr shish kebabs and chicken kebabs?

I'm after the sort of flavour commonly associated with kebabs (other than doner) commonly sold by doner kebab establishments.

Ta very much!

Adrian

Oh goodie - chicken madras weather!!

In the the continuing quest for curry perfection, I tried adding a few drops of Maggi seasoning (dark liquid stuff, small bottle, local supermarket), to my 'standard' chicken madras tonight.  The stuff must be really concentrated because only a fewdrops seemed to be noticable.

It contains (amongst opther things) MSG and wheat extracts (presumably other glutamates).

As I understand it, MSG is a flavour enhancer; it's supposed to be the "5th taste", after sweet, salt, sour and bitter.  This extra taste being known as "umami" for some reason!

I have to say it, didn't seem to make a positive contribution to the result.  A few days back I tried putting a couple of drops in 100ml or so of water to get an idea of the flavour.  I appreciate that at this point you may be thinking that that's irrelevant, it's how it enhances the other flavours that matters.  I guess I was just interested to know!  Soy sauce is supposed to enhance food in a similar manner, and apart from loads of salt, that too contains wheat products and presumably glutamates.  The Maggi flavour does seem very slighty remenicent of soy to me.  Both 'her-in-doors' and I thought it added a slight soy-like note that clashed with the other flavours.

I've heard that MSG is used in Chinese restaurants quite a lot, in rice dishes for example.  I wonder what the received wisdom is on what sort dishes and flavours are enhanced by MSG, and what arn't??

It would be useful to know if anyone has any ideas?

I understand that MSG isn't very fashionable at present, part of that has to do with with the fact that 'monosodium glutamate' sounds more like a laboratory reagent than a foodstuff, but then most food products could ultimately be discribed in that manner!  I may be wrong, but I can't imagine that small amounts, very occasionally eaten, could be any more harmful than, for example, the 3 or so tbs of oil that goes into a typical curry !

Anyhow ,if anyone has any ideas on what type of dish MSG works best in I love to know!  My local Asian shop sells great big bags of MSG, possibly to restaurants for all I know!

Just wondered if anyone has tried COOKING pilau in a microwave, as opposed to reheating?

I feeling particularly lazy today and am considering frying some typical pilau spices (cinamon stick, cloves bay etc)in a tbs or 2 of oil/gee, mixing it with washed uncooked basmati rice followed by the requesite quantity of water, then cooking in the microwave, as per manufatureres instructions.

I've cooked plain rice this way before with reasonable (not fantastic) results.

Any thoughts? Apart from 'don't be so lazy'!

The dish I tend to order in a new place first is always Chicken Madras. To some extent I judge them on that, notwithstanding the fact that different BIRs do different dishes well, It's my favorite test of a BIR

Irrespective of how hot (chilie) it is, a poor establishment will invariably make a  boring madras that lacks 'supporting' flavours.

What do you think??  Would your choice be Madras, bhuna, CTM?

I know it's a 'tall order', but wouldn't it be great if CrO people could get together so we could all 'talk curry', and taste each others efforts.

The pooling of group knowledge and 'taste results' might help us all!

Reigate is my home town and has several Curry-Houses.  Recently the wife and I tried worked our way through them in their 'TA' and delivered food capacity.

The Village B. was very salty indeed and did not taste quite 'right', in OUR opinion.  In fairness they may just have been having a 'bad night', but neither of us enjoyed it.

A couple of weeks latter my wife was walking home from the town centre (it only takes 7 minutes), her route taking her past the rear of the place.  It had been very windy and their wheely bins had blown over, disgorging their contents all over the street. MOST OF THE RUBBISH COMPRISED  (what looked like) CURRY 'READY-MEAL' RAPPERS!!!

If you go there, try hard to listen for the sound of a microwave going 'ping' when your meal is ready!

Popped into this place for lunch last Summer.  Had been into Waterstones to look for a copy of PCs 'Good Curry Guide', couldn't find one, but the bloke at the desk recommneded the Eastern Eye, turned out it was just round the corner, about 100yds away.

Fan-bloody-tastic! The lamb Bhuna especially!  The only (very slight) problem was getting the kid's buggy and a reticent wife up the stairs, as it's on the 1st floor.  The staff helped 'though!

I can't remember the address, but it's bang-smack in centre of town.

They do a lunch menu also, although we had the 'full-works'!

A

There is something that's been bothering me for some time....

Much is spoken about on Cr0 about 'oil reclaim' when making a curry base.  It seems that quite a few people reclaim the oil from their base either for use in preparation of the final curry, or simply to produce a less greasy product.

This oil reclaim seems to be achieved by one of two methods, or a combination of them:-

   -Making sure the base is quite runny, so the oil rises.

   -Simmering for several hours after the pureeing stage, the point in the process
    where the mixture is often skimmed.

It seems to me, that the majority of the bases popular here (with at least one notable exception), have a 'tarka' stage in which some material is fried in oil (often tomarto, tomarto puree and spices, and sometimes the garlic and ginger also), and then added to the boiling onion (pepper, carrot, celery, salad, spud, cabbage, whatever).

At least some of the received wisdom, Bruce Edwards would be a good example, states the the skimming and simmering after the addition of tarka should not be too protracted or there is a negative imapact on flavour.  Indeed he goes as far as saying that the whole cooking pot should be cooled in cold water as soon as the final stage is complete, to make sure that the base cools as fast as possible.

My point is this: surely if over cooking damages flavour, why boil the hell out of it for 3 hours just to get back some oil??

I'd be interested to know what everyone thinks about this?

I used to make a 'bog standard' KD base, the oil always came up toward the end,  These days I make a modified one using some extra spice, and also capsicum, celery and carrot.  However now the oil does not rise, EVEN THOUGH THE BASE IS JUST AS RUNNY AS BEFORE!  I've never worked out why?

I mentioned here before that many years ago I was lucky enough to see a demo.  The chef started by swirling small amount of oil round a hot pan, and tipping it all out, leaving just a thin film on the pan.  Yet when the curry was finished, there was the usual large quantity of oil floating on top!  Now this could only have come from the base, so presumably they did not reclaim their oil in that establishment, I still go that that place, The Zari, Ifield, Crawley; and I would place it above average!

I'd be grateful for your thoughts!

Enjoyed a very good Sunday Curry Buffet last weekend, well worth a visit!

Years ago I watched the chef make a take-away for me here, when it was a much smaller establishment that just did take-aways. It was known as the 'gatwick tandoori' back then.

I got another tour of the kitchens this time, and spoke to the same chef, who now has a kitchen staff of about 5 to help him. I saw 3 big pots of base on the stove, and I told him how I made my version, like he cared!!

He showed me a large metal box, partitioned into sections containing his whole-spices.  I was suprised to be told one of them was BLACK cumin, this I knew already was a different spice to normal (white?) cumin, it's more expensive and has a slight anise-like note.

Anywhy, this place is worth a visit!

Up 'till very recently I was using schartz chillie powder to make my 'madras-style' curry. However on reading the list of ingredients I was suprised to see that it contained cumin!

'Hang on just a mo' I thought, if i wanted extra cumin I'd add more myself,  This got me thinking, and I looked at the list of ingredients of another 'make' of chilliie in my cupboard, that one had oregano in it!

Looking for purer alternatives I happened upon shwartz cayenne.  Now normally I use a whole sachet of shwartz (normal) chillie, there are 2 satchets per box and each satchet is about 2 level tbs (2 X 15 ml.).  That amount makes a hotish, but by no means too hot curry.  Being cautious I decided to be less generous with the cayenne, and just use one third the quantity ( 2 X lev tps / 2 X 5 ml).  My wife found the result so hot she couldn't eat it.  I like hot curry so I was O.K  Although my enjoyment was slighty dulled by thye sight of my misses scowling at me from across the table, distractly regarding a piece of toast she was holding like she was considering shoving it somewhere the sun 'don't shine'!

Anyway, the point of this ramble is this:  the cayenne was A LOT hotter, but also seemed to introduce a lovely sweet flavour, much more 'BIRish' than my normal effort.  So I'll continue to use it, but just cut down on the quantity in future in the interest of avoiding divorce, and having to put the bog-roll in the fridge!

In any case I can't see the point of chillie that contains other things (cumin and oregano for instance).  I rather suspect the less hot chillie powders are either made from 'weaker' chillies of are diluted with paprika!

I have not tried the chillie in larger quantity bags from asian shops recently though, may give that I try next!

I've made base sauce many times now, and for some reason, sometimes they end up being rather bitter, although most of the time not!

Just wonder if anyone has any ideas what causes this?

I do know that it is nothing to do with not frying the garlic and ginger in oil before adding to the rest of the base.  I have ended up with bitter base having initially boiled the garlic'ginger (a la KD), but also having pre-fried it (a la many other recipies)!

Could it be the type of onion? I use the big Spanish sweet ones, and I've read -here and elsewhere- that smaller cooking onion should be used.  I would have thought though, that sweet onions would be LESS likely to produce a bitter result.

I generally stick pretty close to recipies to avoid introducing unintentional variables,

Anyway, just though I'd 'run this one by' everyone....

Just joined, very interesting site!

I've been a fan of trying to replicate the 'BIR' curry for years.  First tried-out Pat Chapman's stuff (not a fan!), then Kris Dillon's (very good!) from his book 'The Curry Secret'.  I have also incorporated, some of Bruce Edwards' good advice.  I first discovered his stuff in P Chapman's 'Curry Club' mag back in the early '90s. I was pleased to find some updated hints from Bruce on this site, reproduced from the Curry Club mag, a year or so after I had ceased to be a member.

Like Bruce, I too had the good fortune to 'blag' my way into a 'Curry House' kitchen some years back.  I look forward to sharing info with everyone.

I now use a combination of Kris Dillon's & Bruce Edwards' techniques, combined with what I have seen done in the kichen of the 'Zari' in Ifield, Crawley; back in the days when it was called the 'Gatwick Tandoori'!  I am 45 years old, and have known the people that run that establishment since I was a boy, back in the'70s, when that ran the 'Taj Mahal' in Crawley.

It may or may not suprise everyone that chefs use some interesting ingredients, such as sugar, worchester sauce and tinned tom soup in some of their constructions!!

Adrian




Anyway, enough for now; I look forward to