food safari Indian part 1

Gary

Wanted a quick (i.e. none of that browning onions for half an hour malarky), easy homestyle curry tonight (Mrs prefers homestyle curries), so I picked one of these up:

Shaheen Balti Masala Paste

It's turned out really quite nice.

What got my attention and made me post though was the instructions on using the paste.

Heat 2-4 Tablespoons of oil on full heat for 30 seconds

Add paste and cook, stirring continuously for 2 minutes


No mention of gently frying the spices, no instruction to turn the heat down, so it got fried for 2 minutes at full power.

After about 1 and 3/4 minutes it was browning and on the cusp of burning - it was getting singed

Just struck me that this method is on a product that is aimed at an asian market.

I think that spices can definately be taken quite a bit further than I tought previously, even in homestyle cooking.

I'm more convinced than ever now about the effect of properly cooking the spices has on flavour.

I've not been brave enough in the past.

Gary

Chewytikka's 3 hour base

Blade's Tikka

Chewytikka's Masala Sauce

Chewytikka's Mixed Powder

Dipuraja's Chicken Tikka Masala (Modified by the addition of 1 chefs' spoon of 1:4 dilute tomato puree

A bit of a break from singeing and burning

Blade's Tikka was excellent and really came through the sauce like peaks of flavour.

Blade's Tikka:


Chicken tikka Masala:


Not my particular favourite, but the ladies in my life really enjoyed it

Gary

Chewytikka's Mix Powder:

2 tsp Madras Curry Powder
2 tsp Turmeric Powder
1 tsp Coriander Powder
1 tsp Cumin Powder
1 tsp Kashmiri Chilli Powder
0.5 tsp Garam Masala or Kitchen King

Chewytikka's Red Masala Mix

4 tbsp Yoghurt
1 tsp three Pataks Pastes
Tandoori, Tikka and Kashmiri
1 tsp Mixed Powder
1 tsp G&G paste
1 tbsp Mustard Oil
1 tbsp Vegetable Oil
1 tsp Red food colour (Natural Cochineal)

Using Chewytikka's base and spice mix, and (trying) to use the singeing technique.

One attempt had to be binned as I literally turned the pan black :|

Subsequent attempts involved a lot of brown stuff being scraped back into the pan, and coughing, and very watery eyes.

I'm convinced there's something in this Singeing/pan-roasting idea.

The Roshun Mirchi Moshla (Lit. Bengali: "Garlic Chilli Masala") is my attempt to deconstruct and recreate a favourite form my local takeaway. Probably the best I've made yet - although I think I'd use a bit more gravy sauce next time.

Flavour/texture/aroma wise I'd say there was just a cigarette paper between this and the takeaway


Roshun Mirchi Moshla


Korma


Rogan Josh

Best regards,

Gary

Kismot Restaurant Talk About Kismot Killer Curry Extended

Comes with a disclaimer 

Not my Dad's!

Not exactly new, but I've not seen this linked before, I found it quite interesting:

basic curry sauce dad 0001

Gary

Has anyone seen  (or tried) this recipe before

http://www.diaryofanadi.co.uk/?page_id=495

The mention of cabbage in the gravy perked my interest

Gary

This is a really nice sauce

I'm not going to make any claims for it being the closest to, or 99% 'there' BIR sauce. It's just really nice...

I've tried a lot of sauces, from this forum, and also from books - Pat Chapman, 100 Best Balti Curries etc.

I've always found that these sauces are looking and smelling great UNTIL the step where you add tomatoes...this always seems to kill the smell and the taste to me - I dunno, I just don't like boiled tomatoes I guess!

To get around this I've simply been ommitting tomatoes from my sauces, with great results - howver, this has left a bit of a gap in my curry r'epertoire for rich tomatoey curries...

The sauce recipe below is my attempt at a rich tomatoey sauce, but without the boiled tomato taste.

Here Tomatoes are replaced with tomatoe puree, which is fried until really sweet.

The smell is wonderful, it's quite richly flavoured - without being 'too much', and works great for anything from a Medium Curry, to a vindaloo.

I'd love for other forum members to give it a go and tell me what they think.

>>>>>>> Gaz's Curry Sauce!<<<<<<<

------ Spice infusion -------

1 stick of Cinammon (could use Cassia Bark, but I used Cinammon here as that's what I had in the cupboard)
6 Brown Cardamons
6 Green Cardamons
6 cloves
3-4 Dried Bay Leaves

------Main ingredients-------

Half a cup of vegetable oil
2 teaspoons chopped ginger
3 teaspoons chopped garlic
200 ml double concentrate tomato puree
5 medium size onions
1 stick of celery
1 medium carrot
1 green pepper
1 medium potato: whole ('floury' type: Maris Piper, King Edward etc.)

------Spices & seasoning-------

2 teaspoons Ground Turmeric
2 teaspoons Ground Cumin
3 teaspoons Ground Coriander
1 teaspoons Ground Paprika
1.5 teaspoons 'Green Cuisine' Balti Spice mix http://greencuisine.co.uk (this isn't a recomendation or endorsement, you could use any curry powder I guess, but this is all I could get hold of on the day)
1 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
1.5 teaspoon Table-Salt


------Method-------

1. Infuse the ingredients under 'Spice infusion':

Cover with water, bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and leave to gently simmer.

2. Prepare main ingredients:

Finely chop the Ginger - keep seperate.
Finely chop the Garlic - keep seperate.
Coarsely chop the Onions - keep seperate.

Peel and slice the carrot.
Slice the celery.
Coarsely chop the Green Pepper.

3. Heat the oil in a large pan or pot.

! important !:
4. Add the chopped Ginger and fry until the ginger begins to turn brown and emits a sweet 'gingerbread man' type smell! Careful not to burn it.

5. Add the chopped Garlic an fry for about 30 seconds.

6. Add the Tomato Puree (A full normal sized tube!) and fry, and fry, then fry for a bit longer...keep stirring, and scrape any that looks like it may be beginning to stick to the bottom of the pan.

! important !:
Use your nose as a guide for how long to fry this mixture - the tomato puree should be starting to smell really really sweet, and completely lose that raw tomato smell, and the oil will seperate from the tomato/ginger/garlic mix. This should be smelling really sweet and savoury by now, even before adding any spices).

7. Add the Onions and stir in - no need to fry, just stir in.

8. Add the Green Pepper and stir in - no need to fry, just stir in.

9. Add enough water to cover the the lot by about 1-2 inches, and throw the whole potato in.

10. Add the Spices.

11. Strain the Spice infusion, removing the whole spices, and add the liquid to the pot.

12. Bring to the boil, then leave to boil (not too vigorously, just what I call a 'rolling boil' (more than a simmer, but less than a full on boil.)
Boils until all the veg has turned 'mushy'. During the boil, add more water as necessary. Leave to cool, remove the potato and discard (or eat it!) then blend to a smooth consistency.


Best regards, and good luck,

Gary

Ok, after about ten years of this malarky, and about two months of really trying to get it right at home, I finally give up! Well for now at least

We got a takeaway tonight, nothing special, just a bog standard takeout from a wee tandoori place.

A couple of dishes took the about 15 mins to prepare.

We are definately missing something here.

Dunno what.

All I can call it is the sicky burp flavour.

There's something you can taste afterwards when you burp.

Even the finished plates smell of it...

Sicky burp smell

Please feel free to completely ignore this post, just letting off a few frustrations

Gary

For scoopable, pourable chutneys and dips, simply buy ready made chutneys - and thin down with generous quantities of cold water before serving.

I'd say a normal jar of thick, poppadom breaking chutney can be multiplied up to three times volume without losing anything by thinning down with water, in fact all the better for it

Gary

As per Muttley's base - differences marked with a *

Ingredients

4 Large Onions (or 8 small ones - probably better, but hard to get hold of at the moment)
200ml vegetable Oil
aesofetida - just a wee touch of this stuff: I just dabbed a teaspoon handle into the tub
1/2 tsp Basaar Masala *
3 tsp Turmeric
3 tsp Ground cumin
1tsp ground Fenugreek seeds*
2-3 Black Caramoms*
Teaspoon of Fenugreel leaves*
1 tbls peeled/chopped garlic
1 tbls peeled/chopped ginger
NO tomatoes - Muttley already commented on this. *
Small-medium carrot sliced
A thumbs length of Mooli sliced*
A normal sized jar of spiced water - my wife taught me this trick, she never lets anything go to waste if there's possibility of it adding extra flavour!

Spiced water is simply collected water that has been used to rinse out empty curry paste jars - you can use this to top up bases & currys in addition to plain water.


Method

Heat oil until garlic and ginger just sizzle quietly
Cook garlic and ginger for about 8 mins until almost browned
Add aesofetida, turmeric, cumin and chilli and continue cooking for 2 mins
Add onions, sliced and stir to coat with oil
Add enoughg water to nearly cover the onions
Boil on a gentle simmer for an hour
Puree with a hand blender (or in a food processor if you haven't got one)
Cook (covered) on a very gentle simmer for 4 hours. This sauce is sufficiently runny that it will not gloop or stick, so just needs a very occasional stir - in fact, I'm not sure it even needs that.

The result is a lovely creamy tasting (no cream went into it, but it tastes like it did!) yellow sauce, very very similar to the sample I got from a local takeaway the other week. It has the same smell, and that 'Picallili' aftertaste that I mentioned.

Ok I know most of this is't new to anyone on here, but what about the spiced water? Really I should have thought of it earlier - the Mrs and I do it with everything else, from pesto to bolognaise. Any thoughts?

Gary

Managed to get a small carton full of curry base tonight  friends GF went to the takeaway, so I asked her to get a carton of curry sauce with no extra spices etc. That's just what I got! Straight from the big pot!

No pictures unfortunately, but what I can say is, that it smells a bit like Muttley's base sauce - it's YELLOW, it's got bits in it, presumably ginger & garlic - it smells oniony/vegetably - and, the wierdest thing: it's got a vague Picalilli aftertaste to it - kind of sweet but sharp.

No green bits in it, no oil floating on the top (been resting for a few hours now) but by gum it tastes nice  ;D

Gary

Hi all, new to the forum - & very good it is too. My missus has been perplexed by my obsession to acheive the perfect curry base for about ten years now, so it's nice to see some fellow obsessives 

Anyway, I picked up a small jar of 'curry base' from the local Morrisons (Blackburn) a couple of months back, can't remember the manufacturer, but it wasn't Patak's or Nasir's.

Had pretty good results with it - no secret ingredients: just fried onions, toms, garlic & ginger - no spices, (according to the jar) but it had that lovely sweet smell!

Anyone else tried it?

Kind Regards,

Gary