I'm sure this is a pretty dumb question, but here goes...

I've never eaten or seen a bhuna except in the pictures on this site, but I have eaten a few real restaurant jalfrezis, so I'm familiar-ish with what they're supposed to be like.  Looking at the response to CK's bhuna recipe and subsequently going through the rest of the ones on the site, it looks like the ingredients and cooking methods are nearly interchangeable.  Is the only real difference that you should use less base for a bhuna and maybe nix the lemon juice/sour accent?

I've read the "unofficial" histories of both dishes on the Web in a few places, and know that bhuna's really a cooking style and jalfrezi was originally an extremely dry stir-fry used to gussy up leftovers much the same way as the original recipes for gumbo do.  However, history doesn't really seem to translate well to the modern BIR, so any insights would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

ast

Hi Everyone,

I'm looking to buy one of these hand blender things, and I was wondering what types people would recommend for blending bases.  I have two main concerns:

1) The length of the stalk the blades are attached to:  is it long enough for "reasonalby" sized pots of > 6L?

2) The power output/chopping ability:  My gut feel is that a smaller one would burn up quickly and I've no idea how the blade shroud design will affect the size of the vegetables you can use when cooking the base.  Granted, they should be soft enough by the time you blend, but I don't want to spend the money for the thing and then end up still using my blender at 1L/time to get a smooth curry base.

In having a look around one of the 3 main shops here today, I found a Braun, 300W jobber that looks like this:



A 400W Moulinex 3-piece kit:


Specs: http://www.moulinex.fr/products/preparation-culinaire/mixeurs/robot-marie.htm

and a 3-piece, brand X kit that is similar to the Moulinex, but a bit cheaper.  There's also another Moulinex one that's pretty similar, but I can't find a picture.  Price range is ?25-50, and I want to buy one here (we're in France visiting the in-laws), because past experience says they'll be cheaper here than in Dublin.  I'm also going to need a serious curry fix when I get back, so next weekend I'll be hoping to break it in on a new batch of base.

Any experience, recommendations, things to look out for, etc. would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

ast

Hi All,

I was wondering if anyone else had picked up a copy of HB's book, Further Adventures in Search of Perfection, or had maybe seen the show.  I have to admit, until some of you were talking about him on other threads, I had no idea he even existed or who he was.  Since then, I got intrigued and noticed this book on the shelf while I was killing some time between meetings today.

It's fantastically interesting, but there's three topics that are relevant to us regarding making better BIR food:

1) He explores Chicken Tikka and CTM, providing his own take on both it and naan (the naan may be just the recipe I was looking for since it doesn't use yeast at all).

2) He gets up close and personal with the characteristics of rice while exploring different takes on risotto, including how much the mechanics of the processing of the grain influences the way it finally cooks.

3) He has some interesting observations of different tastes and characteristics of dried chillies and chilli powders in the chapter on chilli con carne.

Has anyone else seen this book?

I went ahead and bought it, because I found that I just didn't want to put it down.  I can try and summarize some of the info about each of the above, but not sure how interested people would be.  Also not sure about transcribing the recipes as there's a lot of text involved, and I'm not the copyright holder.

Cheers,

ast

This is my current version of a Jalfrezi.  It is based on merging aspects of all the different Jalfrezi recipes and information I could find both here on the forum as well as on the Web.  It has currently been tested successfully with the Saffron curry base (https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,2271.0.html), but any other mildly-spiced base should work equally well, however you may need to add up to 1 tsp of salt to the final dish.  I make both a chicken and lamb version of this dish, depending on my mood and who it's for, with equally good results.

AST's Chicken/Lamb Jalfrezi

200ml curry base
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cooking onion, chopped
1/4 green pepper, sliced
1/4 red pepper, sliced
1/2 tomato, sliced into 4 wedges
2 tbsp minced garlic (approx 2-4 cloves, depending on their size)
60-80g pre-cooked lamb or chicken
60ml of broth from pre-cooked meat
1 heaped tbsp tomato puree
8 small green chillies, sliced as desired
2 heaped tsp extra hot chilli powder
1/4 tsp amchoor
1 large pinch of dried methi leaves
2 1/4 tsp spice mix (see note 1)
2-3 tsp lemon juice

METHOD

Heat a heavy pan on high heat until hot.  Add the oil to the pan and let it heat to just before smoking.  Add onion, garlic, peppers and chillies and stir-fry until the onion begins to change color.  Add the spice mix and amchoor to the pan and fry, being careful not to burn them, until you can't breathe and then continue to cook them a bit longer, adding a little base if necessary.

Add the curry base and stir to evenly mix the spices and vegetables with the base, ensuring that none of the vegetables stick together and there are no clumps of spice.  Stir in the tomato paste.  When mixed well, add in the pre-cooked meat and broth.  Stir to cover the meat in the sauce, bring back to the boil and reduce the heat to medium.  After about 5 minutes, stir in the dried methi and tomato wedges.  Reduce to desired consistency (approx 5 minutes).

Stir in lemon juice, sprinkle with coriander leaves (freshly chopped or dry) and serve.

Note 1:

Any "restaurant style" spice mix can probably be used here, depending on personal preference.  I have developed my version of this dish using an individual portion of "Haldi's Takeaway" Spice Mix as relayed by Haldi and used by the takeaway where he gets all his demos.  For this dish, you may use:

"Haldi's Takeaway" Spice Mix (Individual Portion)

1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp Madras curry powder
1/4 tsp ground cumin

VARIATIONS

The amount of chillies and chilli powder should be varied to taste.  I've found that this works for me, but when I make it for my guests, I cut the chillies down to 2-3 and use between 1/2 and 3/4 tsp of extra hot chilli powder.

With the Saffron curry base, no additional salt is required.  However, other bases may require the addition of salt to fully bring out the flavor in this dish.  I would not add over 1 tsp, even if the base has no salt at all.

For a drier version of this dish, reduce the amount of curry base used between 50-80ml.

Because neither of us were in any position to cook tonight, we, well I (my wife opted for the Caesar salad), chanced the new-ish takeaway just up the road.  It's one of those "everything" places like we were talking about on another thread, but, as I said there, it is supposed to be owned by an Indian guy who used to run a restaurant in town.

Anyway...

Rather than going for the "Chicken Madras-Vindaloo", I figured I'd branch out a bit, and they had this dish, Lamb Laal Maas, on the menu.  According to them, "a hot & spicy dish, with fresh & dried chillies for added pungency, cracked black pepper & corriander (sic) seeds."

I didn't see any coriander seeds, but I did notice chopped up coriander stems and leaves.  It was actually pretty good.  Here's what it looked like:


Those black things are the fresh chillies that have been roasted/blackened.  There was quite a bit of chilli powder in there as well.  I'd say the lamb wasn't really pre-cooked, or, if it was, it wasn't pre-cooked in very many spices.  It was tender, but it didn't have any additional flavors.

I was guessing that they probably used some chopped tomatoes given both the color and the tomato bits that I saw in it.  I'm pretty sure it had quite a bit of garlic in it too, but I'm not 100% sure what all the bits were.  I also guessed that they might've used about 50/50 tomatoes and curry base, but then I went hunting for a recipe and found this:

Quote
Lal maas means ?red meat?, from the Kashmiri red chilli powder that naturally colours the dish. We make our dishes traditionally but in this case we cut down the chilli heat even though it was still quite hot (as you can see from the recipe) and this was the hottest dish on the menu. Rajasthan is very hot and in common with other hot climates, the people of Rajasthan also like their food chilli hot: Pravin told me the Indian expression ?iron cuts iron?, so hot food in hot climates. He also said that the good water in Rajasthan, which rises out of the sand, makes food particularly digestible.

For Lal maas, we used leg of lamb and to make it, ask your butcher to cut through the leg bone at the narrow end for the pieces on the bone. In India, however, the dish would be made with various cuts of lamb. Pravin learned this recipe while at Rajvilas in Jaipur and has since adapted it in much the same way home cooks do across Rajasthan. For this recipe, he did not include the method for smoking the clove masala as it needs real care and experience to avoid hurting oneself or starting a fire, but if any of you are curious about this, post a comment or send a message and we?ll post this for you.


Lal maas

1kg lamb (mix of meat on the bone and cubed boneless meat)
30 whole dried red chillies
150ml vegetable oil + 25ml for tempering
50g ginger/garlic paste
60g garlic (finely chopped)
200g onion finely sliced
100g tomato chopped
5g green cardamom
3g black cardamom
3g bay leaves
3g cinnamon stick
3g cumin seed
20g Kashmiri red chilli powder
15g coriander powder
5g turmeric powder
5g cloves
salt to taste
6 cups strong lamb stock

Heat oil in large handi or pot. Add all whole spices except cloves. Add onion and stir-fry until onions are golden brown. Add ginger/garlic paste and keep stir-frying one or two minutes, then add meat. Increase flame to high and stir-fry to sear for 7-8 minutes or until meat changes colour. Reduce flame to medium, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.

Uncover and stir-fry until oil leaves the sides of the pot. Add all the powdered spices and continue to stir-fry for 2-3 minutes. Now add chopped tomatoes and again stir-fry until oil leaves the sides of the pot.

Add lamb stock, bring to a boil, reduce to low heat, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the meat is cooked and gravy is the consistency of a thin sauce. Remove from heat and adjust seasoning to taste.

For the tempering:
Heat the remaining oil in a frying pan, add cloves and chopped garlic, stir-frying over medium heat until light golden colour. Pour tempering over the meat and immediately cover with a lid. Allow to stand a few minutes and serve with steamed basmati rice.

(from http://baburlondon.blogspot.com/2007/04/hi-its-emdad-again.html)

This one didn't have a picture, but from other pictures I saw on the web, it looks like the more traditional recipes seem to be a bit drier than what I had.  I'm sure it wouldn't take too much experimenting to come up with something that would be close.

Anyone ever had this dish or have a BIR-ish recipe for it?  Not knowing what it's supposed to taste like, I think the one I had could be improved a bit.  I'd start with using one of the more flavorful pre-cooking methods for the lamb.

Any pointers to something closer to the above would be most appreciated.

Cheers,

ast

Hi Everyone,

Reflecting on Haldi's recent posts about the two new dishes got me wondering about the difference in preparation methods between the two, and so, I was wondering if there were certain techniques that should be applied to certain dishes that would (or should) appear in or be common across any version of that dish.

Saying it another way, has there ever been any discussion about the "essential elements" of specific dishes from looking at them as a class rather than reviewing, commenting and improving on particular recipes in isolation?

In my short stint in the forum so far, I've encountered at least 4 different basic methods to preparing the final curry:

The KD method (basic reduction with late spicing)

Almost all of her recipes for curry dishes follow the same basic pattern:

• 1. Stir-fry/sautee any additional ingredients (onion, garlic and/or veg)
• 2. Add curry base and bring to the boil
• 3. Add salt, chillies (powered or fresh) and any meat
• 4. Main reduction
• 5. Add any additional spices
• 6. Final reduction and taste blending

The Dry Spice Method

• 1. Stir-fry/sautee any additional ingredients (onion, garlic, ginger, others?)
• 2. Add dry spices and stir-fry until chok--er, the "toffee" smell hits you in the face
• 3. Add base
• 4. Add pre-cooked meat (except prawns) and/or veg
• 5. Main reduction
• 6. Add prawns (and possibly more "fragile" veg?)
• 7. Final reduction to desired consistency

Gary's (parker21) got a variation on this which uses a small amount of base to the spices during step 2, but essentially proceeds the same way.

The Spice Paste Method

Like above except spices are mixed with water, oil and/or base prior to step 1 and added as a paste instead of dry in step 2.  The rest proceeds the same.

To the above two methods, there's also a common variation which involves reduction by halves of the curry base, one ladle at a time.  Additional spices or ingredients are added between reductions.  Other people have mentioned they do it in more than two steps, but the idea is the same.

Haldi's Kashmiri Method

• 1. Cover base of pan with thin layer of curry base and stir-fry
• 2. Stir-fry/sautee any additional ingredients (onion, garlic, ginger, others?)
• 3. Add dry spices and stir-fry until chok--er, the "toffee" smell hits you in the face
• 4. Add minimal amount of base to keep "wet"
• 5. Add additional spices/flavorings
• 6. Add pre-cooked meat (except prawns) and/or veg
• 7. Add "enough" curry base for runny sauce
• 8. Minor reduction and taste blending

So, ok, there's really only 3 with a couple of variations, but still...

The point is, these methods have appeared more than once and they have to have specific purposes.  Does anyone really know why each one is the way it is?  What is the effect on the taste of the finished dish, and which parts most contribute to the difference?

I'm also wondering how much difference there really is between various people's interpretations of particular dishes.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to minimize anyone's contributions here by any means; I'm just trying to figure out what the differences/points of variation really are.  There's scores of different recipes here, and I've been trying to think of a better way of classifying/organizing and subsequently mentally digesting them than just going through them all in any particular way (top-to-bottom, random or via recommendation really doesn't matter that much).

My goal here is to try and get us to think about all the collective knowledge/wisdom we have about this topic and see what's common to certain dishes or cooking methods that may result in making both better curries and all of us better cooks.

Any ideas?  Does this make any sense?

I think I understand the rationale and intent of the KD method pretty well.  Let's face it, if you were writing a book for the masses, your first two priorities would be simplicity and repeatability--in that order.  You'd also have to get reasonable results, and, I think she succeeded on all counts.  There's pretty-much no way to screw up her method unless you burn the stuff in step 1.

Most punters can sautee an onion without burning it, but I'd hazard a guess that many people without quite a bit of cooking experience would take a few times to get the stir-frying of the spices right, and they also probably wouldn't know what to do when the aroma from the frying spices hit them.  There's just too many things to go wrong, and like any form of product, you don't want your customer's first interaction with it to not be successful.

Based on all this, she adapted the restaurant methods for the "average" cook so they'd have a harder time messing things up.  I'd also say the late addition of all the spices was part of this adaption.  If you add them early under high heat, they're "activated" and "released" into the flavor of the dish as it's cooking.  However, without all that heat, you're going to have to do something else to make them work.  About the only thing left is to add them late, and potentially in greater quantities than would ordinarily be used, so that you would get some of the same effect.  Of course, we all know it isn't the same, but it's much closer than most other things out there.

This is also why I think we can safely exclude her curry making process from "how it's really done" (not that most of us hadn't already), because it just doesn't deliver the full taste.  I've included it here a) because most of us are familiar with it as a starting point, and b) as a point of comparison and to try and illustrate the type of thing I'm trying to isolate.  Of course, this is only an (semi-)educated guess as to why it is the way it is.  Any other opinions or comments are welcome too.

So.... I did the first one.  Your turn for the rest! ;D

ast

This is certainly off topic, but I laughed... and laughed... then chuckled... for a while.  Some of the funniest that I've read in a long time.

Based on some of the posts I've been reading and the personalities I've detected over the last month, I think some of you will have a similar reaction.

Enjoy!

http://www.wetherobots.com/2008/01/07/youve-been-misinformed/
http://www.wetherobots.com/2007/12/28/four-pronged-performance-review/

From the tone of some of the older threads, maybe we should get one of these for the forum... ;D
http://www.wetherobots.com/2008/01/04/bad-vibes/

Disclaimer:  I'm in no way affiliated with the above site, I just think they're pretty good.

Hi Folks,

I've been thinking about this for a while, but I haven't come up with a good answer on my own.  What I was wondering was if we were to develop some heavily modified or original recipes based around the "essentials" of BIR-style cooking, where would be an appropriate place to post them on this forum (if it is appropriate at all)?.  I'm thinking predominantly about new dishes made with a curry base but using similar techniques and styles.

The main reason is that I'm interested in trying some experiments using base sauces but with potentially non-standard additions/ingredients that are borrowed from other types of cooking.  If they turn out ok and are something I'd be interested in making again, I'm willing to share them here.

If it's really just minor variations to existing recipes, I'll follow the lead of everyone else and post them in the appropriate BIR-* category, but if it's more substantial than just two or three changes which don't really try to mimic an existing restaurant dish, I don't think that's the right place.

I guess I could always just post them in the general curry forum and see what happens.  Maybe that's the best solution after all.

Any info would be appreciated.  BTW, I don't have a timeline planned for any of these recipes, but I thought I'd ask just in case.

Thanks in advance,

ast

Dunno how many people on here are from Eire, but one of the google ads on one of the cr0 pages actually made me click.  There's a few all-day (group) outings with a chef from Jaipur in Wicklow for ?150.  From the flyer/website, it looks like it could be more traditional style cooking, but Jaipur is one of the better restaurants here.  I met a guy who owns some (or all) of them once as well at a networking event.

Anyway, I'm not affiliated with them or this "Fabulous Food Trails" crowd either, but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway.  I'm not sure if I'll go or not, but it might be a good way to ask some questions.

Here's the link:  http://www.fabfoodtrails.ie/fab_trail_indian.asp

Hi Everyone,

I've been searching through the form to find a concise description of how this is best done, but except for the post regarding using a deep muffin tin (which I've now lost again), I haven't found anything close to guidelines.  I know a number of people seem to do it all the time (it's mentioned loads), but what's the best approach and how does it affect the taste of the curry?

I'm going to need to finish off some base/meat that's in the fridge, but my wife's not yet finished hers from the last round, and I've already eaten 3 curries this week, so I'm up for a bit of a break! (blasphemy, I know...)

Thanks in advance,

ast

Since I'm working at home today and few people are back, I decided that I'd have a go using some of what I've learned from the forum to make a Chicken Vindaloo for lunch.  I'm happy to say, that I think it's all down to technique, because I think it was every bit as good as BIR curries I've had from my favorite restaurant.  I also have that same "heavy" feeling after eating it that I have with "real" BIR, so something must've gone right.

Most of what I did was influenced heavily by the cooking techniques described by Gary (parker21) in this post:  https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=2041.0.

However, I only used it as a guide as to techniques, and adapted some things as well.  Here's the run-down of what I did:

I started with some of the remaining Stage 3 KD base I described in this post: https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=2246.0 and half of the remaining cooked chicken.  I set aside about 500ml of the base.

I then put about 3 tablespoons of oil in a 1/4 cup measure and added 1/4 tsp of dry minced garlic to it (I used all of the fresh we had the other day).  I let this sit awhile, so that the granules would absorb some of the oil, but it was also so I could get the rest of the stuff organized.

I then decided I'd use the spices from the KD curry recipe, so I made a spice mix of:

• 1 tsp salt
• 6 tsp hot chilli powder
• 1 tsp garam masala (heaped)
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin (heaped)

I'd originally decided I'd follow Gary's method to fry the dried spices, but then I knew I wanted to add some of the remaining fresh chillies I had.  I looked at my notes from Gary's post and decided that it would make sense to cook the chillies in with the dry spices, so then I decided I'd add them to the spice mix.  Having mixed it and coated the chopped chillies, I got to looking at the process again and said, "Why not make a paste instead?"

Again, based on Gary's method ("1/4 ladle of runny base sauce(200ml ladle)"), I poured 50ml of base into the dry spice mix and made a paste.



Once this was ready, I started to actually prepare the vindaloo.  I heated the empty pan on med-high heat until it felt like it was ready (not sure how else to put this).  I dumped in the oil and garlic and quickly swirled it around the pan, roasting the garlic granules and making sure they didn't burn.  Not sure if it was 30s or not.

I then added the paste to the hot pan (not removing it from the heat) and quickly stirred it around to fry the paste.  I'd say it was about a minute.



After that, I dumped in the remainder of the base sauce and boiled gently (reduced the heat to around medium), stirring constantly (mostly to reduce the splatter) for about 3 minutes to reduce it to close to my desired consistency.



I then added the chicken and continued to stir occasionally for about 3 minutes.



Served over a fresh batch of my pilau rice (https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=2233.0) and garnished with a few of the chopped chillies and a few sprinkles of dried coriander leaf (but without the Cobra beer this time).



Based on it being exactly the same base, and exactly the same spices but yielding vastly superior results than my New Year's Day efforts, I don't see how there's a "secret" ingredient missing from any of the bases people are using on this forum.  It all comes down to the technique used in making the curries.

Of course, the big question is:  can I actually do it again???

All-in-all, I'd say it was a fairly mild/moderate vindaloo (what you'd get here around the 3rd time you asked for a really hot vindaloo at the same restaurant in as many weeks so they didn't forget you).  Next time I think I'll try 8 tsp of chilli powder instead, or add more fresh chillies.  I don't think the paste could handle more than most of two chopped fresh chillies though.  Each of these was about 4" long.  I'm not sure how the consistency of the paste would be with the additional chilli powder either.  I guess it's just a feel thing so that it turns out the right consistency.

Hope this helps someone.

Cheers,

ast

BTW, still frustrated with the pictures, but at least these are better.  It's a little tricky to take pictures and cook at the same time without messing either of them up, don't you think?  I guess this just takes practice too--or an assistant.

Hi Everyone.

I took advantage of the day off to whip together (Ha!) curry dinners for the family, and, since I've been reading all the info on here, I thought I'd pay lots of attention to what I did as a sort of control case before I start changing things.  All in all, it came out the best so far.  I also made the first home-cooked curry for the little nipper (11 months), so I didn't put any salt in the base sauce.

Some of you may find this interesting, but then again, you may not!   Happy New Year.

First up:  The Curry Base

I'm still using the bog standard KD base with some slight modifications, except today I noticed that her metric/Imperial measures weren't quite equivalent.  Previously, I tended to use whichever seemed the handiest based on what measuring device I had to hand.  For today's control case, I decided to be a tad more scientific...

Instead of the 900g of onions, I always use a 1kg bag.  It's easier to manage, and I don't want to arse around with trying to get exactly 900g of onions out of a 1kg bag.  The main discrepancy I noticed today was that 2 oz is not 50g as Kris says, it's actually nearly 60g.  I always use the balance for this one, and, since my wife is French, it's always set on metric rather than Imperial.  Today, I used 60g of both garlic and ginger and skipped the salt for the little guy's benefit.

At the end of Stage 2, I ended up with approx 2.5L of stock.  I'm not sure how much the standard recipe makes, but this seems pretty-much the same as always for the way I do it.



For Stage 3, I always use a 400g tin of Roma whole, peeled plum tomatoes instead of the 8 oz tin in the recipe.  I haven't seen an 8 oz tin here, and I use the canned plum tomatoes in a few other things I make, so we always have a few around.  For the chicken, I always use a bit more turmeric than she calls for, but otherwise, it's the same.  Today I cooked the meat around 25-30 min.

In paying more attention to what I do so I could write this up, it occurred to me that I always need to reduce the final curry sauce longer than the KD recipe specifies.  I guess this means that I don't reduce it enough at Stage 3.  Next time, I'll use a bit more heat than I normally do to see what happens.



Even with the skimming (which removed about 1/2 cup, I'd guess), I still ended up with about 2.6L of curry base.  This got me to checking the proportions/math in the book again.  Kris says her base is good for 8 servings.  Some of the meat curries call for 425ml of sauce and some specify an equivalent of 3 cups.  Not sure what laws of measurement apply in her kitchen, but the numbers don't add up in mine.

By her calculations that a full batch of Stage 3 base will make 2 of her main dish recipes, this means that the volume of Stage 3 base should be 850ml, or, by her account, about 6 cups or 1.5 pints (assuming Imperial ones here, naturally).  Given my measuring equipment (and from some discussions elsewhere on the forum around this topic), 1 cup = 250ml of liquid.  Technically, a US cup should be 236ml and a UK cup should be 284ml given the 2 cups/pint definition.

This means that 6 "standard" cups of curry base is 1.5L and not the 852ml in 1.5 Imperial pints.  Either way, I still ended up with loads more volume than this, so I simply divided it up so that I used 325ml/serving.  It also made me realize that I was inconsistent in the way I adapted the proportions of the curry recipes too.  In order to make 4 total portions of curry out of one batch of base (since my wife and I don't use the same temperature scales), I should technically divide the ingredients by 4, however, upon reflection, I realized that the best tasting curries I've made used 1/4 of the base sauce, but then used the full amount of ingredients specified for the 3-4 portion recipes.  To confirm this, that's what I did tonight, and it turned out great!

Next Up:  Making the Curries

For the Madras, I used 2 tsp of hot chili powder, and I used 4 heaped tsp for the Vindaloo.  I also used heaped measures of both the garam masala and the ground cumin.  We still don't have any fenugreek in the house, so I leave that out, and I also left out the tomato this time.  As I mentioned before, I quartered the amounts of base and meat, meaning that I had 126g of cooked chicken for myself and the wife and 63g set aside for our son out of the 636g of uncooked weight we started with.  Each of ours used 650ml of base sauce, and I used half that for our son.



I also had originally chopped up a single medium chili (fresh) for my wife, but she decided after a taste test that it was fine without it.  I chopped up 6 medium chilies and 4 hot Thai chilies (red).  That's what is shown in the picture, but I ended up using all the fresh chilies in my Vindaloo.



Our son's curry omitted the salt and meat and used halved amounts of the rest of the ingredients.  I ended up adding a few pinches of coarse sugar to it, because it tasted a tad bitter without the salt.  I think it's much better with the salt.

For all the curries, I reduced the sauce quite a bit before I called them done.  For mine, I added the fresh chilies at the beginning with the curry base, at the same time as the chili powder, so there would be plenty of time for them to flavor the curry.  I didn't time this part, because I was going mostly by the texture and waiting until it was reasonably thick.  I didn't over do it, because it always thickens a bit when it sits for a few minutes afterwards, but the results came out well.

As I mentioned, I think this part could be avoided if I got the initial base sauce reduced much closer to the end result.  Maybe with some of the "ladle at a time" cooking methods, this doesn't matter quite as much.

The Results:

All that was left was to put it on the plate and dig in.  Both of us were very happy with the results, and think it's the best curry to date.  Next time, I might try some other cooking techniques for the base and/or curries, but at least now I have proper calculations for planning our next curry dinner party.  Next time, it'll be for a lot more people, so I'll need to know what I'm doing.  When there's only 3 or 4, you can fudge a little more on the amounts of base, etc. because you know you should always have enough.  More than four, well, I wasn't sure.





Hardware used:

• 4.4 qt / 4.15L (11"/26cm) Jamie Oliver Anodized, non-stick deep pan (base & curry)
• 11"/26cm Jamie Oliver Anodized, non-stick skillet (curry)
• 2 qt Calphalon pan (rice)

Any feedback or comments on the pictures, methods or observations would be welcome.  I'm really glad I stumbled across this forum.  There's almost no one else I know that bothers to try this sort of thing at home, so it's a great resource to have.

Happy New Year,

Andrew (AST)

P.S. Apologies for the somewhat crap photos.  I had the wrong lens on the camera and could've probably used a different white balance setting, and even with changing the ISO, I didn't get very good results.  They looked much better on the small screen.  I promise to do better next time.

Hi Everyone,

Having read all of the existing methods for making Pilau Rice on the forum that I could find in this section, I thought I'd contribute my own way of doing it.  Like the variety of currys that I've tasted in many places, my experience is that no two restaurants have identical rice.  Some use loads of colorings and spices, some use hardly any, and there's a million in between.  To me, this version comes out quite close to several restaurant versions and isn't quite as complicated as the other ones I've seen thus far.

I'd be interested in what the rest of you think.  If this recipe is in the wrong place or isn't quite BIR enough, apologies in advance.

The basic technique is adapted primarily from how to cook rice as described in Su-mei Yu's Cracking the Coconut book http://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Coconut-Classic-Thai-Cooking/dp/0688165427/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198521491&sr=8-1, and I pretty-much cook all my rice this way.  The following augments the basic technique with other Pilau Rice recipe ingredients and comes out pretty well.

Andrew's Total Absorption Pilau Rice
(normally enough for 3-4 people; total cooking time 35-40 min)

300ml measure of good quality Basmati rice (I normally use Tilda as it is readily available)
1/2 medium-sized yellow onion
4-6 whole cloves
3-4 whole green cardamom pods
3-4 bay/laurel leaves
Ground cinnamon
Sunflower oil
Red and green liquid food coloring (optional)

Method

Wash the rice in cold water 3 times, removing any foreign material or discolored grains.  By the third time, the water should be relatively clear.  Drain and set aside.

Chop the onion into small-ish pieces.  Note:  this is subjective, depending on how "visible" you want your onion to be in the finished rice.  Place the onion in a heavy saucepan with a tight-fitting lid and add the sunflower oil.  The oil should be enough to cover the bottom of the pan, but not enough to start filling up the sides (sorry I can't be more specific, but I never measure this--it's the same amount you'd add if you were to saute onions normally).  Saute the onion until translucent over high heat.

After the onions are mostly clear, put in the cardamom, bay leaves and cloves, being careful not to get splattered by any remaining hot oil.  Sprinkle in the ground cinnamon to taste (I normally add enough to get a thin layer over the bottom of the pot).  Stir quickly and dump in the damp rice and immediately add enough cold water to leave about 1/4 to 1/8th inch above the level of the rice.  It should be slightly over 300ml, but again, I just eye-ball it.  Reduce the heat to medium-high or medium, depending on how hot your fire and pan is, stir, cover and bring to the boil.

NOTE:  The temperature here is probably the most critical part of the process, and I still mess it up from time to time on other people's stoves with other people's cookware, so don't fret too much  if it doesn't quite turn out right the first time.  Next time put the heat a little lower and it should turn out perfect.

Once boiling, remove the lid and continue to boil until you can no longer see bubbles through the surface of the rice and the pan looks dry.  Stir occasionally to ensure that everything stays fairly mixed.  Don't over-do it with the heat at this stage, as there won't be enough moisture left to finish cooking the rice.

Cover with a tight-fitting lid and reduce the heat to a low simmer for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, you can optionally work the food coloring magic here.  You'll want to dilute it in some water per the KD method, and then make your lines across the rice.  If you do this, do it fairly quickly so all the steam doesn't escape.  Cover the pot and remove from heat for another 10 minutes.  Gently fluff and serve.

Additional notes:

If you want yellow rice, you could add yellow food coloring to the water you add to the rice before brining it to the boil.  I'd probably mix it up first separately and then dump it in rather than trying to mix it in the pot.  One of these days, I'm going to try it with saffron, but I just haven't bothered.

I normally don't bother with the food coloring at all as I've never thought that part of the BIR experience was that important to me.

The use of ground cinnamon vs. cinnamon stick was really the result of an emergency substitution one day, but I liked the effect (and more importantly, so did my wife), so it stayed.  Your mileage may vary depending on how much you like cinnamon.  Use one or two small sticks instead if you prefer.

The rice should be nice, slightly sticky, not over-cooked and should not stick to the pot--even in non non-stick ones.  If it does, the heat or the water wasn't quite right.

Feel free to experiment with it if you want more or less of any of the flavors, but don't mess with the boil/simmer/stand part of the process, as this is the crux of the method.  I also use the basic method to make ginger & lemongrass rice to go with Teriyaki Salmon, and rosemary & marjoram rice to go with chicken dishes, so it's pretty versatile.  However, using high-quality rice is essential.  Jasmine or Basmati works the best, but stay away from anything that comes in a box or is marked "easy cook" or "American style" if you're outside the US.  The results will be less than stellar.

Hi Everyone,

Just joined the forum as I found it by accident when looking for some restaurant style Indian cooking (I thought I had my recipes with me on hols, but it turned out I didn't).  I've had a look around at some of the posts, and I'm pleased so far with what I've seen.  I'm anxious to try some of the Phall recipes, as I had one recently on a trip to London and thought it was brilliant!

I've noticed that loads of people here have been trying to hit the "BIR taste" for many years, so that makes me a certain newbie.  I've been a fan of restaurant Indian food for a while now, and my favorite is a really, really hot Vindaloo.  I've always been afraid to try it at home because the recipes I found just didn't look quite right.  Up until recently, I worked very near a place that I frequented (at least 2 times a week) for lunch that I got to like quite well.  Since I'm no longer based near the restaurant, I decided it was time to give it a try.

A friend of mine gave me the Kris Dhillon book, and I've been pretty pleased with the results so far.  Neither the wife or our friends have died, and, for Ireland at least, it turned out much better than your average takeaway or restaurant (but considerably different than the place I mentioned above).  In fairness, except for the curry base, I tend to improvise a little, using the recipes as more a guide than following them to the letter and I've really only focused on the medium/hot chicken/lamb curries and the "normal" Naan.

From doing some reading of the search results about the KD book on the forum, I can see there are mixed opinions about it.  Still, given the variety of tastes I've experienced between the US, Canada, Portugal, New Zealand, London and Ireland--including restaurants only up the road from each other, the variety of the curry bases (and corresponding opinions) doesn't surprise me that much.  I didn't figure KD was the end-all-be-all, but I thought it was a good way to understand the mechanics of how things worked in restaurant cooking.  I look forward to trying (and, of course, adapting) many of the recipes on this site.

One question having to do with the site organization:  Is there an index (or, failing that, a way to do it) of recipes by submitter?  When I was trying to have a snoop around to see what was here, I came across many people who posted a bunch of recipes, but there didn't seem to be a good way to find all of them easily.  Am I just missing something?  An automatically generated index by author might be something worth considering.

Again, many thanks for the forum.  I'm sure I'll try lots of the recipes and techniques, but I'm not sure how much I can actually contribute to the general knowledge pool.  I'm here mostly just to read, learn and experiment.

Cheers,

ast