Hello everyone,

From 1200 today there's six hours of TV dedicated to Indian and Thai cuisine!

This is the question: Is it best to fry powdered spices at the begginning of a dish (BIR), or add them half way through or so?
I have tried both ways and have not really noticed much difference (apart from having burned them now and again when adding them at the start!)

Your thoughts and advice please,

regards, Dylan

There was an article in one of Yesterday's papers (The Guardian, I think) which stated that under the new Freedom of Information Act, Trading Standard's Food Safety Reports of restaurants/takeaways, etc are now available to the public. You just need to contact your local authority.
Having been the recipient of more than one dodgy curry, this made interesting reading.

Chicken Dhansak

This is a hot lemony, smoky Dhansak, not the mild creamy kind with pineapple. 

Serves 2

Greds:

2-3 chicken chunked breasts (depending on size)
1-pint warmed curry gravy (I used one made with onions, carrots, celery, green pepper, garlic, tom puree, chicken stock cubes and potato and oil. It was minimally spiced, with only 1 level tablespoon of curry powder to the ten-onion batch).
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 medium onion (quartered, brushed with oil, stuck on a skewer and barbecued)
2 oz split red lentils, cooked a pureed.
1-2 teaspoons extra hot chilli powder
1-level teaspoon curry powder*
2-teaspoons sugar
Juice and zest of half a lemon
1-teaspoon tom puree
1 desert spoon tom ketchup
Pinch of fenugreek leaves
Fresh coriander
Tablespoon veg oil
Salt to taste.

Method:
Simmer the chicken breasts in a small-lidded pan with a ladle of the gravy until cooked through. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside. Return the curry gravy to the main batch. (It should have picked up some of the chicken?s savoury flavour.)
In a frying pan heat the oil over a high flame. Meanwhile, finely slice the barbecued onion.**
Fry the garlic until golden, then add a ladle of curry gravy (beware of potential flames). Add the fenugreek, onions, tom puree and ketchup. Reduce down until almost dry. Add another ladle of the curry gravy, the spices, the sugar, the lemon and the lentil puree. Stir around, then add the chicken and remaining gravy. Turn down the heat and simmer until the chicken?s heated through and the sauce has reached the desired consistency. Add salt to taste and a sprinkle of fresh coriander.

* From recent experiments, I?m convinced that minimum spicing is integral to achieving ?the taste?.

**The barbecued onions pervade the dish a subtle smoky flavour.

I made a batch of gravy and some curries at the weekend and they were very very close (even straight away after cooking). The secret? I cut down drastically on the spices. My batch of gravy (about 3-4 litres) had no more than a level tablespoon of curry powder in it. The base was made with onions, carrots, potatoes, green pepper, a good squeeze of tom puree, two chicken stock cubes and a bulb of garlic finely chopped and fried in about 700 ml of oil. And quite a lot of salt.

I pre-cooked the diced chicken in a tiny bit of water and a ladle of the gravy (lid on). When cooked I added the resultant liquid to my main batch of base

When cooking the final dishes I added no more than a quarter of a teaspoon of curry powder per portion. I also used chopped fresh garlic rather than puree, as its taste is more powerful.

I began dish with a little fresh oil and fried the garlic until golden, then in with a ladle of gravy and flame, etc

I made a madras, a patia and a few veg dishes ? I think the madras especially was spot-on.

Rinse the basmati rice until the liquid coming off it becomes clear. Then boil it in salted water along with a few pieces of cassia bark, a couple of bay leaves, a piece of star anise, a couple of cloves. Slightly undercook it then drain off the hot water. Return to pan with a knob of ghee. Cover with a tea towel (off the heat) for ten minutes.It will steam in the residual heat. Then add a tiny drop of red and green food coloring (just the cake baking stuff) and cover for a further ten minutes. Finally, fluff with a fork. It should be light and fluffy, with that restaurant "jeweled" effect from the colorings. This rice reheats excellently in a microwave. It also freezes well.

Try cooking naans on a preheated pizza stone.

I have often wondered why take away / restaurant curry can sometimes give you a dicky belly, while the ones cooked at home don't do this. I think it might well be that their gravy base could be hanging around for a few days, i.e fermenting.
I made a base on Monday, then left it until Wednesday morning before cooking a few curries. Though it hadn't started visibly fermenting flavor had noticeably improved (had a sour tang to it). I think its an important factor in the missing taste. Unfortunately, I didn't add enough oil to the gravy that there was enough to pour back into the base at the completion of each dish. I don't presently have a gas hob either, so I'm missing the flamed taste. Nevertheless, this is the closest I've been.
We know that most restaurants make their base sauce at least a day in advance. I can't believe they refrigerate it as the quantities are just too large. ( I doubt they'd be forthcoming in admitting this habit though, as it would flout food safety guidelines).

I notice in the Ebooks, Recipes and Software section there's a recipe for a gravy using Ajowan seeds (I think Pete posted it).
Has anybody tried them? Could they be another component of that "restaurant taste"? They're an ingredient I've never come across before.

Chicken Chilli Massala *


Greds:

500ml curry gravy
2 chicken breasts chunked and cooked in salted water.
1 dessert spoon of ginger/garlic puree
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves finely chopped
Half a green pepper cut into chunks
10-20 small green chillies
4 tablespoons curry oil
1 teaspoon curry powder
3 teaspoon chilli powder (or to taste)
Pinch of cumin seeds
Pinch fenugreek leaves
1 dessert spoons tom puree
Zest of half a lemon cut in to fine slithers
1 teaspoon sugar
1 large tomato sliced
Salt to taste
Fresh coriander


Method.

Heat half the oil over a medium heat and fry the pepper and onion until onion beginning to brown. Remove and set aside.           Add remaining oil over high heat, then add garlic and ginger puree. Fry until the colour of brown envelopes.  Add a third of the curry sauce/gravy here and the cumin seeds and fenugreek. Fry down (scraping) until almost dry. Now add the remaining gravy. (It will spit here and possibly flare up ? so be careful). Turn the heat down and add all the other ingredients (including the cooked veg) apart from the tomato and a pinch of the coriander. Once the chicken is heated through add the toms and salt. Stir for a minute then garnish with the remaining coriander.

* Of course the chicken could be substituted with whatever you like.

Chicken Patia*

Greds:
500ml curry gravy
2 chicken breasts chunked and cooked in salted water.
1 dessert spoon of ginger/garlic puree
3 tablespoons curry oil
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon chilli powder (or to taste)
Pinch of cumin seeds
Pinch fenugreek leaves
1 dessert spoon of tom ketchup
2 dessert spoons tom puree
Juice and zest of one lemon blended in a little water
1 desert spoon sugar
Seeded quarters of a large tomato
Salt to taste
Fresh coriander


Method.

Heat in the oil over a high heat, then add the garlic ginger puree. Stir fry until the light brown colour. Add a third of the curry sauce/gravy here and the cumin seeds and fenugreek. Fry down (scraping) until almost dry. Now add the remaining gravy. (It will spit here and possibly flare up ? so be careful). Turn the heat down and add all the other ingredients apart from the salt and a pinch of the coriander. Once the chicken is heated through and the toms beginning to ?melt?, add the salt. Finish with the remaining coriander.

* Of course the chicken could be substituted with whatever you like.

Does anyone know how long a restaurant might cook its base sauce for (i.e. do they leave it simmering all day or overnight)? I made a batch yesterday, similar to Pete's recipe but tried cooking it very gently for about 8hrs. Though I haven't tried it yet with a finished dish the results seem promising - there seemed more of a depth of flavour than usual and the spices had completely lost that raw, powdery taste they can sometimes have. It'd also become quite sweet and the layer of oil floating on top had become a rich ruby red (much darker than usual).

Speedy jalfrezi. (Not exactly a restaurant recipe, but a handy quickie if you've run out of base sauce)


1 medium onion sliced
half a green pepper sliced
2-3 cloves of garlic chopped
2 medium ripe tomatoes roughly chopped
30ml veg oil
precooked pieces of 1 medium chicken breast, lamb or prawns (same quantity as chicken)
teaspoon sugar
squeeze of lemon
1dessert spoon tom ketchup
water

quarter of a teaspoon of whole cumin seeds
quarter of a teaspoon of whole fennel seeds
quarter of a teaspoon of whole onion seeds
half a? teaspoon whole mustard seeds
pinch dried fenugreek leaves
2 teaspoons of curry powder (2 parts coriander, 2 paprika, 2 turmeric, 1 cumin)
1 teaspoon chilli powder
half a teaspoon ground cinnamon
salt to taste
Fresh coriander

Method:
In a frying pan fry the onions and pepper in the oil over a highish heat until beginning to brown, and then add the garlic. When garlic begins to brown at the edges too, add the whole spices and fenugreek. Stir for a few seconds then add the curry powder, the chilli and the cinnamon. Stir for a few more seconds, and then add the tomatoes and the meat or prawns. Add a little water to moisten the dish (a couple of table spoons), then the sugar, ketchup and lemon. Stir for a minute or two until a nice thickish consistency. Add salt to taste and finish with the fresh coriander.

I cooked a batch of curries a few days' back - a couple of veggy dishes and a couple of chicken. When I'd finished, the last thing I really wanted to eat was curry! All I fancied was a sandwich. I pushed it around the plate but hardly ate anything. Alright, I had picked a bit (or tested) when I was cooking them but this couldn't account for my lack of appertite. Does anyone else get this?
I know it's documented that cooks often don't feel like eating thier own food. I think this phenomenom could be exacipated with curry because the flavour is so much stronger than most foods (especially if you cook a lot of dishes in one go). It might explain why we often judge our creations secondary to a genuine restaurant counterpart: it's because we cooked them!
My answer: dont eat then on the day of creation. Keep them in the fridge for a couple of days then reheat them (finishing with some fresh coriander, of course).

Am I alone in experiencing "all curried out" after just cooking the dishes?