i will be defo trying his method as well but i just wondered has anyone tried marinating in base?

he said to dilute the pastes with enough yoghurt to make a korma like consistancy.

hi all, has anyone ever tried to cook tikka before having only marinated it in base gravy?

the reason i ask is that i had an amazing portion of tikka in my local the other day and i could have sworn that it had an underlying flavour that was the same as the madras that i had after it. the only difference for me was that it had nice big strips of coriander attached to it whereas the madras was just a smooth sauce.

I was chatting with the owner asking him how he does it and he says to combine tikka paste, tandoori paste, kashmiri masala paste, yoghurt and mix powder (no quantities unfortunately) but i can't see how that would have the mild flavour of the tikka i ate.

i think i will have to just do a base gravy marination and see what happens just to get it out of my system

Hi Gazman,

i've tried quite a few naans from this site and a few from books etc.

many of them are quite similar in my oppinion and cook up really well. the main thing that i've done recently to improve my bread is to get a proper food mixer with a dough hook to knead it out.

i know it's not mega relevant but i was looking on this site the other day and it trys to describe the reasons for adding different ingredients to the dough and what characteristics they bring to the bread. for instance they say that eggs will improve texture and lead to a crispier finish of the bread.

http://www.correllconcepts.com/Encyclopizza/_home_encyclopizza.htm

i'm not sure about garlic naans. i've eaten some that just push slivers of garlic into the dough, bake it and brush with ghee. i've had some good ones in bradford where i think they just bake the bread and then brush it with garlic butter afterwards but i've not seen this up close.

the naans are the best hands down because they basically BIR quality. they have the lovely crisp base and blackening around the edges.

i'm not sure i've found a recipe for tikka marinade yet that does it justice though. the last one i tried was from Dipurajahs video but that was mega over spiced for my tastes.

i guess that i will be trying some of the recipes from the group test the next time i tandoor.

i think we did a fish in it once as well (for a veggie  : ) but we used one of those fish shaped cages that you can get for your bbq for that and not the skewers.

i have one, it cooks superbly and is an absolute winner at a party.

the only problem i've had has been down to getting the coals to light up at the back.

i have developed a strategy for getting this right though, i bought one of the metal fold out vegetable steamer thingies and removed a couple of the leaves. i then cover (literally) the bottom of the oven with fire lighters and sit the steamer on top of the them with the gap at the front where the tandoor air hole is.

light it with your blowtorch and bobs your uncle works every time.

you will end up having to repair loads of little cracks in it from time to time but it's just something you have to live with and it's easy enough to do.

oh one more thing it's frikkin' heavy

as a bit of a side topic i tried the doner kebab recipe from this book on friday and it was superb.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Takeaway-Secret-Cook-Favourite-Fast-food/dp/0716022354

i wouldn't say it was perfect (not greasy enough) but i suspect that this is because i used extra lean lamb mince and as we all know fat is the tasty part.

you blitz the mince in a food processor with some spices, roll it all up into a loaf and then cook in the oven for an hour and a bit.

there are some curry recipes in there as well but i haven't tried them yet.

that tikka looks awesome, how did you make it?

Quote from: Cory Ander on September 22, 2009, 12:30 PM

Quote from: 976bar on September 22, 2009, 10:42 AM
Just a thought here, but why would anyone want to go to such labour and trouble to produce their own Doner kebabs when you can get one down the road for about ?2.50?

Probably for the same reason that people are intent on making their own curries - they enjoy it and find it satisfying!

what CA said. seems odd to be dismissing the idea of re-creating takeway (and restaurant) food on a site that is quite devoted to it. 

just thinking aloud here so feel free to burn this idea in flames.

could you therefore emulate the doner spit process by mashing up a load of lamb and spices (i.e. those from the F-Word vid i remember nutmeg at least) then spreading the mix out thinly on a baking tray before putting it all under the grill?

i guess there would need to be a slight angle over the tray so that any grease could drain off into the grill pan.

hi,

are you using the method as done on the fatima dhansak video?

if so i just wonder if you are adding your ingredients in the wrong order, in the video the chef puts in his tomato paste first followed by salt and the rest of the spices. the sugar goes in last and then immediately goes back on the gas. (i think that if you fry sugar in oil on its own it will just go crispy and hard which is nasty)

he gives it a few stirs then leaves it a few seconds to start caramelising. after this he adds hot base (i think that this is important because you don't want to lower the temperature of the caramalising sugar too much when it has started)

if you get the caramalisation happening ok then it should all come together ok. the chef is using a mental hot burner without any trouble and i've made this on my inferior gas hob as well (yum except a bit too much sugar for me)