Hi,

Chicken Tikka is the next one on the list that we went through. It seems to be quite a bit different to the BIR versions on the site.

Essentially, more onions from the addition of the Onion Gravy paste, less sugar and less cream make it a more savory dish then the Butter Chicken but very similar.

Again, very little in terms of spicing.

I'll be making a few dishes this coming Thursday evening and will take pictures of the Gravies/Pastes to give a better idea of what they look like. The menu so far will be...

• Paneer Makhani (Butter Paneer)
• Beef Vindaloo
• Palak Paneer
• Veg Korma (Savory version)
• ...and some rice of course

Cheers,
Mark

Chicken Tikka Masala

Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp oil
- 0.25 Green Capsicum diced one inch cubes
- 0.25 Onion, diced one inch cubes
- 2 tsp Ginger/Garlic puree (50:50)
- 3 heaped tbsp Onion Gravy https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4923.0
- 3.5 heaped tbsp Tomato Gravy https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4922.0
- 1 tsp Kasoori Methi
- 125ml-250ml water
- 1 tsp White Sugar
- pinch Ground Black Pepper
- Pre-cooked chicken tikka, approx half a chicken breast worth of pieces
- 50ml cream
- 0.25 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Coriander Leaves

Prep Work:
- Cut Chicken Tikka into bite sized pieces
- Ginger/Garlic puree is made 50/50 rough ratio with a little water to aid processing

Method:
1. Heat pan, when oil warm, add onion and saute a few mins, till just softened
2. Add capsicum and cook as above
3. Add ginger/garlic paste and cook till just brown, stirring constantly using the back of the spoon to spread/mash/move it around
2. Add the Onion Gravy paste and mix/stir through, followed by the Tomato Gravy paste
3. Add Kasoori Methi and mix through
4. Pour in 125ml of water, mix well and bring to a simmer
5. Add the Sugar, Black Pepper and Tikka pieces, simmer for 5 min or so to heat the chicken
6. Add in the cream and mix through, returning to a simmer
7. Add salt and mix through
8. Remove from heat and add coriander leaves

Notes:
- Depending upon what consistency you prefer, add more water if needed.
- There is quite a bit of salt in the Base Gravies so very little is added, adjust to your taste though.

Hi, 

Here is the first of the recipes from the lesson in terms of actually putting it all together and making something to eat. 

It's very simple in some regards, ie no spices bar the Methi and Coriander leaves are added, the key being the proper frying/browning of the onions in the making of the Tomato Gravy to get a nice smokey flavor and the subtle hints of the spices when making the sauce. 

Cheers, Mark 

Butter Chicken

Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp oil
- 2 tsp Ginger/Garlic puree (50:50)
- 3.5 heaped tbsp Tomato Gravy paste https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4922.0
- 1 tsp Kasoori Methi
- 125ml-250ml Water
- 1 tbsp White Sugar
- Pre-cooked Chicken Tikka, approx half a chicken breast worth of pieces
- 100ml cream
- 1 tbsp Ghee/Butter
- 0.25 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Coriander Leaves
- Red Food Color powder (optional, we didn't use but he mentioned they do)

Prep Work:
- Cut Chicken Tikka into bite sized pieces
- Ginger/Garlic puree is made 50/50 rough ratio with a little water to aid processing

Method:
1. Heat pan, when oil warm, add ginger/garlic paste and cook till just brown, stirring constantly using the back of the spoon to spread/mash/move it around
2. Add the Tomato Gravy paste and mix/stir through
3. Add Kasoori Methi and mix through
4. Pour in 125ml of water, mix well and bring to a simmer
5. Add the Sugar and Tikka pieces, simmer for 5 min or so to heat the chicken
6. Add in the cream and mix through, returning to a simmer
7. Add the butter and blend with the sauce
8. Add salt
9. Remove from heat and add chopped coriander leaves

Notes:
- Depending upon what consistency you prefer, add more water if needed.
- There is quite a bit of salt in the Tomato Gravy so very little is added, adjust to your taste though.

Hi Folks,

Here is the Tikka recipe that was made during the lesson, it was only marinated for 2 hours and tasted pretty good.

Cheers,
Mark

Chicken Tikka

Ingredients:
- 1 chicken breast
- 0.5 tbsp Ginger/Garlic puree (50:50)
- 2 tbsp vinegar (white was used)
- 1 tsp Garam Masala
- 1 tsp Coriander Powder
- 1 tsp Cumin Powder
- 1 tsp Deggi Mirch
- 0.5 tsp Red Food Color powder
- 1 tsp Kasoori Methi
- 1 tsp Salt
- 3 tbsp yogurt

Prep Work:
- Dice chicken into Tikka sized pieces
- Ginger/Garlic puree is made 50/50 rough ratio with a little water to aid processing

Method:
First Marination:
1. Add chicken, ginger/garlic puree and vinegar to a bowl
2. Give it a good massage, leave for at least 15min

Second Marination:
1. Mix all the other ingredients in a separate bowl, when well mixed, pour into the first bowl
2. Mix it well through again, and leave marinate for 24 hours in the fridge of course.
3. Cook using your preferred method, grill/broil etc

Thanks Haldi!

Hi folks,

Just thought I'd ask if anyone has read or got the Shish Mahal Cookbook?

If so, what were your thoughts on the book and is it worth getting?

I've been trying to find a Contents/Recipe Index online to see what is in the book but haven't been able to locate anything.

Not sure either if they recipe style is for individual dishes rather then preparing with a base gravy.

Cheers,
Mark

Hi Folks,

Well here is the last of the gravies. Dish recipes will be coming over the next couple of days. Hopefully you'll find them as exciting as I found it when waiting for jb's posts, and still looking forward to more of his with much anticipation!

One of the other chefs that I spoke to regarding lessons used 3 gravies as well, but from what I could gather he made a big base onion gravy and then created the 3 gravies from that. I'm still trying to get him to come around, to see another method in action.

Cheers and happy reading,
Mark

Onion Gravy

Ingredients:
- 0.5 cup Vegetable Oil
- 2 Indian Bay Leaves (broken into bits)
- 4 big Onions, (sorry no measurement on this one, minimum tennis ball size)
- 2 big Tomatoes (sorry no measurement on this one, roughly same size as onions)
- 1 tbsp Ginger/Garlic puree (50:50)
- 2 tbsp Salt level
- 1 tsp panch phoron ( cumin, mustard, kalonji, fennel, fenugreek seeds)
- 1 tbsp Coriander Powder
- 1 tbsp Cumin Powder
- 1 tbsp Garam Masala
- 1 tbsp Kasoori Methi
- 1 tbsp Kitchen King Masala ( or curry powder)
- 1 tbsp Deggi Mirch

Prep Work:
- Very finely chop the onions
- Very finely chop the tomatoes
- Ginger/Garlic puree is made 50/50 rough ratio with a little water to aid processing

Method:
1. Heat oil till just shimmering
2. Add the panch phoron, this should crackle a little, immediately add the bay leaves and stir
3. Add onions and mix well, then add the salt and cook until light golden brown
4. Add a little water to cool the pan ready for the spices
5. Add the powdered spices and fry for a min or so
6. Add the tomatoes and continue cooking till the tomatoes have mushed completely and the onion pieces are barely discernable. This took about 45mins, essentially all the water had to be cooked out and the oil separated, this was his indication of when done. It will be a very dark color once completed.

If it is sticking to the pan too much, add a little water to loosen off, this may happen later on in the process, remember to keep stirring from time to time.

Use:
- From this sauce, 2 1/2 heaped tablespoons of it would be used in a single serve curry
- Used in Madras, Vindaloo, Rogan Josh, Tikka Masala and non-veg Korma dishes (that was an interesting point of his)

Notes:
- Again, this was a very thick paste by the end of cooking. You could still see onion bits though, I questioned him about this and he said they disintegrate in the final dish preparation.
- It is always the same ratio of onions to tomatoes 2:1.
- Cooking to a thicker paste will store better in the fridge rather then the consistency used in the restaurant
- The Panch Phoron was his little addition to the restaurant he works in, he said others may just use cumin seeds. He told me the owners brother was doing the cooking for the first 6 months of this IR opening and apparently nearly bankrupted the owner as his dishes were so bad, he was then given a little leeway with the dishes to try and turn things around, the Panch Phoron was one of his little additions which has apparently been well received.

Quote from: Stephen Lindsay on August 20, 2010, 03:40 PM
...By the way in method point 7 there is a squiggle "~" and I'm not sure if this is a typo or if there should be some other number in its place.

Hi Stephen,

Sorry, the tilde ~ symbol is sometimes used as shorthand for approximate, apologies for the confusion.

On a side note, I made your Chasni a week or so ago prior to the lesson, absolutley fabulous, great job! Never had one before, and had never seen one in a menu either. I did end up finding an IR in a suburb close by that has it on their menu with a mention of cashew nuts in the sauce as well.

Cheers,
Mark

Hi Parker21,

Thanks for the info, I had seen a mention in a couple of topics I had read through recently where people had mentioned that in conversations with some BIRs they had been told that they used 3 gravies/sauces.

But I hadn't seen any recipes/postings for the gravies and dishes, but I have only been a member for a couple of months now and sometimes I get lost as to where to go.

I'll be posting all of the recipes for the dishes that we made. If you have others, and diff recipes for the gravies that would be very interesting to see as well.

I'm still kinda shocked that his dishes tasted as good as they did given that some of them were so simple. I probably mistakenly have thought that it must be very very complex to make some of the dishes, apparently, and luckily it doesn't seem to be!

Cheers,
Mark

Here is gravy number two that we did. And again I was even more disheartened when I saw all of the whole spices that he was putting in thinking they were going to way over power everything. Once done though, it was one of those ones where you can put your nose above the dish and just inhale till your lungs are full it smells that good. Surprisingly the whole garam masala did not overpower at all.

The biggest drawback again as mentioned in the Notes section below is the quantity it makes, for home cooking it is not at all practical but very delicious. Not sure how it will be when I take some out of the freezer next week.

It's just coming up to midnight here, so gravy 3 will have to wait till tomorrow!

Tomato Gravy

Ingredients:
- 0.5 cup Vegetable Oil
- 8 sticks Cassia Bark (approx 5cm long by 1 cm wide)
- 8 Green Cardamom Pods
- 2 Indian Bay Leaf (broken into bits)
- 10 Cloves
- .5 kg Onions
- 1 kg tomato puree (tinned, but not paste)
- 2 tbsp Salt
- 2 tbsp Ginger/Garlic puree (50:50)
- 1 tbsp Coriander Powder
- 1 tbsp Cumin Powder
- 1 tbsp Garam Masala
- 1 tbsp Kitchen King Masala (or Curry Powder, KK was his personal pref)
- 1 tbsp Degi Mirch Powder
- 1 tbsp Kasoori Methi
- 250g Cashews/Cashew pieces
- 250g Almond meal

Prep Work:
- Fill a food processor with as much of the cashews as possible and add water, puree to a very, very fine puree. Repeat until all done.
- Blend onions in a food processor to a very fine chop, not puree. If the processor does end up pureeing them then it will take longer to cook and require more oil.
- Ginger/Garlic puree is made 50/50 rough ratio with a little water to aid processing

Method:
1. Heat oil till just shimmering
2. Add whole spices and fry till aromatic and sizzling
3. Add onions and mix well
4. Add salt and mix well
5. Continue cooking the onions until golden brown, this may take some time ~30mins depending upon how chopped and the cooking medium, ie gas/electric etc. The oil will separate from the onions once they are cooked, this is the visual to go to the next step.
6. Add garlic & ginger puree and cook for a min or two
7. Add ~1 cup of water and mix through, the heat in the pan should be enough that the mix is bubbling away when the water is added in
8. Add powdered spices, mix well and fry a min or two
9. Add 1 cups of water, mix through and bring to a boil
10. Add tomato puree, mix through, bring back to a boil
11. Add cashew paste, mix through, bring to a boil, cover and simmer, it will plop and splatter the lid to no end
12. Add almond meal and cook for another 30 mins. The almond meal will thicken the mix considerably, additional water can be added to get back to the consistency mentioned above, or leave as is and add additional water when making a curry.

No extra water was added in the lesson, it was left very thick, and thickened up much more in the fridge. If keeping for a few days or longer then the thicker/drier the mix the better.

Use:
- From this sauce, 2 1/2 heaped tablespoons of it would be used in a single serve
- Again, huge quantities leaving me from having to cook this ever again this year!
- Used in Butter Chicken, Tikka Masala

Notes:
- It is always the same ratio of tomatoes to onions to nuts, 2:1:1. The split of nuts is 50/50 but will not be affected if the nut ratio is altered, ie more cashews/less almond meal etc.
- Cooking to a thicker paste will store better in the fridge rather then the consistency used in the restaurant

Hi all,

Sorry for the delay in getting these posted. I can see know why pics & vids make such a difference as it's kind of hard trying to describe some things like the consistency of things at various stages.

I'm sure a lot of you will go 'Huh?' when you read one of the dishes that this goes in. I asked him two or three times if he had the right dish. The end taste of the dish in question was great though.

Reading through the recipes/discussions on this site there are often discussions about what makes this dish, this dish if that makes sense. There do seem to be big variations in different IRs recipes though. Within our suburb here in Brisbane, there are 3 IRs that we frequent. Each one of them makes a completely different Butter Chicken. One is very heavy on tomatoes but thinish consistency, another is strong tomato but very very thick with a great smokey flavor coming from fried onions, and the other one is heavy on nuts and you can only get a hint of tomato. Each tastes great but very different.

As with all things it is easy to judge and criticize things before we try them. I must admit that after making this gravy and talking with him about what it was used in, I felt like I had been duped and wasted a lot of money and time, on the chef and all the ingredients.

But 5 hours later my scoffing had changed to 'scoffing' down the food!

On to the first of the gravies...

Nut Gravy

Ingredients:
- 0.5 cup Vegetable Oil
- 2 sticks Cassia Bark (approx 5cm long by 1 cm wide)
- 6 Green Cardamom Pods
- 1 Indian Bay Leaf (broken into bits)
- 5 Cloves
- 1.5 kg Onions
- 1 tbsp Salt
- 2 tbsp Ginger/Garlic puree (50:50)
- 1 tbsp Coriander Powder
- 1 tbsp Cumin Powder
- 1 tbsp Turmeric Powder
- 350g Cashews/Cashew pieces
- 350g Almond meal

Prep Work:
- Fill a food processor with as much of the cashews as possible and add water, puree to a very, very fine puree. Repeat until all done.
- Blend onions in a food processor to a very fine chop, not puree. If the processor does end up pureeing them then it will take longer to cook and require more oil.
- Ginger/Garlic puree is made 50/50 rough ratio with a little water to aid processing

Method:
1. Heat oil till just shimmering
2. Add whole spices and fry till aromatic and sizzling
3. Add onions and mix well
4. Add salt and mix well
5. Continue cooking the onions until golden brown, this may take some time ~30mins depending upon how chopped and the cooking medium, ie gas/electric etc. The oil will separate from the onions once they are cooked, this is the visual to go to the next step.
6. Add garlic & ginger puree and cook for a min or two
7. Add ~1 cup of water and mix through, the heat in the pan should be enough that the mix is bubbling away when the water is added in
8. Add powdered spices, mix well and fry a min or two
9. Add 2 cups of water, mix through and bring to a boil
10. Add cashew paste, bring to a boil
11. Add more water, another 2 cups was used, and continue to cook for another hour covered. It should be a sloppy but not running consistency, it should pour off the spoon rather then fall and dollop.
12. Add almond meal and cook for another 30 mins. The almond meal will thicken the mix considerably, additional water can be added to get back to the consistency mentioned above, or leave as is and add additional water when making a curry.

No extra water was added in the lesson, it was left very thick, and thickened up much more in the fridge. If keeping for a few days or longer then the thicker/drier the mix the better.

Use:
- From this sauce, 2 1/2 heaped tablespoons of it would be used in a single serve Korma
- The quantities listed above made enough for our family to have a Korma a week till early 2011 I'd say!
- Used in Korma, Navrattan Korma, Madras (yes, Madras! I'm still kinda surprised by this, but it tasted great. The only Restaurant Madras that I have had was tomato based so this was a very new experience for me. I looked at the 7 IR takeaway menus that we have and to my surprise they all have coconut milk/cream mentioned in them, this too goes into the Madras, more info on that one to come...)

Notes:
- It is always the same ratio of onions to nuts, 2:1. The split of nuts is 50/50 but will not be affected if the nut ratio is altered, ie more cashews/less almond meal etc.
- Cooking to a thicker paste will store better in the fridge rather then the consistency used in the restaurant