I suppose it's bcos the stem retains it's structure so the inside of the stem hasnt been affected by the heat of the sauce yet. It will if you cook it long enough though.
These flavour bursts can be used as a positive to add excitement (albeit not full blown excitement) to the curry. Other examples would be sliced spring/green onion, whole cumin or coriander seeds, nuts and raisins.
Whole spices work really well in onion bhajis i find.

Quote from: CurryOnRegardless on December 16, 2009, 05:34 PM

Quote from: jimmy2x on December 15, 2009, 09:46 AM


yeah but its cheap and tastes just fine in a curry and does you no harm. unlike the rspca who inevitably hate humans.

You like paying for water, fine carry on paying for it.....

That doesnt make sense dude. Jimmy and others have said they buy that chicken bcos it's cheap. If it was cheaper without injected water they may buy that instead.

I shop similarly, however i see the injected water as a positive thing. I often cook my unmarinated cubes of chicken in simmering water for about 4-6 mins before adding as normal to the final curry. The result is a beautiful thing: succulent, tender and tasty. I get a lot of compliments on the 'quality of my chicken' would you believe it.
I know ethical or at least organic farming is the way forward and i am trying to be more responsible recently but when you get compliments on your frozen iceland chicken it makes you feel like blowing raspberries at that crowd. 

Off-topic discussions on MSG moved to new thread here: https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4213.0

nice one! It's an amazing feeling isnt it?
Good work. If i was you i'd cook the same recipe again next time so you get consistent and get to understand how everything cooks.
Hing does have that kind of strength, like fresh curry leaves, so it could be a factor but it sounds like you cracked the cooking of the whole dish! How did it taste?

Did you say you went out for a beer and then came back to the house later? This has an effect as your sense of smell gets dulled when cooking strong spices.

Quote from: Razor on January 02, 2010, 03:38 PM
Sometimes when I watch cookery programs, and the chef sprinkles a quantity in the dish, and then suggest that it was only about a teaspoon, I get to thinking that their teaspoons must be the size of a shovel!

Yeah right! Makes you question their recipes doesnt it? Gordon ramsay is particularly bad at this. If you follow his recipes from the TV it looks like they'll be better than from his book. They very often do this with seasoning to make you think they're using less.

I think people get salt levels completely wrong too and is probably a major reason home cooks often dont get the full flavour they were after. Old recipes didnt need to list measurements bcos cooks were taught how to cook. These days that doesnt stand. Most home cooks seem to know almost nothing about how cooking works [citation needed, going on personal experience!]. People often think 'a pinch' which is maybe 1/8 tsp is sufficient to season a dish for one and also a dish for a family.
'Season to taste' is a phrase that f*cks a lot of meals up i think.

I think recipes in this country need to start telling people how much salt to put in. Every other ingredient is listed and this is a really important one. I've seen people on the telly cook fillet steak and then not season it. Imagine that - they've chosen the most expensive cut of the cow bcos they think it will be the best and then they dont fulfill it's potential.

'But people have different salt requirements' - yes slightly but that doesnt mean they shouldnt season their food. A decent restaurant has already seasoned your food to perfection when it arrives at your table. People sometimes forget this and confuse themselves into thinking 'apparently there's enough salt in food already, i dont need to cook with it'.

You really should be using measuring spoons (and level, not heaped  :) if you want to follow recipes and cook accurately. Tesco sells them for quite cheap. I got metal ones so they dont melt.
As for authors writing recipes 'incorrectly' or ambiguously, that is one of the problems with sharing recipes on the internet. Anyone can write a recipe and many do so without testing them. This is the reason i am skeptical when using internet recipes and usually pick a few that look the best and then work out what the important bits of the recipes are.

As for this site i would recommend people to either edit their recipes or state their use of non-standard measurements.

Good work panpot 

Nothing specific for me. How they do their madras and tikka masala would be useful i reckon.

Quote from: Mikka on January 07, 2010, 08:29 PM
Black Cardamoms are GORGE. Just got to cook them right. In fact this post reminded me of them as I said I haven't used them in eons

I know, they're beautiful things! Such a different taste to any other spice. It reminds me of the smell of fresh dark tobacco or leather.

Quote from: Cory Ander on January 07, 2010, 12:34 AM
Hmmmm, reminds of me when I was desperate for a curry in South Africa and ended up trying a "Bunny Chow" (a South African chicken curry in a hollowed out loaf of bread) from a fast food shop called "The Curry Cabin".  Trouble, for me, was that the chicken was, what I could only describe as, jiblets...GROSS! 

What did you make of curry in south africa CA? I go there every few years as i'm half SA. Most recently i went to cape town in november and tried a couple of curries. They're very keen on fruit and mrs h.s balls chutney with everything so it was no surprise the curry we ate in a little pakistani restaurant tasted of chutney. It was sweeter than BIR and had pretty much no spice taste. It was a small / quiet enough place to make me question whether they used a base sauce at all.

Apricots and raisons crop up a lot in the curries too. Basically a lot of the influence is from the 'cape coloureds' who came from malaysia. There are now quite a few muslims but i'm not sure how strong their influence has been yet.

Did you try boboetie?

Quote from: FFCcottage on January 18, 2010, 12:13 PM
This is what's on back of packet.
Murgh Banjara Hyderbadi

Heat 50ml oil in pan. Fry 2 chopped onions until golden brown. Add 5tsp minced garlic and 1tsp minced ginger. Mix well and fry for 2 minutes stirring constantly. Add 2tsp garam masala, 1tsp red chilli powder, 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1/2tsp Charmagz and 4 black cardamoms. Cook until you get the aromas of the spices. Add 2 tbsp cashew nut paste, salt to taste and 1 cup of milk. Add 1kg of chicken drumsticks. Cook on low heat until the chicken is tender and cooked. Sprinkle 1tsp Haloon seeds and cover immediately. serve garnished with split cashews.

Sounds like a good recipe to me! Like the fact they've used milk with all the nuts and seeds and the garlic ginger ratio looks good.