Quote from: onion on March 28, 2007, 11:16 AM
I use one of these hi flame burners from Nisbets, it is fantastic, it is available in both propane and natural gas versions. It is very high power and pan recovery times are fast, great for Chinese as well.
I have adapted one of my kitchen cabinets so it fits level with the worktop.

Hi Onion
I'm having difficulty finding this on the net
Can you point me in theright direction?
Is this a double ring burner?

One other thing I noticed at the takeaways
The pans are only washed with water
No washing up liquid used
Maybe some sort of coating does build up

Quote from: George on March 28, 2007, 09:23 PM
it  makes sense to follow their lead if we want to emulate BIR style food.
Regards
George

Hi George
                I made friends with the staff of two takeaways
Last summer I must have sat through the cooking of at least 100 curries
What can I say, except that something magical happens on these big cookers
The most odd thing, is that although they always have their double cooking ring on high, nothing seems to burn
They sometimes heat the oil in a pan for a couple of minutes before adding anything.
If I do that at home, oil starts burning at the edge of the pan
In these takeaways they got curry aromas I can't achieve
I watched them prepare the curry gravy, and at one point there was this marvelous BIR smell.
The one that travels a quarter of a mile down the street (know the smell?)
I have duplicated (scaled down) everything they did but on a conventional cooker, it just doesn't happen the same.
Both these takeaways have closed now
Before they did I asked everything I could think of to get my curries better
Maybe it's just the heat from their cookers, but I just can't get the same results, unless I use a bought curry gravy
Actually that's not quite true
I occasionally and inexplicably, I get an unrepeatable brilliant result

Where is this recipe from?
I only know one person that puts worcester sauce in their curries
(Maybe now I know two!)

Quote from: Cory Ander on March 15, 2007, 04:06 PM
Yes, the gas burner is really for outside use (i.e with barbecues) and is powered by bottled LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas)
Regards,

Hi Cory,
             Amazing shots
Two questions:-
                         Does this burner get as hot as a restaurant gas cooker?
                         
                         Do curries cooked on it, match your normal takeaway curries?
Thanks

Hi CK
        It was about ?400 and the price still hurts!
I've had it about 18 months now and used it about thirty times
It's no fun in summer (too hot)
It throws off heat for about six hours after cooking!
As long as I get ten years use, I won't feel cheated
It is far more than just cooking
Every time you use it, it's an event
I just wish I knew someone local, that was as enthusiastic as me
The asian people that know, think it's crazy
If you do get one, you might need some sort of heat/fume extraction
I stink the house out every time (smokey as well as spicy)
It sets the smoke alarm off!!
If you want to cook naans you need to pre heat it for an hour
For Tikka only a quarter of an hour pre heat
You can buy second hand tandoors
A lot of takeaways do
It's very heavy if you have to collect, and you must make sure that the inside clay is not cracked
A second hand tandoor would be a lot cheaper (about ?200) but larger than mine
The bigger the tandoor, the easier to make naans
But you need more gas
It's quite time consuming too
To cook and clean up, after 1kg of tikka, takes an hour an a half
If you wanted to do naans as well then that would be half a day gone

I don't regret buying it

I cooked 2 kg of chicken tikka yesterday
I want to see how well it freezes (and have some fresh too)
I added a load of coriander puree to the marinade
It didn't seem to affect the colour
Apparently, you could smell this cooking, half a road away!
Has anyone else tried freezing it?

Hi Cory
           looks really good
Are they King prawns?
They certainly look bigger than the Asda ones I get!

I know what is in their base and it's nothing new
Onions,garlic,ginger,canned tomatoes,tomato puree,carrots,ktc oil,salt,water,spice mix
I've even seen it cooked
But try it at home, with a reduced quantity and a domestic cooker and it just doesn't work.
When they cooked the spices part,  there was that wonderful BIR aroma
That part never happened at home
I don't understand why
After many attempts, that's when I decided to start buying the base

The recipe for the madras
Heat some curry gravy oil for a couple of minutes
Add spoon of tomato puree,garlic ginger,salt, spice mix and chilli powder
Stir  for five minutes adding watery curry gravy as it dries out
Add a cup full of curry gravy and main ingredient (prawns)
Stir and heat for fives minutes
Add fresh coriander,another spoon of tomato puree, and a pinch of ground coriander, ground cummin and dried fenugreek
Heat another five minutes and serve

I made prawn madras last night, using bought curry base and spice mix
Very nice!
Their base was really watery, nothing like the finished curry
They charged me the same, as for curry sauce (?2.00)
I got enough spice mix for four curries, and it was free!