Quote from: George on December 29, 2005, 01:17 PM

Quote from: raygraham on December 20, 2005, 07:39 PM
So here's the dinner menu for all 20 workers who are gonna be grafting at Keighley Ambulance Station while you lot are getting full of Xmas pud and Xmas cheer.

Ray
How did it go? I was thinking of you and your curries as we sat down for a more traditional and (I must say) less interesting lunch on Chritstmas Day
Regards
George

Hi George and everyone,

Hope you all had a really nice Christmas with your feet up and a few mulled wines and are all getting ready for the New Year.
Sorry to have been a bit slow repiying but things have been a bit hectic.
I delivered a baby girl Xmas Day morning, that was just ace ( but a bit messy!) , what could be more satisfying ?? Took some pictures for the proud Mum and Dad.

The Christmas Day Curry Extravaganza at work went really well if I do say so myself.

As I was making for about 20 with some extra left over I bought 4 kilo's of Chicken breast which I got from a large Asian supermarket in Bradford at ?2.20 p a Kilo which I thought was a pretty good price ( Payal please note!!).
For convenience I decided to pre-make parts of the two Chicken dishes so made a double batch of base sauce and used the Balti Kitchen recipe as it was simple and makes a very good CTM.

I used half of the chicken and pre-cooked this using the Balti Kitchen method and the other half went into a Tikka Marinade ( also Balti Kitchen ) for a full 36 hours.
I have never marinated chicken for so long but it really paid off with very tasty and tender meat once it was cooked.
The oven cooking of this on skewers on it?s hottest setting produces such moist tender meat and received so many good comments I shall certainly do that again.

I then made some pre-cooked potato for a Bombay Potato side dish which if I am honest was made on the day very simply with some base sauce and half a jar of? Patak?s Madras paste ( well you?ve gotta cheat sometimes!!) .

This meant that on the day I only needed to add a very few things to a quantity of base sauce along with either the pre-cooked Chicken or Tikka and it was ready in no time at all.
As the crews were eating throughout the day I could not leave it all out so I decanted it into portion sized bowls that could be blasted in a microwave when they wanted it.

Darth's Dabari rice was a doddle to make and I pre-made this and split it into 20 bowls as well ( you are now famous in West Yorkshire mate!!).

Poppadoms were easy to fry the day before and stayed crisp so with the addition of Mango Chutney, Lime Pickle and a Raita were a simple starter to leave out whenever folk wanted to have a nibble during the day.

I cheated and pre-bought Samosa?s and Onion Bhaji?s which were warmed as needed.

We were all very busy on Christmas day but everyone managed to sit down for a while and have a full meal. Comments were really nice and I felt proud of the effort I had made for the day. At least 20 people got a reward for working their Christmas and I felt it worthwhile making the effort.

If I am honest and critical I would say the Chicken Tikka Masala was absolutely ace, just what I would expect at a BIR. The Chicken Madras was very nice but lacked that ?taste? which disappointed me a bit as I wanted? to give everyone more but accept the Balti Kitchen recipe is not the best for this but for a large catering exercise ( where I needed a simple to make curry ), is a very acceptable method of producing a ?user friendly curry?.

The Bombay Potato was completely devoured so I assume was liked by most and a little party trick and cheat I will keep up my sleeve for the future.

Darths rice attracted lots of ?this is lovely? comments so will stay on my ?best of? books.

I didn?t have much curry to myself that day. It is one of those things that the chef doesn?t get time to eat his own food but what I made was enjoyed by all and a lot of requests for the recipes.
For me this was praise enough but from a critical point of view I could have done better and do think the Balti Kitchen method has it?s limitations but for the average curry lover they think they are getting a genuine restaurant offering!!

All in all a good effort but I have noted improvements and changes I will make for a re-run the next time round.

Happy New Year Everyone,

Ray

I do agree with Darth on this one. Make this rice to his instructions and you will have a dish that you can't distinguish from a BIR, in fact I think better.

The packet instructions on Basmati rice could not be more misleading. Most tell you to cook it for 15-20 mins. I get Rice Pudding if I do this!

Cooking for 6-8 mins is just right as like Darth says it continues to cook itself beyond this.

I also add a 1 oz knob of butter which they do in the Balti Kitchen Video ( weight watchers beware! ).
This gives it a slight stickiness ( although the grains are still seperate ) which you get in many BIR rice dishes, but either way this is a perfect rice.

And as Dee Dee points out adding some colouring either side of the pan once it is cooked then gently stirring makes for a great colouring effect that impresses everyone.

When it comes to rice I think at? least we can say we have cracked this one!!

Ray

It says on the site it can seat 860! Just imagine making enough curry for that lot!!!

Recipe:- Take 1 swimming pool of base sauce...............................etc, etc!!!!!

Ray

A very early good morning all,

It's 6:00 a.m. and I am at work cranking up the cooker to get the Poppadoms cooked ready to feed 20 of my colleagues a curry feast later today.

It's very eerie out there, not a car on the road or a person to be seen but I did think I saw a sleigh dissapearing in the distance with a guy in a red suit driving....................he looked knackered and sozzled!!.

The curries have turned out great. Two massive pans that have swallowed up 4 kilo's of chicken breast, a bucket of Dabari Rice, 50 Onion Bhaji's, 20 Samosa's, 24 Naan Breads, 60 Poppadoms, 2 Turtle Doves.....................and a Partidge in a Pear Tree!!!

Were gonna be in curry heaven today

Must go, got to get the wife's pressie sorted but how do you wrap an Ironing Board ??

MERRY CHRISTAMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL

Ray G

Yes, me too!!

Merry Christmas one and all and a very happy new year. ;D

Have just finished a whole day's curry making for our Xmas day curryfest at work tomorrow.
I can hardly keep my hands off it.?

Might leave a plate of Madras and an Onion Bhaji out for Santa tonight! Beats a carrot and a mince pie any day. :

Ray

Hi Darth,

Just a small point but when you are making your 99.9% base on board your Star Destroyer and flambeeing is there not a health and safety issue to consider?

After all I couldn't think of anything worse than the downfall of the Empire due to a serious pan fire in your galley!!

Ray

They had to cancel the nativity play round here because they couldn't find three wise men and a virgin so I have got no chance of making a genuine BIR have I

Ray

Hi,

I think we are now all aware of the problems of measurements and the need to all use familiar measures to help achieve comparable results.
This is particularly important when using the powerful aromatic spices such as Garam Masala, Cardamom, Star Anise etc. Similarly the overuse of say Fenugreek can ruin a dish if too much is put in and I think George has spent the time making the point we do need to standardise things particularly with the more pungent flavours as if we don't we may never achieve similar results.

For instance, shop bought Garama Masala is relatively mild compared to home made which is very pungent in deed.

I believe when measuring the less aromatic spices such as Cumin, Coriander etc any overmeasure is not so noticeable in the overall recipe, but other more aromatic spices can totally ruin things.
If you watch a restaurant chef create a curry he just picks up the spices without much care to accuracy so I can only assume exact quantities are not so important in this case ( particularly with the milder spices ).

I tend to treat the aromatics with extreme care, adding perhaps half what is stated first then tasting to see how much effect it has had. I have thrown away many a curry through too much spicing. Beware the recipes that use Cardamom Powder or Seeds, this is a guaranteed disaster.
Just use Whole Pods or the taste of "after-shave" will be overpowering.

Perhaps if we all buy a set of standard measuring spoons and a measuring jug calibrated to Mils we might get things more acceptable and standard to everyone.

Ray

Quote from: George on December 22, 2005, 11:36 PM

Quote from: Mark J on December 22, 2005, 04:42 PM

So if, say, (hypothetically) , Kylie Minogue wrote a book about Rover car maintenance (which she probably doesn't know much about), then the cost of the book might be worth it just to read about car maintenace from a real pop star?

How odd, I have just asked Santa for the Complete Kylie Car Maintenance series for Xmas.............he said I should be so lucky.....lucky, lucky, lucky!!.
That girl doesn't mind getting her hands dirty. They are full of hints and tips and the photo's of her doing a Robin Reliant oil change are a delight!

Sorry George, couldn't resist.

Ray

Quote from: Curry King on December 22, 2005, 09:59 AM
I don't believe that BIR style cooking can conform to set standards,? i've spoken to a few chefs and not one of them know's exact teaspoon measurements , its always a spoon of that or a bit of that until it looks right.

Yes but is it the Queens teaspoon or the Incredible Hulks teaspoon??

But jokes aside, I quite agree CK.
When you watch restaurant chefs make a curry they either use the tip of a large serving spoon or just pick up a spice between their fingers and bung it in and so do asian women when they cook at home. In the end it just becomes a natural thing and experience tells them what is just right.

I have usually found major variations in amounts does not alter tastes too dramatically but for the benefit of those on the site struggling to get a good result and measuring everything with a set of atomic scales I do think we need to standardise our measurements so we all know what we are on about.


Ray