I guess in that scenario it doesnt really matter, both will tenderise and I guess you then add the rest of the marinade?

I agree with you entirely panpot but I think the post was intended to be informative and when you go to madge and geoffs website you will see they are kindred spirits!

;D

Cheers, looks a good seller

ps. wondered when you'd turn up on cr0  ;D

Someone recently asked where everyone was with their curry cooking.

Yesterday morning I cooked pretty much the best curry ever, my curries have been getting better and better recently due to a revelation Ill talk about below, it was a chicken keema achar (chicken with minced meat and pickle) with the taste.

Over the years Ive now come to the following conclusions:
There isnt a 'secret' ingredient that adds the taste (obviously there are lots of secrets of the trade but IMHO they dont add the taste)
The taste isnt to do with the base, any good base can be used (although I do think the tarka stage adds something so I would always use a base with an end tarka stage)
The taste is entirely to do with technique and maybe the restaurant cookers, more on this below.

For some time we have debated whether the heat of the BIR cooker plays some part, I think in part it probably does. I have been cooking on a 3.3KW wok burner recently, I think the bir burners are around 4.5KW, a standard large burner on a hob is 2.5KW

The technique Im talking about is the initial frying of the garlic, spices etc, I firmly believe it is this stage that produces the taste.


What I have been doing recently for the first stage in cooking a main meal is the following:

• Heat a good quantity of oil on maximum on my 3.3KW burner, heat is kept at maximum until the first lot of base goes in
• 
  Add the garlic/ginger paste and give it a good stir round, at this point flames shoot all around the pan but not into it, in a BIR at this point the whole pan tends to end up in flames. Cook this until the garlic ginger goes a shade of light brown
• 
  Now quickly add tomato paste (im currently using half concentrated tomato puree and half ketchup), spice mixture, salt and chilli. I now cook this mixture for about 4 minutes, its a really long time and I believe this is the key to the taste.
• 
  If I need to I add a little water to stop it catching and you must contiually stir and shake the pan to avoid the spices burning, I tend to add fenugreek leaves after about a minute. Then I add coriander, pre cooked onions and main ingredient and after a minute or so start adding the base.
  

So in summary fry the spices on maximum for ages to release that flavour but add liquid to prevent catching  ;D

I also tend to use reclaimed oil, either from the base or main meals, also for the achar I used some oil from a huge tub of pataks lime pickle

Quote from: Fat Les on June 22, 2006, 04:16 AM
(you know, rich, savoury and dare I say it....."smokey".....and so very, very tasty!)?  

I think that description very accurately (for me anyway) describes the BIR taste we are all trying to emulate, mushroom bhaji or otherwise!  ;D

Hi Les,

Oscar's post was slightly deragatory about the purpose of this forum, hence my rather curt reply.

Also I felt the clear purpose of this forum needed to be stated, if someone is purely interested in authentic Indian cooking then they wont get any joy out of this forum.

cheers

You will find the odd recipe here of those quantities, many moons ago I got the exact recipe of the base from my local takeaway (35 onions!)

Indeed, the driving goal of this forum is to reproduce BIR food. It is 95% focused on that aim, all else is secondary.

You're on the wrong forum mate  ;D

Ive watched it a couple of times, one was poor, one was very good (BIR chef in action and being interviewed, admittedly in poor english)