Not sure it helps you much mick, but as background info Ali from the Viceroy talks about cookers in this video;

http://youtu.be/kX2AJka89sQ

In fact he's the kind of helpful chap who would probably give you the benefit of his knowledge if you emailed him explaining your dilemma. It's a shame you can't source locally but I'm sure you exhausted that option before considering shipping something half way round the world.

Quote from: curryhell on July 15, 2013, 10:12 PM
Nice work Chris.  A memorable day and a turning point for me

I quite agree. Totally worthwhile.

Updated video of the masala sauce we cooked on this visit is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loFNcc7b0Sc

I've updated the original video of this recipe to include both Solar's and my footage and between the two of us we managed to catch just about all of it. Hope that helps out anyone who tries to make this in future:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loFNcc7b0Sc

Yes, I'm not sure they make them like that any more.

Some questions in case I'm misinterpreting the video...

Is total cooking time really 6hrs+? (Caption "cook for 2 hrs" comes up three times, so I assume each 2 hour cook is sequential, or is some of this just repetition of the caption and total cooking time is 2hrs or 4hrs?)

At 1:40 the caption doesn't mention coriander powder but the commentary does.

Ditto. I think Stein is more in touch with the kind of food people actually want to eat compared to some TV chefs who are all style and no substance.  As he said on the show, maybe this is why he never got a Michelin star but for me I'd rather have a good plate full of home style grub than and exclusive cordon bleu nonsense dish.

I caught up on the whole series to date via iplayer app on the ipad and it's very entertaining stuff. Somewhat hazardous to the diet though as it makes me hungry watching it.  Was interested to hear the director (David Pritchard) is the same guy who used to do floyd's shows. Certainly a similar style apparent in this series which is a good thing.

Nb recipes from the series are here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/search?programmes%5B%5D=b033rhzh

Quote from: timeless on July 07, 2013, 05:44 PM
Also had this though i think it was from the rice

Rice will tend to draw water out of a defective base due to capillary action, but the problem is still the base - the veggies in the base are not soft enough to break up into small enough pieces to hold the water around them and instead act as a mesh through which the water drains out. Cooking the onions twice of three times as long and thoroughly blending is the fix.

As usual on forums you'll get as many answers as people who post, so it's hard to see the wood for the trees. But trust me, this is caused by not cooking the onions in the base long enough / hard enough and/or not blending the base sufficiently. The particles of vegetable fibre in your base aren't small enough so the water drains out of them.

Try again and cook the base long enough to be able to put the handle of a spoon thru the onions (fully soft) and blend for longer than you think is necessary. That will fix your problem. It will be much longer than the 30 mins which is mentioned (quite misleadingly) in Abdul's book. I would suggest 1hr 15 to 1 hr 30 mins.

You'll need some spare liquid in there to account for the steam lost in pressure cooking but presumably you're used to using a PC? It's not like a slow cooker recirculating the liquid with no losses.