Quote from: Onion B on September 18, 2009, 11:11 AM
Hi (moderated) mel moo,

I am also male, handsome with all my own hair and teeth, is this just coincidence.

OB

I knew a girl once who had no boobs at the front but one on her back. She was hopeless in bed but great to dance with  ;D

Does this count?

Quote from: JerryM on September 18, 2009, 07:23 AM
had real good evening last night on the chicken.

i still don't think i've got it tasting as good as it could though.

i definitely got it as flat as possible and the cooking was very good compared with last time.

this time i over did the cooking leaving 40 mins on low for both sides. the bone meat was just about but the breast was still ok but not as good as it can be.

because the 80 mins was too long (for the breast meat) i could not turn up the heat for the last 15mins to crisp up the skin.

i'm thinking next time to either part cook in the oven and then bbq for last 30 mins or deep score the legs to help them cooker quicker.

on the marinade taste i used what i thought was a lot of chillies (2 tbsp when whole). i think i'll up it next time to say 2tbsp chopped/cut up.

i also forgot to add the oregano (an important ingredient for me) - could this be added into the marinade up front to simplify things.

this dish is tantalisingly close to being perfect. i'm going to have to have another go.

any thoughts 976bar will be much appreciated.

Hi Jerry,

When I did mine last week, I sealed it on the coals, then I cooked it in the oven, then finished it off on the coals again to crisp the skin, just remember to save a little of the marinade to baste with when back on the coals again.

With regards to the Oregano, I didn't put it in the marinade when I first made it, but added it to the marinade just prior to adding it to the chicken. I think if it were to be added to the marinade when making the marinade, it might lose its flavour some.

Apart from that it looks really good

I've always been told/advised/read that a Dhansak is a Hot, Sweet and Sour dish with lentils, and having had quite a few in my time I would definitely go along with that description.....

On Tuesday evening, I made my kids one of my Chicken Kashmiri Masalas. Pretty mild, very sweet (I use natural palm sugar instead of the packet stuff) I've posted the recipe on here, and there was quite bit left, which went back into the fridge.

Tonight I got home and thought, what can I do with this? So............ I got some reclaimed oil out and heated a pan. I put about 2 tbsp in and added probably around 1-2 home grown green chillies from the freezer which I had diced up and just froze in a bag, so just broke some off plus 1 tsp Kashmiri Chilli powder.

I cooked this for around 30 seconds then added about 10 pieces of the Chicken Kashmiri Masala.

When it was getting quite warm I added a pinch of Methi and around 2-3 tbsp plain greek yogurt, plus about a quarter of a freshly squeezed lemon.

I bought all this to a high heat and then noticed the oil starting to seperate, so I considered this done and plated it up with just some boiled rice and a bit of naan bread.

The taste was incredibly like a Dhansak without the lentils. It was Hot, it was Sweet and it was Sour. I know it was a pinkish colour, and usually Dhansak is a yellow/straw colour, but never the less it was extremely good.

I am quite sure this probably won't be of a BIR nature, but I am going to explore this further with lentils and and the right colouring and see what I can make of it......

I'll let you know how I get on....

Quote from: JerryM on September 17, 2009, 08:24 AM
it funny how our tastes are so different - crunching on a cooked cardamom surrounded by a little curry is what dreams are made of for me.

976bar,

ps have u tried the yogurt before. i'm interested as i used for the 1st time in chriswg's curry in a hurry and thought i might just have something. i've not managed to use it myself since but have it on the list to try.

Hi Jerry,

I haven't used it in a Madras before but yes with other dishes. I found it added depth to the basic sauce I made. I'll certainly try it again and experiment.

P.S. So today is the big today for the Piri Piri eh? 

Quote from: chriswg on September 16, 2009, 04:26 PM
Okay so the onions had gone nice and soft over the 4 hours and were easy to form into balls or disks to cook. I'm still stuck with the same problem of the onions not really being cooked through. The texture is almost rubbery but that is probably down to the long cook time at a low heat.

Someone mentioned the turmeric burns very quickly, is that true of other spices like ground coriander and garam masala? For these ones I used 1 large onion with 1 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 2 tsps ground coriander, 1 tsp paprika, 2 tsps madras curry powder and 1/2 tsp chilli powder. Could adding too much spice be the reason they cook and go dark so quickly? Is this a classic case of less is more?

Hi Chris,

ALL powdered spices will burn very quickly if cooked on a too higher heat for too long.

I have made bhajis before as in the recipe I posted from my Indian cookery course. If you take a look at this, you need to either grate or shred the vegetables finely, so that they cook more quickly along with the spice and "batter" mixture.

Maybe, sticking them in a hot oven for a while prior to deep frying would be an answer if you made the bhajis larger than say 5cm diameter.

I don't think this is a science here, whether it be Indian cooking or anything else, if you make a ball out of something and want to cook it thoroughly, it needs time on a lower heat, otherwise the outer will be done and the inner raw or (rawish).....

Maybe try the other way round, cook them in the oil to crisp the outside, then finish off in a hot oven for the heat to penetrate deeper inside and cook thoroughly......

But either way, the vegetables or if only onions should be slightly crisp and not cooked all the way through for that wonderful crunch texture when biting into them....

I hope this helps..

Quote from: chriswg on September 16, 2009, 11:33 AM
Looks nice!

Do you leave the cardamoms and cloves in and eat them, or do you fish them out? For me there is nothing worse than munching down on a whole clove in Pilau rice.

Your absolutely right Chris, I fish them out, I hate that too, albeit I forgot one of the cardamoms last night and crunched on it. The kids said I had a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp!!

Last night I wanted a Chicken Madras but had no base sauce to hand so I improvised with some basic ingredients to form a quick base sauce. This was delicious.

Ingredients
2-3 Chicken Breasts cut into cubes
3 tbsp oil
1 Onion finely chopped
1 tsp Ginger grated
1 tsp Garlic finely chopped
3 tomatoes cut into quarters
2 fresh green finger chillies finely sliced
2-3 tbsp plain yogurt
2 tsp red chilli powder (Deghi Mirch) (add more if you like it hotter)
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp tomato puree
Pinch Methi (Fenugreek Leaves)
Good squeeze of Lemon Juice
1 tsp turmeric

Whole Garam Masala:
3 green cardamoms slightly cracked
6 black peppercorns
4 cloves
1 tsp cumin seeds

Heat some oil in a pan and add the turmeric. Fry gently for 30 seconds add the chicken and brown the meat on all sides then remove to a dish.

Boil the onions in some water until soft. Remove from the water and drain.

Base sauce:
Blend the yogurt, tomatoes and cooked onions to form a sauce, add a little water if too thick.

Heat the oil in a pan and add the garlic, ginger and green chillis and fry gently for 1 minute or until the garlic and ginger take on a slightly golden colour but not brown.

Add the whole Garam masala - Cardamoms, Peppercorns, Cloves and Cumin seeds and fry gently for about 1 minute.

Add the Red chilli powder, Coriander powder and Tomato puree and fry gently for around 30 seconds

Add the base sauce and fry for 5-6 minutes, add water to the consistency you require.

Add the Methi and Lemon juice and the Chicken and cook until the Chicken is done.

I went to an exhibition at Earls Court yesterday and came out feeling rather peckish, so went for the usual.

My friend and I went to the New Asia Ltd, 7 Hogarth Place, London S.W.5.

My friend ordered a Chicken Jalfrezi, I ordered a Chicken Madras. We had Pilao Rice, Bombay Aloo and a Keema Naan.

All three dishes, the Jalfrezi, Madras and Bombay Aloo were in the same sauce, a very reddish dark brown, no BIR style here.... the jalfrezi seemed to only be hotter by the use of more Chillis, there were only 4 halves of potato in the aloo and the keema naan was so bland we might as well have had a plain naan bread.

Despite us both having a bit of tummy trouble last night, I would strongly recommend that you avoid this place like the plague!!!

I am sure Earls Court can do much better than this............

Quote from: lagathy on September 15, 2009, 03:36 PM
Oh dear...very sad news indeed ...i remember reading(dont know where) how Floyd was more or less living rough in his last few years..god knows how this came to happen,he was obviously in financial ruin and presumably mental distress too.
  I'll miss his(and Clive the camera man's) banter.

The guy was a legend. I met him once. One of my best friends used to be a chef at the Dorchester in Park Lane and knew him. Many years ago a group of us went for a drink with him. I can't say I've ever met a more charming guy in my life and he had such a passion for food and certainly turned the food industry around to what it is today.

I take my hat off to that guy.......he will be sadly missed......

Quote from: chanser on September 15, 2009, 12:22 PM
I've made this base a couple of times now.

I've made a few madras, Ceylon, Dopiaza (I also made a passanda which was absoloutely fine).

All of these were fantastic and not too tomatoey.

I used an economy range of tomatos that cost 17p.

All my curries were significantly better than anyting I've made before, especially the Ceylon.

I may well try some of the other bases on the site at some point but I'm in no rush.  This base is spot on for me.  It certainly suits my tastes and I'm looking forward to my next lot of curries.

I have to admit Chanser, this base works best for me too, having tried a few others.