Hi JeeryM

If your 'chappy' has it ask him for 'brown powder' rather than the stuff that comes in the yellow plastic tubs. The yellow stuff is adulterated with rice flour and other things and has hardly any hing in it, so if you add it to hot oil it just burns, this stuff is best added after the base has gone in IMO.
The 'brown powder' is the real deal and can be added to oil but I can't get it anymore and local shopkeepers clam up if I ask for it which makes me wonder if it went the same way as Bombay Duck and ended up on some list of banned substances, if you ever get to smell it you'll understand why that could well be the case!

Regards
CoR

PS. Well, well, look what google has come up with:-

http://www.theasiancookshop.co.uk/asafoetida-hing-whole-200g-2228-p.asp

compare the ingredient list above with below

http://www.theasiancookshop.co.uk/asafoetida-hing-powder--heeng-1755-p.asp

pity about the p&p.

Quote from: Secret Santa on June 22, 2009, 01:14 PM


PFFFT! Three a day, 365 days, 1095 curries per year. Where's your dedication man?  ;D

Don't forget, at least 4 beers per meal, 12 pints a day = 4380/547.5 pints/gallons per year.... ah happy days.


Cheers CoR

There was a BIR local to me that did lamb passanda which they described as 'marinated in red wine and finished in cream sauce'. Never did try it and they went out of business, must be 20 years ago now, how time flies.

CoR

Here we go, so someone once got ill in Canada does not a health threat make. It does explain why all the commercial stuff has additives and leaves a nasty after taste though. I'm gonna stick to making my own G/G paste and keeping it in the fridge in oil, very often the fear of a thing is worse than the thing itself.
                             

CoR

Quote from: Secret Santa on June 21, 2009, 10:08 AM
I don't know if anyone else has had this experience and I'd be interested to know. When I used to eat plain boiled basmati rice at the BIR (I usually have pilau these days), it always had that very fragrant and unmistakable basmati aroma. This even when they claimed to use Tilda rice, which I personally happen to rate very low on the quality front.

Now, when I cook plain basmati at home, and I've used many brands over the years, I never ever get the same depth of fragrant basmati aroma. Does anyone else have this problem? Is it another BIR secret, i.e. the secret of bringing out the basmati fragrance to the full?

Hi SS

I find the very opposite to be the case on both fronts. When eating out or ordering a T/A I always get plain boiled rice and invariably (especially so recently) they end up fobbing off what is obviously ordinary long grain American patna type rice as basmati. It doesn't seem to matter wether it's an up market style gaff or a sawdust and spittoon place, I can't remember the last time I got pukka basmati from a BIR. I put this down to the way the price has gone over the past year or so.

Tilda is the one brand of readily available rice that I have found to be consistently good over the years. If you look at their website you'll see that they operate a sort of fair trade policy and deal with local farmers co-operatives so ensuring quality and a good return for the growers, instead of just relying on the spot wholesale markets and going for the cheapest product.
How are you cooking the rice? Try using the absorption method with an Asian(cinnamon)leaf and leave it in a (very) low oven, the aroma develops slowly and is amazing.

Regard
CoR   

ps. That Dawn stuff looks really good, never seen it round here, will make some enquiries.

Hi JerryM and SS

Jerry plantain are simply cooking banana and like cooking apples are bitter compared to eating ones, they are also a lot tougher so cook better, they go sweet when cooked. I only mentioned them coz they are popular at my local Asian shops so I thought that's what the BIRs would use but obviously not according to SS, fair enough.
I quite like fruit in (some) curries so if I can get some planain I'll give them a go and let you know how it goes.
SS thanks for the warning re the Pataks, I'll steer clear of any BIR Kashmiri anything in case that's what they've used, can't stand Pataks it always leaves a nasty chemical after taste!

Regards
CoR

Quote from: JerryM on June 19, 2009, 08:18 AM
... i do like my bassar spice mix though but i'd never paid any attention to press of the packaging which i now realise states clearly, "traditional kashmiri curry masala" or curry powder.

the banana fritter came from having biryani. if i flush with dosh i have a biryani with madras curry sauce and banana fritter on the side.

Hi JerryM

If you look at different brands of bassar you'll see some labeled as Kashmiri massala and some as Pakistani. They are all different, quite markedly so in fact, one of my local Asian shops has about six different ones.

Wouldn't the banana in fact more likely be plantain which are better for cooking?

Regards
CoR

Just don't end up in Longsight after dark....


CoR

Hi Paul

That will need constant re-seasoning and could be a sod to clean, very high maintenance and difficult to master IMHO. If you want to go the 'slow boat' way it's much easier to get a non-stick cast iron pan which will hold heat in better then a light weight ali one, but a decent one will set you back at least 30 quid. Ali pans are better suited to the hi-speed 'flame & fireworks' style of cooking, favoured by many of the members here, as they heat up and just as importantly cool down quicker, they are also considerably cheaper which I suggest is the main reason that BIRs use them. Basically you need a pan to suit your style of cooking and I would suggest starting off with the BE preferred 'slo'mo' style, far easier to master, but I reckon there will be plenty who would disagree.

HTH Regards
CoR

Quote from: 976bar on June 17, 2009, 08:33 AM
... then added some coconut milk, as it all started blending well together it also started thickening up quite quickly, so I added more coconut milk and continued to add that until around 3/4 tin.

This gave a wonderful consistency, but it needed more. So I added the chopped coriander and then I drew the pan aside and added 1/2 carton of a small pot of fresh double cream...

One for Weight Watchers then 

Actually it sounds pretty good, keep us posted on how it develops.

Churz
CoR