Hi Ben and welcome to the forum 

You've beat me to it - by that I mean I bought a Sous Vide Magic controller and a cheap rice cooker to use as the water bath about a month ago. I was hoping to adopt the technique for lamb or chicken in BIR food.
I've read so many times that raw fresh garlic can overpower the food after a long cook in the plastic bag but it sounds like you didn't have that problem?

So far I've done:

Pork belly for 24 hours, very nice. Can't rememer the temp I used.
Pork Chops at 62 degrees - a little dry and rubbery.
Rump steak at 60, was a little dry so next time I'll try 55.
Lamb neck fillet, 70 degrees for 48 hours. Wow that was tender!
Chicken breast at 62 degrees. This turns out great but a few red spots here and there.

I hope to post some of my experiments over the next few months with pre-cooked chicken and lamb in a BIR context.

Cheers,

Paul

Hi Stonecut, I guess you are talking about the Patak pastes. You don't see many recipes here at cr0 for main curry dishes using any form of pastes except I guess the red sauce made for chicken tikka masala curries.

Also most of the tikka/tandoori and sheek kebab recipes do include Patak pastes.

Some exceptions come from the very good recipes provided by Cory Ander. He has posted both tikka/tandoori and sheek kebab recipes that don't use any ready-made pastes, and these recipes are excellent. I think there is a CTM recipe from Cory Ander that doesn't use any pastes.

There is also a tandoori recipe from the F-word program that uses no ready made pastes. The restaurant name was the Lasan I think. If you are interested but can't find these recipes I'll post the links for you.

Cheers,

Paul

Hi Tommy, from memory there is some methi leaf powder in CA's base.
I wouldn't substitute the ground seeds for the ground leaves, I would just leave it out.

Normally I wouldn't put any methi in a base sauce and prefer to add it to the dishes if I want it in there.

Cheers,

Paul

Hi Colin,

A pistachio kulfi is a superb desert IMO.
It is a type of Indian ice cream.

Usually served as a green upside down cone-shaped thing, a bit like a volcano to look at.

There are plenty of recipes out there but I suspect the BIRs buy them ready made.

Cheers,

Paul

Hi Colin,

Really pleased it worked out well for you. I'll have to try neck of lamb myself sometime.
When I do a lamb curry I've usually used leg of lamb which is probably too good a cut for a curry and it is expensive.

Cheers,

Paul

Hi Paul, I appreciate you sending the link but a few odd things about the jalfrezi video:

1 As already noted the use of non-stick pans with a metal spoon. This will eventually mean the non-stick coating ends up in the food. As far as I know non-stick is not used in professional kitchens. Bare aluminium is far more common.

2 The use of Chinese wok burners which forces you to use a wok rather than ali or iron pan.

3 How long it would have taken him to cook this meal for anybody waiting in the restaurant.

4 A teaspoon of salt is about 6 grams - seems excessive to me.

It just doesn't look right to me.

Cheers,

Paul

Hi Colin, how long did you cook it for and what cut of lamb did you use?

During cooking the lamb will lose some fluid as it cooks and this will have made the base sauce thinner.
In fact sometimes you can produce lamb that is tender but a little dry so you need to check the lamb periodically.

The base mixed with lamb juices should taste nicely of lamb so I would use it in the lamb curry.
Yes you could reduce this liquid so your curry doesn't go too runny.

Cheers,

Paul

All looks good to me CA. What is your verdict on the CBM Little India base?

Cheers,

Paul

Hi prawnsalad,

Thanks for taking the time to post about your experience.
I really must pull my finger out and get curry making again. I haven't cooked a curry for about a month now.
Maybe tomorrow I'll start a new base.

Cheers,

Paul

Hi Phil, I was expecting that to be honest and it took 3 weeks to arrive. They didn't get me for any duty but it was labelled as worth only 59 dollars when in fact it cost me more like 160 dollars.

So far chicken breasts and belly of pork turned out great but the pork chops and steaks I need to work at.

Cheers,

Paul