Santoku first it is, then. Might even get it tonight, if my local Tesco has it in stock. Thanks, UF.

Thanks for this review, UF. I've got 7 tokens saved so far and was going to go for the large chef's knife, followed by the utility knife, depending upon what I thought of the chef's knife.

If I gather enough tokens before the offer ends, I was going to go for the Santoku. I might get that one first now, based on your recommendation.

Is it true the Santoku is better suited to tap chopping and slicing than rock chopping?

Ian
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I'm glad someone's posted about chappatis. I was going to start a thread - I must've missed this one.

When I started making them, before I knew where or how to get chappati flour locally, I used to use a mix of strong bread flours. My best results came with using 2 parts white to 1 part wholemeal, though I went through all sorts of ratios until I settled on that.

I remember seeing the episode of Michael Palin's 'Around the World in 80 Days' where he travels on the dhow, and it showed the ship's cook making chappatis on a tava over a gas burner. I was intrigued at the way the bread puffed up like a pillow on the tava, without being waved over an open flame.

It's a bit of a dark art getting that to happen in my kitchen, and I always feel disappointed when it doesn't, despite the chappatis being perfectly edible. I can remember a time when I could get that to happen on a regular basis, when I was using the bread flour mix. Funnily enough, it's been harder since I started using chappati flour.

I hadn't made them for a while, until I started posting here again. I bought some East End flour and just couldn't get it to puff up, although the flavour of the chappatis was lovely. Recently I bought a bag of Rajah Gold chappati flour, and had a bit of a breakthrough with it.

What I do is to place the raw chappati on the frying pan and just leave it for a few seconds - maybe 10 - before flipping it over, just to seal it. There are no brown spots at this point. Then I leave it for the standard 30 - 45 seconds or so, until the bubbles start to form in the bread. I lift it up to check that some brown blisters are appearing on the underside. and when they do, I flip again.

Then the thing starts to puff in places, and I've found the best way to encourage it is to press very gently with the back of a fish slice in circular motions, pushing the bubbles out until the whole thing puffs up. This can go wrong very easily; if I burst a blister or crack the surface it's game over, in terms of puffage. But when it goes right it looks like this, as it did last night:



... in which case I dance around the kitchen with joy.  When the chappati's cooked it has the brown blisters on one side, but the other side just looks toasted and caramelised, which is how they generally look when I order them from takeaways around here. It doesn't always work that way, but I can usually get them to puff a bit. I have a gas hob, and can ride the heat as it goes along, but I haven't found an 'ideal' setting. It seems to depend upon the mix and, possibly, how much beer I've drunk when I come to cook them.

I generally cook a bunch of them and fold them in quarters, putting them into plastic food bags 2 at a time. I find they keep in the fridge for 2-3 days easily, with a 30-second blast in the microwave restoring them to their soft doughy glory. I've never tried freezing them.

Hi Shyam

Everything you seek is freely available on the site, from basic techniques, tips and sauces through to advanced recipes. There's no need for members to send anything to your email address. Spend a little time reading through the topics here and I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for.

If you want recommendations of where to start, just ask on the forum and the members of the group will try to answer any questions you have.

Welcome to CR0. 

Ian
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Quote from: Salvador Dhali on February 22, 2012, 09:16 PM
I remember someone describing cooking as nothing more than the application of controlled heat to plant and animal matter.

Dear old Keith Floyd, I think, in the introduction of his last cookery book 'A Splash and a Dash', though he might have been quoting someone else. The title says it all, as that's about as precise as the measurements get in the recipes. It was a lot of fun to cook from. 

Quote from: curryhell on February 22, 2012, 10:38 PM
We all have a different cooking environment.  We need to tweak things / timings a little to suit this.  Again, its all about the amount of practice one gets.

It's taken me about three years to get used to the erratic behaviour of my second-hand gas oven, and adapt recipe timings to suit. But the hob never lets me down. I cook my curries on one of the small burners on maximum heat, and can still burn GG puree or spices in seconds if I'm not paying attention. My battered old pan is just so good at heating up quickly and holding heat. I'd be lost without it. 

Thanks for posting this, Gary. It's a good read.  I'll definitely try it but I'm going nowhere near an open mandoline. I've seen the Rick Stein video clip ... 

Looking forward to seeing the pictures. You do need to use the image hosting site linked to by Solarsplace, as the old onboard system is defunct now.

I know what you mean about getting the moisture out of the frozen spinach. I used a potato masher to really squeeze the water out last time I tried making a Saag Bhaji. Then I probably spoiled it by adding a splash of curry base and a squirt of lemon juice.

Cheers

Ian
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Thanks guys.

It's nice to be trying different recipes. I rarely order anything different to a Chicken Tikka Vindaloo from takeaways, so it's hard to know where to start when choosing new recipes to try at home, and how they compare. I need to cook the Dhansak again, and then I'm wondering what to try next ...

Quote from: chewytikka on February 20, 2012, 11:31 AM
Really pleased you gave this one a go, it looks identical in colour and texture and
the sauce looks really light and fresh.

It was a nice contrast to my usual oily curries.  I think I might have fallen in love with the humble lentil. I had about 2 heaped chef's spoons cooked and set aside, and ended up using just over one. I need to bite the bullet and serve this up to a Dhansak-loving friend to see what they think. I might take the lemons out before serving, too, as they keep on 'giving' after the dish is cooked, if you see what I mean. My wedges could maybe have been a bit thinner. I suppose an alternative would be to squeeze the juice in instead, to taste?

But I rarely have such success with new recipes the first time I cook them, so this just shows how good your recipes are, Chewy. Thanks again.

Quote from: curryhell on February 20, 2012, 07:23 AM
I hope you almost burnt them spices ;D

Almost, CH, almost...  ;D

And as I said when I was feeding back on Chewy's Lunchtime Madras recipe, and as you've said in your singeing reports, it don't half bring out the heat in the chilli powder! I used about two thirds of a rounded tsp of Rajah standard, and it turned out to be quite fiery! I can easily back off to about half, or even less, I think, for my chilli-intolerant friends. It would be different if I was using Kashmiri chilli, I'm sure. I must try to get some.

I also need to get some ghee so I can try Chewy's Tarka Dhal - another old favourite of mine. And I'd love a recipe for Prawn Saag. Around here, you can only order it as a main dish, which takes up valuable space in my tummy and money from my wallet which I need for my Chicken Tikka Vindaloo. But if I'm sharing with a friend I usually try to talk them into splitting one with me.

I'd also like to have a go at a Roshney, if and when Chris and the rest of the boys manage to back-engineer a written recipe from the Fleet video and experience. That looks really nice.

Anyway, having cooked 5 curries in 7 days, it's time to give my arteries and my wallet a rest. So it's back to Spag Bol and Mince and Tatties till payday!

Cheers chaps

Ian
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Another cracking recipe, Chewy. Thanks.

I haven't ordered a Dhansak for years, but I have a couple of friends who like it and I'd like to cook for them sometime. Thought I'd better bench-test it first. When I cook for them, though, I don't think I'll be using Tesco 'SmartPrice' prawns, like I did tonight. Says on the bag: "May contain traces of shells". Should say: "May contain traces of prawns".

They weren't actually that bad. I've used better quality prawns before though, in a Madras, and you can tell the difference. But they're so flippin' expensive these days.

I added the pineapple chunks right at the end after cooking, as Chewy suggests, and it worked a treat. I was worried that the dish might not have enough sourness to balance the sugar and pineapple, but this wasn't the case at all. It was a good balance of sweet and sour, and pretty much as I remember from tasting Dhansaks at take-away parties.

Not a dish that I'll be cooking for myself regularly, but a nice change from my usual Vindie or Madras, and a definite inclusion on the menu of the fantasy 'Come Dine With Me' episode I'm planning for my chums, along with the Jalfrezi. I suppose, at some point, I'll have to face up to cooking a CTM and a Korma for that menu, in order to cater for all tastes. I'm not a fan of either. They taste like desserts with chunks of meat in them to me.

Anyhoo, here's a pic of my stab at Chewy's Dhansak. I think I've worked out what the 'macro' setting is for on my camera at last, so for once in my pics, this is a good representation of the colour.

Another good read, CH, and especially useful, I would think, for other members of the forum who use electric hobs and who haven't tried this technique yet. I especially like the part where you explain and describe your own criteria for recognising the 'singeing window'.

And didn't Winnie also say: "We shall curry on to the end, we shall singe in Essex, we shall singe on the gas and the electric hobs, we shall singe with growing confidence and growing vapours in the air"? ;D

Are there any more videos from the Zaal session we can look forward to, guys?

Cheers

Ian
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That's great, Haldi. Thanks.