Quote from: Secret Santa on June 13, 2020, 04:20 PM

Quote from: chonk on June 13, 2020, 12:16 PM* In most of the videos I've seen, the chefs use base gravy plus red gravy plus sometimes something that some chefs call "onion sauce" (instead of "onion gravy"), which I suspect to be onion-tomato-paste.

I think you're talking about the three pot method which is generally not used in BIR (i.e.UK restaurants). The three pot method uses a tomato sauce, an onion sauce, and a white, nut sauce and is used in actual Indian restaurants as opposed to Bangladeshi etc. that are the majority of UK based curry houses. I know it's used in Australia and the US Indian restaurants. If you have seen a red sauce in a BIR then it's probably the masala sauce which is sort of a tomato sauce, I suppose, but is for dishes like chicken tikka masala, or more likely just diluted down tomato puree.

Yes, exactly - although I really am talking about the UK too. I tend to believe that the punjabi places mimic the indian restaurant and hotel method. Here are three videos of british establishments:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Seg3Rmts7Yo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA_l_rHS2FQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaWw7_JNH1A

Was this discussed on the board already?

Found this recipe in some old indian cookbook (The Indian Cookery Book from circa 1900).

It says: "Put some bruised fresh-gathered mint-leaves into a large tankard, and pour over them a bottle of beer well iced, and a soda-water bottle of sparkling lemonade, also well iced; or use bottled mint-juice if the beer and lemonade have not been iced, and stir in a quarter of a pound of crushed ice."

Will try this soon, using either some Kingfisher or Namaste beer. Pretty sure I have some recipe for indian lemonade somewhere too.

Beer plus lemonade is quite popular in Germany (especially in the warmer months) and called "Radler".

The grilling season started, so here's a recipe which goes exceptionally well with the sour cream dip.

Glazed baby potatoes - originally published in "The Indian Family Kitchen"

600g new potatoes, pre-boiled, halved if large
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 dried red chili
2 tablespoons Mango chutney (I prefer the smooth type for this)
2 tablespoons oil
a few rosemary sprigs
good pinch of sea salt, plus bit for sprinkling

Roughly coarse the cumin and coriander seeds and chili with your pestle and mortar. Mix with the other ingredients to make the glaze. Rub/brush the glaze over the potatoes, wrap in foil and bake on the grill (with closed lid) or in the oven for about 30minutes.

Enjoy!

I've looked into Syeds material and while I'm skeptical about using tomato paste for my specific needs, namely re-creating my favourite punjabi restaurant dishes*, I have no doubt that this will produce tasty curries. Cooking up your tomato puree with ginger-garlic is something that quite few restaurants do and worth trying out.

* In most of the videos I've seen, the chefs use base gravy plus red gravy plus sometimes something that some chefs call "onion sauce" (instead of "onion gravy"), which I suspect to be onion-tomato-paste.

Many thanks!

I understand. It's true, the Vandevi brand lists riceflour, wheatflour, gum arabicum and turmeric - besides actual hing. I honestly only taste the hing. But I have no doubt that the pure resin is preferable. Where do you order yours from, Phil?

Good point, but what exactly makes specifically (small amounts of) raw turmeric problematic?

Yes, space efficiency is surely to be considered, but bit perplexed about the thought of substituting, in the sense of pure equivalency. In my experience, this works only to some extent. I mixed up sauces out of paste plus water but taste and texture are different.

Heard about the Heinz story. Sounds like a myth to me but somehow I want to believe it!

Here are two of my favourite recipes for the spiceblend Chaat Masala. Both give equally good results. The second one being more mellow. Both recipes won't produce massive amounts, which is a plus for me.

Chaat Number 1 - originally published in "Ginger and Ganesh"

1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1-2 dried red chilies
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 tablespoon amchoor
1 tablespoon black salt
1 teaspoon red chili powder
1 pinch hing powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Dry-roast the whole spices in a pan, blend and mix with the powdered spices.

Chaat Number 2 - originally published in "Lord Krishna's Cuisine"

2 tablespoons cumin seeds
1/2 tablespoon fennel seeds
1 tablespoon garam masala (powder)
1 tablespoon amchoor
1 tablespoon black salt
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon hing powder
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Dry-roast the cumin and fennel feeds, blend and combine with the powdered spices. The recipe mentions that the amount of Hing only applies to the yellow Cobra brand and should be reduced by three fourth for other brands. I can say that Vandevi works fine too.

Hope you enjoy!

Don't want to hijack this thread but I'm curious: BIRs don't exclusively use tomato paste, do they? There are dishes like butterchicken or tikka masala, where you basically have to use something like passata or maybe even some tomato-onion-gravy? But I'm aware that this mostly concerns punjabi dishes.

I've seen places that keep a pot of their own passata on the stove, previously cooked up with some ginger and garlic, but I'm not convinced that adding it warm will make much difference.