Quote from: Secret Santa on August 14, 2023, 10:46 AM
A tip on the cooking to get it [the King Be]bab meat] just right (in my opinon): put a clump of the meat on a couple of folded paper towels on a plate and microwave at max for about 30 seconds. All you're doing here is trying to defrost the clump to separate the individual strips of meat. So then separate the strips and spread them out all over the paper towel. Then microwave at maximum again for no longer than 1 minute (check at 30 seconds). This stuff is already cooked so you're only aiming to heat it up sufficiently. If you overcook it it'll shrivel and lose some of its flavour.

Microwave ovens are notoriously bad for drying out food — I am minded to invest in some Iceland King Kebab meat and try re-heating it under the Tepro steak grill on minimum power ...
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** Phil.

Cellophane-style packet, Onions (actually BOPP — bi-axially oriented polypropylene).  To be honest, I've never been tempted by those that come in a pot ...
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** Phil.

I have tried a number of allegedly "hot" instant noodles over the years, none of which did much for me, but today I finally hit gold — "Yumsu chilli fire extreme flavour instant noodles".  Just stirring the spice mix into the sesame oil caused the heat to enter my nose, and after eating a single portion I found it necessary to drink half a litre of mango lassi — give them a go, if you are into that sort of thing !
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** Phil.

Quote from: Peripatetic Phil on August 08, 2023, 08:42 PM
Even after adding lime pickle (my standard accompaniment to a lamb dhansak) it just did nothing for me. 

Vastly improved this evening by the addition of a reasonable quantity of thinly sliced red onion sprinkled with fresh coriander, some (raw)  kasoori methi, and two thinly sliced green finger chillies.  A little kala namak but not suffient for the egg aroma to be evident.  Plus the same lime pickle as yesterday.  All the lamb is now gone (and enjoyed, at least this evening), some pulao rice and sag aloo remains for another day ...

Quote from: livo on August 09, 2023, 06:50 AM
but all they needed was a sprinkle of ground Pink Himalayan Rock Salt

I am, and will remain, eternally grateful that I discovered kala namak when I did, and only wish that I had discovered it 50 years earlier.  Yes, it makes a great addition to many a curry, but what it does to egg mayonnaise is out of this world ...
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** Phil.

It is now some time since I last cooked a curry (sufficiently long, in fact, that I no longer remember when I last did so), but it is not that which inspires my question.  Rather, it is something that I experienced over the last two or three days.  On Sunday I played a bowls match in Newquay (Cornwall) and, as I always do when I am in Newquay, I later dined at Zaman's restaurant.  It is, as far as I am concerned, the best BIR in Cornwall, both food and service being beyond compare.  But after eating my starter (two extremely nice seekh kebabs, served with grilled onions which I wrapped in a chapati to eat), I felt too full to want to start on my main course, so asked the restaurant to pack it up for me to eat later.  I didn't eat it when I arrived home, I didn't eat it yesterday, but I ate it this evening.  It comprised a beautifully fragrant pulao rice, a well-textured sag aloo, and a lamb dhansak that clearly contained at least two different sorts of pulse/lentil.  But I didn't enjoy it (I ate barely one third).  Even after adding lime pickle (my standard accompaniment to a lamb dhansak) it just did nothing for me.  I am therefore beginning to think that I have tired of curries, and now need to find some other staple food on which to exist.  I realise that a BIR forum is perhaps not the best place to ask such a question, but I do wonder whether any current members of CR0 have ever had a similar experience.
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** Phil.

This sounds promising, T63.  I have ordered dhansak (usually lamb, once chicken) several times recently in the hopes of enjoying the real thing once again, but sadly all have turned out to be "our normal curry, but with lentils".  Very depressing.
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** Phil.

Quote from: George on August 01, 2023, 08:41 AM

Quote from: livo on July 31, 2023, 10:21 PM
George, I simply would not even consider eating chicken meat that has been cooked and allowed to sit at 20'C for 9 hours and I don't understand why anyone would even do that. 

I did, last night! According to the NHS and other sources, it can take 48 hours or longer before you get symptoms from food poisoning, so I will let you know. It seems so unlikely to me. Let's say bacteria were starting to develop in the chicken for 9 hours before I put it in the fridge. But 24 hours later I simmered it in a sauce at 100C for 30 mins. The chicken pieces would be thoroughly heated through and I reckon any bacteria would be killed. It also tasted fine.

Well done George — you did exactly what I would have done — used your own judgement.  I routinely leave food in the kitchen overnight having heated it the night before, and whilst I occasionally get rapid-onset food poisoning (scombroid) after eating out, I have never done so after eating my kept-at-ambient-overnight food at home.
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** Phil.

Sigh, near-boneless lamb, boneless chicken — what next, shelless eggs ?!  I have always believed "the nearer the bone, the sweeter the meat", and I am unconvinced that this continues to obtain once the bone has been removed.  Incidentally, I don't know when Kentucky Fried Chicken (or "KFC", as they euphemistically prefer to be known) started offering boneless chicken, but when I ordered a portion yesterday and answered emphatically "with bone, please", the waiter smiled and I asked him "do you not agree that the flavour is better on-the-bone ?" and he replied "Oh yes, but these days most of our customers don't seem to know that ...".

[OT] What exactly is "an easy carve leg of lamb", Livo.  Are the sheep genetically modified to ensure this (presumably desirable) trait ?  I have to confess that using bog-standard non-genetically-modified sheep as my starting point, I have never encountered a "hard to carve leg of lamb" — I wonder if the latter are found only in the Antipodes ...