Quote from: Cory Ander on November 30, 2006, 04:06 PM

Quote from: Chilli Prawn on November 30, 2006, 02:29 PM
....would work very well for the home cook

Are you perhaps suggesting that there is there a difference between the cooking sequence used by British Indian Restaurants and that for home cooking then CP?  If so, perhaps you would care to elaborate please?

Yes very interesting Cory, we could have fun with a few posts ;D 

In answer to your query, there are specific actions in the cooking process that must be done in order when you are bulk/fast cooking.  I am not sure that water plays a part in the mixing with spices and in the final prep, except for deglazing and maybe thinning the sauce IMHO.  But then Birs like ourselves here have various preferred methods & process. 

When I do take-away stuff I use the methods I was taught as follows (not a lot different to yours I must say).  Heat oil in a pan to very high heat until smoking, add the precooked meat and all the base (4.5 inch ladle).  Sear the lot together by rubbing the base into the pan with the back of a chefs serving spoon and then scrape it off - keep doing this.  Add other ingredients as needed.  Cook them out adjust sauce for consistency (water is an option) and finish with GM.  Put into serving dish to rest, and then Garnish if required as you serve.  Should take around 5 minutes on average.  This will be described in more detail in the New Year when I will have a little more time.  I have already posted something on this line in the UCB thread also.

Hope this helps Cory..

CP

Yes most frustrating Nair.  Would it not be infuriating if it turned out he just used the catering packs of Knorr curry base  with a little tarting up.  Get in there mate and sort him out or we will send the Dark Lord and his Apprentices (or is it Apprentici) in to do a job on him.

Good luck
CP

Not in the base.  But yes in the recipes especially Madras & Vindaloo where they are essential BIR ingredients.  There are many comments/suggestions throughout the Forum about this.  I woul not suggest using them in the preparation of the base though for two good reasons:  Their flavours are too strong, and they stick very easily in a slow cook.

Hope this helps
CP

Ah yes!  The old Kronenburg syndrome  :  I have suffered from that also (in the past).  Welcome spliffy to the dark dark madhouse.

CP

Yes Cory points taken and they are correct, depends where you are coming from and what is an acceptable risk.  As a professional I have to be careful what I say in my posts so that is why it comes across a bit anal; I can't be seen to be giving advice that is at loggerheads with what the Health authorities are saying.

On the growing conditions point, there is concern about where rice is grown and under what conditions.  Sure, it is never the perfect place, but I have heard there is concenrn that there may be other impurities creeping into the food chain.  Yes reheating and the storage of rice is still the major concern as you say. Bacilleusereus is always present to a lesser or greater degree, but its danger arises from its rapid growth potential after the rice has been cooked and cooled and then re-heated.  As I have said elswhere BIRs and all other food retailers are only allowed to store their rice warm after cooking for 4 hours, then it must be chilled and frozen, or chilled and reheated by portion (microwave).  Another important factor is it is not destroyed by heat like other bugs.  The outbreaks of food poisoning from Chinese and Indian restaurants were often just put down to the quality of food and poor hygiene; however it now appears that most of it (and still does) comes from bad rice management.

BIRs and rice? Most I have visited or mad enquiries to all seem to use middle of the road rice, but not cheap rice.  I think bog standard Tilda is the benchmark.  But I concur that may well have changed since the BIRs have more competition these days and need to cut costs.

I can't find where I posted the original stuff at the moment, I do remember it did cause a stir then :  It may well have been removed because of the other comments that appeared later.  I also posted links to the Food Standards Agency and Health & Hygiene sites.  If I have some time maybe I can put something in hints and tips with your good comments from the unofficial point of view.

Must go

CP

You are right Cory  :-[ (as bloody usual  ;D ;D )  I was in a hurry when I wrote it and did not re-read it afterwards.  I will put my teeth in and say it again :

We have all had problems with putting together a final conclusion to something, e.g. recipe, because the threads on a subject get very long and often digress  :-[.  In addition because with have collected lots of information about methods, processes, and ingredients, this information was also getting lost in the fog.

So we decided that we would have specific areas where the subject when finished, collated, and tidied up could be placed, like a reference library. 

We have a Hints & Tips section for everything that is not a Recipe.

We have a British Indian Restaurant Recipes section for all (non authentic) recipes a la High St outlet. The latter also has a section called the Index. 

The way this should work is that when a recipe is posted, lots of peeps will contribute, argue, try out, and feed back their results, which will make the thread long and complex.  So when you think the subject topic is exhausted, you collate all the information and post the final recipe to the Index.

Hints and Tips is similar except that when you post the final collation you ask Admin to delete all the previous trivia and superfluous stuff.

Forget what I said about posting initially to 'Lets Talk Curry', I think I was having a senior chilli moment  :-[

Hope this clears things up, and thanks Cory my friend for pointing out the crap!  No offence taken as always.  Maybe Stew should put something like this in the Guidelines (or maybe he has but I haven't the time to look now)  ;D ;D

Soryy KP for all this, but thats what happens now and agin in this lovely madhouse.

CP

So

Welcome Dale to the madhouse .  Maybe you can get the recipe for curried Yorkshire puddings then :

CP

I am not sure if you have seen recent comments in the press by various Trading Standards people; but there is great concern about the cheap Basmati rice appearing in this country.  I have already posted comments about this subject elswhere at an earlier point, but briefly the cheap brands are being mixed with other types of rice and reject stuff, also the growing conditions may be somewhat undesirable (sewerage water etc).  So as ever you makes your own choice an live with it.  Just remember Rice is one of the most dangerous (even lethal) foodstuffs we eat, so my advice (professional) is buy the best.  Another point: did you know that if you buy good quality rice and store it for aboyt 2 years or so in a dark dry place, you will have the finest rice you have ever eaten?  The Asians do and they trade with it!

Happy (safe) cooking

Hi KP,  We have created fixed areas called Recipes Index and hints and tips .  The idea being that we develop a theme, e.g. a recipe, or a 'how to' and then plonk it in the Recipes index, or hints and tips as appropriate.  So if it is your input on processes or content not recipes then maybe you should start it off in 'Lets Talk Curry'. The latter would probably be better as you can be sure that the thread will explode with questions and feedback for a while; then when it is developed and stable you can post the outcome in Hints & Tips.  The idea behind this is it becomes a reference area so that Newbies and Oldies et al do not have to go through complex searches.  IMHO of course ;D

CP

See your PM  :-X

CP