The Ebook title is;    'The Secret to 'That Takeaway Curry Taste.'

I think your a week or two too late Julian 

Quote from: George on February 19, 2012, 12:50 PM

Quote from: emin-j on February 19, 2012, 11:51 AM
I watched my curry made at my favourite T/A and was stood next to the chef but there was no ultra high heat just a slow boat method and the curry was delicious.

If that's right - and I suspect it may be - then doesn't it rather invalidate the grand claims that the Az lesson was sort of like the major forum breakthrough of all time? If you take the importance claimed for ultra high heat singing away, then what's new? Don't get me wrong - those lessons looked like jolly good fun at a price, and Az strikes me as a great bloke. But where will this forum be in six months time? Will information coming out of Zaal restaurant still be seen as 'best ever' or will it co-exist alongside other great contributions including the Kushi Balti book, and be largely forgotten?

George, I think as Whandsy has said it's the cooking of the spices to the ultimate level without burning is what is important, whether this is done on high heat and in a short time or medium heat over a longer period of time as long as you reach this 'singeing' level.
I believe the Zaal lessons have highlighted the importance of this 'singeing' technique as being a major step forward in the search for 'the taste' but if I'm honest I do wonder how much using veg ghee contributes to 'the taste' 

OK thanks'Chewy  ;)It must be that my large ring burns much hotter than yours 
No way could I leave the frying pan and mixture on max for 60 seconds without burning a hole in the bottom of the pan  will turn my hearing aid up mate and have another look at the vid 

CH well done for finally reaching your Holy Grail  ;D
A couple of questions mate,do you think using veg ghee had anything to do with achieving 'the taste' and do you think you could repeat this again using veg oil 

Quote from: Whandsy on February 19, 2012, 11:24 AM
Not wanting to take the thread away from The vindaloo but is it possible there are 2 ways of singeing?

1 high heat (hot and quick)
2 lower heat (slow longer frying)

What does anybody else think? Looking at chewy's jalfrezi video the spices and tom puree are cooked for quite a long time on a noticeably smaller heat!!

W

I think AZ did say to the guys you could create the same at home but would take a little longer,this says to me that he knows that most of us don't have monster burners like the T/A but can still produce the goods on a domestic cooker,also I watched my curry made at my favourite T/A and was stood next to the chef but there was no ultra high heat just a slow boat method and the curry was delicious.

Quote from: JerryM on February 19, 2012, 10:38 AM
Solarsplace,

i can relate easily to the "singe" when some liquid is present ie the water in the tom paste in the phall video. i know there is a decent gap before burn to get consistent result.

if the water is taken out ie frying only spice in oil ie in the vindaloo video the time between toffee and burn is very short.

assuming this is a critical step it's going to take some mastering. i spent 3 months dry hot frying and in the end gave up. i don't know of any "sign" from the pan either visual or smell which would help. i guess you have to rely purely on judgement of time.

Jerry,Don't know if this helps but I noticed a little bit of smoke coming from the frying pan at my first attempt at 'singeing' last night and that to me was a sign things were getting pretty hot ! I have burned spices a few times and this leads to a really dark and bitter tasting curry  At the first sign of smoke I quickly spooned in 3tbs of thinned tomato puree plus a ladle of base to quench the spices,I didn't quite get the flavour I was hoping for but curry was very nice all the same 

Quote from: George on February 19, 2012, 10:34 AM

Quote from: natterjak on February 19, 2012, 06:33 AM
I choose not to use veg ghee and will accept that it might mean my home cooked curries differ slightly from one cooked with veg ghee, but i anticipate it will be a subtle difference and not a "show stopper".

Why don't you use vegetable ghee? I suggest the only way to check out Az's recipes, to see if they can be recreated at home with as good a flavour as at the restaurant (if indeed you were bowled over with the flavour, when you sat down to eat last Sunday), is to use ALL the same ingredients that Az used. Vegetable ghee may be rather unhealthy but does it stop any of us eating out at BIRs or ordering take-aways? If you can recreate Az type results three or four times, using vegetable ghee, then it would be logical to alter the oil/fat type, only then, to see what a difference it makes.

For once I agree with George 

Chewy, great video and the curry looks lush  You mention 'singeing' in your post but I don't see any 'singeing' in the video.It's only since the visit to Zaal by some of the guys that has brought about the importance of this 'singeing' and you did mention it some time ago but you don't seem to be cooking hot enough to create the 'singeing' what do you think Chewy ? I am only trying to establish when this 'singeing' takes place 

ELW, Just to clarify, your best BIR effort was to fry G/G then add spice mix and fry on high heat then add thinned tomato paste then base,is this correct ? Or did you add spice mix and tomato at the same time ?

Here's my madras effort for tonight,didn't use veg ghee in the base plus added 400ml of veg oil and fresh coriander but did add the  spiced water.
Made my own garam masala and used it in AZ's spice mix.



base ready to start boiling, spiced water alongside.



spices for garam masala,heated in frying pan and then ground in spice/coffee grinder.



home made garam masala  ;D



finished curry  ( there is more than one piece of chicken in there  ;D)

The result -
I cranked up the heat far more than I usually do and the 'singeing' bit was a bit manic  but I think I managed it first time  I did notice a hint of smoke starting to appear from the pan so guessed that'l do and hastily got the watered down tomato paste and a ladle of base in pretty damn quick 
I kept the heat up followed with the pre cooked chicken and more base then continued to reduce down.
The two curry's I made tonight were completed in half the time I would normally take and can understand how T/A's can turn it out so quick 
How good was it ? Very nice ,was it the best curry I have made ? not quite but very close and close enough to any BIR around here to continue with the 'singeing' technique and the aroma around the house is wonderful.
Overall very pleased