Quote from: hidden on April 18, 2008, 03:55 AM
Can anyone tell me some nice herbs or spices I could add while frying my onions to make a chicken tikka have a more flavourful taste? Lately I have found that something is missing.

Why are you putting onions in chicken tikka? Sounds odd. Stick to ginger, garlic, spices and yoghurt and you'll be fine

I dont understand why a 'gas' bbq. Surely a charcoal one will always taste better. Provided you dont put the food on too early and there arent firelighters still burning etc. It's going to be more smokey

Work there for a bit, it'll be a good experience anyway. Dont worry about the money as i assume you'd do it for free anyway.
George, the mimimum wage isnt ?6 an hour. I think it's ?3.40 if you're under 18, ?4.80 for under 22s and ?5.52 for over 22s. That said, being an exception to the law is so easy for an employer most ignore it. It's more of a guidline rather than a law.

Quote from: Cory Ander on January 14, 2008, 12:09 AM
To be fair Graeme, we should probably point out that the notice was issued in August 2005.

I presume that this particular issue would have been resolved long ago. 

Yeah i saw that on google too. Pretty much all of the spice companies had to discontinue items it seems.
I think i saw a couple of supreme spices in banglacity, east london. They were only in 5kg sacks. They make cheap table salt and their logo isnt anything to do with india or spices. Could well be another company as i'm only certain the salt was supreme.
Other than that i havent seen it in the rest of the shops, of which there are huge amounts.

Quote from: chinois on October 28, 2007, 02:51 AM
You can buy the iron karai vindaloo has in 'taj stores' in brick lane, london. I recently got a 12" one for ?9. I have used it once for a thai curry but i can already see that it's gonna be v useful. It holds the heat well.

Bangla city supermarket a few doors down has lots of cookware too. They have the same pans a lot of restaurants use. They look like iron and are fairly thin with long handles. They can only cook one portion. They're about 9GBP

Quote from: George on January 08, 2008, 01:56 AM
I agree with you but I covered this by saying that if the recipe doesn't work it's useless. Well, 'useless' is a bit too strong a word, perhaps, but IMHO a recipe needs as much detail as required to allow a layperson to interpret it. Recipes can be tested on people to see if they work in practice. I find that Delia Smith's recipes tend to produce good results.

I'm impressed if you've got very far with any of Heston B's recipes. They are so incredibly complex and long-winded. Which dishes have you tried and how did they come out?

Glad you mentioned delia. I put her in my post but took it out as i felt i was waffling a bit! Her 'how to cook' books should be pretty much necessary reading for keen cooks. Elizabeth david is good too but i've only got one of hers.

I've found i use heston's books more as a learning tool than as recipes bcos as you say they are so time-consuming (and you need expensive ingredients & equipment). I use his tips for separate components of dishes and to learn about cooking methods. I've used tips in curry cooking, bolognese, chinese and all sorts really. He encourages you to use common sense in questioning every aspect of a dish.
I have done his bacon & egg ice cream, mashed potato and margarita pizza recipes. With the pizza i skipped the pre-ferment stage to save 12 hours and it was amazing, equal to the best one i've eaten.

Pretty sure it's just chilli powder as adding fresh chillies changes the taste. IMO this would be better but if a green chilli's used then it becomes too similar to a jalfrezi.
I agree with the depth thing and this is one reason i'll always choose a madras over a vindaloo. As we're cooking ourselves this is an area we can easily be better that a BIR. Using a chilli powder that doesnt contain any other ingredients is a start. Swartz & supermarket brands often contain oregano for instance. Using a blend of powders to get every angle of the chilli taste in the powder is the next level. Heston blumenthal's chilli con carne recipe for example uses a blend of 9. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/chilliconcarne_87368.shtml

Preparing fresh chillies properly is also important. For best taste in my experience you should cut them in half, take out the white bits, seeds and wash the membrane out. Then put them in a glass of hot, v salty water for half an hour. Rinse and then chop up as required.
This makes the chilli taste purer because it takes out most of the harshness that come from the chemical irritants (i think). It also means you can use more chillies (maybe double but that's a guess as i havent used many different varieties) so there will be more taste and not just hotness.

Jalapeno's taste like green peppers not chillies (IMO) so i wouldnt use them.

Quote from: mike travis on May 17, 2007, 05:15 PM
Sorry guys I have been that preoccupied with the shoutbox I forgot to read the posts :-[ I think the dishes I have got are only meant for serving the meal in. After all they were only 2pounds from Asda. Might be worth investing in some decent dishes.

       Thanks again..... ;D

They sound like stainless steel dishes.

In that case they are only decorative. Stainless steel is a terrible conductor of heat and is inconsistant. That is why it was 'pinging' as it was heating unevenly and would have scortched the food had you put any in. Stainless steel should not be used as a cooking medium - a lot of pans are sold in shops in england bcos people believe the marketing. They also look shiny.
As the others said, you need an iron one.

Quote from: George on November 28, 2007, 07:45 PM
I firmly believe that 95% of a successful finished dish can be encapsulated in a good written recipe. Anyone who knows about the fundamentals of cooking can follow a recipe, like musicians can read music. Therefore if a recipe does not work it's probably the case that the recipe is useless.

In theory this should be correct but the problem i have come across with the vast majority of recipes (from reputable chefs as well as randoms) is that they are not detailed enough. Almost the only recipes i have found that i trust to tell me exactly what i need to know are those from heston blumenthal (and those are extremely complex). It annoys me as i'm sure it does you, that others cant explain things in as much detail and tell you WHY rather than HOW.
With complex dishes such as BIR there is so small a margin for error that instructions such as "fry the garlic, stirring, then add ginger. Cook for 2 mins" just isnt enough. It is open to so much speculation as has previously been mentioned on this site.
IMO videos are the best way to learn. Again, only a good video, most of the ones on TV are too stylish and have too many cuts/angle changes. A video with accompanying commentary detailing amounts would be brilliant. The swansea video on here and channel 4's take on the takeaway were pretty useful for the curry technique.

Quote from: Secret Santa on January 07, 2008, 09:31 PM

Quote from: chinois on January 06, 2008, 01:58 PM
I think the biggest and most constant source of our disapointment is the fact that a lot of us (on both sites) are not decent cooks already.

Quote
No it's not. The biggest source of disappointment is the people on RCR who claim that not only are the RCR curries BIR standard, but that they are even better than BIR. And the truth is that some of them are. The biggest source of disappointment then is that there are so many ill-educated palates out there (through no fault of their own).

I think we're in agreement with you but i dont quite follow. Are you saying the problem is that there are a lot of bad BIRs and people are comparing their results to these establishments rather than to the best BIRs?

If so:
I have definately noticed the change of quality since moving to london. Around Winchester (near southampton) the standard was high and rarely varied. In north london (and brick lane) about half of the places i have been are bad. My friend says that this is his experience too. A few tikkas i have eaten have been overcooked scrag-ends of meat with food dye on. No flavour of spices or tandoor. They seem to be so keep on keeping the price below ?5 a dish, like the chinese takeaways do. I wish they'd both take more pride.