Made Bhuna last night, good but nowhere near as good as the one I made a couple of weeks ago.  I'm left trying to mentally 'unpick' the whole episode to see where I went wrong...

Spice didn't taste as 'fried in' as it should, I wonder if using slighty too much chopped onion and pepper interfered with the 'spice fy-off'

I alwys use the Ali Haydor technique of pre-cooking my lamb, and I have to say it works REALLY well, it wasn't the lamb that was wrong, or the beautifully fried tomarto wedges that decorated the surface of the finished dish, the sauce just smelt too 'boiled', and the level of tomarto puree too high, even though it was the same amount as last time when it works.

I think it just goes to show that if one stage of cooking isn't quite correct, it upsets that subjective balance of the whole dish.

I'm f--cked off!  My madras's I'm completely happy with, and untill last night diito, with Bhuna, ah well, back to the drawing board!

matt333

Ditto!

I must admit Haldi, I havn't tried using a 'bought' base as you have.  That may improve things still further!

I just meant that I tried a few variations on my own bases, but that the method of 'flashing-up' the final dish seems to ptoduce a higher degree of variation in the finished result.

Keep up the good work Sir!

You're up early!!

JerryM

You make a good point, the base OR the chopped chillie (or pepper, onion, whatever) should do the job of helping to prevent the oil from overheating.  I  guess I'm just using a 'belt & braces' approach.  I think provided an excess of oil is present, it is not necesssary to use both.  The important thing, I think, is to cook the spice in the oil untill it JUST gets to the point where all the moisture has been driven out of the 'moisture containing ingredient' (base, pepper, whatever!), because once the moisture is gone there is nothing to stop the temperature of the oil climbing rapidly and burning all your hard work!  That said, the spice must be cooking in the 'oil rich environment long enough to extract the essential oils form the spice that constitute the flavours, that's why you don't get a BIR taste if you stop the spice-frying processs too soon (ie before the moisture has gone, indicated by a reduction in 'sizzle')

Using a heavy pan helps, it's far easier to ruin the spice in a wok, even though the temperature can be adjusted more quickly in a wok, it can climb really fast, spice can go from perfectly cooked to burnt in a couple of seconds if it's not watched carefully.  The disadvatage of a heavy pan is that once the pan get too hot, the only way to control things is to be ready to add more base quickly, simply reducing the gas will not have the immediate effect it would in a thin pan, BUT In my opinion you get more warning (and time to act) with a heavy fring pan.

The whole BIR thing is much more 'technique critical' than just about any other style (although chinese can be tricky!).  To get the optimum taste it is necessary to stop the spice frying bit of the final dish preparation just short of burning...

When I cook a bhuna, I fry garlic, then add, pepper and onion, then tom puree, and when THEN spice, so in that instance I add the base (much less, in a Bhuna) AFTER the spice, because there is a relataively larger amount of moisture containing veg in the pan to control oil temperature.

I also convinced it's not the base, it's the way the spices are treating in the cooking of the final dish, and the ingredients in the final dish also,

Did the madras again last night, fried the spices for longer, pretty much a BIR result, not as good as best I've eaten, but equal to any of the take-aways near me!

I really DO NOT want to sound like I blowing my own trumpet (I couldn't reach, and wouldn't want to anyway!), but just in case I can, in humble way, impart anything....

I use gas on full heat all the way through, I do not use a thin wok type pan, they can overheat too fast and ruin spices.  I have a large very heavy non stick cast aluminium frying pan.  I put in 3 generous tbs oil, chuck in a finely chopped chilie (the biggish finger-sized ones, not birds-eye), and a dried chilie and 4 or 5 dried curry leaves (the latter probably not necessary).  These can go in before the oil has warmed, no need to wait 'till it's hot.  Heat on full, after a minute or so the chillie starts frying, I let it fry for a couple of mins 'till the smaller bits start to colour. Next I add a ladle of base and immediatley chuck in the mixed spice, chilie powder salt and some brown sugar and stir it all in quickly.  It's all sizzling away like crazy, I stir fry on full heat, toffe smell starts, IKEEP frying for perhaps minute or even two 'till (as Bruce Edward's state), the sizzling seems to calm down slightly.  At this stage vertually all the moisture from the base and chilie has boiled-off, but the temperature has not yet had the opportunity to climb too high and ruin the spices (I think the heavy pan really helps here).

I then add another ladle of base and repeat the process.  Then add the chicken and the rest of the base in stages not leting the pan get too cool, reduce to required consistancy, hey presto!

last night I did this, and it worked well, I'm NOT being a big head!  Pleae try it as above, it may be that I've accidentaly stumbled on a technique that works.

The demo I saw yerars back (madras) the chef swirled a little oil round the pan & tipped the excess away, put a samll quantity of base, it made a 'pool' about 4" across, then added in spice mix, chillie powder, salt and some sugar; mixed it up, and because the base had been thickened somewhat by the other ingredients, yes it formed a low 'pile' which he fried  on a gentle heat gentle for a couple of minutes.  Then he added the reamaining base and pre-cooked chicken, he cooked it a couple of mins more, added chopped corry, and then put it into the foil carton.

I'm convinced it's something to do with the initial excess of oil, which it allowed to be hot, but kept from climbing much above 100 c by the wet ingredients present be it a small amount of base, or chopped onion/pepper).  The excess of oil draws the lipid-soluble flavours from the spices, which are kept from burning by the moisture boiling at of the relatively small quantity of base or onion etc present.

Two days ago I made a madras, 'bottled out' slightly early on the spice frying stage, the result was tasty, but not nearly as good as one I made the week before in which I fried the spices slightly longer, that one smelled just like a BIR, and the sensations in my tummy afterwards (that fuzzy warm sensation) were identical to BIR after effects!

I'm trying again tonight to see if I can crack it

I've tried the Eastern Eye, FASNTASTIC
That's what top quality BIR should taste like

That looks great Haldi!

What method do you use for tikka: CA, Blade's, or something else?

Also what naan method do you use, is it one of Cr0?  I've tried Anjum Anand's, she's had a series on the tele recently, she strikes me as a sort of Indian 'Nigella Lawson', her recipe was o, but nothing like a BIRs!

Ta