I've just bought my copy. Looking forward to a good read now.

Cheers,

Paul

One thing worth checking is the minimum temperature your oven(s) can run at. I can set mine to 50 degrees celsius which is really handy for keeping plates and food warm without the risk of melting plastic TA containers.

Paul

Hi UF,

It has to be gas for the hob. For the oven(s) I'm happy with electric fan.

Cheers

Paul

Just a point on the Kushi recipes - although no tom puree is used the tomato comes from the pre-cooked meat or veg.

I've got the book and only made it all once but the way the jigsaw pieces fit together is impressive. Just a pity about the piece of mace that I felt dominated the base and the curries somewhat.

Cheers,

Paul

Thanks for the tips emin-j. Like I said in another thread I need to pull my finger out and do the pre-prep and make the g/g paste in a decent quantity. It seems to be the BIR way rather than hand chopping the g/g every time I make a curry.

The other thing I get bored with is dry chewy chicken breast pieces but although not BIR style I'm hoping to buy the "sous vide" equipment to allow me to cook chicken in a slow cooker with 100% control of temperature.

I'm hoping to buy this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sous-Vide-Magic-Controller-FREE-WORLDWIDE-SHIPPING?item=150622887075&cmd=ViewItem&_trksid=p5197.m7&_trkparms=algo%3DLVI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D3%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D7349238021723716063

Maybe I'm crazy but it looks like fun to me. 

Paul

Hi James, the cooking technique usually involves reducing your first half of base, either in small amounts or the whole lot at once. When you add the second half of base you are then aiming for final consistency and probably don't want to reduce the second and final addition too much.

Maybe your base is too thick to start with? I figure on 800g to a kilo of onions to a finished volume of about 3 litres of base. Are you using enough oil when you start your vindaloo? Are you using watered down tom puree?

Cheers,

Paul

I thought the idea was interesting to add extra oil to your base and skim it off before blending. I know it's been discussed before but I think it must be worth trying.

Cheers,

Paul

Sous Vide has really got my attention recently. If you haven't heard of sous vide it is a cooking technique using a low temperature water oven that has a very precise temperature control. The food to be cooked (usually meat or fish) is bagged first in a vacuum sealed plastic bag and then the bag is placed in the water oven. The cooking temperatures are low in the 55 to 85 degrees C range and the cooking times can be long, upto 78 hours in some cases!

Now so far this doesn't sound very exciting or impressive but here are the advantages:

It's impossible to burn the food so you can cook a steak exactly as you like it then take out of the plastic cooking bag and sear the outside.

No loss of juices or flavour.

Tougher cuts of meat become super tender given time and the right temperature. The temps used in sous vide are hot enough to break down the tough collagen connective tissues but not hot enough to destroy the meat muscle proteins.

The food cooked in the sealed plastic bags can be chilled after sous vide and safely kept in a fridge for about 5 days. Then when you need to serve up some super tender lamb chops, porks chops, steaks , ribs etc just open the bag and sear the meat. Great for a BBQ as the meat is already perfectly cooked through and just needs an outer coating.

I was thinking it might be a way to produce a tender lamb tikka, always a challenge.

Downsides?

Price of cooker - this will be ?400+.
Some people don't like the idea of cooking in a plastic bag but the temps are low and the plastic is food grade.
But if you've been eating in decent restaurants you've probably already eaten sous vide as it is very popular commercially.

If you can sort out the electronics you can convert a slow cooker or rice cooker into a sous vide oven:

http://www.howtogeek.com/93983/hack-a-crock-pot-into-a-sous-vide-cooker/

http://www.over-engineered.com/projects/sous-vide-pid-controller/

Hope somebody finds this interesting, I would like to make one myself if possible.

Paul


Edit: Link to Amazon product first available in UK for domestic use.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SousVide-Supreme-water-oven-plug/dp/B004LP8QCO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1332865854&sr=8-2

Edit 2: Link to a ready built controller to use a slow or rice cooker but it's Canadian:

http://www.amazon.ca/Sous-Vide-Controller-Magic-1500D/dp/B0053Z7GIQ

Edit 3 - Bingo! I might get one of these:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sous-Vide-Magic-Controller-FREE-WORLDWIDE-SHIPPING-/150613228801

Hi Josh, good to see you posting here again. I was interested when you said you find the g/g paste is less inclined to burn than finely chopped garlic and ginger pieces. Since the Fleet 5 reports I've changed my methods to ally pan, chef spoon (was using wok) and trying to singe my spices. In the process I've discovered new and better flavours but I'm still inconsistent and have burnt the garlic a couple of times.

I think I need to pull my finger out and do more pre-prep i.e. make a load of g/g paste as it does save time when you come to cook a curry and I don't like the lumps of g/g I find in my otherwise smooth sauces.

Great looking food there and a fine looking cooker.

Cheers

Paul

Lol, I had an immaculate Honda 400/4 and you're right it was terrible in the wet for shorting out the sparkies.
I managed to fix it with a type of waterproof varnish. It wasn't very fast, my mate's Suzuki x7 250cc was nearly as fast. Then I got my little Yamaha YPVS 350 which was a fantastic little bike and could take on my mate's Kawa GT750 shaftie.

Paul