Hi Guys,

Anyone got a good recipe for Tandoori lamp chop's.  My local TA does the best chop's I've tasted.  They're not red or dry but really juicy and tender.  Any ideas?

Ray

Hi pforkes,

I've never seen virgin mustard oil but tha standard stuff works fine.  If you are worried about it being for external use only, I wouldn't.  The quantities that you will consume will be very little indeed, especially if you are using in a marinade.  There are far worse things that we intake than mustard oil ;D

Ray

Hi Guy's

Just a note on mustard oil, this is readily available from Asian supermarkets.  The weird thing is, if you check the label on the back of the bottle, it will say "for external use only"  I did ask the shop owner about this and he said that it was fine for consumption, and that he uses it in his tandoori marinades. 

Just thought I would point that out incase you try looking for "edible mustard oil"

Ray

Hi CA,

I get what your saying.  I think what I mean is, it shouldn't make a great deal of difference if say you use a 5ml measuring spoon or you use a standard 5ml teaspoon.  But then comes the argument as to wether you standard teaspoon IS actually 5ml  Ok, I concede, measuring spoons it is  ;D

Ray

Hi Jerry,

That's what I suspected.  The final recipes are for 3-4 people which again is not what Im looking for.  With that said, I have used the KD base, with the Bruce Edwards spice blend and the Balti book pre-cooked meat and had some outstanding results, really close.  I guess that's what it's all about, trying out different combo's until you find one that fits!!

Ray

Hi Bobby,

Far be it from me to suggest that precision isn't too important, but how precise are the chef's at our local BIR's?  They certainly don't use measuring spoons and I believe they just use the tip of there chef's spoons when adding quantities.  Also, when a chef writes a book, Im sure that the measures they give are based on what they "believe" they should be putting in and not really based on accuracy!  I think the same can be said about the length of cooking time.  There is no doubt that the length of cooking time can really change the taste of a final dish but I also don't believe the chefs time themselves over each dish either.

I do actually use measuring spoons most of the time but now and then, I just use a standard 5ml teaspoon and I've never really noticed any difference!  Sometimes when I watch cookery programs, and the chef sprinkles a quantity in the dish, and then suggest that it was only about a teaspoon, I get to thinking that their teaspoons must be the size of a shovel!  Do you see what I mean?

All the best for 2010,

Ray

Hi all,

I have this book (pamphlet lol) in to be honest, I quite like it.  I've tried most of the recipes and I am really pleased with them.  I wouldn't go as far as to say they they replicate my local BIR but that may be down to the fact that this is a "Balti" cook book.  I have asked the question on this site before as to what the differences are between, BIR & Balti, and the responses are varied.  My conclusion to this question is that "Balti" food is a bit more spiced than BIR!  Take the base sauce in this book,  there are quite a few more ingredients required than the Kris Dhillon base.  The KD base produces a quite medium consistancy, which is sweet to the taste, with a curryish flavour, whereby the Balti base, is thicker and quite "soapy" to the taste, which is how the chef describes it as it should be.  On the other hand, the base meat/chicken in the balti book is beautiful and can be eaten on its own as a mildly spiced curry, whereby the base meat/chicken in the KD book, is quite bland.  And lastly, the spice blend from the Balti book has a lot of different spices included, far more than most spice blends that I have come across.  There are nine different herbs/spices in this blend although the main dishes only require 1 or 2 teaspoons of the blend.

Just, another point wiyth the KD books, the main recipes require no additional garlic, which I find really strange! I know some members of this site believe that the KD books are a step backwards and I am wondering if the final dishes are not upto BIR standards, as I have not tried one yet and only used the base!

Anyway, I think the Balti book is a good book but probably not worth a tenner!!

Ray

Hi UB,

I am in awe of your Tandoor and so impressed that you achieved this with no building skills, absoutley bloody brilliant !!!  Just one question though, does your tikka or seekhs not tend to burn the further down the skewers? or does the heat dispurse evenly around the Tandoor.

I would love to have a go at building one of these things but if it turns out anything like the BBQ I built a few years back, I think Ill give it a miss

Quality tread mate,

Ray

Hi CoR,

It was always my understanding that Deggi Mirch was Chilli powder, and infact it is Kashmiri Mirch that is Paprika ?

Ray

Hi guys,

Like I have mentioned before, take the pan off the heat before adding your spice blend and chilli powder. My rule of thumb is 1 tsp of chilli powder for Madras, 2 for vindaloo and three for a Phall.  Even when I've done a Phall using 2 tsp of my spice blend and 3 tsp of Chilli powder, thats 5 tsp's of powder in all, I never get this gritty/sandiness with my final dish. 

If you take the pan off the heat, you should remove the risk of burning your spices.  Usually, chilli powder and paprika has a slighlty more corse texture than other ground spices.  If you burn these whilst frying, the grains, for the want of a better term, they will go hard and therefor making it impossible to lose the grainyness.

I think a lot of the problem could be overspicing.  Two desertspoons of spice blend seems excessive to me.  I use 2 tsp's at the very most, and whatever extra chilli/paprika that I need!

Hope this helps,

Ray