i've been using it in pasanda. it adds a nice zing. just 1 tsp (5 ml)

the trouble is i find the bottle gets out of date as i dont use it anywhere else - or not made a connection to another use.

had another go at slow cook beef. used the onion bed and a small amount of water just to cover the onion bed - say 10 mm. cooked it 5 hrs at 130C. beef does not need blackening - it seems to darken easily on its own.

feel a further reduction in temp is defo going to be needed to get to the 9 hr cook (needed for the meat to soften enough). currently in reducing the amount of water cover i'm finding the meat's drying out too much. if you add more water say half cover the taste seems to drain away more. it feels a catch 22. i suppose basting every 1 hr might make a difference and worth a try - it feels a tad ott though and should not be needed. hence idea to reduce temp.

in short from what ive seen so far i think the 125C from the 9 hr recipe might not be low enough - i guess it depends much on the size of the joint being cooked (1.5kg say).

any thoughts on what temp might be needed - appreciated. i'm thinking 100C so that the joint will steam in the covered dish.

Made a rev 2 version - in short not as good as original.

I purposely made it more towards BIR (cooked it 30 mins)

Used Iffu mix powder. The taste reminded of Chinese curry sauce. A 1st and suprise.

Used 400g onion aiming 2 portions. 2 tsp mix, 0.5 tsp fennel seed added whole, 2 off green cardamom (too much), 2 tsp lemon dressing (? 10 sec squirt), 1 off Asian bay.

Thoughts going fwd
1) mix no good
2) ease back on the ginger (overpowering)

Rev 3 will try adil gm. Feel its a worthwhile taste journey.

Ps really singed the onions due to multi tasking on making the spice liquid in parallel. Quite amazed no discern able taste difference.

Fried,

3.5kg is some piece - well impressed. Most ive tackled 1.5kg.

The grilling is something ive kept in mind.

Feedback on how it turned out appreciated.

Garp,

I was working there. Case of old school I guess the less the www knows of my personal info the better. Difficult not mi for sure. I guess care worker is more like.

I have a trade and use my hands. The boss is actually my wife. I know it gets worse. Will stop digging the hole bigger.

Was last day today and pushed keys through letter box with smile. Waited years to get in one and when it arrived could not get out quick enough.

None of the staff were in and all cleared away.

Ps the hob is actually 7 burner. 4 along front and 3 along the back.

had stoke of luck. was cooking a beef joint slow and needed to go out before oven had got to temp. needless to say 1st hr or so was 180C not the planned 130C.

thing turned out well blackened.

i'm now am pretty sure what i'm after can be produced in the oven - that 9 hr recipe is essentially it.

the key thing is to add very little water to the covered pot and just top up when needed (start to smell burn or "roasting"). for lamb i will need to use steel tray (covered pot size) and think the bed of onion might just give the liquid (steam) needed to stop roasting. possibly the lower temp ie 125C is also needed.

the beef was cooked for 5 hrs and shredded but still not soft enough. the outer surface had that "burnt" would be the wrong word but certainly not "braised" taste.

next go will be the 9 hr pukka.

sorry but nothing impressive and nothing to do with the cooking. the boss being my boss and nothing to do with the restaurant.

i'm supposed to be on another job elsewhere hence the urgency to get finished.

the "cleaning job" that the staff must have to do is quite a challenge - anyone thinking of starting up in such trade would need to factor this in. for me it called out steam cleaning everywhere but the electrics would not take to it. everything pretty much seemed on castors so they could be wheeled about to help cleaning.

i was also taken aback by the amount of kit "behind the scenes" - i put it at something like 20?K in set up costs - a lot to get back in the short term. pretty much everything is stainless steel.

unfortunately there was not much to see ingredient wise. tins of KTC oil. all the usual stuff. massive freezer and an open top "deli" fridge.

the only thing that really caught my eye was a sort of wok burner (which i've seen in Chinese before). it had lots of nozzles all pointing in different directions. if my burner is say 8kw then this thing must be 20kw easy. cant imagine what they use it for - a big round shallow frying sits on top containing oil - as if they cook poppadoms in it (cant really see it though).

the aroma "smell" as reported in posts is really strong. felt i could smell same on the way home in the car.

the work i'm doing is my day job and not exciting. monday should be last day having been 2 days already.

the sale of the tandoori was quite a surprise and i asked why with the answer too expensive to run.

the 8 burner "hob" that you see in the video with the yellow knobs is actually quite small - diddy in fact. the burners look the business though. i think h4ppy-chris said 6 kw - they look easily that. not able to see them working but feel they would produce more of a bunsen burner flame than a slow wrap around. all the pans were ali. the burners have an inner and outer ring.

yes caught me by surprise. obviously not cooking but working.

not a place i've eaten in so have no idea what its like when open.

2 things of interest: must be hell keeping the place clean and the tandoor is up for sale (too expensive to run).

other than that nothing to report - boss has been on my back to get in and get out.

Secret Santa,

not miss much. yes under cooked by "our" standard. its a clear one of the reasons why the dish is not a 10.

for the effort / reward its surprisingly very good.

its a keeper for me. that midweek curry just when suits is a real draw.

George,

dont puree it. i feel it would be a step change too soon (too many variables being changed at once).

just give it a stir then taste the liquid. agreed not ideal.

once stage 1 cook and blended then no problem tasting during the stage 2.

i have tried the stage 2 before and confident things dont improve past 20 mins once brought back to the "boil" (simmer for me). think i went upto 7 hrs (posted some time ago).

it's really in the stage 1 cook that i'm intrigued on - due to the various descriptions used of the end point. for me mushy onions but not any smell or "vinegar" etc. its if going past the mushy stage or as Secret Santa says giving it heat - does this produce a better base.

i feel that your slow cooker approach is hopefully like putting it all in slow motion. pure guess and may be wrong.

best wishes and fingers crossed