My vindaloo journey continues. Once i arrive at somewhere near the destination I will write up a report of some kind. So far it has resulted in my having to make another base as i exhausted what was in the freezer. So it was time to try jb's, it having received some very good feedback. All very positive so far using this base. One thing struck me though once i'd finished cooking the dish, having sampled the sauce during the cooking, was how much my pre-cooked chicken had influenced the final taste of the dish, and NOT for the better
I have been using Ifindforu's method now for quite some time with good results. However, the last time i cooked some chicken I think I was a little over zealous with the asian bay or possibly another spice and this gave the chicken a distinct flavour and smell. It could possibly have been that the asian bay were fresher than normal and therefore had a much more marked affect as they were stronger in potency. At the time i didn't give this too much thought, but the vindaloo journey has made me realise the impact this has been having on curries i have cooked, which have minimal ingredients for their creation, just like madras and vindaloo.
In many threads the comment has been made "little is more" and thinking about it, this makes a lot of sense. Adding too much of something can severely impact on the final taste of the dish and upset the balance of flavours. In my case it was adding chicken that was too strongly flavoured (entirely my fault, not the recipe I used). Enough of my waffling. I was now out of chicken, so it was time to cook up some more for the journey. Ali's Viceroy video has attracted some very positive comments on the results achieved by using chef Imran's ingredients and method, although it is not unlike many recipes already posted on the site. So yesterday afternoon I set to and made up a batch. First impressions are good. I managed to produce a potful of succulent, moist and very mildly flavoured chicken which should go well in any plain dish and not impart any overpowering flavour. Here's the finished result. I will be freezing the resulting stock in an ice cube tray which can then be added during the final cook, just to add that extra subtle layer of flavour.
I'm looking forward to creating my first dish using it and sampling the results. It (or probably my recent learnings) may just get me a little further down the road
Enjoy.
