Well done CH,interesting post,look forward to the results from work.

Quote from: curryhell on December 31, 2011, 10:59 AM
Sorry guys but i can't multi task.  I can only concentrate on cracking one thing at a time.  Curry or coffee, coffee or curry.  Curry wins hands down ;D.  Besides i'd much rather have a bottle of Cobra with my curry than a cup of coffee . How did the taste comparison go??

Excellent CH 

Quote from: Phil (Chaa006) on December 31, 2011, 12:35 AM

Quote from: emin-j on December 30, 2011, 10:52 AM
I've recently got into Roasting my own Coffee Beans and have noticed that Beans that are much over a week old after Roasting have lost quite a lot of their flavour and Aroma when ground  and a Coffee made.

Can you tell us more about how you roast your beans, Emin-J ?  For two or more decades we had a branch of Importers Ltd in Bromley High Street (Bromley, Kent, not Bromley, Bow) and the smell of those roasting beans was to die for.  I have tried roasting at home, but never achieved either consistency or results that justified the effort, so as a coffee addict and a monsooned Malabar aficionado, I'd love to be able to roast the green beans to perfection and have freshly roast coffee every day.

** Phil.

Hi Phil, To stay on topic my New Year Resolution was to roast my own coffee beans but I started early 
Being up for a challenge (curry or otherwise  ) I thought I would do a bit of research into how successful roasting beans at home could be without breaking the Bank and found that certain popcorn 'poppers' can do a cracking (no pun intended) job so bought a Severin PC3751 popper and some of my favourite beans in their green state and followed some video's on youtube - and very successful it's bean  ;D

This is the machine in action blowing the chaff into the sink while it roasts the beans.



And this is my first effort - (pre roasted bought beans in the centre )



Cant get fresher Coffee than that !

Quote from: 976bar on December 30, 2011, 08:08 PM

Quote from: curryhell on December 30, 2011, 07:54 PM

Quote from: spiceyokooko on December 30, 2011, 07:39 PM
If you don't like my views, opinions or how they're expressed - please don't read them or respond to them.

Until today i hadn't.  Must have a moment of weakness   But this has now passed and i'll go back to ignoring them

QuoteHere here Curryhell!!

Quote from: spiceyokooko on December 30, 2011, 04:40 PM

Quote from: emin-j on December 30, 2011, 03:55 PM
Regarding Spices I don't think BIR's would have the time to produce their Spices using whole Spices ( other than possibly Garam Masala imo ) so my comment 'Fresh Spices' referred to what is commercially available (ground) and for the quest to find 'the taste' is what I would use.
Ground whole roasted spices would make a fine Traditional Curry but I don't' think you would see it in a BIR kitchen  IMO

So let me get this right.

QuoteBecause a typical BIR uses preground spices, you feel that's what you need to do to get 'the taste' you're looking for, yet previously flagged up 'stale' spices as a potential for not getting 'the taste' you're looking for? You then reject the grinding of whole spices to produce fresh ones on the basis that because BIR's don't take the time and trouble to do this, it wouldn't produce 'the taste', despite guaranteeing fresh spices?

Yes, we need to be as exact as we can when trying to emulate the BIR Curry even down to using the same make of spices that your favourite T/A uses, Rajah.Natco,Trs etc and Ifindforu has named Jalpur Garam Masala as a 'must have' also the Eastern Star Curry Powder seems interesting.
Yes stale spices could be a factor in the missing 5% and we should keep this in mind as we seem so close to ' the taste', using home roasted and ground spices I don't believe is the way forward.

Common sense suggests your logic here is flawed.

QuoteHowever, it is another example of the 'Monkey see's, Monkey does' kind of attitude that prevails here.

Correct.

QuoteIt is not economically viable for BIR's in terms of manpower to grind their own spices to ensure freshness, the sheer turnover and volume of spices used would ensure that the spices purchased would be fresh.

Correct.

If they're not, their supply logistics is fubar'd.

QuoteThat is not the case for the majority of home cooks who simply do not get through the volume of preground spices to ensure their freshness other than throwing away an awful lot of spices on a regular basis and replacing them with fresh.

I buy my ground spices in 100gm packs two or three at a time rather than have a larger bag opened and hanging around losing flavour, I do have some spices that I rarely use but luckily these are whole spices.

But to suggest that grinding your own spices to ensure freshness would not help you achieve the BIR 'taste', because it's not what BIR's do is nonsense in my opinion.

Good luck grinding your Coconuts if you ever make a Korma 

Quote from: spiceyokooko on December 30, 2011, 02:50 PM

Quote from: emin-j on December 30, 2011, 10:52 AM
Things that come to mind often regarding that 5%, BIR's use fresh Base Gravy ( not from frozen like most of us )
they also are using mostly fresh Spices due to the amount they get through not weeks or even months old stuff like I use anyway

None of those are issues for me.

I know Bruce Edwards is a big advocate of freshly made base gravy and he never freezes his. I've conducted a test with a freshly made batch and frozen and could tell no discernible difference between them. For me, I've discounted this as an issue.

Regarding fresh spices, I only ever buy whole spices for the vast majority of the spices I need and either roast and grind, or simply grind as and when they're needed to ensure maximum freshness. That includes chilli powder, which I make up my own blend from whole dried chillis. The only pre ground spices I buy are Turmeric, which is kinda difficult to buy whole and grind yourself and Paprika. All the others are always bought whole and I make up and grind my own Garam Masala as well.

Preground spices lose their pungency pretty quickly, whereas whole spices do not.

So again for me, this is not an issue as I'm using the freshest spices I can.

Good to read you had positive results with your side by side frozen vs fresh Base 
Regarding Spices I don't think BIR's would have the time to produce their Spices using whole Spices ( other than possibly Garam Masala imo ) so my comment 'Fresh Spices' referred to what is commercially available (ground) and for the quest to find 'the taste' is what I would use.
Ground whole roasted spices would make a fine Traditional Curry but I don't' think you would see it in a BIR kitchen  IMO    

Quote from: JerryM on December 30, 2011, 10:04 AM
i feel my planned ashoka revisit is my biggest need (sauces and pastes, recipe refinement). the arbitrary 95% is like fell walking the ground starts off pretty much flat and a lot of ground can be covered relatively quickly.

this final gap of say 5% is far more tricky - i see it as not much ground to cover but the peaks are high.

my gut feeling is that this 5% breaks down into something like:

1% equipment
1% technique
1% sauces and pastes
1% recipe refinement
1% mix powder

given the mix powder was quite a surprise my inherent fear of missing a trick has resurfaced (you think you know but you don't) - hence the post

the 5% could be as much as 10% for example although i doubt it. is there a no 6 & 7 say.

thoughts that immediately come to mind that have gone off my radar (the 5% constituents) being:

a) things BIR's do through operation that home cooking would not naturally come across
b) things that are not discarded

i'm essentially after a sanity check so any thoughts much appreciated

Hi JerryM,
Things that come to mind often regarding that 5%, BIR's use fresh Base Gravy ( not from frozen like most of us )
they also are using mostly fresh Spices due to the amount they get through not weeks or even months old stuff like I use anyway 
I've recently got into Roasting my own Coffee Beans and have noticed that Beans that are much over a week old after Roasting have lost quite a lot of their flavour and Aroma when ground  and a Coffee made. 

 ;D

Quote from: haldi on December 27, 2011, 07:04 PM

Quote from: spiceyokooko on December 26, 2011, 03:29 PM
I bought Peter Boizot's (the founder of Pizza Express) excellent book, 'The Pizza Express Cookbook' and everything you need to create great classic thin crust pizza's is in that book.

Thanks for the tip
I've just bought it
I'm sure I'll have loads of enjoyment cooking from it

QuoteOne thing I find very difficult, is to get anywhere near the takeaway "pizza aroma"

[/b]Maybe this book will help

OMG  Here we go again !  ;D

Ray, I see Star Anise is showing up again  I'm going to start putting 1/2 tsp in my Spice Mix