Nice video Russ. I recognise the Meyer commercialware pan. What size is that one?
And like others have asked, do you feel your food now tastes and smells 100% BIR?

Cheers,

Paul

Hi Haldi,

I tried to singe last night and got the garlic a bit too well done. I managed not to burn the spices though although I fried them much more than I normally do. The spices definitely came alive more and the chilli powder tasted hotter than I would have expected. I feel that I need to practice loads to achieve the fast hot cooking without destroying the food.

Cheers,

Paul

Quote from: Sojourn on February 25, 2012, 02:15 PM
I've decided just to lie to her - it's for the best... :-X

Just stir it in and she might not notice 

Paul

Well I dusted off my 26 inch ally pan and got to work last night.
I used 2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder, 2 tsp ifindforu spice mix, 500 ml ifindforu base and 3 very large cloves of garlic chopped by hand. I was aiming to cook enough curry for 2 modest portions. I used 6 tbs of oil and I must admit the photos make it look super oily when in fact after it was stirred it didn't look so oily.

Anyway I had the pan and oil hot before adding the chopped garlic. This cooked and went brown really quickly so I took off heat while I added the spices and salt and stirred hard back on high heat for probably 30 seconds or so before I chickened out and added 1 tbs tom puree mixed with 3 tbs water.




The result - the garlic was definitely overcooked but still edible. I didn't quite achieve the acrid smell from the chilli powder but at least the spices didn't taste burnt. It did taste hotter than I would expect for 2 tsp kashmiri and I think I got closer to BIR apart from the garlic flavour.

I'll adopt this way of cooking from now on but there is certainly some skill and judgement I need to learn now.

Cheers,

Paul

Mix powder is here UB:

https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=7863.0

Cheers, Paul

Thanks CH. I'll have to ditch the wok and use my ally pan and chef's spoon and give this a go.

I'm just a bit surprised that if this is the missing link or secret why it seems to have been missed or even dismissed by cr0 members.

Certainly when the Taz recipe and method arrived at cr0 it is virtually impossible to singe anything with this method, so I was left believing that the frying of spices was not really necessary and just a damn good boil with an oily mixture would suffice.

Recently, however, when I've been doing my tarka dall experiments there was a moment when I caught a glimpse of the BIR aroma and this was when I was rapidly frying some garlic.

I'll get singeing this weekend and hopefully achieve a minor breakthrough  ;D

Paul

Thanks for the replies guys, I can see I've got my work cut out now to achieve this.

I tasted a friend's chicken liver tikka starter at the posh new eastZeast restaurant in Liverpool a few weeks ago.
It wasn't too bad but I'm not really used to liver.

Cheers

Paul

I've read many different reports now about the acrid fumes created when the chilli powder gets cooked or singed.
Fumes that are strong enough to get people coughing.

I've never experienced anything like that after cooking a few hundred curries. Now I don't use more than 1 tablespoon of chilli powder ever but does it mean I'm not cooking it enough?

I was also intrigued at statements made recently that when the chilli powder is cooked "properly" it imparts a greater heat to the dish. I never knew that.

So how many people achieve the acrid chilli fumes when cooking their curries?

Cheers

Paul

Lol, IMHO Deggi is a bit hotter than Kashmiri and Deggi is slightly more orange compared to the pure red of Kashmiri.

I use about 2.5 tsp of Deggi in my madras curries. They are both nice products though. 

Paul

I would be interested too if Julian was up for charging for curry classes.

Paul