He should list a smoke detector in his merchandise.

I normally go for lower temperature of 40 - 45'C and you need to keep checking as some finish quicker than others. It can take 24 - 48 hours but I've some take 3 days.

It appears to me that they are all Baltis but you can either get the bog standard or the other "named dishes" with the additional ingredients.  That's the way I read the menu anyhow.

I have those. My oldest bush is now about 7 years old but hasn't come back well from the pruning my wife gave it last year.  It was over 1.5 m tall before she cut it. I've a few more down back that appear to have survived winter.  Very hardy plants and when I take chillis to the local Indian Grocer, they are his favourites.

Well, I have to say that last night was one of those rare occasions when everything just fell into place, and I was able to produce a first-class dish.  I did nothing out of the ordinary, followed a recipe and then my instinct and the result was superb.  Nothing missing on this one.  It's happened before, albeit rarely and I still scratch my head and think, how does this happen.

I cooked Chicken Tikka Masala using Misty Ricardo's Volume 1 recipe with no exceptions or omissions aside from not using red food colouring and the very last addition was my own instinct.  The Chicken Tikka I used was the last of the Sunil Singh Chicken Tikka I'd cooked in the Tandoor a few days ago and the base gravy was MDB's Balti gravy.  Once the dish was fully prepared and on "keep warm" under a lid, I sprinkled it lightly with new fresh Kasoori Methi. The finished dish was lacking nothing that I'd normally hope for in a restaurant dish.  I doubt it will be better today.

Now I just need to find out what it was in cooking this dish that I'm not doing in the others.  Is it the almond and coconut meal?

Santa, I agree with you about the spices. I was just trying to consider what could be contributing factors.  I've taken to grinding my own Cumin and Coriander seeds and I find that I prefer it to the fine powder.

I've had a look at the menu. It is a bit confusing.  So, at Al Frash you can buy the straight Balti dishes, but you can also order the "usual" restaurant curry dishes like Butter Chicken, Passanda, Rogan Josh, Korma and the like, and add this additional preparation to the Balti.  Is that how it works? 

All the sides and starters etc are pretty standard fare, with the exception of pureed dishes served in a glass.  I've never seen that before, but I suppose it would be helpful if you're taking granny out to dinner or you've broken your jaw in a Rugby match.  You can be adventurous and order Madras, Vindaloo of Fhal, referring to heat levels by the look.

Interesting as I've never experienced this type of menu.

While I will continue to experiment with the Balti gravy and flavours, my wife has requested that I return to cooking more normal curries.  Last night I obliged and cooked one of her favourites, Masala Shrimp along with a very surprisingly good CTM using MDB's Balti gravy and leftover Sunil Singh Tikka.

I had to laugh at Manchester City running out of fresh coriander and supermarkets needing to change stock for the next episode.  Crazy to think it could happen but it probably did.

Quote from: George on September 04, 2022, 05:38 AM

Quote from: livo on September 04, 2022, 03:27 AM
If you go about cooking a whole curry dish and then right at the end throw in a bit of spice, you won't have a good dish.  If you add the spice to frying onions, garlic, ginger etc, and cook it with oil, tomato and / or gravy, those flavours will create the curry to which you then add, or in which you then cook, the main ingredients.  The difference will be chalk and cheese.

What about the balti paste recipe (link) you posted recently? I thought you said it's good for improving a dish lacking in flavour. Don't you add it at the end, a bit like garam masala? If so, the paste will end up semi-raw. Thank you for the paste link, by the way. I thought it looked good and it's something else I intend to try.

Actually no George.  I've cooked a few lamb curries from supposedly good recipe books that have been less than expected. What I do is fry out a bit of balti paste in my multi / pressure cooker and then toss the lamb curry in, under pressure for 15 - 20 minutes.  That usually fixes it.

Chefs throwing in un-measured amounts of spice scooped up onto the end of a chefs spoon just illustrates (to me anyway) non-critical volumetric control.  It matters less exactly how much you put in with any precision than it does which combination you use, the timing and other factors like avoiding scorching etc.  Obviously, there are limitations to this statement.  Take for example the use of spice masala or pastes and timing.  If you go about cooking a whole curry dish and then right at the end throw in a bit of spice, you won't have a good dish.  If you add the spice to frying onions, garlic, ginger etc, and cook it with oil, tomato and / or gravy, those flavours will create the curry to which you then add, or in which you then cook, the main ingredients.  The difference will be chalk and cheese.

I don't think it is difficult to emulate the operations of the video chefs as much of it is in real time or with very little editing.  We can all pretty well copy these procedures, see how much spice they use and when they add ingredients, when they adjust heat, how long to cook between stages and so on.  The dishes produced are usually pretty good and I'd imagine a fair replica of the presented recipe.  Sometimes it's easy to see that the listed ingredients say 1 tsp of X spice when you can tell that there is actually more being used.  What is frustrating is when they show you something and tell you that in the restaurant kitchen for served meals, they do it differently or use a different ingredient which isn't disclosed.

This may well be a thing more evident over here but "bought" curry from an "Indian" food outlet usually always seems to be richer and more flavoursome and aromatic than anything I usually produce at home.  I thoroughly enjoy my dishes, but they just aren't the same.  Sometimes I think to myself, that's it! What did you do different?  Then I doubt whether it is really better or not.  I know I'm not alone with this.

One possibility could be the quality / freshness of the spices they are able to obtain due to their higher turnover.  Perhaps buying commercial quantity packages is key to obtaining the best quality and freshest spices.  I guess you could go and buy a set of new (fresh???) spice packs and do side by side comparison with what you already have in the spice cupboard.  Cook the exact same dish with old and new spice to see if it changes much.

Phil, I think anybody can have a dish that they've perfected if they spend the time and are passionate about it. For me it's a pasta bake that my kids call Lasagna, but it isn't Lasagna as it uses small pasta instead of sheets.  I have done it with sheets but it's just better when I do it my way and I usually use pasta shells or spirals.  The original came from a recipe I've since lost but it was based upon a home-made Napolitana sauce and something similar to Macaroni Cheese.  Very messy in the kitchen with 3 big dirty pots, the baking dishes and utensils for cooking, but my family love it.  I just do it by feel now and it never fails.

Funny you posted this. Yesterday my wife pulled a box of Laziza Biryani masala out of the cupboard so we had chicken biryani for dinner.  Lovely stuff that I'd forgotten about being in the cupboard.  Never tried haleem and now that I suspect I have an intolerance to wheat, I probably won't.