Glad to be of assistance.  The colouring is readily available at most asian grocer stores in small pill size bottle containers and also very large containers.  Probably a lot cheaper than Spicesofindia.  And it goes a very very long way ;D

Quote from: Phil (Chaa006) on May 14, 2011, 02:49 PM

Quote from: curryhell on May 14, 2011, 01:15 PM
What i normally do is add two "piles" of yellow, one "pile" of orange and a smaller "pile" of red in different areas.

Wot, no green ?  I have to confess, the first time I saw green colouring used in pilau rice I was shaken, but since then I have become addicted to it and I now use red x 2, green x 2, and yellow x 1.

** Phil.

Green in my rice?   NO!  That's just wrong ;D.  Have had it in restaurants but don't possess any and no intentions of buying any, not even for my yoghurt sauce.  I like mine yellow.  Again some BIR's use green.  All a matter of personal preference with no impact on the flavour

Quote from: Phil (Chaa006) on May 14, 2011, 02:44 PM

Quote from: martinvic on May 14, 2011, 02:24 PM
Just to add to that, I've found the thorough rinsing and soaking is really important/essential

I've always maintained this (and still do, to my wife, who being oriental likes her rice sticky) but Undercover Curry say "don't bother rinsing at all, just fry the dry grains", and much to my amazement, it works !
** Phil.

You should know that women are always right Phil ;D.  Seriously though, can you see a restaurant bothering to go through the pain of washing the rice before cooking??  I think not, but somebody out there may know different?  I don't bother with the washing / soaking process myself.  I tried it but didn't find that there was much of  a difference from my normal result to warrant the time and effort.  At the end of the day, it's what works for the individual.  I fry the spices for a minute to release the flavours and then simply stir the rice in to coat the grains before adding the water.  I find that it works for me and i end up with nicely separated grains when cooked.  In the very early days I too used the microwave to cook rice with very good results using a pilau recipe from a microwave cook book.  I think it was the first true pilau  i produced. Up till that point, i was just cooking plain but perfectly cooked boiled rice.  Fortunately, unlike you, i didn't go through a prolonged period of pain .  The rest is now history and this forum enables others to benefit from all our positive as well as negative experiences.  The end result being the satisfaction of cooking and serving BIR quality food.  As for the finger nail measurement, i don't believe a 1/12 of an inch will make that much difference either way, do you ;D

Here's yesterdays effort for last night's tikka vindallo a la CA's method and gravy as per spec.

Quote from: natterjak on May 14, 2011, 12:32 PM
Thanks CH.  So for Pilau you would add a tiny "pile" of colour in various places around the rice then drip water onto it?  How much powder is required?

That's about it Natterjak.  "Pile", maybe not quite that much ;D ;D.  What i normally do is add two "piles" of yellow, one "pile" of orange and a smaller "pile" of red in different areas once I've removed the whole spices when the rice has finished cooking, placing the minutest drip of water on it. And i do mean the minutest .  Too much liquid and the effect of the colouring is lost and you have serious overkill and a lot of varying degrees of the food colourings invading much of the rice .  I then leave the rice to stand with the lid on for another 10 - 15 mins to allow the colouring to invade the grains.  Then simply fork the coloured grains gently through the rest of the beautifully white basmati.  Job done and very impressive .  The best way i can quantify our chosen unit of measurement - the "pile", is to say that the "pile" equates to a roughly the size of one or maybe two match heads and NO MORE!!!  Is that of any help?  Next time i make some I'll post a pic in this thread as it may be useful to others.

Well, i think that's closure on how to make any rice dish on the BIR menu .  Anybody just embarking on BIR cooking journey will crack the rice issue first time by simply reading the contents within this thread, using the RobinB recipe and looking at Dips vid for mushroom pilau to glean the method to achieve the other rice dishes.  Using the suggested recipe, with a little tweeking of the whole spices if desired, careful adding of minimal colouring, if wanted, will result in a good BIR pilau which is the base of all the other rice dishes.  My experience is exactly the same as CT's re. the pot of pilau in the oven being kept warm and the simple method of frying the desired additional ingredients in oil with onions, meethi if wanted and a little mix powder.
I have only once had a disaster when cooking rice and that was my first attempt.  I am sure I'm not alone in this experience either if the truth be told ;D.  I ended up with a pot of what can only be described as "gloop" .  This was a little concerning as the general concensus was that the cooking of rice was simplicity itself.  The next effort was edible but unexciting.  Then i stumbled across the absorption method which is what I've used ever since, some 25 years ago or more even .  Every time it comes out perfect, whether is a cup full for two, or a cauldron for 20 which is a little more daunting a thought ;D ;D.  The point of my post other than stating "look no further than this thread if you want to be able to replicate BIR pilau and its derivatives" is to share a little gem of a comment that i read in a curry recipe book.  Unfortunately i can't give the individual credit for this as the name of the  book and the author  escapes me, being such a long time aga.  But i will be forever thankful for the tip that was given.  One of the hardest things that people grapple with when cooking rice is the volume of rice to water.  Too much and you end up with "gloop" or "stodge".  Too little and you have hard and sometimes even crunchy starchy grains.  The key to the volume issue - add sufficient water and cover to the level of a finger nail above the rice(and i don't mean the wife's acrylic talons from the local nail bar ;D) .  My nails are pretty average and in measurement terms that's approx 1/3 of an inch.  I'd be interested to read others comments on this and their rice cooking disasters / experiences, methods and views on this.

Hi Natterjak.  I'm the direct opposite. I've always used powder and never liquid.  As for making a liquid from the powder with water, i just simply add the powder direct, whether its for a tikka marinade or to colour pilau rice (with the minutest tiny drip of water ;D) so as to keep the colour concentrated and not have it invade the rest of the rice.

Love the site.  Sure i'll be ordering from there real soon.  Personal recommendation goes a long way.  Thanks Martinvic ;D

Hi Natterjak.  Agree with Martinvic.  The recipe contains the majority of the essential spices necessary to make a good pilau and is an ideal place to start .  Twenty odd years ago, i didn't have the benefit of this excellent forum  ???so i had to make do with dissecting my local BIR's pilau to identify the spice content and then balance out the quantities until i got it pretty much spot on .   I would add though, during my dissection days not only did i identify fennel, but also white and black cummin along with the odd black cardamon which gives it a very robust (if that's the right word) fragrance ;D.  As for freezing, works fine.  I often do it but only reheat and then serve.  It's no good if you then want to turn it into mushroom rice or something else.  As Phil said the freezing does make the grains brittle.  Hope this helps.

Hi Martinvic.  Would be happy to use the karahi if i had a gas cooker as the heat distribution is far better with gas than electric, which constrains you to keeping the pan sitting on the hob.  With gas you can easily move it around but at the same time not losing any heat.  I prefer to have complete control over the pan which i have with my omlette pans.  I certainly wouldn't have that with my karahi as it is quite heavy and the handles get fairly hot.  And its not the most stable of pans being round bottomed