Interesting use of amchoor in this recipe, I think I might try adding some of that to my next dhansak.

I don't think I've ever had a dhansak with pineapple chunks in it!

I make mine in almost the same way as CA's Madras recipe but add about 2 tablespoons of tamarind juice just after the tomato puree stage and about 2 heaped teaspoons of palm sugar after the lentils (dhal) goes in and about a tablespoon of lemon juice right at the end when it rests and the chopped coriander goes in.

It tastes hot, sweet and sour!

Quote from: gagomes on February 06, 2013, 12:00 AM
Heat-wise, what are the advantages? It looks interesting, but I don't see the advantage (I didn't watch the whole video)

It's not about the heat, it's about the nutritional advantages to be gained from cooking food on it. It contains natural minerals and trace elements that are imparted onto any food cooked on it.

Quote from: gagomes on February 07, 2013, 05:55 PM
So what exactly is tomato puree? When i look for tomato based products i dont see any saying puree.

As I said in my previous post, it's tomato concentrate. Basically passata (sieved tomatoes) which has been boiled down to a very concentrated form. It usually says on the tube "Double Concentrate" Here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/tomato_puree that's what it looks like. Here's a tube: http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=254879475

Please don't confuse tomato puree with with pureed (you can see where the confusion comes in) or blended plum tomatoes - they're quite different things. The most important of which is that one has had virtually all its water removed (puree) and is in a very concentrated form and one still has a lot of water still in it - blended plum tomatoes.

The major difference between them in terms of BIR cooking is the amount of reduction you'll need to do to remove the water elements. The reason tomato puree is mixed with water prior to being added is because if you add puree direct to hot oil, it will burn and stick to the bottom of the pan very quickly. By diluting tomato puree with water, you gain more control over exactly when all the water has evaporated, the oil separates and you start to get slight caramelisation of the puree sugars as it starts to turn a darker shade. This shade darkening is caramelisation.

The purpose then of puree rather than blended plum tomatoes is the slight caramelisation of the puree sugars, the dark red/brownish colouring and texture.

You cannot achieve all of those things with blended tomatoes.

Q2
You definitely need to switch from a non-stick pan to a plain aluminium one, it'll make a lot of difference. Part of the flavour you're after is a result of caramelisation of the onions in the base sauce by allowing it to stick to the non-stick surface of the pan. The spoon makes no difference whatsoever as far as I'm concerned.

Q3
You're getting an oily after taste because the Taz base has a heck of a lot of oil in it. Try switching to a more generic base like Cory Anders which in my opinion for a variety of different dishes is hard to beat and easy to make.

Q4
If you do give Cory's base a try, then make his matching dishes to go with it. They're all good and hard to beat in my opinion.

Q4
Butter ghee is becoming far less common these days in BIR cooking mostly due to price. Most BIR's will use a generic vegetable oil in most of their cooking although some use vegetable ghee I think. Just stick to a decent Sunflower oil and you won't go far wrong.

The BIR taste is all in the cooking technique as far as I'm concerned so stick to tried and tested base and dish recipes and keep practising.

Quote from: gagomes on February 04, 2013, 12:14 AM
Tomato Puree
Tomato Paste
Tomato Sauce
Passata

Indeed it can be confusing.

Tomato puree is tomato concentrate which comes in small tins, bottles and commonly tubes. It's what Americans call tomato paste. They're one and the same thing. Puree and paste is passata reduced right down to a concentrate.

Tomato sauce is what us Brits would call ketchup, Americans call it Ketchup but they call blended tomatoes tomato sauce. So if you take a can of plum tomatoes and blend it, that's what Americans call tomato sauce.

Passata is blended and sieved tomatoes.

Quote from: h4ppy-chris on February 01, 2013, 06:45 PM
"If the recipe calls for 2 tbsp of tomato paste do you just use 2 tbsp of blended plum tomatoes"

Yes.

Huh?

Two tablespoons of tomato paste (puree) is quite different to 2 tablespoons of blended tinned plum tomatoes.

Quote from: Phil [Chaa006] on February 03, 2013, 10:17 PM
They are comparable if you do not accept that spices (or their essential oils) can cook.

Can you define what state the extracted essential oils start from and change to then if it's your contention that some kind of change takes place within your definition of 'cooking'?

Quote from: Phil [Chaa006] on February 03, 2013, 10:17 PM
To make garam masala, one heats the spices dry and then grinds.  If no cooking takes place during the heating, why do we bother ?  Would not the garam masala taste exactly the same if we ground the raw spices ?

Firstly, I would dispute straight away the need to dry heat the spices prior to grinding because to do so completely changes the flavour profile of the spices themselves particularly so when a group of spices such as those used in Garam Masala are heated together. The released volatile oils mingle and merge together to create new aromas and flavours and you have the Maillard toasting and browning reaction to take into consideration as well.

Also please note than in my previous post I did say clearly I was referring to spices fried in hot oil, you're now referring to dry roasted spices, that's not frying spices in hot oil.

Once ground, dry heated spices and non-dry heated spices when fried in hot oil will still only release whatever essential oils and flavours they have into the hot oil. The existing flavours don't change to something else during the cooking process.

In short, dry roasting whole spices and grinding and non-dry roasted ground spices will have completely different flavour profiles - they're not the same flavours.

This linked article explains all this far better than I can: http://www.azeliaskitchen.net/blog/dont-dry-roast-spices/

Quote from: gagomes on February 03, 2013, 09:08 PM
Thank emin-j! The cookery course may or may not cover "BIR". This is what I was able to get off from the school

I'm not sure you'll learn much about BIR style cookery from anyone working at one of Atul Kochar's restaurants. It's more kind of Michelin Starred Traditional Indian Cuisine than BIR. You know the stuff, fancy plates, small portions, intense flavours, not a bit of floating oil in sight!

I was very fortunate in my younger years to be a regular diner at the Star of India in Brompton Road, London, which was one of the very first Indian Restaurants to have opened in this country. Either just after or just before Veerswamy that Phil mentioned.

Oddly, Reza Muhammed, now a celebrity chef http://uktv.co.uk/food/chef/aid/530626 was a small boy when I started going there, his parents owned and ran it.

The very best Indian food I've ever had. Their Tandoori Chicken, (not the same at all as the Tandoori chicken you're probably familiar with) came to the table as a whole chicken with a web of fine coconut over it and I've never found the same ever again or a recipe for cooking it.

Quote from: Phil [Chaa006] on February 03, 2013, 09:42 PM
So on what basis do you argue that "spices don't cook".

Hi Phil

First of all I think we have to be specific about what we're referring to here. I'm talking about spices and more specifically about the frying of those spices in hot oil. I'm not really referring to anything else. When we fry spices in hot oil, we're extracting their essential oils, there is no 'doneness' there, either we extract the oils or we don't, spices are never cooked until they're done. What's the state of 'cooked till done' of a spice?

But again a lot depends on how you define the word cook. When we refer to the word cook and done we're normally referring to something that has a definitive state of 'doneness'. Either a piece of chicken is cooked until it's done or it isn't. Spices don't have that same state, hence the difference and hence why you cannot cook spices to a state of 'doneness'. They either release their essential oils into hot oil or they don't. This applies equally to ground spices as it does to whole unground ones, the process remains the same.

When you refer to the taste of raw turmeric or chilli powder for example being quite different to their taste when fried in hot oil, of course they're going to taste different. Ones had its essential oil extracted by frying in hot oil and one hasn't. They're not really comparable are they?

Quote from: Cory Ander on December 23, 2012, 01:05 AM
"Separation of the oil" indicates that much of the aqueous content has evaporated.

Agreed. That's exactly why the oil separates, because all the water has evaporated leaving just the oil. The water creates an emulsion with the oil in the pan, when all the water has evaporated, the emulsion breaks leaving just the oil, hence oil separation.

Quote from: Cory Ander on December 23, 2012, 01:05 AM
Indirectly, the inference is that the spices have been "properly cooked" (though why it should indicate this, exactly, I do not know).

But that isn't strictly true. The oil separation doesn't indicate the spices are 'properly cooked', only that all the water has evaporated. After all, spices don't cook do they?

What are we doing when we fry spices? Where does the flavour in spices actually come from?

When we fry spices we're actually just heating them up and extracting their essential oils into our frying oil, because it's the essential oils in spices that holds the flavours we're after. So we're basically just extracting and dissolving essential oils into our frying oil because our frying oil is a very good carrier of flavours which then go on to infuse into our other cooking ingredients. This is how and why oil that has had spices fried in it takes on the colour it does - that's the dissolved essential oils.

So going back to the oil separating - it cannot indicate that the spices are cooked, because they don't cook. What it does indicate is that all the water has evaporated and that if we continue to fry the spices without any water they will quickly burn and stick to the pan. This is why we need to move on to the next stage of the recipe - to stop the spices burning.

I actually believe (and it is only my personal supposition and opinion) that this stage, when all the water has evaporated and the oil separates is the most crucial stage of the entire curry cooking process or at least how long you continue cooking before adding in the the next stage of ingredients. And is probably one of the most misunderstood stages of the entire process.

How long you can continue cooking once the oil has separated and before the spices burn and before you add in the next stage of ingredients shapes the overall flavour of the entire dish.