Thanks for your reply!

Something I've been wondering about is how to use star anise. I realize that if you use it to cook as whole spice then you just remove the whole spice again later.

However, there are recipes where it says to grind the star anise - do you really grind the whole star anise or just the seeds that are in them ?

From "Kenny McGovern - The Takeaway secret":

Traditionally the lamb doner kebab is cooked on a standing rotisserie and thinly sliced to order. The thin slices are perfect because the meat is generously seasoned. This home version is roasted in the oven and uses a classic doner spice mix to capture that authentic takeaway flavour.

1 teaspoon plain flour
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried Italian herbs
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
500 g/1.1 lb lamb mince

Preheat the oven to 180?C/350?F/Gas Mark 4.

In a large bowl, combine the plain flour, dried oregano, dried Italian herbs, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper.

Add the lamb mince and mix thoroughly for 2?3 minutes. Take out all of your aggression on the kebab mixture, punching and kneading until no air pockets remain and the kebab meat is extremely smooth.

Shape the seasoned mince into a loaf and place on a baking tray.

Bake in the middle shelf of the oven for 1 hour 20 minutes, turning the loaf half way through the cooking time to ensure even browning.

Once cooked, remove from the oven and cover with foil. Allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Slice the doner kebab as thinly as possible and serve with Pitta Salad (page 123) and kebab sauces.

Excellent, many thanks.

Hhhm, I had been wondering about all the redundancy but since I've never bought coconut block in all my life I just can't compare hence I left it in. If I take it out then I need some tips on how to replace it (ie. 1 tsp coconut block is equivalent to how much coconut milk ?)

Brown (also called "black") and green cardamom both appear to be popular the recipes on this site, along with the powders created from each. They're still only two different kinds of cardamoms but the powder is often called for, too, so if you don't have a spice grinder you might want to buy the powdered versions additionally.

Mace found no mention whatsoever in any of the recipes by the listed people. But I agree that it's useful. However - is it really common ?

As for the curry leaves - yeah, I only found like 2-3 recipes that use them. I guess I could take those out.

Quote from: solarsplace on June 13, 2012, 02:28 PM
Hi SC

Good list!

You may like to include Mustard Oil too. This is used in quite a few recipes.

Cheers

Thanks! There's already "Mustard Seed Oil" in the list

Many thanks, I bought this book about an hour after you mentioned it and had a look at it. Not surprisingly it doesn't seem to contain any truly new knowledge which isn't already on this forum. Moreover it is not really BIR-style since it doesn't use neither a base gravy/Garabi nor a restaurant masala/spice mix.

However, at the price you really can't go wrong. I found it to be quite interesting and the recipes appear to make sense even if not true BIR-style. Their advantage is that they require relatively few ingredients. The book is 187 pages so you get a lot of value for your (very little) money plus you help someone with a pretty devastating illness (Social Anxiety Disorder) earn a living. I actually enjoyed all the non-recipe content the most (Basics, Info about Ingredients ("Spiceopedia"), Methods, Shopping List, Curry Heat League Table, How to Impress Friends).

Here's one of the recipes so you can get a feel what the book is like:

TANDOORI CHICKEN
A most popular starter with its lightly spiced bright red chicken pieces blended with yoghurt. Marinating helps to make the chicken succulent. Serve with a green salad.

Spices
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon garlic
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder

Other ingredients
1 dessertspoon natural yoghurt
2 dessertspoons of cooking oil
A dash of lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 dessertspoon tomato ketchup
A drop of red food colouring (if you want to create the restaurant look)
2 breasts of chicken left whole or sliced into thick strips.

1. Put all of the spices into a cup and add a little water. Then mix into a paste.
2. Add two dessertspoons of oil into a pan and place onto a high heat.
3. Add the spice mixture and stir constantly for five minutes. Reduce the heat setting if the spices stick and add a little warm water from the kettle to avoid burning.
4. Drain off the oil and allow the spice mixture to cool.
5. Add the spices, salt, lemon juice, ketchup, food colouring and yoghurt into a mixing bowl and blend to a creamy paste.
6. Add the chicken to the spice mixture and blend the mixture together.
7. Prick the chicken with a fork to allow the marinade to seep into the meat.
8. Allow for marinating in the refrigerator for at least two hours.
9. Place the coated chicken pieces onto a foil lined grill pan and grill for twenty minutes on a high heat turning occasionally.
10. Transfer to serving dish and serve with fresh salad.

While I was at Amazon I also bought another book I found there while browsing:
Kenny McGovern - The Takeaway Secret

This one follows the base gravy/spice mix method as BIRs. Again, not really any new knowledge which is not on here somewhere but I really do like this book for some reason.

There's also a specialized edition "The Indian Takeaway Secret" available by the same author but the same content is included in the "full" version, too, so I recommend getting the full one instead because the extra stuff is quite interesting to me at least (Indian & Turkish Kebabs, chip shop recipes, chinese TA recipes, Pizza stuff, sides/salads/sauces as well as drinks & desserts). It makes for a nice change

Here's the Base Gravy recipe from that book:

BASIC CURRY SAUCE
(INDIAN RESTAURANT STYLE)
Makes enough Basic Curry Sauce for 7?8 Curries

This curry sauce can be frozen in batches and used in a diverse range of finished curry dishes. With the basic curry sauce prepared and ready for use, any of the curry dishes in this chapter can be created in around 10 minutes.

75 ml (2 1/2 fl oz) vegetable oil
2 carrots, chopped
1 1/2 large Spanish onions (around 700 g or 1 1/2 lb peeled weight), chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
2 1/2 litres (4 1/2 pints water)
2 tablespoons tomato pur?e
1 tablespoon garlic and ginger paste
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 tablespoon garam masala
1 large handful of chopped fresh coriander leaves and stalks
200 g tinned chopped tomatoes
25 g (1 oz) creamed coconut block
1/4 teaspoon salt

Heat the oil in a large stock pot and add the vegetables. Stir-fry over a medium heat for 5?6 minutes.

Add the water, tomato pur?e, garlic and ginger paste, coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric, garam masala, fresh coriander, tinned tomatoes, creamed coconut block and salt.

Bring the pan back to the boil on a high heat. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer for 1 hour.

Using a hand blender, blitz the sauce. Continue blending for 2?3 minutes until no vegetable pieces remain and the sauce is completely smooth.

Return the pan to the heat and simmer for a further 15 minutes. Add a little more water if necessary. The finished sauce should have the consistency of a thin soup.

Allow the sauce to cool and pour into freezer safe storage tubs. Freeze in 200?300ml/7?10 fl oz batches for up to 3 months. Each batch will provide enough basic curry sauce for 1 portion of curry.

Hey everyone,

while attempting to make some Seekh Kebab a couple of days ago I noticed that I always seemed to be missing one or two ingredients, no matter which recipe I tried. My improvised recipe did not turn out to well ...

So I finally sat down and made a note of every single ingredient used in CA's, C2G's, Panpot's/Ashoka's, Abdul Mohed's, Dipuraja's and CBM's recipes. I figured this might be a good thing to share even if the list really is quite extensive ...

Herbs and Spices
All Spice (Piment)
Asafoetida (Hing)
"Al Noor" Bassar (Kashmiri Masala - Pakistani)/Basaar
Bay Leaves (Asian)
Black Cardamom Seeds (or shell black cardamoms)
Black Pepper corns
Brown Cardamom Seeds (whole)
Cardamom Powder
Cardamom Seeds (or shell green cardamoms)
Cassia Bark
Chilli Powder ("Kashmiri Mirch" if possible)
Chaat Masala Powder (CBM only)
Cinnamon (ground)
Cinnamon Sticks
Cloves
Coriander Powder
Coriander Seeds
Cumin Powder
Cumin Seeds (black)
Cumin Seeds (white)
Curry Leaves
Curry Powder (mild - i.e. Rajah Mild Madras)
Dried Mint Leaves (i.e. Garden Mint)
Fennel Seeds
Fenugreek Leaves (Methi)
Fenugreek Powder
Fenugreek Seeds
Garam Masala (or make CA's or C2G's)
Garlic Powder
Ginger Powder
Green Cardamom (whole)
Green Food Colouring
Jaggery (Unrefined Palm Sugar)
Mango Powder (Amchoor)
Mustard Seeds (black / brown)
Mustard Seeds (yellow)
Nutmeg
Panch Phoran
Paprika Powder (sweet)
Rajah Mild Madras Powder - this would be great
Rajah All Purpose Seasoning (CBM only)
Red Food Colouring
Salt
Star Anise
Sugar
Tamarind (OPTIONAL)
Tandoori Masala Powder (or use CA's)
Turmeric Powder
Wild Onion Seeds ("Kalonji", "Nigella")
Yellow Food Colouring

Other Ingredients:
Almond Meal/Flour
Almonds (toasted)
Baking Powder
Basmati Rice
Brown Sugar
Butter Ghee
Carrot
Chapatti Flour
Chicken
Chicken Stock (optional)
Chilli Pickle
Chillies (fresh)
Coconut Cream
Coconut Milk Powder
Coconut Powder
Coconut Meal/Flour
Coconut (Block)
Coconut (Desiccated)
Corn Flour
Cucumber
Dried red chillies ("Kashmiri")
Egg
Fresh Coriander
Fresh Tomato
Garlic
Ginger
Gram Flour
Green Capsicum (Paprika)
Ketchup
Lamb (minced)
Lamb Stock
Lemon Juice (fresh)
Lime Pickle
Mango Chutney
Mango Pickle
Margarine (vegetable)
Milk
Mint Jelly (NOT in vinegar)
Mustard Seed Oil
Oil (for deep frying)
Onions (brown)
Patak's Balti Paste
Patak's Kashmiri Masala Paste
Patak's Madras Kebab Paste (or Pasco) and/or Patak's Madras Paste
Patak's Tandoori Paste
Patak's Tikka Paste
Pineapple Chunks
Potato
Red Capsicum (Paprika)
Red Lentils (pre-cooked)
Single Cream
Spinach
Sultanas
Tandoori Powder
Tomato Paste (diluted ?!)
Tomatoes (plum, tinned)
Vegetable Oil
Vinegar
White Cabbage
Yoghurt (Greek)
Yoghurt (not Greek)

Yeah, I know I can do a lot without them. However, just last night I made some Seekh Kebabs and whichever recipe I looked at I seemed to always miss at least one of the listed ingredients. It was very frustrating so I decided to compile a list of common ingredients in order to figure out what I still need.

The stuff above is just what I cannot get whatsoever. I'm also missing some more common ingredients such as Coriander powder - i spent an hour last night to crush enough seeds with a mortar just to get 2 tbs worth ... But that's a different story

Wow, excellent info Paul. Cheers for that. Spending (another) 35 pounds on spices would cause my wife to kill me after all, however ... I will keep it in mind, though. I'll also need to find out about the black (but actually pink) salt, hehe.

Do you think that the Patak's Kashmiri Masala paste would be a good substitute ?