Quote from: livo on August 17, 2023, 11:34 PM
cost AU $14 for 25g which is $560 / kg.  I can't justify that cost no matter how good it is.

Hmmm ... that is a mite on the high side. On the other hand saffron here is about £2850/Kg or $5661/Kg for you, so ten times yor asafoetida price. Is saffron that much cheap over there and do you buy that?

Quote from: livo on August 17, 2023, 09:51 PM
I've never been able to find the pure resin stuff.

Always available on eBay or Amazon if not locally. At least here in the UK.

Quote from: livo on August 17, 2023, 09:38 PMThere are 3 stages, melting onions, cooking and spicing chicken and then reduction and each stage is at least 20 minutes or more.

Not sure what you're referring to there livo? I know you know this already but the "melting onions" would be pre-cooked, I think they even call them dhansak onions. The lentils are precooked to a thick paste and the chicken will be pre-cooked as well as usual and the reduction would be five minutes on a busy night because you're using pre-cooked base sauce. So you're looking at a cooking time of about 10 minutes max.

Quote from: George on August 17, 2023, 05:55 AM
Chicken dhansak has been my favourite BIR dish for many years. I'd say about 40% of BIRs serve a dish with the flavours I regard as essential. It's more than sweet, sour and a little bit hot. The best BIRs produce an earthy, smokey type flavour, which is almost completely missing in the other 60% of restaurants.

Spot on. In the old days the dhansak was hot, sweet and sour but most importantly sooooo smoky! The only way to do it properly is to use the dhungar method (look it up it's quite simple). There's no quick smoking method that produces the same results.

Nowadays the dhansak's are polluted with pineapple and other crapifiers. By the way, I say this almost every time there's a dhansak thread, in my opinion the best are made purely with lemon and sugar as the sour and sweet elements and I strongly suggest Livo tries that mix first before proceeding to the plethora of alternatives.

Quote from: Robbo141 on August 16, 2023, 09:06 PMDoes anyone use asafoetida? I read some reviews that say it's so pungent you have to keep it in 2 containers and the smell can permeate your pantry.

The pre-ground stuff is junk. Mostly filler and a waste of time, it gives asafoetida a bad name. The pure resin on the other hand is fabulous - it's not called devil's dung for nothing!

Quote from: bhamcurry on August 14, 2023, 05:52 PMI'll do it with habaneroes because I am evil... 

An evil girl scout maybe. If you were really evil you'd pile in on the carolina reapers.

Quote from: pap rika on August 13, 2023, 10:25 PM
Haven't tried the king kebab meat from Iceland, but on your recommendation I will give it a try...

It's definitely worth a try but don't get over excited because it's nowhere near perfect. But it is, as I said, the closest I've found to the real thing so far. A tip on the cooking to get it just right (in my opinon): put a clump of the meat on a couple of folded paper towels on a plate and microwave at max for about 30 seconds. All you're doing here is trying to defrost the clump to separate the individual strips of meat. So then separate the strips and spread them out all over the paper towel. Then microwave at maximum again for no longer than 1 minute (check at 30 seconds). This stuff is already cooked so you're only aiming to heat it up sufficiently. If you overcook it it'll shrivel and lose some of its flavour. Those are rough timings so obviously adjust for your microwave. The paper towls are to soak up all the grease that comes out of them so if you want the grease then ditch the towels but I find it closer to the real thing if I use paper towels.

The closest I've come to actual takeaway doner kebab meat is King Kebab which is available from Iceland here in the UK (https://www.iceland.co.uk/p/king-kebab-house-doner-kebab-meat-350g/91174.html). It's very close but a little under spiced compared to the real thing and not quite lamby enough because lamb's not the main ingredient. Never heard of chicken doner when I used to get takeaway but that was nigh on 30 years ago now. None of that white-sauce crap either, only blisteringly hot chilli sauce. What a joy that was after a skinfull.

Talking about a lamb doner kebab recipe in general though there are a couple of things that it must have to compare to takeaway meat. First it has to have lamb fat from around the kidneys. And second it will have chicken in it but probably as the lesser ingredient after lamb or possibly mutton.

I was trying to find a recipe that matched the takeaway but then I came across the King Kebab from Iceland and that basically put an end to my search. The red chilli sauce is another story. I tried a few from youtube and they didn't really come close. In the end I settled on Doritos hot salsa which while not being a perfect substitute is pretty close. I blend it a bit to take the chunks out and add Encona original hot pepper sauce to get the heat right.

Between the King Kebab meat an the Dorito/Encona chilli sauce it's pretty darn close to what I used to get from the takeaway.

How about Nomato sauce? This is supposed to be ayurvedic but it does have carrot which you said is a no-no?

https://www.halepule.com/blog/nomato-sauce-recipe

Rich Nomato Sauce

Serves 6-8
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Augmenting
You'll need

    1 small sweet potato peeled and chopped

    1 small beetroot, peeled and chopped finely

    1 ½ tsp mineral salt

    1 ½ medium carrots, chopped

    1 tbsp dried coriander

    pinch hing (asafoetida)

    pinch turmeric powder

    pinch black pepper

    1 chopped date

    1 tbsp maple syrup - optional

    1 ½ tbsp ghee

    2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

    1 cup water

I've had these on the basis of others saying much the same as Phil in that they are supposedly very spicy. Well, yes, they are a bit tongue-tingly but not particularly chilli hot to my taste buds. But I am a phaal eater of old so no real surprise.