Hi George,

You could well be right with your thoughts on the base gravy. I'm never as happy with my curries when I've used defrosted base sauce, as I am when I've used fresh!

Ray

Nice one Chris, looking forward to your results mate.

Ray

Hi Chris,

Yeah, the big skewers are great and being square, you can get a really even cook with them.  As for the expense of minced lamb, true it is dearer than beef but if can get to an Asian supermarket that has a resident butcher, you can pick up 500g for around 2.30GBP, which will make you 8 good size kebabs.

Anyway, good luck and shout up if you need any help,

Ray

Hi Toungey and a warm welcome to cr0 my friend.

Can I offer you some advice?  Use minced lamb instead of beef.  Most British Indian Restaurants and Takeaways use lamb and if that's the taste that you trying to replicate, then you would struggle using beef.

This is my recipe for Seekh Kebab but read through the whole thread first because there is an updated recipe further into the thread.  Try them both as I believe them both to be very good and have served me well for a long long time.  Here's the link ; https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4393.0

If you need any help, send me a pm and I'll do all that I can mate.

Ray

Hi George,

Dhansak was my first ever curry back in the early - mid 80's and it was beautiful, it really was.  It wasn't what I would describe as being hot though!

Around Manchester, I don't think a Dhansak is hot although I've seen many references on here as to it being hot?

As for pineapple, again, I've had it with and without chunks but much prefer it without.

I really hope that you crack this one George because I'd love to replicate that wonderful flavour of my first Dhansak.

Ray

Hi George,

Quote from: George on April 20, 2012, 04:05 PM
I'm sorry but my brain hurts even thinking about trying to work my way through your calculation!!

He he, fair enough George, nobody should be doing Maths (or MATH if you're an American) over the weekend anyway.!

Quote from: George on April 20, 2012, 04:05 PM
At the end of the day all that matters is whether your, and anyone else's resultant curries taste very good.

Spot on George. I'm visiting Julian at the beginning of June so I will be picking his brains over this seasoned oil.  I may even ask Julian to cook me 2 Madras's, one using seasoned oil and the other using pure oil and see what it brings.  Only problem being that both dishes will have been cooked using seasoned oiled base but you never know.

Hi Mark,

Quote from: Masala Mark on April 21, 2012, 01:46 AM
The base this day was start off with oil from the big thick metal wok thing that sits on the burner and is used to fry samosas, bhajis and all sorts of things, no chips though! It was only then that I realized we had fried tandoori chicken wings in the oil before hand as the chef was making a tandoori wing biryani for the buffet and that was what was coming through in the base, at that stage anyway.

Yes, totally agree, when using a wok, the flavour from the previous dish could come through, although it will be subtle.  The reason for this is, a carbon steel or iron wok should never be washed using a detergent or scourer.  It should just be rinsed in hot water, dried off over the flame, then re-coated with new oil.  This practise helps build up the seasoning on the wok know as "the Patina or Wok Hay"  This is basically harmless carbon deposits created when the wok is used at high heat, and so it usually traps some flavour of the previous dish.  A new wok can often produce a 'metallic' taste in the food until the Patina is in place.

Incidentally, Tandoori Chicken wings sound awesome.  I'm assuming that the chef would remove the skin and tips from the wings beforehand?

Ray

Hi George,

Totally agree, BIR's wouldn't do this however, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of them spooning out oil and adding it back to the base?

Quote from: George on April 20, 2012, 10:25 AM
But if you used seasoned oil in your main dish, it would add additional flavours to the "seasoned and concentrated" oil which you can prepare each time, so I don't think it can be ruled out for the reason you give.

Ok, let me try to explain it another way then; If I was to add say, 5ml of concentrate cordial, to 50 ml of water (Bhaji oil) then I would have a 10:1 mix ratio of liquid but if I added 10ml of concentrate cordial to 50ml of water (my spooned off oil) then I would have a 5:1 mix ratio, much stronger flavour.  So if I combined both the 10:1 mix and the 5:1 mix, I would end up with a mix of 7.5:1 which would result in less flavour than my 5:1 oil.  If my calculations are correct, I can't see how the addition of the bhaji oil would add anything more to the dish than my method of spooned off oil would.

Wow, maths on my day off, I need a rest now  ;D

Ray

Hi Welshman,

My own base sauce uses only onions, garlic, ginger and tinned tomatoes and produces a very nice base gravy.  Onions is key, if your base gravy is made of 90% onions, you're on the right track but you have to make sure that you give them a good long cook, if you want to release their sweetness that is.

Ray

p.s, I have used cauli before now, and it produced a very nice gravy.

Hi Gary, and welcome to cr0.

You're right of course, curries from different regions will have some subtle differences but in the main, you should get close to what you're familiar with, just tweak it to suit.

Happy currying, and if you've any questions or need any help, there are plenty of us on here to lend a hand if we can.

Best of luck,

Ray

Hi Chaps,

Been reading and watching the c2g post's with much interest.  This one (the spiced/seasoned oil) is the one that's bothering me the most.

I'm never going to make a batch of 40 onion bhajis, so, this particular seasoned oil is possibly unobtainable, for me at least.

Now, this is the part that is really niggling me. The usual suspects/ingredients in onion bhajis: Onions :, mixed powder, g/g paste, salt, chilli powder and then you have egg, besan, fennel/aniseed, kashmiri masala paste and sometimes potato.  I should imagine that the flavour that is imparted into the oil from these ingredients, is quite subtle?  Is it really going to make that much difference?

Now, at the start of most curries, in the main, we start with hot (pure) oil, then fry off g/g paste, then add the mixed powder, in goes the tom puree then a spoonfull of base.  Just give the pan a tilt and look at the colour of the oil.  Is this now not seasoned oil?  I would say that it is and I would say that it is far more seasoned and concentrate in flavour than a batch of bhaji oil could provide!

My usuall method is to start off with way too much oil, and then spoon off what I don't want at the end.  I filter this and store in the fridge, then use it to start off my next curry.  For me, it seems to add a little depth and sweetness but, it wouldn't be the end of the world if I didn't have it.  Maybe you guy's would like to adopt that method to produce a more realistic and practical way of getting your seasoned oil?

Ray