I"m dreaming of stuffed naan for my packed lunch. Unfortunately it's not happening this week

Sounds interesting. I think I'll put this on my birthday Amazon list. Cheers.

Fine looking curry. I was going to try this recipe a couple of weeks ago, but I either forgot or couldn't find the video. Thanks for the link.

I'm also starting to use a lot more black pepper in recipes. In fact this is how I differentiate 'my' 'madras', from 'my' vindaloo, i.e. black pepper/ cider vinegar in vindaloo. More chilli obviously too.

I'll have a go very soon.

Good to see the weather is not detering you.

Quote from: alarmist10 on July 02, 2015, 08:32 AM
Thanks for the recipe and 'method' SR.  As someone who has always added the tomato puree after the spice mix powder it'll be interesting to see if there's any difference in flavor, consistency etc.  Do you find it makes a difference or is it purely procedural?

Best
Al

I've tried adding mix powder first, puree and powder at the same time and lastly puree before mix powder.

My completely subjective opinion is that puree first gives very slightly better results. It could of course have just been luck given the sample size.

Nice looking Madras SR by the way.

8/8 lucky on Q4

You've just ruined my day lc

1. I don't understand the 'delta + 2 mins' bit. Are we heating the oil or the wok?

2. I find it hard to believe that a wok won't reach the same temperature with a tbsp of oil in it, if it's added before or after the pan is hot. Again are we interested in heating the oil or the wok?

3. There are no advantages, but I can see no obvious disadvantages, oil does not catch fire or explode if it's heated for 2 minutes in a cold pan, it catches fire because it reaches a specific temperature.

I have a couple of professional chefs as friends and they haven't been able to convince me either. I think for a lot of people and chefs it's become a handed-down habit.

As I say I never though about it until I started cooking on induction, and I've never really notced any difference.

I'd love to be proved wrong, but 'chef's do it like that' doesn't wash.

In other words, you don't know

Noone's yet managed to answer my question of why you can't add the oil to the wok cold and then heat it to the required temperature. I've been told chefs 'do it like that' but I can't see the science behind it.

I only stopped pre-heating my pan or wok because it's not recommended for induction.

Fried onions are a definite must!

I think I'll go back and try Biryani again, I cook on induction and I just need to sort out the timings. Thanks Dalpuri for the comments, I now remember that I should try putting a frying pan under the saucepan.

Cooking the meat seperately works fine but I'd like to master the one-pot style.

Apparently a good chef can tell when it's ready by hitting the outside of the pot and listening to the sound it makes.

*If anyone's interested in trying it there's a very good 'sour berry pulao' recipe in Rick Stein's India book, which while not a biryani is a very dish cooking the meat first.