Quote from: Peripatetic Phil on February 19, 2020, 08:29 AM
Is there really no oil in your take on Patak's tandoori paste, Romain ?  Although I have none in the cupboard at the moment, I seem to recall that when I had some in the past, it did have a fairly obvious oil content (mustard oil, if I remember correctly), so I was surprised to find none in your recipe.  I do have a catering size Patak's kebab paste in the cupboard, and the oil in that is very obvious, which is why/how I can (and do) store it at room temperature for years after its "best by" date ...

** Phil.

None listed in the ingredients on what is sold here. It does look like it could have some oil but given that any paste is meant to be mixed by oil I didn't much see the point in guessing on that one. I suspect there's some in the ginger paste though and your point about it having preservative properties is taken. I think I'll add a bit to the recipe.

MickyP -  https://www.pataks.ca/products/tandoori-curry-paste

Last week I had a reader tell me that Patak's has discontinued its tandoori paste in the UK and I have a friend in Australia who reports the same there. I thought I'd give doing a copycat recipe a go as a public service .

I think I got very close. Slightly better to my palate but close. It's still available here and still listed on the Patak's Canada website curiously. Took me a few days as tasting tandoori paste straight from the jar is a palate blowing experience...

If anyone is interested the recipe for the copycat tandoori paste is available now.

Quote from: noble ox on February 15, 2020, 09:29 PM
Romain.......My best results have been to add 10% water to the base then cooking the chicken ,the water will soon reduce.....un-boned thighs cooked this way add some nice flavours .

I'm liking this concept more and more. When I cook homestyle I always use bone-in thighs and I don't ever pre-cook them. This has the makings of a good hybrid homestyle/restaurant style curry.

Cook the thighs. Remove them from the base and then proceed as you would for any gravy based curry. Nice!

The one thing that has always bothered me about pre-cooking chicken is the flavour from poaching the chicken is lost. Pre-cooking it in base has the benefit of capturing that. The downside I imagine (although I have yet to try it) is that the chicken won't have the benefit of poaching in a salty, spiced liquid.

Think I'll have to try both at the same time to see if that really matters in the final dish.

Cheers for the idea!

Quote from: Peripatetic Phil on February 15, 2020, 12:18 PM
Bangalore phall

Quote from: livo on February 05, 2020, 09:45 PM

Quote from: Peripatetic Phil on February 04, 2020, 07:45 PM
I now have some wooden-handled 21" 8mm square skewers on order as my present ones are too thin to turn the chicken satisfactorily.  I would be interested to know what those who have an authentic tandoor use by way of charcoal, as I was thinking of adding a charcoal layer below to supplement the gas heat from above.

I use natural wood charcoal along with, or instead of, gas in my Pakistani steel tandoor, depending on how much heat I want.  Not briquettes or heat beads, although I have used these in open grill / hibachi for doing Souvlaki and Kebabs and in the charcoal Weber for roasting birds and lamb legs. They are fine for these applications so they'd probably be OK in the tandoor as well but I like using the natural wood charcoal.  There is a butcher near me that sells 5 kg bags at a reasonable price, not that this helps you much over there.

Similar to this but cheaper.  https://thebarbecueco.com.au/products/royal-oak-hardwood-lump-charcoal-7kg?variant=23591696367716&currency=AUD&utm_campaign=gs-2019-06-28&utm_source=google&utm_medium=smart_campaign

I'm with you. All lump charcoal all the time!

Quote from: Peripatetic Phil on January 31, 2020, 10:00 AM

Quote from: romain on January 30, 2020, 11:55 PMEnsure was perhaps not the best word to use. Blind luck can result in a moist product. All other things being equal why do you think relying on internal temperature cannot ensure the protein is moist? At least more moist than the identical piece of protein cooked to a higher internal temperature

Not sure what led you to think that that was my position, Romain.  Determining the internal temperature is probably the most reliable way of maximising the probability that any one particular piece of meat will be moist, but of course many other factors come into play, the most important being (to my mind) the provenance and subsequent treatment and preparation of the meat itself.  However, I think it is fair to suggest that the average tandoori chef has neither the time, nor the need, to use an internal temperature probe

Alchy - Crazy question - what if you added a tablespoon of the paste to a final curry? With a drizzle of the spiced oil. I'm wondering, for big flavoured curries like madras, would it give it something special?

QuoteThe only ways to ensure moist protein are blind luck and measuring the internal temperature of the protein. If you don't own and regularly use an instant read thermometer all you are doing is guessing.

I don't think that "blind luck" can ensure anything, and certainly not moist protein (American ladies, please look away

All other things being equal - yes, that is a fair categorization that I should have included and will include next time I rant on this subject .

Certainly denaturing protein with acid (ceviche) falls out of scope. Brining possibly although I don't know if it just expands the temperature range in which perceived juiciness is acceptable. Something to look at when I have absolutely nothing else to do I guess.

Mickey - to your original question about humidity I found what looks like science on the subject. I did not read it in great detail but did skim it. It found, in beef, that humidity does play a role at extremely low cooking temperatures (80C) but did not at the other tested temperature of 204C.

Again, I did not read the entire paper so you may find some nuggets I missed or interpret it differently. It's a fairly dense read.

https://dl.sciencesocieties.org/publications/mmb/articles/2/1/334