Its coming. Its coming. 

Edit - ok so here it is.

This task was set for me by the Curry Master himself, Monsieur Chewy Tikka of the northern territories.  I was invited to attempt his own take on a 2 pan Rogan Josh. Now this was absolutely ideal for me as I had been meaning to do a RJ for sometime but never got around to it. My first hurdle was that this recipe did not appear anywhere on CRO so CT was set the task of documenting this for our enjoyment. What did he do instead?  Made a full video and ate about a dozen portions himself in as many days to make sure it was right. Bless him ( and his stomach !! )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms2dqvaNCRU   ( am I allowed to post the link CT? If not then let me know. )

Armed with information from aforementioned video I set about my task. I must apologise at this stage for the lack of 'porn' , well at least at the various stages. Daughter has purloined my camera and phones are a pain. You therefore only have a pic of the final dish and that, to be fair, is not great. Dark meat in a dark sauce does not lend itself to pic of the year!!

Onward, the dish itself was straight forward to make. I went with mutton having just acquired and pre-cooked a nice batch from Smithfield Market. I used C2G base ( tweaked to my liking ). Further, I had actually run out of white onion ( unusual in this house ) so red onion and green pepper were used as the veg. Other than that , all to spec I think.

I won't blather on about actually making it other than to comment on the use of the chilli and coriander mix which I have not used before and thought it added a depth of freshness to the final dish. Nice one, will use again.

So without further ado, to my verdict / comment. The first pan was gorgeous. Rich, with a bite and the freshness previously mentioned. The mutton added to the richness and the odd piece of veg also came through. Suitably dark in colour which, imho, a RJ should be. Now comes the 'crunch' and whilst I question, who am I to take on the big man,  I was really left puzzled about the purpose of the second pan part of this dish. I am not a massive lover of lumps of veg mixed in with my main course meat or chicken dish but found the veg in the first pan was spot on and blended really well with the flavours etc. The second dish left me cold and wondering , why go to the effort.  Ok. perhaps it is / was me so - I cooked the bl**dy thing again.  Nope, still cannot understand the reason for the second pan and I actually think it is detrimental to what was produced in the first pan. Sorry CT - really tried with this but it is the one pan jobbie for me in future and, very nice it is too. 

To conclude may I raise a question for those of you out there? What actually makes a Rogan Josh ( or however you want to spell it ) a Rogan Josh? What defines it? What separates it from the rest?  I am not actually sure as it is one of those dishes that varies so much from place to place, more so than some of the others.

Quote from: failsafe on April 22, 2013, 03:48 PM
Thanks Rubydoo
will check out those other bases. BTW is there no substitute for fresh corriander?

Nope.   

Quote from: failsafe on April 16, 2013, 01:07 PM
Well, finally got round to making my first base sauce using CA's recipe. 

The only alterations were:
1. My tomatoes were slightly over CA's 175g
2. Slightly over with the carrot
3. Used 4 large onions, which was the nearest to the recipe weight
4. Green pepper just +/-

I left out the coriander. Simply because I had non

Used CA's spice mix

I got 6 x 300ml which I put 2 x 300ml in containers and 4 food freezer bags which I first chilled then stored in the freezer.

Hard to say what it tasted like because never tasted one before. To me it looked like a rather thick like soup and wasn't sure if I should have added a bit more water to thin it. But decided against it in the end. 

I have (hopefully) posted pics

The first is at the cooking stage using a 6ltr pot
Second, bagged up ready to be chilled and frozen

I had much the same result with this base. Far too thick when following recipe but that is easily remedied by watering right down. I think there are better. CT, C2g etc. not really something to taste as it is just one layer towards the finished curry. Absence of coriander not good though imho.

Was down for me yesterday morning for a couple of hours.

Check out their lock & lock prices. 

Quote from: DalPuri on April 09, 2013, 05:08 PM

Quote from: RubyDoo on April 09, 2013, 05:03 PM

Quote from: DalPuri on April 09, 2013, 04:45 PM
I was thinking about creating a mixed powder recently. There must've been a crossover point in BIR's in the early days when chefs started producing a large pot of gravy/stock alongside traditional methods and spicing?

So i was thinking of including the traditional spicing used in most Indian curries.

Brown mustard seeds
Cumin seeds(already incl)
Methi seeds
Hing
Curry leaves

Maybe even some gram or urad wash?

Any thoughts? or has this been done already.

Cheers, Frank. 

Start going that way and you are approaching Glasgow base principal but in the mix?   Not necessarily bad but limits / dictates what you add  during the 'cook'. ?

I didnt mean in the base though Ruby, Just as a mixed powder in the final dish cooking.
I like to keep my base spicing very simple like the Taz base. Coriander, Cumin and Turmeric. (perhaps a mild chilli/paprika)
This gives me more control over the final dish.

Appreciate that. Just thought that a basic mix then allows for more variety further down the addition of ingredients. That said, how anal do we get. ? Example , the Jaipuri mix is great but I would not use it for a Madras but if you use the additional bits like Garam Masala Etc all the time in your dishes then I agree that this is the way to go if suits. Waffling now as have to run. Hope that makes sense.
 

Quote from: DalPuri on April 09, 2013, 04:45 PM
I was thinking about creating a mixed powder recently. There must've been a crossover point in BIR's in the early days when chefs started producing a large pot of gravy/stock alongside traditional methods and spicing?

So i was thinking of including the traditional spicing used in most Indian curries.

Brown mustard seeds
Cumin seeds(already incl)
Methi seeds
Hing
Curry leaves

Maybe even some gram or urad wash?

Any thoughts? or has this been done already.

Cheers, Frank. 

Start going that way and you are approaching Glasgow base principal but in the mix?   Not necessarily bad but limits / dictates what you add  during the 'cook'. ?

S of I  trick for me is when I need to restock on rice.  Large bag goes good way towards free postage. 

Have used and never had a problem from Spices of India. Love local shopping too though.

Is this a 1st?  3 of us agreeing in a row. 

............ And then you get the inconstancy from one particular venue. Why is it , once in every now and again, we get a tub of rubbish from what is normally a great TA?  Laziness? Busy? Crap chef?  Don't often order in these days but youngest handed in dissertation today and caught me unawares with, Dad, do us a curry. I am NOT cooking again tonight so in hands of local T a once more.