Hi BB,

He is a very famous Indian Chef, also works with or for Sanjeev Kapoor I think who again is another very famous Indian Chef, lots of vids available from both.

The series below looked like a restaurant style teaching course, training up coming chefs. They make a couple of dishes from them too, not sure if you've seen those vids.

You can see perhaps from these how the AIR type developed, somethings a little different. Ie, no fresh tomatoes used here, tomato paste as there is no time to do all that.

The yellow gravy is very similar to a Yellow Gravy that is used at a Punjabi restaurant that I have been in the kitchen for as well, except he (Brisbane Chef) doesn't add nuts to it. He does that so that he can serve to people who have allergies and adds later if the dish needs it. He also doesn't blend it fully but keeps some texture in it so that when added to a dish it gives more body to the sauce.

For a Lamb Vindaloo for example :
1 chef spoon Yellow Gravy
2 chef spoon Lamb Gravy with Lamb Pieces(this is actually a gravy with the Lamb cooked in it, same happens for Beef, similar to JJ, quite thick)
1/4 - 1/2 chef spoon Vindaloo Paste -  this is store bought from All India Foods, Lashand Brand and is supurb, can only get it 5 kg tubs though! I'm thinking of getting one it's that good. Would use with JJ's Master Gravy and add to it.
Bit of hot water is added and salt if required.

Cheers,
Mark

Hi Chris,

I help run cooking classes here in Brisbane Australia with an Indian Restaurant Chef.

In regards to the Aussie market compared to the UK market with respect to curry, we are minuscule. That being the case though, we take on average 60-80 per week through cooking classes.

Given the love of curry in the UK I can only see that it would be a huge success there.

We teach introductory classes which cover the following:
One main non-veg dish: Butter Chicken / Chicken Tikka Masala / Murg Madras / Chicken Korma
One main veg dish: Bombay Aloo / Dal Tadka / Spinach Dal / Vegetable Dal
Raita
Naan Bread
Saffron Rice

We then run a Master Class series which builds on the skills learnt in the intro class, and includes dishes such as Vindaloo / Rogan Josh and other items.

He teaches the exact same recipe that is used in the restaurant albeit on a small scale for home use. And that is the important part, that what people taste at the end of the class is as good if not better then what they are used to from a restaurant. They also know that because they have cooked it in the class they can do it at home. We work in groups of four with each group having their own cooking station. Chef JJ cooks the dish in front of them so they can see exactly how it is done, then they cook the dish themselves knowing what to look for, when things get added etc.

We do marketing through our website and also through promotional voucher companies who reach thousands of people and take a commission from the class price.

We have been booked solid from late April through to September and are just about to do another promotional campaign.

Our website is http://indiancookingwithjj.weebly.com if you'd like to have an idea of how/what we do here.

Cheers,
Mark

Hi mjohn,

What part of Aus are you in, I'm in Bris.

You'll find the BIR versions of Butter Chicken are different to what we have here in Aus.

Regards,
Mark

Hi,

I tried making a BIR base the other day and I had to throw it, the smell was bl**dy awful.

This is what I did Oil in pot, heat add 1 kg onion, fry for 20mins or so to soften, add half green capsicum, one carrot and then hot water to cover. I let that boil away for a good two hours, the onions were sliced and it had 2 tsp salt in it.

Now while it was cooking it smelt pretty good, like a savory soup of sorts.

I then blended it, and that's when it went awful, the smell is not nice and very distinctive. I've had it happen before and I think why I stopped trying to make BIR and stayed with AIR cooking.

The plan was to then do the Zaal thing and fry the spices with and add it in. I had hoped that by doing this and adding the smell would be gone, but it was there as well.

I know some have described a soapy smell/taste as mentioned in KD's book and another Brisbane forum member has mentioned that underlying smell/taste as well.

Is that normal, or should it taste good as it is, I know it's not a curry as yet, but a vegie soup tastes better then the blended sh*te I'd made!

Got me stumped as to what to do different though as it was just veg. I even kept the ginger and garlic out of that stage to do like Zaal as I thought that might have been what caused me grief in earlier attempts.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The AIR cooking style is so much easier then this, but every British person I know raves about BIR food that I am kept interested in trying.

Cheers,
Mark

Hi All,

Sorry to take so long to get back regarding this.

The gravies used here are not the same as those I first posted on the site, different Chef, this one with 20+ years as an AIR chef, the other was only in his mid 20's!

They are not the same as Chef Harpal Singh's, quite different, but similar concept in that multiple gravies are used to create different dishes. Not so different in some regards to some BIR as Zaal has the Red Masala paste, which is very similar to our Butter Gravy, we have different spices and other ingredients. It appears more akin to the Zaal, Ashoka type style, the only difference being that we don't add lots of water to the gravies before making a curry. The chef's reason is that it stores better, ie more water means it goes off quicker, and also space, we have 6 different gravies, if these were all fully done with water it would take an incredible amount of room.

It's not the same as Madhur J's style either as this is making a concentrated gravy/paste that is then used with other ingredients to make curries from. I too had tried that style and also others, ie pureeing onions and it is not restaurant style.

I liken it to Thai cooking whereby they make multiple pastes, red, green, yellow etc and then use some of it when making the dishes. Not sure if they combine any of theirs though.

All our gravies are fried to very dark brown with the exception of one. Hard to say from your pic there BB, but should be really really dark. Also, when tasting, they should taste very nice as is, but it is a concentrate so it should be strong and as you mention you wouldn't eat a spoon full of it.

The gravy that BB was making was the Basic Onion Gravy, it is used in the following non-vegetarian dishes:

Korma
Madras
Kholapuri
Kadai
Jalfrezi
Palak Gosht / Beef Saag etc
Beef/Lamb/Chicken Rogan Josh
Mango Chicken/Mango Beef etc
Murg Masslam
Bhuna
Do Piaza

I don't know how it compares to BIR as I haven't had BIR. I have tried many types of BIR cooking from the site and others ie Dipu, and none of them tasted like what I was hoping, ie AIR and a particular AIR that I consider the best I have ever tasted.

What I do know is that it can be done at home and taste the same and like Panpot said in his threads, it really is the end of it.

On the weekend, we had 26 people working in groups of 5 and one of 6, each making Butter Chicken and Vegetable Korma, and they all did it on gas camping burners and with 15 dollar non-stick fry pans from local grocery store. They did this by themselves with the Chef and myself helping each of the groups along the way. This was there first time cooking it this way and it was supurb. I even took some of the leftovers home for the families dinner last night, it was perfect.

They also did Onion Pakora, and Naan (Saag Paneer) bread cooked on stove top and it was light, fluffy, soft and everything a naan should be, well at least one that wasn't cooked in a tandoor.

Regards,
MM