Topic: That missing taste - fao Pete

[Mark J]

Pete,

I still think we are missing a certain richness or depth to the dishes, in your posts on in2curry I seem to recall that when the chef was giving you a demo (or explaining the process) that they actually set fire to the contents of the pan, can you recall if this was the case?

[pete]

Yes they do set fire to the pan.
Not everytime but quite often.
They heat the oil and add a little very finely chopped onion/pepper or garlic/ginger puree
This is cooked for about three minutes and the oil gets very hot because there is very little in the pan.
It's at this point they add a spoon of the curry gravy.
This splutters like mad and a sheet of flame goes up
Watch out if you try this, it is potentially very dangerous
Keep a damp teatowel nearby to smother the flame and watch out for your hair too!
They add more curry gravy, bit by bit, with diminishing burning results.

The other time they do a flame thing, is while the pan is simmering.
Their gas rings are larger than on a domestic cooker.
The flames creep up the side of the pan and the little splutters it makes keep producing little flames.
About the size of a match flame.

If your curries are lacking a little "depth" try this......it makes a big difference.
Make your curry gravy as usual.
Heat about three tablespoons of veg oil
Very finely chop 2 fat cloves of garlic. Get the bits really small
Fry them until brown (carefull not to burn)
Stir the oil and garlic into your curry gravy
Use the next day
This really gives a massive amount of extra flavour, and one that you should recognise

[Mark J]

Cheers Pete,

I suspect that the dishes they do this to are the dishes that are predominantly the thick curry gravy based dishes ie balti, dupiaza jalfrezi etc and not the mild dishes such as pasanda, korma, tikka masala etc

I don't have a problem reproducing the mild dishes perfectly, its the rich depth of flavour in the others I describe that I dont have 100% yet (compared to my local BIR)

One final question - how do they put the flaming pan out?

[pete]

The pan goes out by itself
I have seen it burn between five and thirty seconds.
Then it dies down

[Mark J]

And they set it on fire by just tipping the pan towards the flame so the contents come into close proximity presumably?

Get the Chepstow firebrigade on standby here I come!

[pete]

What they do is shake the pan vigorously so that the oil splutters go into the flames.
Their gas rings are wider than ours, so that is easier for them to do
You may need to tilt the pan
Be carefull