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British Indian Restaurant Recipes - Main Dishes => British Indian Restaurant Recipes - Main Dishes => House Specialities => Topic started by: Aussie Mick on February 10, 2013, 02:53 PM
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This is the recipe (taught by Raj) that we now use:
this makes a large pot (about 16 litres) so you will need to scale it down
- 4 tbsps Coriander powder
- 4 tbsps Cumin powder
- 4 tbsps salt
- 2 tbsps Cardamom powder
- 2 tbsps chilli powder (kashmiri)
- 1 tsp hot chilli powder
- 1x3kg tin tomato paste (catering size like you buy in cash and carry)
- 1x3kg tin tomato puree
- Pour about half a litre of oil into a heavy bottomed pan and heat.
- Make a paste (with water) with all the spices and salt and add to the oil and cook
- Add tomato paste and puree. Then add about half as much water (ie one 3kg tin of water) and cook this until oil rises to the top.
- Add 500g butter. keep cooking until the mixture has thickened.
This is basically it. When we get an order for butter chicken, we add 300ml of this mixture to a pan, heat it through, then add a good dollop of cream and heat through, then add chicken tikka and heat through.
Serve with flaked almonds, coriander and a swirl of cream.
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Thank you Mick, I will definitely give that a bash! 8)
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OOPS
Sorry, forgot to say, add a bout 8 tbsps of garlic/ginger paste to oil and cook before adding spices.
Then when it is all finished, add about 14 tbsps sugar.
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Thank you Mick, I will definitely give that a bash! 8)
+1
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Looks about right Mick - I love butter chicken - we serve ours up with a desert spoonful of melted butter drizzled over the top and toasted almond flakes - goes down a treat its a best seller!
Cream already stirred in.
You can even do 5 coriander and 3 cumin.
best, Rich
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Thanks Rich I have to say I made a complete balls up of that recipe. I rushed it and forgot to get things in the right order, so if anyone is interested I'll do it again (properly) now.
BTW Rich, it is a very popular seller for us now. we sell about 4 times as much butter chicken than we used to when we were making BIR style. Thanks for the tip, I'll try more coriander than cumin next time.
Here goes:
To make 16 litres:
- About 8 tbsps Garlic ginger paste (65% garlic/35% ginger)
- Half a litre of oil
- 4 tbsps Coriander powder
- 4 tbsps Cumin powder
- 2 tbsps salt
- 2 tbsps Cardamom powder
- 2 tbsps chilli powder (kashmiri)
- 1 tsp hot chilli powder
- 1x3kg tin tomato paste (catering size like you buy in cash and carry)
- 1x3kg tin tomato puree
- 4 tbsps tomato ketchup
- A good handfull of methi leaves
- 12-14 tbsps sugar
- 0.5 kg butter
Method:
- Heat oil then add garlic and ginger and cook through
- Mix spices and salt together with water to make a paste and add to pan and cook through
- Add tomato paste and puree and about a third again of water.
- Cook until oil seperates about 30- 40 minutes, (a lid on the pan for the last 15 minutes or so helps)
- When oil releases add a methi (rubbed between fingers), ketchup and sugar and continue cooking for 10 minutes or so.
- Add butter and cook a further 10 minutes.
This is your butter chicken base. Some establishments would also add cashew nut gravy, but we don't as this would spoil in 2-3 days. our batch will last for a week.
If a customer orders a butter chicken we ladle about 360 ml into a pan, heat through and then add a good dollop of cream. Add chicken tikka and thoroughly heat through. Serve with flaked almonds, coriander and cream.
I was sceptical at first with all that tomato stuff in there, but I'm a fan now. if I'm having a butter chicken, I'll add a little base gravy to the pan, and a 1/4 tsp chilli powder. Cook for a couple of minutes and then add butter chicken sauce. it gives it a nice little heat lift for me. ;D
maybe i will introduce a "Butter chicken phall to our menu??? ???
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I've never had a Butter Chicken in all my life. Can you describe its taste and maybe compare it with some of the popular BIR curries ? I'm really interested in this dish.
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Hi Stonecut
An Aussie butter chicken, is like a spicy tomato soup, with a very sexy creamy smokiness added to it. Normally quite mild, but some places I have been, it has been served quite hot.
It's hard to really describe the taste, it's something you have to try. There is a reason that this is the most popular curry in Australasia by a country mile.
Try this recipe and see what you think.
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I made Mick's Butter Chicken for tonight's dinner, accompanied by his pilau rice (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,11192.msg90773.html#msg90773). It was excellent and well worth making! I might add that it received the highest praise from my good lady wife - and there is no higher praise, so I am told! :)
(http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/5c96e56a1af2c2e3e83c8a90614d5e58.jpg)
(http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/0fb1ff017a22e72b6cea6761d560d9f8.jpg)
I scaled the butter sauce recipe down by a factor of eight and, after adding 400ml of Zaal base gravy to the sauce, ended up with 3 double portions of 450g each. One double portion went towards our dinner tonight and the other two are in the freezer.
The scaling was a bit tricky, and I can't say how well my butter sauce compares with Mick's large-scale version, but it tasted great to me - tomatoey, hot, tangy and deliciously moreish. Here's the quantities I arrived at by making accurate measurements and doing the arithmetic with a spreadsheet:
5g coriander powder
5g cumin powder
9g salt
2g cardamom powder
3g Kashmiri chilli powder
1g hot chilli powder
63ml vegetable oil
12g garlic paste
8g ginger paste
375g tomato paste double concentrated tomato pur
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Naga, I love the exact metric measures. Well done that man.
Now, what's the difference between tomato paste and tomato puree? They mean the same to me.
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Naga, I love the exact metric measures. Well done that man.
Now, what's the difference between tomato paste and tomato puree? They mean the same to me.
Aye, I had a bit of difficulty with that myself and I was just about to update my post as you asked the question. I used double concentrated tomato pur
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Thanks.
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When butter chicken is done like that it is addictive. Before we had kids we would go to Indian once a week just so I could have the butter chicken.
I fixed a phone in the kitchen for the owner once and they had a big pot of that prepared for the nights meals and it smelled beautiful. Unfortunately they just don't make it as good anymore.
I was sure this restaurant used cinnamon as well? It was the cinnamon and cardamon that really made it.
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Thanks Mick, this is my next curry to try !
Edit
Where's the difference between tomato paste and tomato puree for you Mick ?
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Glad you enjoyed it naga and thanks for trying 8)
Just to clarify:
in OZ, tomato paste is the same as tomato puree in UK. Thick concentrated paste
Tomato puree is like paste watered down 3 parts to one with water. Passatta will do the same job, or you could water down tomato puree.
Pictures look great naga. Good on you for giving it a go. :)
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Naga that looks great. On the list. Not sure about the rice though. Looks a bit oily but probs the light in the photo.
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...Not sure about the rice...Looks a bit oily...
No, RD, you're bang on about the oil. If you compare Mick's photo with mine, there's a world of difference. I used a splash too much oil for the tarka and I thought, "What the Hell!" and just fired it all into the rice. So it DOES appear a bit oily in comparision, but to be fair, it tasted delicious and not oily at all. :)
Oh, and if anyone makes this dish, I would seriously advise using a splashguard for the uncovered cooking phase. My cooker looked like it had been a prop straight out of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre! :D
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...Not sure about the rice...Looks a bit oily...
Oh, and if anyone makes this dish, I would seriously advise using a splashguard for the uncovered cooking phase. My cooker looked like it had been a prop straight out of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre! :D
LOL. It does gloop and splatter a tad eh?
I did say, put the lid on, especially for the last 15 minutes. 8)
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Now I'm even more confused :/
In your (corrected) recipe you state both of these:
- 1x3kg tin tomato paste (catering size like you buy in cash and carry)
- 1x3kg tin tomato puree
So basically, I need two big cans of tomato paste but one of them additionally needs to get dilluted with water ?
Maybe I'm a bit daft but I could really need some clarification, hehe. Also, if I can use either - Do you still require me to dillute it or is the water already in the recipe ? If it needs to be pre-diluted then please state so in the recipe.
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OK
In Australia, tomato paste is the same as UK tomato puree.
In Australia, we can also buy a product called tomato puree, wich does not exist in UK (or didn't when I lived there.) It is a diluted form, much like the consistebcy of passata.
It's ok mate I still get confused, I often send the kids round to the shops to get a tin of "tomato puree", and guess what, they get the thin watery shite stuff, when I wanted the thick concentrated steuff....lol
I hope that makes sense coz i'm confused now.
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So Mick, is there an actual difference between these two things apart from one is more watery than the other? Otherwise you could just use a larger amount of one or the other, rather than both.
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No difference
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HI
Going to have a go at making this but one question...375g tomato puree....thats a lot of tomato as well as the passata. Does this work naga??
regards
Barry
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It definitely works, Barry. That was my first thought about the quantity of tomatoes, between the double concentrated puree, passata and ketchup, and why I only made a small batch. But I can really recommend it - it's delicious!
Remember that I added 400ml of Zaal base gravy to the final butter chicken sauce. I did this because Mick says he likes it with a little base gravy and some extra chilli. The quantities I have listed will give you approx 3 double portions once the base gravy is added.
Do give it a go - it's just as good as Mick said it would be! :)
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HI
Going to have a go at making this but one question...375g tomato puree....thats a lot of tomato as well as the passata. Does this work naga??
regards
Barry
Hi Mate
I was a little concerned too when i saw Raj (our tandoori chef) putting all that tomato stuff into the pan, I thought he was off his head. And upon my first tasting, i thought and commented that it was like spicy tomato soup...........well it is kinda like that, but very more-ish. You just have to try it and see for yourself.
i quite like the idea of adding some cinnamon as somebody suggested, and also adding more coriander than cumin as suggested by Rich. I will try this on the next batch and let you know of any differences.
We cooked a batch yesterday, and i mentioned to raj that a lot of butter chickens have a wonderful smokey flavour. He took a piece of hot charcaol from the tandoor, placed in it a ss dish, poured on some ghee and sat it floating on top of the mixture then put the lid on for about 20 minutes. I think it made a small difference. Sometimes they will add cardamoms or cloves or cinnamon to the charcoal and it does impart a nice subtle flavour.
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He took a piece of hot charcaol from the tandoor, placed in it a ss dish, poured on some ghee and sat it floating on top of the mixture then put the lid on for about 20 minutes. I think it made a small difference. Sometimes they will add cardamoms or cloves or cinnamon to the charcoal and it does impart a nice subtle flavour.
It's called a dhungar - the traditional way to smoke food.
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OK folks
I made up a new batch of this yesterday. I added more coriander powder than cumin, and I also added about 10 Indian bay leaves and 8 good sized sticks of cassia bark. (Each piece was about 4 -5 inches in length)
Didi it impove it? ............YES :)
It was a little heavy on the cinnamon, so next time I'll halve the quantity. i took the cinnamon and bay leaves out before adding the butter and sugar etc. Then i also added 2 tsps of home made garam masala.
We all tasted it at the shop and agreed that apart from the cinnamon being a little too heavy, it was a big improvement on an already very nice dish.
I'll let you know how the next one turns out. 8)
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Hi Mick any more news on the recipe with the new additions.
Cheers.
I am doing a few bases as i type this so thought i would give your recipe a go.
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OK folks
I made up a new batch of this yesterday. I added more coriander powder than cumin, and I also added about 10 Indian bay leaves and 8 good sized sticks of cassia bark. (Each piece was about 4 -5 inches in length)
Didi it impove it? ............YES :)
It was a little heavy on the cinnamon, so next time I'll halve the quantity. i took the cinnamon and bay leaves out before adding the butter and sugar etc. Then i also added 2 tsps of home made garam masala.
We all tasted it at the shop and agreed that apart from the cinnamon being a little too heavy, it was a big improvement on an already very nice dish.
I'll let you know how the next one turns out. 8)
Always more coriander powder Mick like i said before the cinnamon i would half - with too much cinnamon it makes the dish taste a little like its got washing up liquid in if you get what i mean. Dont forget to trickle melted butter over the top it makes a massive difference in presentation - and a few toasted sliced almonds to really top it off
best, Rich
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He took a piece of hot charcaol from the tandoor, placed in it a ss dish, poured on some ghee and sat it floating on top of the mixture then put the lid on for about 20 minutes. I think it made a small difference. Sometimes they will add cardamoms or cloves or cinnamon to the charcoal and it does impart a nice subtle flavour.
It's called a dhungar - the traditional way to smoke food.
Read somewhere that you can take an scooped out onion aswell, place the charcoal in that and proceed as mentioned above. Will try that someday.
Many people like to add a few cloves and cardamoms to their Makhani gravies, too.
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Hi Mick any more news on the recipe with the new additions.
Cheers.
I am doing a few bases as i type this so thought i would give your recipe a go.
Sorry mate, I've only just seen this.
Rich is correct, it works much better with a bit more coriander powder than cumin. And he is also correct that too much cinnamon is not good.
I now fry a couple of bay leaves and a small stick of cinnamon for about 30 seconds, and then remove before adding the garlic/ginger. I'm sure it gives it a little something extra..............but I could be wrong..lol
As Chonk suggested, cloves can be added (Raj suggested this) haven't tried that one yet, but will give it a go. We add cardamom powder to ours.
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No worries Mick made it anyway and what a lovely and rich tasting curry it was, will be making this again, i did add a little more coriander but didn't add any cinnamon but will do next time.
Thanks for sharing this recipe we both enjoyed it, going to make this again this Wednesday for a few friends so will report back.