Curry Recipes Online
Beginners Guide => Just Joined? Introduce Yourself => Topic started by: sharps on July 12, 2011, 10:14 AM
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Hi there all
When at college back in the 80's and in order to earn a few bob, I worked in an Indian Restaurant kitchen in the evenings for 6 months as a veg prep. I learnt a lot of their "secrets" just by watching and would mutter my observations into a little cassette dictaphone. I then used to make up my notes when I got home after my shift. As you can well imagine I became very popular among friends when it came to dinner parties because my curries tasted like the restaurant's and not like those out of a cookbook!
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Hey Sharps,
Welcome to cr0 fella ;D
Looking forward to you sharing with us your knowledge and a few of the secrets. We have at least 3 members now that have worked in the BIR (British Indian Restaurant) kitchen, so it should be really interesting to see how your styles match or differ.
All the best,
Ray :)
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Oh wow. This sounds very promising! :D
Any recipes that you can share?
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Hi sharps58
Welcome to the forum, a great place to publish your curry memoirs.
Do you still have your original notes, as I'm sure the members would be more than interested.
Was the restaurant Bangladeshi or Pakistani and in what area
How would you say your curry skills have evolved over the years
Cheers Chewy
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Welcome to cr0 sharps,
enjoy the site.
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Hi Sharps
Warm welcome, what a tantalising first post, I really look forward to hearing anything you would be kind enough to share.
Cheers
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Hi all!
Well, what a lovely warm welcome from you all, thanks! The restaurant I worked in is sadly long gone. I'm pretty sure that the owner was from east Bengal. One of the many things that have stuck with me over the years is that his cooks would NEVER use pineapple in a Dhansak, they would only ever use jaggery as the sweetener. It really does make all the difference. Also, I learnt that the length of time bhuna-ing spices in any dish is critical because of the variation in the rate of release of the different essential oils. The old boys doing the cooking (and they were all 60+) just knew by instinct "how much, when and for how long". It was like alchemy!
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Welcome Sharps this does sound promising any info on the base gravy you might have would be most welcome!!!!
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snip... I learnt that the length of time bhuna-ing spices in any dish is critical because of the variation in the rate of release of the different essential oils. The old boys doing the cooking (and they were all 60+) just knew by instinct "how much, when and for how long". It was like alchemy!
Hi
Don't suppose you could elaborate on that any further could you please?
Any recollection of timings, heat used, ghee / oil - how much etc? anything at all really?
Thanks in advance!
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Welcome aboard Sharpy it's a great ship hope you can offer up some more tips - plenty of good stuff on here that could help you as well. By the way I must ask a question that has been niggling me for ages did you ever see tins of tomato soup being used by any of the chefs?
Bon post
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welcome to the forum Sharps - am gonna ask a different question here - how did you find the forum?
regards
Steve
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Hi Sharps - welcome - looking at your avitar anything to do with Sharps Bewery at Rock Cornwall???
Mighty fine establishment and I can't remember any thing about my last vist there!!!!!
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Welcome aboard Sharpy it's a great ship hope you can offer up some more tips - plenty of good stuff on here that could help you as well. By the way I must ask a question that has been niggling me for ages did you ever see tins of tomato soup being used by any of the chefs?
Bon post
Nope, can't ever recall tomato soup being used.
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welcome to the forum Sharps - am gonna ask a different question here - how did you find the forum?
regards
Steve
Was just surfing and stumbled upon the site
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Hi Sharps - welcome - looking at your avitar anything to do with Sharps Bewery at Rock Cornwall???
Mighty fine establishment and I can't remember any thing about my last vist there!!!!!
I wish! I'm a drummer and my nickname has always been Sharps (it's an "in" joke and is the opposite to Flats)
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welcome matey
This sounds very promising! ;D
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Hi all!
Well, what a lovely warm welcome from you all, thanks! The restaurant I worked in is sadly long gone. I'm pretty sure that the owner was from east Bengal. One of the many things that have stuck with me over the years is that his cooks would NEVER use pineapple in a Dhansak, they would only ever use jaggery as the sweetener. It really does make all the difference. Also, I learnt that the length of time bhuna-ing spices in any dish is critical because of the variation in the rate of release of the different essential oils. The old boys doing the cooking (and they were all 60+) just knew by instinct "how much, when and for how long". It was like alchemy!
I only ever use Jaggery to sweeten a dish as well, and the way to do this is to put it in a saucepan on the hob and let it melt and then caramalise it. You could do this the same way with sugar as well, it not only sweetens the dish but it also gives it a more smokey/burnt taste depending on how long you let it caramalise for :)
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Sorry Sharps!!
Also welcome to the forum, you'll find everything you need here, but judging from your background, I think you'll be contributing quite a bit as well :)
By the way, I used to play Bass Guitar back in my hay days and was in a local band, which never got anywhere which was a bit disapointing. When at school I was in the school band and used to play nearly every brass instrument going :)
Happy Currying!! :)
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I'm a drummer and my nickname has always been Sharps (it's an "in" joke and is the opposite to Flats)
a drummer talking about sharps and flats? I always thought the definition of a drummer was someone who hangs around with musicians?
::)
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Hi Sharps - welcome - looking at your avitar anything to do with Sharps Bewery at Rock Cornwall???
Mighty fine establishment and I can't remember any thing about my last vist there!!!!!
It's a shame sharps have been bought by Coors let's hope their beers remain as good (not hopeful though)
Welcome to the forum Sharps :)
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Hi there
cant wait to see the variations on my recipes
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I'm a drummer and my nickname has always been Sharps (it's an "in" joke and is the opposite to Flats)
a drummer talking about sharps and flats? I always thought the definition of a drummer was someone who hangs around with musicians?
::)
Steady...