Curry Recipes Online

Curry Chat => Lets Talk Curry => Topic started by: 976bar on October 12, 2012, 07:12 PM

Title: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: 976bar on October 12, 2012, 07:12 PM
Curry night on a Thursday is becoming evermore popular now that all the students are finding their way around and select which restaurant they want to eat in.

Last night, I made 10kg of Garlic Chili Chicken and 10kg of Chicken Tikka Chasne, (having marinaded the chicken tikka for 24 hours) along with 30 (vegetarian) Keema stuffed peppers and a 3kg bag of red lentils (Tarka Dhal). Along with other dishes (which we have to provide to cater for everyone), there was rice, naan breads, poppadoms, coriander chutney (which seems to go down really well), and as we had ran out of yogurt, just Mango Chutney.

We ran out of curry at 6.30pm having started at 5pm and had to retrieve the situation by making a chicken tikka masala (knorr professional pastes) and a Chicken Dopiaza (made from scratch with no base sauce but extra hot as we had to have a mild and hot curry).

Next week we have decided to make 40kg of curry, not sure what I am going to make yet, but I know we have to increase the output by at least 2.

I am currently talking to the head chef to persuade them to start an open kitchen at lunchtimes like they do with the Chinese.. freshly cooked in a wok and served.

I want to do the same with a limited amount of Indian dishes as well. Pre cooked Chicken/lamb/chicken tikka, base sauce, spice mixes, pre cooked rice, vegetarian options, naans/poppadoms, chutneys etc.

It has been generally approved, but we need to just sort out the detail, so hopefully soon :)

(http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/001a76338a35ae9a56690c21ada37687.jpg) (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/#001a76338a35ae9a56690c21ada37687.jpg)

(http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/c367c803418e458c7e86c461db047668.jpg) (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/#c367c803418e458c7e86c461db047668.jpg)

(http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/ace00c56a95e6e78cf7e8f7bc589c12a.jpg) (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/#ace00c56a95e6e78cf7e8f7bc589c12a.jpg)

(http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/pics/5704cfeda2b73381b8305f8dce847148.jpg) (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/#5704cfeda2b73381b8305f8dce847148.jpg)
Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: Micky Tikka on October 12, 2012, 07:57 PM
Bloody well done Bob
Not surprised its running out your spoiling them  ;)
Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: GulfExpat on October 12, 2012, 08:51 PM
AWESOME work, Bob!

You're like Bill Buford in book Heat!

 :)

Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: 976bar on October 12, 2012, 09:18 PM
AWESOME work, Bob!

You're like Bill Buford in book Heat!

 :)

Not quite sure what that means lol, but how did the other recipes I sent you turn out? :)
Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: Naga on October 12, 2012, 09:54 PM
Exceptional effort, mate, and the grub looks fantastic! There must be a book deal in this lol! :)
Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: chillihothot on October 12, 2012, 10:51 PM
How much do students pay? This is pretty inspiring stuff.
Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: chef888 on October 13, 2012, 09:04 AM
looks great food bob well done m8 :-) any chance of the keema stuffed pepper recipe plz mate ty ( ivan )
Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: Peripatetic Phil on October 13, 2012, 09:21 AM
How much do students pay?

Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: GulfExpat on October 13, 2012, 09:36 AM
AWESOME work, Bob!

You're like Bill Buford in the book Heat!

 :)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heat-Bill-Buford/dp/0099464438/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350117435&sr=8-1 (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heat-Bill-Buford/dp/0099464438/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350117435&sr=8-1)
Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: GulfExpat on October 13, 2012, 09:57 AM

...how did the other recipes I sent you turn out? :)

The Lemon-Garlic Shrimp and Chilli-Garlic Prawns are staple midweek recipes at college: Quick and Delicious :)

I'm still working through the other recipes, again, great stuff. Many thanks, Bob!


Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: 976bar on October 13, 2012, 10:22 AM
looks great food bob well done m8 :-) any chance of the keema stuffed pepper recipe plz mate ty ( ivan )

Hi Ivan,

Here's the link to the recipe. I just substituted meat mince for Linda McCartney's veggie mince :)

http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=7684.0 (http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=7684.0)
Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: 976bar on October 13, 2012, 11:38 AM
How much do students pay? This is pretty inspiring stuff.

I'm not sure, I've always been to busy to even bother looking at the prices. I'll take a look next Thursday when we do the next one :)

I do know that there are two price tiers though as some students pay a certain amount up front each year which then makes their meals cheaper.
Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: Stephen Lindsay on October 13, 2012, 12:36 PM
My goodness Bob you are The Curry King!
Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: chef888 on October 14, 2012, 08:59 AM
thanks a lot bob must have a go at that sounds yummmmm tc mate :-) ivan
Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: Dajoca on October 25, 2012, 12:02 PM
Awesome post as always Bob and really well done for landing the job in the first place.

I bet the students are thrilled with having someone on the staff who can turn out such quality Indian food as opposed to the good old Brit curry with sultana's.

So when are you going to start offering lessons?  ;)
Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: Malc. on October 25, 2012, 01:42 PM
Brilliant, simply brilliant, looks like your getting the hang of this cooking malarkey. :P


How did the peppers go down i'm certainly going to give your recipe a go, the wife loves these.


What do you think of the Knorr professional tikka masala paste?


I also noticed you mentioned not using base for the dopiza which may imply you used based for the other dishes. I just assumed that you would bulk cook in a traditional way as opposed to BIR, did you really use base?


Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: curryhell on October 25, 2012, 09:33 PM
Just catching up on the events on the site having returned from two weeks in the carribean.  I could have done with some of that mouthwatering looking food there :P. I look forward to the Uni updates as they always make my mouth water.  You just seem to be going from strength to strength Bob.  Long may it continue.  It's a shame that so many people in catering nowadays do not have or have lost the passion that you have :-\
Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: 976bar on October 25, 2012, 09:55 PM
Awesome post as always Bob and really well done for landing the job in the first place.

I bet the students are thrilled with having someone on the staff who can turn out such quality Indian food as opposed to the good old Brit curry with sultana's.

So when are you going to start offering lessons?  ;)

Funny, you should say that, (and not being big headed here), and teaching Chef's from Sri Lanka how to cook BIR food in the Kitchens. Don't get me wrong, they cook some mouth watering traditional Indian dishes, which I am learning as well, and will eventually get to post some recipes on here, but they had never heard of base sauce before or hardly any of the curries from a BIR restaurant...  :-\

I got head chef to buy 6kg of Mutton which arrived on Tuesday, which had been marinading in the fridge and as I was late's today got them to slow cook it at 7.30 this morning for 5-6 hours, so it was just falling apart and tonight made a mutton madras, using the juices from the meat, which was amazing.

The other dishes tonight were, 20kg of Chicken Makhani (butter chicken), 3kg Tarka Dhal, a baby aubergine, potato and mushroom veggie curry.

The usual's, rice, popadoms, naans, coriander chutney, cucumber raita, mint yogurt and mango chutney.

I have pics if anyone is interested...

The knorr professional pastes are in fact made by Pataks, so go down really well. I've asked the head chef to get some kashmiri masala paste for next week.

Tonight's Chicken Makhani, was marinated on Tuesday with Knorr professional Tandoori paste, Greek yougurt, lemon juice, G&G and a spice mix. I pre-cooked the chicken in the ovens while making the sauce, then drop the chicken in about 15-20 minutes before serving so it stays succulent and doesn't dry out. However, it does sit there from 5 -7.30, so am thinking from now on to include 2 trays of chicken for the first serving, then cooking the other 2 trays a little later on.

The only trouble with that is that you cannot predict the students movements, and if you get a rush, they may be waiting around while the chicken cooks.... a dilemma......

The passion is there, and I want to do more, but it is on a large scale therefore can only be refined to a degree....
Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: 976bar on October 25, 2012, 10:06 PM
Brilliant, simply brilliant, looks like your getting the hang of this cooking malarkey. :P


How did the peppers go down i'm certainly going to give your recipe a go, the wife loves these.


What do you think of the Knorr professional tikka masala paste?


I also noticed you mentioned not using base for the dopiza which may imply you used based for the other dishes. I just assumed that you would bulk cook in a traditional way as opposed to BIR, did you really use base?

Hi Malcolm,

Yes, we make base for all the currie's and even have the Sri Lankan chef's trying it out on their traditional curries now too, which they are loving..

I usually make a 5kg (chopped Onion) Taz base, which amounts to about 10kg of liquid base which we have got to an art now. My only bug bear is that the, "whizzer" we use does not blend to a really smooth base and we have nothing else at present which will take it further, so the base is a little grainy, but the flavour is there...

I let one of the other Sri Lankan chefs make the Dopiaza, which was a basic BIR dish but he used curry leaves and did it his way with water, which turned out really nice for a traditional curry, but was not anywhere near a BIR curry.

As mentioned previously, the Knorr professional pastes are made by Patak's and are very nice :)
Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: Malc. on October 26, 2012, 04:12 PM
Hi Bob,

Interesting comments regarding the Sri Lankan chefs loving the base, I guess its something new to add dimension to what they already know. I am certainly looking forward to seeing some of their traditional recipes.

Clearly you are passionate about this, I have enjoyed reading your topics as you progress. I think the thing that I admire most is that your producing the food in bulk. You seem to be coping with it very well. Perhaps you could ask the head chef to buy a Tandoor ;)



Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: 976bar on October 26, 2012, 06:00 PM
Hi Bob,

Interesting comments regarding the Sri Lankan chefs loving the base, I guess its something new to add dimension to what they already know. I am certainly looking forward to seeing some of their traditional recipes.

Clearly you are passionate about this, I have enjoyed reading your topics as you progress. I think the thing that I admire most is that your producing the food in bulk. You seem to be coping with it very well. Perhaps you could ask the head chef to buy a Tandoor ;)

Hi Malcolm,

Thanks for the comments. Yes, it is a passion of mine :)

The Tandoor is on the list, but given some of the antiquated equipment in the kitchen already, I dare ask for a Tandoor right now.

The other main restaurant at the Uni, (The Founders) was closed today, so we had the bulk of the students, and guess what? Friday being Fish & Chip day, the main deep fryer decided to pack up and we had to resort to one of the smaller fryers for "Grab & Go" (Chinese dim Sum/Prawn selection) and Chips, (You would not believe how many bags of chips we get through in a single session) all had to be done with these silly little fryers lol, it was manic but we got through....

We have an open day tomorrow, expecting some 3000 people, so not quite quite sure how we are going to do chips right now.... :)
Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: emin-j on October 27, 2012, 05:24 PM
Fantastic Bob  ;) all looks wonderful  :P Good to see a crO member showing em how to do it  ;D
Bob,what was the reason for using the Taz base is it your favourite at the mo ?
Title: Re: Another Curry Night at the Uni...
Post by: 976bar on October 27, 2012, 06:21 PM
Fantastic Bob  ;) all looks wonderful  :P Good to see a crO member showing em how to do it  ;D
Bob,what was the reason for using the Taz base is it your favourite at the mo ?

Hi Emin,

The main reason for using Taz's base is because it is a simple base, (albeit my favourite base), but also because when making it on such a large scale, prob in the region of 10 litres of the final base at a time, and also because I have to still make all the final dishes in bulk, I am never going to achieve the flavour of a single portion as would be cooked in a restaurant.

However, having said that, the final dishes are coming out better and better all the time, based on such a large scale.

I have made a few individual, one - two portion curries on the stove in the kitchen which have come out just like I would make at home, albeit, the blender we have does not blend the base as smoothly as I would want it to be...

Hope this helps :)