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Messages - curryhell

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1
Lets Talk Curry / Re: Balti (Shababs)
« on: October 26, 2023, 05:21 PM »
Don't know how I missed all these very tempting balti delights.  Heavy on the oil which is no doubt essential. If only  you delivered Rob   :sad:

2
Some tasty looking dishes there Bob but I think i'd be spooning off the excess oil as there's plenty of it. May be i'll get to Manchester to try some of these once  I retire. I'm sure kebabs easily pass muster and those rotis look perfect for scooping.  Any chance of you putting up your recipe of balti chicken ginger along with some pics of the stages?

Off topic, I was trawling the site recently and happened across your post on the day you spent cooking with chef Moike and Goncalo.  Went to view the vids but not available  :sad: Any reason for taking them down??

3
Pictures of Your Curries / Re: Chilli Garlic Chicken Balti
« on: July 18, 2023, 04:33 PM »
Thanks guys. The brown bits, more red than brown on my screen and camera, are keema mince.  There are some onions in there though.  Curry without rice?  Almost unthinkable unless your diet dictates such.  Enjoying this vindaloo with MDB's mk1 base a little too regularly.  Sadly, nothing locally can now compete and it's DIY all the way.  I really must try the plain balti before i run out of base  :clown2:

4
Pictures of Your Curries / Chilli Garlic Chicken Balti
« on: July 12, 2023, 06:57 PM »
Eventually got around to trying MDB's balti gravy MK1 with the 3 pot method.  Have been using this as a normal base for the last 4 weeks but have not yet tried the plain chicken balti, so can't give an update on whether this original version gives  a better result than the MK2 version.  I'll try over the weekend and post some comments.  Certainly have no complaints with the results so far, although I do like my curries a little bit saucy, so not as condensed looking with a preponderance of oil as in Bengali Bob's balti pics.

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Look forward to the coming reviews Bob. Have just finished cooking the MDB mk1 base having exhausted all base in the freezer.  Hopefully I haven't botched this :Clown: Will provide some feedback on the resultant curry.  Whether I can rave about the results this base produces remains to be seen as I've not experienced a "real" balti against which to compare it.  I'll just have to make the comparison against the one one I cooked using the mk2 base.

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Nice one Dave!  I'll need to read your report a few more times before discussion starts proper. To be fair I have only made the MK I version. I was a little surprised you opted for the simpler method.
Rob
Quick, easy and 1kg of onions doesn't yield too much base in case I have a bad day in the kitchen.  Fortunately I didn't, and so much so I repeated the process 2 weeks later.  I'll revisit the V1 thread and may be consider it when there's  a bit more room in the freezer.

7
At last the long overdue report on my results with the MDBv2 balti base, delay partly due to the long period of time that the forum  has been down.   Now where do I begin?   When reading both threads on MDBs base, it certainly sparked a couple of questions for me and I did raise an eyebrow on one or two occasions as I digested the topics’ contents.  But given the general consensus on the quality value of it as a base alone I definitely had to give it ago.  One of the attractions was the simplicity of the V2 base, a definite  breeze to prepare, missing out the common baghar finishing process associated with many bases.  Unlike some, I do not hold with the belief that a base is simply a base and it’s all about the technique.   In my opinion, if you have a reasonable level of skill when cooking BIR at home and you are using good quality fresh ingredients,  you will produce a reasonable standard of dish, although sometimes you’ll consider your dishes to be better or worse than previous efforts,  and be racking your brains as to what you did differently or what may have caused the change.  That said I do not see how you can consistently produce a dish with the same taste when you are using different bases.  Slightly different ingredient ratios and individual chef “tweaks” will result in a different tasting curries.  If this wasn’t the case, there would be far more flavour consistency across the many restaurants  when churning out the same dish.  In my opinion, the obvious variables impacting this (assuming a reasonable level of chef competency, which some would argue may be harder to find nowadays) is the base gravy and the mix powder.  I’m sure some will disagree and I look forward to the ensuing arguments.  At least the discourse will be about cooking and curry   Whilst I may be able to create a good tasting vindaloo which bears some resemblance in flavour to my local BIR, I will never be able to replicate it exactly, at best getting close because there is almost a mirroring of both the base and the mix powder if used.
So moving on to the curry cooked by me using the MDB base and faithfully following the recipe and instructions as closely as I could.  I was pleased to hear I had made the correct choice in opting for tinned tomatoes  over fresh, as this was obviously the intention of the recipe but was not obvious to me for some reason.  As far as I can tell my only departure was to use a whole red pepper rather than half and half.  I must confess to being very apprehensive about cooking this simple curry and then having to eat it, as it really is a far cry from the more robust curries  that I have become accustomed to eating over the last 30+ years .  Absolute minimal ingredients leaves the cook nowhere to hide if the curry turns out less than successful other than to blame the base, and obviously I was not going to get away with doing that with this base, even if it was not an absolute carbon copy as made by the man himself.  I have read several times on the site that a good basic medium curry is the coming together of good cooking technique and a good base.  From this I can only deduce, if your medium curry is poor, it’s most likely down to the cook when the base you are using is considered to be reliable by many.  So this experiment could have potentially embarrassing results   There was a lot of hard frying going on and at times I thought maybe I was pushing things too far.   I can’t say I produced a “Birmingham balti” as I’ve never actually eaten one so I’m unable to make a comparison.  Did I find the curry “bland”?  Well this really does depend on one’s interpretation of “bland”.  For me this would suggest lacking in flavour, having no depth or body and lacking in any appeal.  Did I experience this when I worked my way through the dish?  All I can say is that I had managed to produce a tasty medium curry that I would be more than happy to cook and serve to any lover of a basic curry dish and be confident that they would enjoy it.  My taste in BIR has changed very little over the many years and I look for strong flavours as well as heat.  Whilst this is tame by comparison to what I normally eat, I enjoyed the flavours contained in the dish, its sweetness and the moreish aftertaste.  I will cook it again and see if I experience the same flavours and satisfaction as I did on this first occasion.  Whilst I’m not sitting on the fence, I can’t rave over the flavours that the “Birmingham Balti” contains.  Maybe one day I’ll get to try the real deal and can make a more informed judgement.
Having just polished of the other night’s vindaloo cooked with this base, I do certainly have to agree this is a quality base and most definitely will not disappoint anybody that takes the trouble to make it.  My second batch is now cooling and waiting to go in the freezer.

Tonight's supper

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Sorry for the delay gents but due to a tooth issue, i had to postpone the cooking and eating of "Al Frash Balti Clone".  Anyway, this is how it looked but I admit to having it with special fried rice, as I did not want to chance it on its own with chappatis, just in case the whole experiment turned out to be less than successful.  A full report will follow.

10
Followed the original thread with interest when it first appeared.  Made a very pleasant change to read members who do actually bother to cook and share results actually commenting on and trying this base.  Was also great to hear that the OP had achieved their aim in creating exactly what they were looking for.
So when this thread appeared, again I was hooked and followed it as it developed.  Given the positive comments on the base alone in both threads, from a number of serious BIR cooks, I was actually tempted to try it, as my base stocks were becoming depleted. Given the small qty produced and small time investment involved, I certainly had nothing to lose and could be pleasantly surprised by the results.  I’m more than happy with “my own” base which delivers exactly what I need, but I also think it’s a good thing to try recipes where a “break through” is announced which receives positive critical acclaim from other competent BIR cooks, as this has.
On the face of it, nothing new whatsoever on any of the ingredients and spices.  I did raise an eyebrow on some of the ratios though and I don’t just mean on that of the akhni stock components.  Casting my mind back to the Zaal experience, remembering the volume of whole spice in that saucepan sitting on Az’s cooker, it was good to see some actual qtys / weights in the recipe. I’m not going to get hung up on measurements, other than to say it’s always helpful for those trying to replicate a recipe, that a universal and reliable  UOM is used to minimise variations.
However, I do have one question, as I could not find clarity in either thread from anybody’s comments.  Chopped tomatoes 250 grams???  Should I be using fresh or am I to assume we are talking tinned chopped tomatoes? As I was now desperate for base, I had to opt for the latter, given the majority of bases use these, although this was a balti base.  Either way, the impact would not be catastrophic.  My only other deviation, if I’d guessed wrong on the tomatoes, was the use of a whole red pepper, as no green were in store when I was shopping.  Other than the aforementioned, everything else was to recipe spec.
So the base has been cooked using the two pot method and including the Kashmiri chilli powder.  Ordinarily, I never put chilli powder in any base, which then gives me total control over the heat element.  So when I tried the finished article, the sudden chilli tingle on the taste buds was a bit of a shock, particularly since it was Kashmiri chilli powder.  Other than this, nothing particularly stood out as being much different from many other bases I have cooked over 30+ years of doing this.  Yes, there was the aromatic aspect only to be expected from the inclusion of akhni stock but it didn’t seem to have had any discernable impact on the overall flavour of the base.
Now for the results of cooking with it.  Like two other major contributors to the thread, I have never been anywhere near a true Birmingham balti, so I cannot really comment on how close it may be to this renowned and revered dish. In fact the nearest I’ve got to a balti was a balti phal in Cheam village and I’ve no idea why this was called a balti.  I will say that the restaurant did produce quality tasty Asian food and I believe the chef was Nepalese and I just loved the balti bucket in which it was served. Given my years of eating what I class as very robustly spiced dishes, phall, vindaloo etc. I think I too may not be overwhelmed in the complexity or lack of in the accompanying recipe for the simple balti dish.  I will share the results of my experiment at the end of the week when I cook the dish.  At least it will provide a further opinion and may be encourage other cooks to try the base.  Whatever the result, I’ve enjoyed the read and I’m sure I’ll enjoy dishes produced with the base.  Thanks for posting MDB.

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