Topic: Madras

[Naga]

Stunning pictures, Naga, but what happened to the sauce?

Just an iPhone 4, like MA and Chewy, Garp.

The sauce in both trad and BIR/trad was reduced down to bhuna consistency. The trad more-or-less reduced itself, as I had to add extra water twice - and I would have added more to be reduced too, but I didn't have all night to wait for the beef to be perfectly tender - and that's the plain, honest truth.

As for the second version, I enjoyed the first one so much that I reduced it down too! And it was really good!

[Naga]

More great looking  food  Good bit of work there Keith. Added advantage being you got to eat three decent curries and all in the name of progress  ;D  Some interesting and thought provoking comments in some of your conclusions.  I'm a firm believer that given a decent base with a recognised mix powder, which some will argue must be matched to the base, with the right technique and suitable ingredients, you'll end up close to a BIR dish.  How close depends on what YOU are looking for  : I also agree that for that extra special touch Abdhuls mix powder won't cut it, nor will any other for that matter.  For that extra special something you are now getting into the realms of true chefs.  For us though a good starting point would be the array of "condiments" so to speak that we have on hand.  This could also extend to ones own garam masala, used sparingly and only for certain dishes when you want to add that little bit of " je ne sais quois"  ;D

Aye, Dave, they were bloody good curries, and I'm missing the flavours already! Garam masala has always been something I've added a pinch of here or there without really thinking about it - but I'm thinking about it now! If memory serves, the only fresh-roasting and grinding of spices I've done is when I've made Kashmiri Paste. This weekend's trial has made me think again about what I'm putting in my curries.

As I said in my reply to Jerry above, the standout for me was the spicing of the marinated meat. It had great effect and, although it's not something I would do for my standard BIR fare, I will definitely experiment some more from now on.

Appreciate your thoughts as always.

[chewytikka]

Really good write up of your weekend cooking Naga.

I'd say the big BIR difference is the faster single/double portions cooked up in under 10 minutes.

The Traditional are more buffet size, multiple portions. Which is all pretty obvious I suppose.

Plus some freshly ground spice mixes need and are designed to be used with plenty of water and time.

BIR curries use Garabi not water and spicing needs adjusting accordingly, usually less is best.


My2p
cheers Chewy

[Naga]

Really good write up of your weekend cooking Naga.

I'd say the big BIR difference is the faster single/double portions cooked up in under 10 minutes.

The Traditional are more buffet size, multiple portions. Which is all pretty obvious I suppose.

Plus some freshly ground spice mixes need and are designed to be used with plenty of water and time.

BIR curries use Garabi not water and spicing needs adjusting accordingly, usually less is best.


My2p
cheers Chewy

Thanks for your comments, Chewy.

Your point on the use of freshly-ground spice mixes is appreciated - it's not something I had given a lot of thought to, but it makes perfect sense. As I said in an earlier post, I was mightily concerned about the sheer amount of mix powder I was putting in to the trad/BIR version, but I wanted to reflect the quantities used in the trad dish. As it turned out, I needn't have worried as everything turned out nicely - but I couldn't see me putting 30g+ of my usual mix powder into a 2-portion BIR curry. I don't know if that's right, but somehow it doesn't compute for me.

Good point about the base gravy too - as it already has a good level of spicing, no need to add so much in the final dish - makes perfect sense.

On a related point, the other thing that suddenly occurred to me was about the spiced marinating of the meat for the traditional dish. I was knocked out by the taste of the finished article, but initially, I treated it as something completely new. But, of course, that's just daft, because I use a tikka marinade and I marinate other meats in European-style meals!

I think I had my stupid head on over the weekend!

[fried]

Do you mind me putting up a photo of the Lamb Madras I made and some thoughts?

[Naga]

Do you mind me putting up a photo of the Lamb Madras I made and some thoughts?

Not at all, mate! It's all grist to the mill!

[fried]

Here's the Lamb Madras.

I used lamb on the bone, and I had plenty of liquid, never had to add any and even needed to evaporate off a bit at the end. I cooked this for about 2h, the original recipe seemed a bit short.

I was also a bit concerned at the amount of powders in the recipe, but it all cooked out in the end, I found it a little heavy on the cinnamon though.

It turned out to be a good, standard traditional style recipe. I really like making up spice mixes for traditional recipes, if you enjoyed this one I really recommend http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,12690.0.html
recipe halfway down the first page by tempest63, the black curry powder in this is really special.

[Garp]

That looks really nice, fried (apart from that green stuff, which, if eaten, will ruin all your attempts at making a decent curry).

Beautiful looking madras though

[fried]

Gotta get me greens where I can!

[Garp]

Better off with a cabbage