Topic: andy's recipe's(again)

[Ashes]

Last weekend I read Humble Pie, Gordon Ramsays autobiography - great read btw...
Gordon F**kin Ramsay is a very interesting guy, a person who has achieved 3 Michelin stars!!
There are very few 3 star restaurants in the world, I think he has the only 3 star restaurant in London? as of writing anyway. To give you an idea, 1 star is first class eating.

The thing is you have to maintain that standard through out the year otherwise you will lose a star or worse.

It also means the man knows quite a lot about food. He has several restaurants to his name.. and probably hundred or so staff - plus. Some of these chefs have worked in michelin starred restaurants before, they are more than competent at what they do. What they do, they do well, or better than well!

Anyway, GR has basically said, you cant teach to cook through books alone. You need to be beside a chef and learn, he went on to say, give 10 of my chefs the same recipe and you will end up with 10 different dishes.

Now the parallel here is the recipes that come from this forum are very hard to translate into the kitchen if you are looking replicate them as was intended by the author. Even 3 star chefs cant teach you everything, they cant create the dish for you, there are too many factors that influence the final dish, the pots, the pans, the heat, the type of heat, the spices, the ingredient's, the length of time something needs to be heated, the ambient room temperature, the smell, the feel, the look and the taste

It cant be done, its the art of cooking. Now i except that not everyone on this forum will be able to look at a recipe and cook the dish how it was intended to be cooked, most people accept this, they try and try and try and ask for as much information as possible about how to achieve the desired flavour of the dish, the taste, the smell, the texture. The point is, if Gordon Ramsays chefs cant come up with the same dishes given the same recipes.. how on earth can we?

So these people who say, ah ive tried this recipe and it was rubbish or nothing like how id expected it to be.. should maybe just step back, relax and consider, maybe i need more time to try and get it right. After all we aren't trained chefs?

The cooks and chefs in indian restaurants are doing more curry dishes in one night than most of us are doing in several months. No wonder its hard to get it perfect?

Ashes

[Curry King]

Hi Ashes,

I agree with what you have posted with the exception that we are all striving to achieve a certain taste rather than say make the perfect dhansak.    Give 10 of us the same recipe for a madras and they will all be different but how many would have the "taste", I think thats the difference.  All these recent suggestions along the lines of how you push the spoon round the pan are valid I'm sure but I don't believe that they would make the difference between having the "taste" or not.  I used to think it was all down to how the final curry was prepared and that any good base will do but I'm not so sure now 

cK

[Panpot]

Hi Jeera, If you get down to Kilmacolm can you ask about the red paste that the chef used right at the beginning. There is an interesting thread on the Methods section "taste and smell"regarding the use of burning Chili.

I assumed the paste was tomato puree or even something resembling Andy's paste but it may well be chili paste. Cheers Panpot

[vindaloo]

...Would love a chicken tikka massala recipe though-just to find out if they really do put tomato soup in it!!!!!!!!

Received my Pat Chapman DVD today. Just been watching it whilst scoffing a Kris Dhillon vindaloo. Pat lobbed in some tomato soup in the CTM!!

[King Prawn]

vindaloo,

At least you got your DVD!
If it's the 'curry magic' one, i ordered in early Oct 06 and they billed my credit card with a few days. Nothing had arrived by early Jan (thats 3 months!) and it took several emails to get a refund.

So is it worth twelve quid?

KP(V)

[parker21]

hi kp
no no no no no no no no no! my sister bought this dvd for me about 4 months agobut i watched it once and i thought it was absolutely crap if it is curry magic to be found then i strongly recommend that you do not but this piece of crap the only magic to be found is on this forum read the early post of real desparate peeps getting into the kitchen of their local restaurant and getting demos,i myself being one, that is where the only magic can really be seen. these people are true artist/alchemists then once you have witnessed this can you truly understand what this forum is about and why many different taste from all over the uk and the world in reproducing what we all strive for the unique BIR taste!
if you are persistent and say that you are trying to recreate the food at home then explain what you know and even if you don't know then "onions, garlic and ginger" will almost get you started  on your way in to a bir kitchen and when you get there ask as many questions as you can and watch everything !

hope this stops you wasting your money and then you will be well on you way down the local takeaway for at least maon dish and rice the your quest will have begun.......

good luck
and regards
gary

[George]

So, I'm not sure it makes sense to start from the beginning again with a new sauce, paste, methods, and even cookware.  Too many variables at the same time.  Were we really that far from the answer?

MB - I agree. If the 'new' recipes had been introduced as different to the normal BIR but better for it, I would have had a greater expectation. But they were introduced as pure BIR, so it reduced my confidence, as borne out by events which followed.

Regards
George

[vindaloo]

vindaloo,

At least you got your DVD!
If it's the 'curry magic' one, i ordered in early Oct 06 and they billed my credit card with a few days. Nothing had arrived by early Jan (thats 3 months!) and it took several emails to get a refund.

So is it worth twelve quid?

KP(V)

Hi KP,

I actually got a genuine copy from the dreaded fleabay. It cost about £7.50 incl postage. TBH, I was very disappointed with it. I didn't really learn anything new from it. I can honestly say I've learnt more from this website in a few months, than any book or dvd has taught me over the years.

[Curry King]

Have to agree with the comments on the PC dvd I have seen it and it offers nothing in terms of BIR curry.

[King Prawn]

Well, I am happy I got the refund, but still wonder why it took so long. They were quick enough to take the money, but took a while to get it back again!

Thanks for all your comments, I won't be looking for it again

KP(V)