Topic: Are there "signature" cooking methods and elements for each dish?

[ast]

Hi Everyone,

Reflecting on Haldi's recent posts about the two new dishes got me wondering about the difference in preparation methods between the two, and so, I was wondering if there were certain techniques that should be applied to certain dishes that would (or should) appear in or be common across any version of that dish.

Saying it another way, has there ever been any discussion about the "essential elements" of specific dishes from looking at them as a class rather than reviewing, commenting and improving on particular recipes in isolation?

In my short stint in the forum so far, I've encountered at least 4 different basic methods to preparing the final curry:

The KD method (basic reduction with late spicing)

Almost all of her recipes for curry dishes follow the same basic pattern:

• 1. Stir-fry/sautee any additional ingredients (onion, garlic and/or veg)
• 2. Add curry base and bring to the boil
• 3. Add salt, chillies (powered or fresh) and any meat
• 4. Main reduction
• 5. Add any additional spices
• 6. Final reduction and taste blending

The Dry Spice Method

• 1. Stir-fry/sautee any additional ingredients (onion, garlic, ginger, others?)
• 2. Add dry spices and stir-fry until chok--er, the "toffee" smell hits you in the face
• 3. Add base
• 4. Add pre-cooked meat (except prawns) and/or veg
• 5. Main reduction
• 6. Add prawns (and possibly more "fragile" veg?)
• 7. Final reduction to desired consistency

Gary's (parker21) got a variation on this which uses a small amount of base to the spices during step 2, but essentially proceeds the same way.

The Spice Paste Method

Like above except spices are mixed with water, oil and/or base prior to step 1 and added as a paste instead of dry in step 2.  The rest proceeds the same.

To the above two methods, there's also a common variation which involves reduction by halves of the curry base, one ladle at a time.  Additional spices or ingredients are added between reductions.  Other people have mentioned they do it in more than two steps, but the idea is the same.

Haldi's Kashmiri Method

• 1. Cover base of pan with thin layer of curry base and stir-fry
• 2. Stir-fry/sautee any additional ingredients (onion, garlic, ginger, others?)
• 3. Add dry spices and stir-fry until chok--er, the "toffee" smell hits you in the face
• 4. Add minimal amount of base to keep "wet"
• 5. Add additional spices/flavorings
• 6. Add pre-cooked meat (except prawns) and/or veg
• 7. Add "enough" curry base for runny sauce
• 8. Minor reduction and taste blending

So, ok, there's really only 3 with a couple of variations, but still...

The point is, these methods have appeared more than once and they have to have specific purposes.  Does anyone really know why each one is the way it is?  What is the effect on the taste of the finished dish, and which parts most contribute to the difference?

I'm also wondering how much difference there really is between various people's interpretations of particular dishes.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to minimize anyone's contributions here by any means; I'm just trying to figure out what the differences/points of variation really are.  There's scores of different recipes here, and I've been trying to think of a better way of classifying/organizing and subsequently mentally digesting them than just going through them all in any particular way (top-to-bottom, random or via recommendation really doesn't matter that much).

My goal here is to try and get us to think about all the collective knowledge/wisdom we have about this topic and see what's common to certain dishes or cooking methods that may result in making both better curries and all of us better cooks.

Any ideas?  Does this make any sense?

I think I understand the rationale and intent of the KD method pretty well.  Let's face it, if you were writing a book for the masses, your first two priorities would be simplicity and repeatability--in that order.  You'd also have to get reasonable results, and, I think she succeeded on all counts.  There's pretty-much no way to screw up her method unless you burn the stuff in step 1.

Most punters can sautee an onion without burning it, but I'd hazard a guess that many people without quite a bit of cooking experience would take a few times to get the stir-frying of the spices right, and they also probably wouldn't know what to do when the aroma from the frying spices hit them.  There's just too many things to go wrong, and like any form of product, you don't want your customer's first interaction with it to not be successful.

Based on all this, she adapted the restaurant methods for the "average" cook so they'd have a harder time messing things up.  I'd also say the late addition of all the spices was part of this adaption.  If you add them early under high heat, they're "activated" and "released" into the flavor of the dish as it's cooking.  However, without all that heat, you're going to have to do something else to make them work.  About the only thing left is to add them late, and potentially in greater quantities than would ordinarily be used, so that you would get some of the same effect.  Of course, we all know it isn't the same, but it's much closer than most other things out there.

This is also why I think we can safely exclude her curry making process from "how it's really done" (not that most of us hadn't already), because it just doesn't deliver the full taste.  I've included it here a) because most of us are familiar with it as a starting point, and b) as a point of comparison and to try and illustrate the type of thing I'm trying to isolate.  Of course, this is only an (semi-)educated guess as to why it is the way it is.  Any other opinions or comments are welcome too.

So.... I did the first one.  Your turn for the rest! ;D

ast