Topic: Large Flamed Cooker

[JerryM]

haldi,

i'd much appreciate your thoughts on what "reduction" you aim for at the cooking stage.

upto getting the stove i aimed for 300ml of raw base (1/2 150ml ladle fried after the spices and 1 and 1/2 ladles then added for the simmer) to produce a 200ml portion (ie 1/3 reduction).

using the stove i now think this needs to be more like 400ml of raw base (ie ~1/2 reduction).

i am interested in the reduction as i know what final consistency i want and this will then tell me how much thinning of the base i should do.

[haldi]

had my 1st disaster - burnt the tom puree.

This is one of my most common problems
If the tom puree burns, then it ruins the curry
It's very easy to do
When I have seen chefs cook it, it never seems to darken
Sometimes they spread it round the base of the pan, but more often, it is lobbed in the pan and remains in a spoon shape, until they stir in some curry gravy (some minutes later)

My second biggest mistake is over spicing (particularly fenugreek leaves)

My third is judging the curry immedietly after cooking it
I bought a curry that I saw being cooked
The chef asked me to try a bit before he put on the lid, of the takeaway carton.
It tasted ever so average
I was really dissapointed
But half an hour later, when I got home,I tried the curry again
My perception had completely changed
It was brilliant

As for the "reducing" question
I use a very runny curry gravy now
As thin as tea
Otherwise I have to keep on adding water to the pan
You need to cook BIR curries for ten minutes, with a fast boil at the end.
So you have to experiment a little
If the curry is a little too runny, then a rapid boil soon sorts that out

[Bobby Bhuna]

had my 1st disaster - burnt the tom puree.

My second biggest mistake is over spicing (particularly fenugreek leaves)

Every time I have a few before making a curry it's dark brown and bitter and generally horrible. It's because I feel like a real BIR chef and start playing with real heat. I've noticed the following.

I can cook the tomato puree for quite a while without it burning.

If I add lots of methi at the frying of spices stage, it burns. I now add my methi towards the end of the spice frying stage.

The lesser the oil to spices ratio, the more I burn them (obvious really).

I have even burned everything after adding the first splash of base. If you evaporate all the water off, it can burn - usually this happens after can number 6 ;D

To be honest, I feel I'm not much of a chef when I've been drinking...

[JerryM]

haldi/Bobby,

appreciate your thoughts. will bank for use - adding the methi towards the end of the spice frying stage.

the observation of needing to leave the cooked curry for a while is intriguing. it's something i did come across a while ago when side by side comparing different cooked curries - i thought the ones that had stood for a while had changed in taste - it sounded too imaginative so i discounted it.

the trouble is hanging on before eating (i guess reheating in the microwave) is going to be difficult in practise - i'll have to try it out to see if the pain's worth the gain.

on the consistency thin as tea is quite thin for sure. i would say i'm at thin gravy.

i've made 7 curries (for friends stopping over) now since the disaster and feel i've got the measure of the stove. the friends are serious BIR fanatics. i cooked madras, CK's CTM and Admins Jalfrezi. they felt all were BIR standard with their fav being the Jalfrezi. as a result of their thoughts on the curries i feel we may all be much closer to BIR than we think.

The only other observation was that I upped the chilli in one of the madras curries by 1/2 tsp due to demand and found the taste was much improved (the hotness was then at restaurant madras).