Topic: A couple of changes to Kris Dhillon's madras

[spiceyokooko]

Then why not try one of the popular base sauce recipes from this site and see what you think.

Paul

I think I've done enough experimentation on Khris Dillons recipe now to understand the flavour profile its giving and I've now moved on and made some Bruce Edwards base and cooked out his 'Chicken Curry' according to his instructions and I must say I was quite pleasantly surprised. It's definitely a step further forwards in the right direction. It was interesting to note the difference in the 'lighter spicing' of Khris Dillons to the 'heavier spicing' of Bruce Edwards.

It was also interesting to note how Khris Dillon precooks her chicken in some of the 'garlic/ginger/onion' puree and turmeric whereas Bruce Edwards doesn't, although he does suggest that if you want to reduce the spicing in his dish you could do so by pre-cooking the chicken with whole spices. I do have one more portion of Khris Dillons base sauce so I may well try it with the Bruce Edwards 'Spice Mix' and see what the differences are.

Curiously both Khris Dillons' Madras and Bruce Edwards' Madras both looked 'identical'! so I still don't understand the comment and view that 'it doesn't look right'. What does it matter what it looks like, its what it tastes like thats important surely?

I still have plenty of Bruce Edwards base left so I'm going to do some experimentation with his recipe. One weakness I feel is his frying of spices in hot oil - that has a very small margin of error attached to it as its as easy to undercook the spices as it is to burn or overcook them - not that I did either by the way! So I'm going to experiment a little with making a paste out of the spices and tomato puree (and spices plus tomato puree and small amount of garlic/ginger puree) and see what difference that makes.

I also like the way Bruce Edwards adds his base in two stages. He wasn't really clear on exactly how much base you add at each stage but from his instructions you added half a ladle first then I worked out you add about a second ladle which I approximated to be about 100ml/200ml which I just judged by eye. I like the way he uses a reduction method on the first batch until the oil separates and then the second batch until the oil separated which I found added a nice depth of flavour over the Khris Dillon version.

I'll report my findings in the Bruce Edwards thread.

Cheers and good Karma!

[Razor]

Hi Spiceyokooko,

I think that we both got off to a bad start, so it's probably for the best that we put it behind us

Back to Kris Dhillon, I purchased both her books (The Curry Secret and The New Curry Secret) roughly about 2 years ago.  Now, by that time, I'd already improved my BIR skills somewhat but without doubt, I still had quite a bit to go.  Buying her books, for me, was my way of pitching myself against a bonafide chef/author/restaurateur, just to see how far I'd come. So I went the whole 9 yards, making her base, GM mix and so on.  Now, I have to admit, I actually made her base sauce from The New Curry secret and not her original version simply because she herself, describes it as an 'improved' version.  I also didn't make her version of precooked chicken because at that time, I'd been making, with great success, the precooked chicken from the Authentic Balti Curry cookbook http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4293.0

So, I proceeded to make her 'Chicken Curry' but using her suggestion of adding 1 tsp of chilli powder to turn it into a Madras.  This was my first go at this and I followed the recipe to the letter.  My thoughts, I didn't think at the time that it was anywhere near a madras, not in flavour nor in heat.  I did however think that it was a half decent Chicken Curry (even though the chicken was somewhat over done)

Now, if I remember correctly, on my second attempt, I reduced the sauce quite a bit further as I didn't feel that the spices were getting cooked properly.  It made a slight improvement but still, not a Madras as I know it. 

My third and last attempt, I replaced the Garam Masala and cumin powder with CA's curry masala and upped the chilli powder to 2 tsps.  I added this to the hot oil, off the heat, and stirred quite vigorously until I got the aroma from the spices.  I then put the pan back on the heat, and added the base sauce, and continued with the recipe. The result, much better but still, not a Madras (that I'm used to)  I'm afraid.  There was no 'tang' that I associate with Madras and, although some members disagree on this, there was no lemon in it, which for me, is an integral ingredient for Madras.

Now, I never tried her suggestion of adding a teaspoon of her Tandoori marinade, towards the end of the cooking, and I wish I had have done now because I'm sure that it would have added something.

Alas, that was my last venture with any KD recipes although I do often sit and read her books.  For me, there just seems to be quite a few ingredients to certain dishes that she leaves out, and it makes me wonder if they really are her restaurant recipes or a 'dumbed down' version.  Her Chicken Tikka Masala, contains no coconut in any form whatsoever.  I don't think I've ever had a CTM that hasn't had an underlying flavour of coconut, and so, I've never even attempted to make it, purely because my instincts tell me that it won't taste the way I expect a CTM to taste.

Ray

[PaulP]

Hi Spicey,

Glad to hear you've had some success with the Bruce Edwards recipe/technique.
His spice mix is a what I would call a typical BIR blend, very similar to the one provided by chef Taz.
I'm anal enough to have a spreadsheet of most of the BIR spice mix recipes available and there are many similarities.

I've never made that base sauce and was always curious about the inclusion of the adjwain seeds. People have reported that too many can kill it but I've never used them at all. This afternoon I'm making Abdul Mohed's base as it looked like less effort than most because there is no garlic or ginger in this one.

Regarding the hard frying of the spices there are many points of view on this one. Bruce himself advocates the frying as essential. Some people here think that they do require a good singe before they are ready.
If you look at the Taz recipe/technique it describes a base sauce with sufficient oil that you don't actually fry anything. Spices are mixed with the first load of base then this is hard reduced right down to a paste before adding more base sauce. The spices still taste cooked using this method so who knows?

I made the dhal the other night as I'm trying to replicate my local TA tarka dhal and made some progress because I cooked the garlic very quickly in very hot oil. It went brown and I thought I had burned it but no it had the smokey taste I was looking for. I guess the garlic pieces were slightly burned on the outside but still raw enough on the inside to taste like garlic. It made me think I've become too lazy cooking my BIR food slowboat style and I need to speed up the cooking to get a closer result. Food for thought and we are always learning.

Cheers,

Paul