Well, i signed up 3 weeks ago for some evening classes at the local college. Indian Cookery tonight, and I’ve been told to bring an apron and lots of tupperware to take home the produce.
Yum Yum (or nom nom, as they say in these parts)

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be doing bricklaying, Indian cookery and Beginner’s Spanish.

The young chap that enrolled me (Summer job whilst at uni) said that it was an interesting combination, and asked what my plans were.
I told him I was planning to move to Spain to build my own curry restaurant.
Bless

I told him I was planning to move to Spain to build my own curry restaurant.

Excellent, you could build it near me. As there isn’t one anywhere near here 🙁

Manuel Labour

Can I place an order for some bahhhjis please? The crispy ones that cruch, not flumpy balls that bounce.

PPG on way.

One order of onion bahjis coming up.

I’m hoping to master the chapati. I can never get them to inflate like a football, and always set fire to them when I try to brown them on the gas flame.

hmmm. I haven’t made curry for a while… you just activated my curry node….

edit: feel free to share some knowledge. I picked mine up from asian friends and Madhur Jaffrey books, always room for some more… especially on chappattis, mine come off like singed bread dough… 🙁

Madhur Jaffrey books

Now you are talking. Imagine having Madhur Jaffrey as your mum. I’d never have left home.

Commonlaw Drib’s mother (very Indian) did some chapati’s, and excellent for scooping up stuff they were and looked like massive flying saucers.

Can’t advise how she did them though; we were fairly peshed. However, no gas flames were involved!

She used a wok full of oil; maybe that’s a tip, or an insight that I do not own enough cooking utensils.

She used a wok full of oil

Are you sure they weren’t poppadoms?

My favourite recipe book

i hate nom nom

its so american

whats wrong with yum yum?

anyway let us know how it goes and maybe post a recipe up

cheers

Oops. Fail. Sorry. The chap hattys were done on a massive dry frying pan; again though, no flames!

I will interrogate OH tonight for hints & tips and get back to you.

“Roger That” Kimbers.

You’re probably cooking Hyderabadi Lamb, not Hyderabi Lamb. Unless you’re not cooking all of it… 😉

Now you are talking. Imagine having Madhur Jaffrey as your mum. I’d never have left home.

If there was an english version of MJ, it was my mum. No end of tips and hints for making what would be normal english grub absolutely delicious and just a phenominal cook. With a pinny and rolling pin and everything.

Anyone know where you can buy tamarind concentrate btw? I finished mine a while ago (used to live in leeds, it was a doddle then)… Or an online source of spices in decent quantities, again when I lived in leeds just went down the veg shop, spent a tenner, got two bags of veg and catering size packs of whole spices… I miss it I really do.

Oh, one more tip for properly grinding spices, I used to use the dicing attatchment to my hand mixer, and I’ve used a pestle and mortar, I have now got one of those little coffee grinders with the spinning blades, and I can’t beleive I ever used anything else, so quick, so easy, and such a better grind.

Glupton, I was planning on leaving out the bad bits 😆

unklehomered,sounds like you need a day out in Bradford,the bradford branch of this http://www.alhalalsupermarket.co.uk/files/store%20locations.htm can probabaly supply anything you want for Indian food.

Well, we made Masoor Dhal (red lentil curry) and Chapatti (woop woop).

The dhal was no great revelation, except that the teacher insisted that madras curry paste was a perfectly acceptable ingredient, as this is what would be used in India (and it would save a good hour of roasting / grinding / steeping in oil). I was hoping for a more purist approach, buy hey ho.

Anyway, the chapatis were wonderful. Main points were to use a 50/50 mix of natural yoghurt with water (I would normally have just used water), and a tablespoon of oil per 250g of flour (pain bread flour). Also let the dough rest for half an hour after kneading (this made a massive difference to the softness). Breads were then fried in a bit of oil (I have tended to dry fry them in the past, but they were good done in oil). I think I may bake them on the pizza stone when I try them at home though.
Oh, and recipe called for 100ml of liquid, but the instructor said that the flour was very fresh (dry), so it would probably need about 150ml, (and he was right).

Bread…
250g strong bread flour (any mix of wholewheat / white)
pinch salt
100ml water / yoghurt (50/50)
1tbsp oil plus extra for frying.

Knead until smooth elastic and not sticky.
Rest for 30 mins in cling film.
Divide into 8ish balls and roll out.
Fry until blistered on both sides.

Sounds like I used to do exactly what you did. I look forward to trying this, cheers! Post more next week!

edit (pls)

i hate nom nom

its so american
xenophobia on a thread about curry 😆

So what has happened in the last few weeks? What fantastical spicey secrets can you share?