Curries again

[pancreas]

I have success with pestle and mortar plus Nutribullet for Thai pastes.

If you can get the Premium Squid Brand fish sauce it is better. That said, I drink either of them straight from the bottle.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Oh, I didn't even know there was a premium version. I just have the pauper one. 725ml too, more than I'll ever use in my lifetime.

[Clownbaby]

Sultanas can get the eff out of my life.
It's one of those stealth fruits that they think they can smuggle into cakes and shit without me noticing.
Having said that, I did bring home some iced fingers the other day and was surprisingly disappointed that they weren't involved.
My mam used to buy them all the time when I was little and I just got a craving for them and they weren't the same.

Still nice though, cut them in half and slathered a load of butter in there, just like momma used to make. Aaaaw yeah.
They were tiny though, everything is nowadays. More like iced thumbs.

Oh aye they can fuck off out of cakes. No business being in cakes

[pancreas]

Oh, I didn't even know there was a premium version. I just have the pauper one. 725ml too, more than I'll ever use in my lifetime.

Then you probably ain't using enough. Panaeng should be predominantly sweet first, but seriously salty afterwards.

Also throw fish sauce in an Italian ragu. There is precedent for this.

[El Unicornio, mang]

 I usually just put one tbsp in, a lot of recipes I've seen for it have less. Actually I'll probably make it more than 40 times in my life so might need another bottle... Also find that slicing the chicken thinly is a necessity.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I have success with pestle and mortar plus Nutribullet for Thai pastes.

If you can get the Premium Squid Brand fish sauce it is better. That said, I drink either of them straight from the bottle.

Mini Choppers are great for curry pastes, cheap too, morrisons do one for a tenner and Kenwood do one Delia recommends for 20.

Food processors work, but tend to fling everything up the sides as they're not full enough. You can mitigate by adding a bit of water or oil so things hold together.

[touchingcloth]

This stuff. I've had a tub of it in the fridge for over 2 years now and it's still good. Only need a big tablespoon of it with some coconut milk and kaffir lime leaves, brown sugar, meat and bell pepper and you've got restaurant quality Thai curry. Splash of Squid brand fish sauce too, although it stinks of something resembling stale cat urine on its own.

That's the stuff. My jars are - like the bulk of my Asian ingredients - Cock Brand ones, because tee hee.

I have success with pestle and mortar plus Nutribullet for Thai pastes.

That's what I used to do, but now I know that there are pastes out there with the exact same ingredients and no funky additional ones I'm happy to outsource the effort, plus it has the blessing of my actual Thai mate who is from actual Taiwan or Taipei or wherever the fuck.

Then you probably ain't using enough. Panaeng should be predominantly sweet first, but seriously salty afterwards.

YES. Bung the stuff in until it smells a bit wrong. It'll taste a bit wrong until your nostrils adjust, but ultimately your tongue and other organs will thank you.

[The Crumb]

Oh, I didn't even know there was a premium version. I just have the pauper one. 725ml too, more than I'll ever use in my lifetime.

Mix into a cup of hot water for a nourishing Thai Bovril.

[ImmaculateClump]

This stuff. I've had a tub of it in the fridge for over 2 years now and it's still good.

I don't want to alarm you, but it might be worth picking up a new tub at least, just to be on the safe side.

The curry paste will last for a long time (a few years) unopened in a dark, cool place such as a cupboard. Once opened it should be stored in the refrigerator and it will last about 2 weeks.

I know it's cool and hard to eat old food, but it can do you some serious damage.
You'd never get through all that in 2 weeks though would you? It must be for restaurants and stuff. Do they do diddy jars? I might try some. I'm good at stir fries from scratch but it'd be nice to get a headstart with a curry.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I freeze the homemade stuff in ice cube trays. I guess it depends how much plant stuff it has in it. I'm sure some of the curry pastes are basically just ground dry spices and oil, they'd last for ages but if it's got stuff like shallots and garlic etc in there then it'd go manky.

[Twit 2]

Gah, reading this thread made hungry so I did a 5 minute bowl of dirty food:

Fried a red onion in oil.
Added loads of black pepper.
Added a tablespoon of Korean fermented chilli paste.

Added a dessert spoon of soy sauce.
Cracked an egg in.
Threw some cheese in.
Whacked it all round the pan with some chopped coriander and a pinch of sugar until the cheese was gooey.
Ate it.

It looked like cat sick and it tasted of heaven. Here's the arse end of it in a garish plastic bowl, look:

[Twit 2]

Also, I want some of the fish fry here:

https://youtu.be/f0TqulqxLF4

[Twit 2]

Really want to eat all my food with my fingers off a giant leaf and then slurp the diluted juice out of my cupped hands when it's over. Christmas dinner, the lot.

[Pink Gregory]

It's both wrong and stupid to dislike onions. I suggest you fry them, then purée them and add them to the sauce, BIR style. Assuming she's not actually allergic and it's psychological, she won't know if they're part of the sauce. If she does say anything, gaslight her and throw the bowl into the wall, like Kevin Spacey in American Beauty.

General curry tips:

Make ghee. It's easy. Why aren't you making your own ghee you cunt?

Start with whole spices. Eg cumin seeds, cinnamon sticks, star anise, whatever.

When cooking onions they need 15 to 20 mins not 5-10 mins. Ignore all timings on recipes because it's in the publisher's interest to make cooking times short because the public are feckless twats.

Red onions, not white, in a curry.

Fenugreek. Put it in, you wally.

You're not using enough garlic and ginger, or fresh chillis for that matter. Use more, even if you thought it was already a lot. Same with powered spices. Teaspoon of cumin or some shit? Haha fuck off. Tablespoon is the starting measure or GTF.

CURRY

i saved this on my phone notes and everything.

i won't let you down.  I mean I will, but I won't mention it.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I don't want to alarm you, but it might be worth picking up a new tub at least, just to be on the safe side.

I know it's cool and hard to eat old food, but it can do you some serious damage.
You'd never get through all that in 2 weeks though would you? It must be for restaurants and stuff. Do they do diddy jars? I might try some. I'm good at stir fries from scratch but it'd be nice to get a headstart with a curry.

Oh...

Might get a new tub, it's pretty cheap anyway. But I'd give it 6 months at least after opening.

[phes]

Reading through a bit of discussion about BIR style curry gravy so I'll add my experience. After years of fruitlessly trying to nail that BIR style (for Madras, dansak, vindaloo, pathia, balti) with numerous ingredients and combinations I discovered that it's about 2/3rds down to technique. Providing you've got onions, curry powder, ginger and garlic in the gravy in vaguely sensible proportions, fried/boiled to oblivion until sweet, the finer details really don't matter. By all means tweak the spice, add fenugreek, different veg etc, but none of this will produce a BIR style curry if made with improper technique.

Start with garlic/ginger pureed into a little water and chucked into smoking hot veg oil

Same with a little tom puree/water

Quickly thin out with a little hot, thin gravy (little thicker than water)

Spices

Add a little more gravy

If adding sugar caramelise in dry part of pan

Main ingredient

Build it out but by bit and keep the pan lava hot but wet enough to not burn

Do this all fairly quick

Add a spoon more garlic/ginger a minute before taking off the heat

Cook only one portion at a time

It's these things I find give the curry that lighter, volumous, caramelized and fresh consistency and avoids it being flat, stewed

[Ferris]

I just tend to use the frozen pucks, squeezed in a cheesecloth then roughly chopped. I used to use the food processor but it tended to just clump together and found it was easier to do it by hand.

Also had a saag paneer last night, also used the frozen stuff to great effect.

Small world innit.

[Dex Sawash]

Seems like tofu could stand in for paneer in most dishes fairly easily, am I a cunt?

[Ferris]

Seems like tofu could stand in for paneer in most dishes fairly easily, am I a cunt?

Fucking hell you're right

[chveik]

Seems like tofu could stand in for paneer in most dishes fairly easily, am I a cunt?

well if you are I am too

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Meh. If it must be substituted to make something vegan fine but I don't think tofu ever gets as fibrous as paneer. Paneer offers more chewy substance. Would go for that 10 out of 10 times.

Tofu is OK in there but I'd also want a few other things accompanying it for texture and flavour.

[phes]

I'm sure all tofu is not equal, but the tofu I used in a curry last week was a disaster. Nothing absorbed into it, nothing clung to it. Horrible texture in a sauce, wouldn't recommend that. Probably better as mentioned when accompanied by a variety of textures, or baked first in a crispy coating and used as an addition. Spiced ghee drizzle over baked crispy tofu and Dahl could be good

[touchingcloth]

Gah, reading this thread made hungry so I did a 5 minute bowl of dirty food:

Fried a red onion in oil.
Added loads of black pepper.
Added a tablespoon of Korean fermented chilli paste.

Added a dessert spoon of soy sauce.
Cracked an egg in.
Threw some cheese in.
Whacked it all round the pan with some chopped coriander and a pinch of sugar until the cheese was gooey.
Ate it.

It looked like cat sick and it tasted of heaven. Here's the arse end of it in a garish plastic bowl, look:

I discovered bean pastes recently - chilli and black bean ones. Loads of my Chinese books have suggested them but I've always assumed subbing in some soy sauce and spices would work as a substitute, but I was wrong. They're the umamiest things ever, and I don't know how the fuck I've not had them in my kitchen before.

[touchingcloth]

Oh...

Might get a new tub, it's pretty cheap anyway. But I'd give it 6 months at least after opening.

Same. The 400g pots I get do 8 meals for two people, and it takes us more than a couple of weeks to get through, less than six months. There's nowt in the pastes which wouldn't give you a clue if it was slowly rotting anyway, so my take is that the labelling is arse covering fit people who keep it in cupboards rather than the fridge.

[pancreas]

I'm sure all tofu is not equal, but the tofu I used in a curry last week was a disaster. Nothing absorbed into it, nothing clung to it. Horrible texture in a sauce, wouldn't recommend that. Probably better as mentioned when accompanied by a variety of textures, or baked first in a crispy coating and used as an addition. Spiced ghee drizzle over baked crispy tofu and Dahl could be good

You could put it in a light Thai green curry, I suppose, but I don't think it really belongs in a thick Indian one.

If you want it to take on flavour, Fuchsia Dunlop says you should steep in in boiling water for a few minutes.

[Dex Sawash]

Made a tofu chocolate pie once. Tasted like eating mediocre chocolate pie while processing mung beans.
6/10

[wasp_f15ting]

Tofu does not taste nice in curries..

Instead if you want a meaty texture go for this:-
https://groceries.morrisons.com/products/fudco-soya-chunks-233729011

You have a lot more opportunity to marinate this in something tasty.

The best meaty mouthfeel is obviously cauliflower, but don't cook with the curry like a Gobi dish.
I tend to marinade mine in Coconut oil, Cardamon, Clove, Ginger and Garlic and leave it the fridge for 12hrs - then flash fry it like a steak and get it crispy, and then add it to a peas and potato curry at the very end. This gives it that bit and texture which just cannot be replicated otherwise.

There are so many excellent vegan / veggie recipes in Indian food.

There are lots of instagrams with good ideas too.

[touchingcloth]

Tofu does not taste nice in curries..

Instead if you want a meaty texture go for this:-
https://groceries.morrisons.com/products/fudco-soya-chunks-233729011

You have a lot more opportunity to marinate this in something tasty.

The best meaty mouthfeel is obviously cauliflower, but don't cook with the curry like a Gobi dish.
I tend to marinade mine in Coconut oil, Cardamon, Clove, Ginger and Garlic and leave it the fridge for 12hrs - then flash fry it like a steak and get it crispy, and then add it to a peas and potato curry at the very end. This gives it that bit and texture which just cannot be replicated otherwise.

There are so many excellent vegan / veggie recipes in Indian food.

There are lots of instagrams with good ideas too.

Good tip on the soy chunks - are they easy enough to find? I tend to do Thai curries as vegetarian quite often, because their flavours are light enough that meats like beef or lamb are too robust, but strong enough that ones like chicken contribute little more than mouthfeel. I like a green curry made with sweet potato, peppers, or - for something which feels very non-kosher - chickpeas. Tofu has never appealed as an option because as others have noted fuck all sticks to it, so if soy chunks are both absorbent and neutral tasting they could be a winner.

[king_tubby]

I discovered bean pastes recently - chilli and black bean ones. Loads of my Chinese books have suggested them but I've always assumed subbing in some soy sauce and spices would work as a substitute, but I was wrong. They're the umamiest things ever, and I don't know how the fuck I've not had them in my kitchen before.

Oh hell yeah.

[poo]

Also throw fish sauce in an Italian ragu. There is precedent for this.

+1