• Administrator
  •  
    Welcome to BIRCurries.co.uk Discussion Forum
    Your One-Stop Resource for Discussing Anything to do With Replicating British Indian Restaurant (BIR) Style Curries at Home!


    Please note that you need to be a MEMBER to access the recipe sections of the forum. Please REGISTER and then become a MEMBER by following the link below:

    Image


    Membership gives you FULL ACCESS to:

    • OVER 300 BIR-STYLE MAIN DISH CURRY RECIPES
    • OVER 300 BIR-STYLE STARTERS, ACCOMPANIMENTS & SIDE DISH RECIPES
    • OVER 100 BIR-STYLE CURRY BASE RECIPES
    • OVER 100 ANCILLARY RECIPES NEEDED TO MAKE YOUR BIR-STYLE CURRIES
    • OVER 100 TRADITIONAL & OTHER NON-BIR STYLE CURRY RECIPES


    Please send me a Personal Message or email me, at admin@bircurries.co.uk, if you have any questions or if you need any assistance with using the forum.
     

June 2016 - TikkaTom's Chicken Tawa

Group testing of selected forum recipes by forum members
User avatar
TikkaTom
BIRD'S EYE
BIRD'S EYE
Posts: 1265
Joined: Sun Dec 28, 2014 4:13 pm
Favourite Curries: Chicken Madras
Location: Worcestershire, England

Re: June 2016 - TikkaTom's Chicken Tawa

Post by TikkaTom »

Thanks for trying it Mr E, glad you and the missus liked it. Yes it's very tomatoey and saucey that kinda defines the dish. I use Lidl plum tomatoes, I guess a premium brand may be more potent so adjust the tomato juice accordingly.

Didn't realise the portions were that big, I guess that says something about my greedyness! :lol::
User avatar
Mr.Everready
JALAPENO
JALAPENO
Posts: 236
Joined: Thu Jan 07, 2016 10:20 am
Location: Kintyre, Scotland

Re: June 2016 - TikkaTom's Chicken Tawa

Post by Mr.Everready »

After a day marinating, this dish is now a 9 ! The strong tomato flavour subsided and everything just clicked, it was very nice indeed.

As you can see from the picture, this is half of what was made. So if that's a single portion ..... :omg:
Attachments
Re heated but superb
Re heated but superb
User avatar
Alchemist
BHUT JOLOKIA
BHUT JOLOKIA
Posts: 4581
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 7:50 am
Favourite Curries: Lamb Jalfrezi
Location: West Yorkshire, England

Re: June 2016 - TikkaTom's Chicken Tawa

Post by Alchemist »

Looks great Mr E. Interestingly last week rshome made a madras during our cook up afternoon and initially we both tasted it and agreed it tasted too much of tomato. When we came to reheat and serve I thought it was bang on and really enjoyed it. Maybe this is a dish to let sit for a while?
User avatar
Greybeard
BIRD'S EYE
BIRD'S EYE
Posts: 1604
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 11:18 pm
Favourite Curries: Dopiaza, Kashmiri, Madras or Garlic chicken
Location: Somewhere north of Watford but south of Inverness
Scotland

Re: June 2016 - TikkaTom's Chicken Tawa

Post by Greybeard »

My attempt tonight, cooked as closely as I could to the instructions with my PC base V2 and EMP1 as the mix powder.

And very nice it was too. Mrs GB gave it an 9.

Would you like an in depth review TikkaTom?
Chicken Tawa
Chicken Tawa
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
pauly
SENIOR MODERATOR
SENIOR MODERATOR
Posts: 3884
Joined: Sat May 18, 2013 10:29 am
Favourite Curries: Chicken Vindaloo
Location: Co.Cork, Ireland
Ireland

Re: June 2016 - TikkaTom's Chicken Tawa

Post by pauly »

Made this tonight as per recipe, interestingly, with Lidl tinned tomatoes as well ! I used fresh lemon juice, also, a little white sugar at the end.

I really enjoyed it, I like tinned tomatoes anyway, but I thought it was a really well crafted recipe, in fact I think I'll have it again next weekend.

Image
User avatar
Curry Diva
JALAPENO
JALAPENO
Posts: 51
Joined: Thu Dec 31, 2015 4:53 am
Location: Cambridge UK

Re: June 2016 - TikkaTom's Chicken Tawa

Post by Curry Diva »

Made this tonight, it was interesting to use the Basar mix. I think it gave it a very unique flavour that you could taste in the aroma while cooking.
I used precooked chicken.
I love tinned tomatoes. So this was a real nice curry for me. Not hot (Im a vindaloo kinda gal) but spicy enough.
I like using the sizzler to serve, I wouldn't have thought of that.
My photography doesn't do the dish justice.
Attachments
20160604_220143.jpg
20160604_220143.jpg (112.52 KiB) Viewed 42538 times
Keep on currying!
User avatar
Alchemist
BHUT JOLOKIA
BHUT JOLOKIA
Posts: 4581
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 7:50 am
Favourite Curries: Lamb Jalfrezi
Location: West Yorkshire, England

Re: June 2016 - TikkaTom's Chicken Tawa

Post by Alchemist »

Wow, hardly room to swing a cat in the curry club hut this weekend! Well done all, great to see this recipe being tried and and enjoyed, :thumbup:
User avatar
Curry Diva
JALAPENO
JALAPENO
Posts: 51
Joined: Thu Dec 31, 2015 4:53 am
Location: Cambridge UK

Re: June 2016 - TikkaTom's Chicken Tawa

Post by Curry Diva »

My cat flew out of the kitchen when I transferred the curry into the sizzler!
Keep on currying!
User avatar
TikkaTom
BIRD'S EYE
BIRD'S EYE
Posts: 1265
Joined: Sun Dec 28, 2014 4:13 pm
Favourite Curries: Chicken Madras
Location: Worcestershire, England

Re: June 2016 - TikkaTom's Chicken Tawa

Post by TikkaTom »

Apologies for the lack of reply, just had a heavy weekend at the Epsom Derby. Anyway, EXCELLENT efforts for curry club this weekend. Curry Diva, Pauly & GB those all look fab and I'm really glad that you enjoyed them. This is one of my favourite dishes as the tinned plum tomatoes give a unique taste that you don't really get in any other curry.

@GB Yes would love one of your indepth reviews :)
@MR E, I confess to being a greedy pig. The recipe is for 2 but could probably feed 3 :lol::
User avatar
Curry Diva
JALAPENO
JALAPENO
Posts: 51
Joined: Thu Dec 31, 2015 4:53 am
Location: Cambridge UK

Re: June 2016 - TikkaTom's Chicken Tawa

Post by Curry Diva »

TT
I didn't share (whats mine is mine). I didn't have rice though, just Naan.
Keep on currying!
User avatar
TikkaTom
BIRD'S EYE
BIRD'S EYE
Posts: 1265
Joined: Sun Dec 28, 2014 4:13 pm
Favourite Curries: Chicken Madras
Location: Worcestershire, England

Re: June 2016 - TikkaTom's Chicken Tawa

Post by TikkaTom »

CD, you had the whole 2 portion curry to yourself?? Seriously impressed!
User avatar
Greybeard
BIRD'S EYE
BIRD'S EYE
Posts: 1604
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 11:18 pm
Favourite Curries: Dopiaza, Kashmiri, Madras or Garlic chicken
Location: Somewhere north of Watford but south of Inverness
Scotland

Re: June 2016 - TikkaTom's Chicken Tawa

Post by Greybeard »

As those who have read my reviews and posts will know, garlic and onions are staples in the GB household. There is another item that will cause much consternation, distress and raising of blood pressure if store-cupboard supplies shrink below an acceptable level - and that is Italian tinned tomatoes. Long banished from the weekly shop by wife and daughter for persistent bad behaviour (Reading labels, comparing prices, spending half an hour in the speciality foreign foods section, perusing kitchen gadgets etc.), I compile a weekly list of ingredients for the week ahead and Mrs GB purchases them piecemeal from whatever supermarket she may be passing. And such is the ubiquitousness of the humble tinned tomato, there is no need to add them to the list. I know this will come as a major shock to some here, but we do eat other dishes apart from curry, so we easily go through a few tins a week.

Our current supplier of choice at the moment is Aldi, and a tin of Sweet Harvest tomatoes is good value at 34p for 400g. I generally avoid the pulped varieties, and the tins with added herbs are obviously verboten. A tube of Cucina double concentrated tomato puree costs about the same for 200g, so we generally have a good stock of the rich red fruit in our store cupboard. So it was with much excitement that when Chicken Tawa appeared as dish of the month in Curry Club, I thought it would be a cinch – tomatoes, chicken, base, mix powder, coriander – all the usual ingredients and nothing particularly out of the ordinary. Apart from the Tawa of course. I have so far resisted the temptation to buy one on the basis that a) we are running out of space for curry kit and b) I doubt if I could build a sufficiently strong financial argument as my pending Spices of India restock will probably hit £60. It has taken me six months or so to go through the last lot, which works out at about £2.50 a week – not bad at all for the extra ingredients that turn a plain old curry into something really rather special. The closest I have are some polished steel balti dishes, but these would not take kindly to being super-heated on a gas ring. My cast iron frying pan was another option, but it is so unwieldy it requires an industrial hoist to lift it into the sink to be washed up. So the serving dish was a cold balti dish I'm afraid.

Next, the ingredients. It goes without saying that there will always be something missing, and today's cook off was no exception. The first culprit was fresh ginger for the paste, but I managed to find a chunk hiding in the corner of the vegetable rack being sheltered by a rather bulky, if slightly mouldy, onion. Thankfully, the onion had the decency not to pass on the black plague to the ginger, which was surprisingly juicy once peeled. Horror of horrors, I could not find any small chillies. Despite the picture in my mind's eye of a small Tesco bag with 2 remaining red chillies residing in the salad section of our fridge, they were nowhere to be found. The household ghost had struck again. My only defence here for not rushing out to the shops to buy some is that my base has got fresh chilli in it, so hopefully this will get me off the hook here.

The cook off went off really well, apart from a cracked Satco container of base that dribbled inside the microwave and over the worktop. This is the third time I have had problems with the containers splitting after freezing, the plastic seems very brittle and easily shattered. This one had a small hole / crack in the corner, possibly sustained by other family members ratching around in the curry section of the freezer for ice cream and pizza. The alternative hypothesis is that the excessive quantity of garlic in my base eroded the plastic. I will leave the reader to judge.

That said, I don't know what consistency of the Lidl tomatoes TT regularly uses is like, but the liquid from the Aldi ones is really thick, even thicker than my standard tomato puree water mix. When added to the hot pan it thickened up really fast so I had to add some water to prevent the spices burning. This quickly resolved the situation, and the classic oil / crater / separation occurred soon after. I tend to use a bit more oil than was in the recipe, but everything worked out fine in the end.

Probably the trickiest part of this recipe is getting the tomatoes out of the tin in one piece. I drained the juice from the tomatoes into a mug and left the tomatoes in the tin to be extracted with a tablespoon. Trying to delicately extract 3 slippery tomatoes out of a tin without damaging them or having a ninja incident made me realise the error of my ways, and I tipped the whole tin into the curry. The fourth tomato was of such indistinct and insignificant proportions I decided that its fate was to be eaten in a curry, rather than with bacon and egg. And I was not sure if either of our dogs would eat cold, pre-cooked tomato off the floor. Yes I admit it, I really should have got a bowl and a sieve and left the toms to drain properly, but that would have meant more washing up.

One of the oldest culinary tricks around is to add some sugar to tomatoes to take away the slight acidity and tartness. On tasting the dish pre-serving, I found the flavours were well balanced and no extra sugar or salt was required. So it was into the balti dish, add a few splashes of yoghurt, wait for the steam to die down a bit, photograph, then serve with a generous helping of TikaTom's Sag aloo.

The GB household is no stranger to rich tomato dishes, and this curry did not disappoint. Mrs GB gave it a 9, as would I. The only modification I personally would make next time I cook this is to use more oil at the frying stage as there is quite a lot of spice to cook off, and the Aldi tomato juice is quite thick.

This curry is an excellent tomatoey way of getting one of your 5 a day, according to the tin at least. Combined with a cracking Sag Aloo, we could almost say curries are potential health food.
Last edited by Greybeard on Mon Jun 06, 2016 1:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
rshome123
BHUT JOLOKIA
BHUT JOLOKIA
Posts: 4354
Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2013 8:38 am
Favourite Curries: Chicken Vindaloo
Location: Warrington, North West England

Re: June 2016 - TikkaTom's Chicken Tawa

Post by rshome123 »

Greybeard... A splendid and inspirational read. Keep it up. P.s. No Ninja incidents phew.
User avatar
Curry Diva
JALAPENO
JALAPENO
Posts: 51
Joined: Thu Dec 31, 2015 4:53 am
Location: Cambridge UK

Re: June 2016 - TikkaTom's Chicken Tawa

Post by Curry Diva »

GB
A very well documented version of events. I can't have anything in one piece in my house either! I have so many tubs I just bin em when they break.

there is always something missing.
I had to borrow a tin of tomatoes of my neighbour to make mine. I was sure I had a tin in the cupboard, then I remembered the MWT (moany whiney teenager) throwing a fit the other day when I wanted to make a curry out of the left over roast lamb. She made me make a tagine.
Keep on currying!
User avatar
TikkaTom
BIRD'S EYE
BIRD'S EYE
Posts: 1265
Joined: Sun Dec 28, 2014 4:13 pm
Favourite Curries: Chicken Madras
Location: Worcestershire, England

Re: June 2016 - TikkaTom's Chicken Tawa

Post by TikkaTom »

Thanks for the excellent write up GB :) I've never seen plum tomatoes in a thick sauce before, usually a runny tomato juice, does it say on the tin what the sauce is? Sounds like it'd be great for a spagbol.

Interesting your comment about the oil, I tend to cook less indulgent healthier curries lately as my waistline is slowly spiralling out of control since starting this hobby!
lagerlad
JALAPENO
JALAPENO
Posts: 176
Joined: Wed Mar 12, 2014 12:04 pm
Location: dundee,scotland

Re: June 2016 - TikkaTom's Chicken Tawa

Post by lagerlad »

afternoon folks thought i would put up a couple of pictures of my rendition of tikka toms chicken tawa turned out to be a really nice curry followed recipe cooking chicken from raw,personally i prefer precooked chicken reckon its a bit softer and this is the first curry i have used whole tomatoes in which me personally again prefer blitzed but it would have totally changed the curry making it too tomatoey
rsz_tawa1.jpg
rsz_tawa1.jpg (116.9 KiB) Viewed 42519 times
I found it to be a nice medium to fairly hot curry and would definitely have again a wee bit different using the basaar instead of spice mix but equally enjoyable.....oh never had a tawa so its in the pan and in the bowls,thanks for recipe tom cheers lagerlad
rsz_tawa2.jpg
rsz_tawa2.jpg (115.57 KiB) Viewed 42519 times
User avatar
Greybeard
BIRD'S EYE
BIRD'S EYE
Posts: 1604
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 11:18 pm
Favourite Curries: Dopiaza, Kashmiri, Madras or Garlic chicken
Location: Somewhere north of Watford but south of Inverness
Scotland

Re: June 2016 - TikkaTom's Chicken Tawa

Post by Greybeard »

Some great looking curries this month.

TT, the juice is just from the tomatoes, and they are great in spag bol :thumbup:
CD, love the acronym !
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
User avatar
Alchemist
BHUT JOLOKIA
BHUT JOLOKIA
Posts: 4581
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 7:50 am
Favourite Curries: Lamb Jalfrezi
Location: West Yorkshire, England

Re: June 2016 - TikkaTom's Chicken Tawa

Post by Alchemist »

The Fennel Seeds Are Laughing at Me!
The finished article
The finished article
rsz_tikka_-_1.jpg (130.88 KiB) Viewed 42508 times
With the sun still shining on West Yorkshire and summer finally well established it was with a spring in my step that I Ioaded my tray of ingredients for an expedition into the back garden, for an attempt at this dish on the high output burner, to really get that full BIR taste. I was so full of the joys of summer I also decided to video the whole proceedings to boot. As I only had a small amount of chicken to use, I decided to halve the ingredients and make a single portion.

I had almost reached the door when the overloaded tray started to collapse like a crazed BIR version of Jenga and an opened jar of fennel seeds spilled onto the floor, playfully tempting me to delay the proceedings with a game of 1001 fennel seed pick up.

For a moment I was unsure what to do, but then I asked myself “What would a real BIR TA do?” and then immediately gathered a few handfuls up and put them back into the jar, ready for use. The vacuum greedily ate the rest, leaving me free to complete my journey into the great outdoors.

With the ingredients carefully assembled, a skirt of tin foil built around the burner to protect it from the ravages of a light summer breeze, I pressed record on the camera and made my start.

Things got off to an impressive beginning with vast flames erupting when the tomato juice was added and stirred; this was shaping up to be the real deal. Having opted to use Chicken Tikka I added this a little later than the recipe advised and then built up the layers of base gravy, confidently scraping the pan only when necessary and feeling like a pro. Then I saw the jar fennel seeds, glistening in the sunshine and smirking ever so slightly. I had missed them right at the start of the recipe! And the video was running, capturing my incompetence! I quickly added them, hoping all was not lost.

At the end as I did not have a Tawa I decided to heat up my black balti dish, almost burning my fingers in the process – those burners are quiet but deadly. Once hot, the curry was poured into the dish, with a very satisfactory sizzle.

The dish will be consumed later in the week, but my son and I both had a taster and we would have happily paid good money for this one in any restaurant. As the description said, “A fragrant, rich, tangy tomatoey curry…, which was exactly what I got.

I will give my final verdict once it has been consumed, but initial reactions to this one are very favourable.

So, here is the video of the whole debacle (minus the game of 1001 fennel seed pick up). Sorry about the quality, the camera lost focus (perhaps focusing on something in the background…maybe those damn fennel seeds again). Anyway, you get the general gist of what happened, so enjoy.

User avatar
Alchemist
BHUT JOLOKIA
BHUT JOLOKIA
Posts: 4581
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 7:50 am
Favourite Curries: Lamb Jalfrezi
Location: West Yorkshire, England

Re: June 2016 - TikkaTom's Chicken Tawa

Post by Alchemist »

By the way, I bought my tinned plum toms from lidl:
Attachments
image.jpeg
rshome123
BHUT JOLOKIA
BHUT JOLOKIA
Posts: 4354
Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2013 8:38 am
Favourite Curries: Chicken Vindaloo
Location: Warrington, North West England

Re: June 2016 - TikkaTom's Chicken Tawa

Post by rshome123 »

Good job Alchy. Like the way you use a rack on the burner
Locked
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “Curry Club”