indianfoodandy

There are two cooking styles for biryani - katchi and pakki. Katchi means raw and the meat is cooked from raw with the rice; pakki is where you cook the meat first then layer the rice over it. The meat is marinated in yoghurt and spices and goes in the bottom of the pot. On top of this goes rice that is 40% cooked then some fried onions and herbs and spices then another layer of rice which is 50% cooked and more fried onions and garam masala and some saffron water. All cooked very slowly in a sealed pot. Unfortunately British Indian Restaurants have developed a code whereby biryani means mild which is not necessarily the case. You can find recipes for both chicken and lamb biryani on My lIndian Food Andy

I have 2 problems with premade curry powders Firstly since they are already ground, the oils which give them their flavour evaporate quickly - after 6 months you may as well put sawdust in your food (this applies to individual spices which are ground as well), so I generally buy whole spices which keep much longer. Secondly I like to each dish that I make a new experience, so generally I make up spices for this dish that I am cooking. I do have small amounts of curry powder and garam masala that I have made up to use when time is tight. Recipes for curry powders

Sorry took so long to reply - been a bit busy The fermentation process is driven by 'wild' yeast - basically yeast that floats about in the air - it also won't happen at the temperature in the fridge . So feeding the fermented mixture and expecting it to keep fermenting won't work. However other process do still occur in the fermented mixture even at 3 deg C so the fermented mixture will slowly go off even in a fridge. I have heard stories of unfermented mixture lasting up to a month as long as it doesn't dry out, but I have never confirmed this myself. Hope this helps Andy

Hi yes this is done in India. They put the mixture in the fridge unfermented (as soon as you have ground the rice and urad) and then take what they need out to ferment. You can keep the fermented batter in the fridge for about 2-3 days - just take what you need off the top. Andy