I have been trying to imitate the gold standard of curries; The British Indian Restaurant (BIR) Chicken Madras and have had some success. I have made the base-curry sauce as per the books and it works out OK but there is a lot of preparation and the taste is not quite there. One thing about BIR Madras is that is it always savoury.  When I follow homemade curry recipes I always find that my curry is too sour from the tomato, so I have taken to adding chicken stock (using Knorr cubes) and my curry is starting to approach my goal. Can anyone suggest ways of making my curry even more savoury? EDIT: This is my recipe, which won't surprise many people.  Marinade chicken breast in yoghurt and lemon for 30 mins in the fridge. Rinse off marinade and partially fry the chicken and set aside. Fry onion in Ghee until it starts to brown. Add garlic and ginger paste.  Wait 2 mins. Add dried kashmiri chillies. Stir in spices; coriander powder, cumin, garam masala, hot chilli powder, tumeric and fenugreek powder.  Wait 1 min. Add 1 mug chicken stock (1 Knorr cube). Add tomato passata. Add chicken back in and cook for 15 mins or so.  EDIT 2: I have seen several places that the garam masala should go in last; I will actually do that next time.
121432
Are there natural spices that taste umami? I don't want to use MSG in my food, but I'd like to add some umami flavour.
71942
I recently made an Oven Round Roast in the oven and I followed directions quite well. I would really like to know where I went wrong.  The roast was 1.4kg and relatively round in shape, it was also quite nicely marbled with a big strip of fat on one side.        Out from the freezer and into the fridge overnight (to give it some time to cool down) and then left it out in room temperature for a   couple of hours. Took out of package and put on a rub.   I put the oven on 450 F and put the roast in (fat side up) for 10 minutes for the maillard reaction. Note that when I did this, I put it   directly on the oven rack; I put a tray underneath to catch the   drippings, but it was uncovered.   Turned oven down to 225 for 2 hours and then 200 for 5 hours.    Cut the roast into half inch slices and served.      The color was a nice pink on the inside and dark on the outside. It was still juicy and the taste was great. The roast's outside is absolutely delicious in fact, the rub turned out so well and the fat was amazingly tasty.   However, the roast was so chewy, I am very disappointed. I did a lot of research before I cooked it and found that slow cooking is a good way to tenderize meat. I also found out that certain cuts of meat need to be cooked differently. I.e. Steak should be hot and fast, and roast cuts should be long and slow (after searing it of course... yum yum yum).   In  post, 'Marti' answered by quoting a TV chef saying that when beef is being cooked it's collagen breaks down and liquifies and when it cools it turns to gelatine. Could that be what happened to my beef roast? If so, how can I avoid that?  In  post, 'Gilead' suggested a few solutions, beating the meat, cutting it against the grain, and choosing the right cooking method. Well, did I do the right cooking method? And do the other ones apply to a roast? I mean if you cut it up, it's basically cheap beef steak and I've never tried mechanically tenderizing the meat.   I really appreciate any help; I'm quite distraught over this chewy beef roast.
100766
In the fall of 2011 I made the leap from extract/partial kits to all-grain kits. I'm enjoying AG, but my SG is continuously below the expected. I have brewed 5 AG kits and 4 have had a low SG.   My assumption is my sugar extraction during mashing (or sparging) isn't optimal. I heat my mash water to 165 and mash the grains for 60 minutes. Mashing levels out at 152. For Lautering I heat the water to 175-180. After I drain the initial mash I add the lautering water and let that soak for 10 minutes. the temperature levels out around 170-172. Then I drain into the kettle and being the boil.  I aim for a gentle boil just enough to break the surface tension. I boil for 60 minutes, chill, rack, take a reading and pitch yeast.  Here are some of the numbers  type            expected     actual  kit st paul porter  1.052        1.039   http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/st-paul-porter-all-grain-kit.html belgium strong  1.067        1.055   http://www.midwestsupplies.com/superior-strong-ale-all-grain-kit.html troegs hop back 1.063        1.049   http://www.byo.com/stories/recipeindex/article/recipes/90-american-amber-a-pale-ale/2196-troeegs-hopback-amber-ale-clone   The fuorth was the Phat Tyre kit from Northern Brewer. Can't remember the SG though. It was low. They taste great, but the numbers weren't "right". What can I adjust so the numbers are more inline with the recipe?   Update Thank you for all the feedback. There are a number of factors for me to review and adjust. Given my current setup I will follow @mdma advice and recirculate the wort once and extend lautering to 30 minutes.  It will be a week or two before I can attempt this, so it will be awhile before I report back again.  Update #2 I now have some awesome local contacts who are helping me out with technique and trouble shooting. Another (major) issue I could be experiencing is draining the wort way too fast. According to my friend. The drain should be low and slow after cycling a gallon or 2 of wort. sparging should take ~2 hours. for each gallon drained plato/brix should drop 3 points and go no lower than 3-5 points at the end.  the second recommendation is to heat up 3-5 gallons of water to 180 and poor it in prior to/while sparging.  my first attempt using this technique proved successful with the gravity being a lot closer to the anticipated OG. I had some temp issues with the batch, but I was so focused on sparging that I ignored the temp. My guess is I would have been right on if my temp didn't fall so low.  Update #3 I had the chance to brew with my mentor this weekend and he pointed out 2 glaring problems with my mashing technique.   Starting mash temp is too low. I was heating my water to 10-12 degrees above target temp. He recommends 17 degrees. between grain absorption &amp; the tun itself most of the heat dissipates within the first few minutes. This does go against what I originally said. That I was hitting my temp marks. Looking back I was hasty with my readings. I should not dump my sparge water (or lauter?) into the tun while draining the wort. The idea is to compact the liquid into the bottom of the tun thus compacting the sugars. I am stirring up the mash when I dump all sparge water in. We kept our sparge water 1-2 inches above the grain bed and our final results we excellent.   A 3rd recommendation he made was to lower the pH of the water. tap water is ~7 and the ideal mash pH is 5.2. He added a solvent, which I cannot remember the name of, which did this for us. I'll be picking up some of that this weekend.  Thanks to all who helped me out with this problem.
78255
I remembered everything else, it taste fine but a little bland. Even though i already cooked it, is there anything I can do to make it taste better?
16206
I have two meat thermometers. I bought a second one because I thought the first one was resulting in overcooked meat, however the new one is doing the same! They are both standard metal prong 'analog style' with a needle.  An example - cooking chicken breast. The thermometer says the temperature must reach 77 degrees Celsius. I cooked it for a short time in a griddle pan first and then put the pan in the oven. The temperature hung around 71 degrees and when it didn't seem to be getting any higher and I felt it was overcooking I pulled it out. Sure enough, overcooked!  How can I use a meat thermometer to cook meat correctly?
109603
A random thought: can you shake an egg vigorously enough to beat it inside its own shell?  Aside from  I can find nothing about this. Any thoughts, recipes?
88766
The restaurant assured me that there was no chilli in the food but it was still too hot for me. What other spices, etc. can cause the heat effect in the mouth? it was a Sri Lankan restaurant, very reputable. My host had mistakenly told the waiter that I was allergic to chilli - in fact I have LichenPlanus which me ans I am super sensitive to anything hot or spicy.
58530
I made a mistake with my lastest batch of chicken soup, and it's too salty to eat. Is there any way to save it?
36182
I've tried to make macarons eight times in a row and I failed. I used  (text version is in the description below the video).  They all cracked on top and the surface collapsed as you see in the picture. I did some research and watched youtube videos to find out what I am doing wrong. As I figured the following factor could be the reason behind ugly macaroons:   I read somewhere that the time you let the batch sit and dry before putting i the oven is an important factor. I let it rest for 45 minutes to one hour instead of 20-30 minutes, but the result was the same, if not worse. The other factor is beating egg whites to stiff peaks. There, I think this is where my problem come from. So I beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt to medium peak stage, then add in the sugar in 3 batches while mixing with hand mixer. After watching several videos I know what stiff peaks look like, or at least I think so. But trying the recipe keeping that point in mind it still had the same result:      What else is important in making macarons that avoid them crack? What am I missing?  The weird thing is, my first batch was a success without precise measurements and so on! Here is the picture:
73053
I'm reading Shokugeki no Soma and at some points, I thought it would be nice to cook some of these dishes. Unfortunately, I haven't found more than the mackerel burger recipe. I know that not all recipes are published, but I would like to know if there were also other ones that were published.
97964
I picked up a pork sirloin roast yesterday, it's a little over three pounds.  I've never cooked one of these before and I am not sure what to do.  My seasoning plan is salt, pepper, thyme, and rosemary, and I might poke a couple holes for cloves of garlic as well.  My cooking plan is 8+ hours in the crock pot on low, with about an inch of water in there.  Will this turn out OK?  I'd like a tender and moist result, obviously.  Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
39464
A lot of my favorite curry recipes have a yogurt based sauce in them, but on a pretty regular basis when I make them, the yogurt ends up splitting into basically curds and whey. What causes that, and how can I prevent it?  As an illustrative example, last night I made a simple tofu curry as follows:   warm evoo in a pan add chopped onion, saute briefly add curry seasonings, allow to warm/season the oil add cubed tofu, toss to coat cook for a while, tossing periodically to lightly brown the cubes turn heat off add plain greek yogurt stir to combine   In the few minutes it took to finish the rest of the meal and start plating, the yogurt had separated so I had a clumpy, lumpy, yogurt soup instead of a smooth creamy sauce.
80382
Sometimes chicken breast can be thick and I never know how to tell when it's cooked! How can I be certain it is cooked all the way through?
17045
Recently all my attempts at sauces are splitting and I'm not sure what's going wrong. Tonight I tried a balsamic vinegar reduction / chicken stock / pan juices recipe to go with my lamb chops, but once again the dreaded split occurred. My wife is patient and forgiving, but I feel like I must be missing something fundamental to get this wrong so often.  Two questions.   What could I be doing wrong to cause these sauces to split? What can I do to recover when it happens again?   UPDATE: The Pan juices contained a tbsp or two of olive oil, and some of the fresh herb rub I'd coated the lamb chops in (thyme, rosemary, and mint). I did not drain the pan before starting the sauce. It has crossed my mind that perhaps there was too much oil / fats in the pan at that point?  For completeness, I should point out that I also sauteed some chopped shallots in the pan juices immediately before adding the vinegar.
79307
I make a product I invented called Maybe It's Marinade. Cold pressed extra virgin olive olive, pressed garlic as the base in three varieties, AoliOliO, Dill and Cayenne Pepper, garlic powder, and titch of salt. I package it in a 250 ml mason jar. I also place the jar in a celephane bag as part of its packaging. Recently, a public inspector noticed the product and sunk his teeth into it concerning Botulism risks.   I've been making this for eighteen years. No one has ever gotten sick. I designed the product to be stored in the cupboard. Using cold pressed olive, extra virgin olive oil I have never found the product to become awful, discolored, smelly, and I set some aside in my house on several occassions for months and tested it on myself and found nothing wrong.   The product is not a method of storing garlic in the oil, with the other ingredients in the recipe, it becomes a bread dipping oil, cooking tool, pasta sauce accessory.  The use of the mason jar provides a secure lid but a very reusable easy to open situation. I do not fill the oil to the top, so that the product can be shaken. Its a very interactive product if that makes sense, in the way that it's spoon accessible.   Can you provide some sort of pro and con overview? I only see articles on storing garlic in oil, not as an ingredient in a recipe? If there's a chance i will make people sick afer eighteen years, I may have to stop making it.  Thanks a heap.
79587
From my experience it is always best to marinate meat for a decent amount of time, so the meat can "soak" up the marinade and be more flavourful.  However, I came across this recipe here:   In the directions, it says: Add pork and marinade for a minimum of 6 hours or overnight, but no longer than 12 hours.  I was wondering, why does it say "no longer than 12 hours"? Isn't it good to let meat marinate for as long as possible?  Thanks.
35303
Just cooked some chicken breasts today. All day in the crockpot and when done the meat was horribly dry.  I put chopped onions, carrots, spices, and coconut milk and 1/2 cup water and 4 chicken breasts.  There was plenty of fluid there when it was done, but the cooked chicken meat was really dry.  This seems to happen with beef roast as well.  Is there some trick to getting meat to be tender when cooking in the crockpot?