Saturday night is.......Balti Night

Suggested listening material.

Inspired in part by @cromercrox who recently livetweeted a cookery sketch about chutney making, I post herewith the following.

When McDawg gets home from a hard days work, the last thing they want to do is to slave over a hot stove preparing dinner for the night. As such, usually once a month now, I spend a Saturday afternoon/evening preparing and cooking a large batch of meals for future enjoyment. Here's what happened last night.

Ingredients

8 chicken breasts
3 beef fillets

4 large onions
1 bunch of spring onions
one bunch of fresh coriander
2 bulbs of garlic
2 medium sized stems of fresh ginger
3/4 carton of passata
vegetable ghee
vegetable oil
sesame oil
12-14 chillis
2 limes
5 - 6 mixed peppers
roasted cashew nuts
1.5 packets of chinese curry sauce mix
3 pints of water
balti curry paste
yogurt
balti cooking sauce
2 other chinese cooking sauces
light & dark soya sauce
2 egg whites
cornflour
salt and freshly ground pepper

In rough order.

Dice and slice the meat. Marinate and chill according to dishes being prepared.



Whisk together the water and chinese curry mix, bring to boil and set aside for later.



Slice and dice all vegetables other than garlic and ginger.



During the above process, take some of these:



and roast them in sesame oil and a pinch of salt for about 20 mins, turning from time to time.



Finally, finely chop the garlic and ginger. Personally, I tend to go for a 40% ginger/60% garlic mix:



Right. That's all the prep done so time for a break and a beer.

For Indian dishes, a Karahi works miles better than a wok.



For the Balti dishes, after you've sealed the marinated chicken and added all of the (required) ingredients, you want to seal and simmer for about 30 mins. At the very end, add the juice of 1 - 2 limes and garnish with freshly chopped coriander:



That's 4 dishes prepared, 10 still to go !!

Time for another beer break.

With the chinese curry sauce already prepared, it doesn't take long to make half a dozen or so chicken and beef dishes. The methodology in the following video is slightly different from what I do but produces the same end result:



You've guessed it, another beer break.

Almost all done. There should be sufficient ingredients left to make a further 3 - 4 dishes. With variety being the spice of life, time to whip up a few different dishes using the yet to be used sauces.

Since I cook at a leisurely pace, after about 5 hours, one reaches the finishing line:



Allow to cool completely (I usually leave overnight) before freezing:



Oh, I guess these will come in handy laters....