Hong Kong-style Curry, with Beef Brisket (咖喱牛腩饭)
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- Опубликовано: 24 сен 2019
- What IS Hong Kong Curry? Well, at it's base, it's got a lot in common with a British curry, but (1) adds a number of Chinese spices to the mix and (2) adds a couple southeast Asian ingredients in the mix. It's a pretty representative dish of Hong Kong Chachaanteng - food that's at the intersection of Western, Cantonese, and (to a lesser extent) Southeast Asian flavors.
This beef version is probably the second most famous curry after fishballs, of course. It's usually translated as 'brisket', but the cut that's more popularly used is actually *plate*. Brisket's tasty though too, so either way is fine.
Written recipe's over here on /r/cooking:
/ recipe_hong_kongstyle_...
And check out our Patreon if you'd like to support the project!
/ chinesecookingdemystified
Outro Music: "Add And" by Broke For Free
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ABOUT US
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Learn how to cook real deal, authentic Chinese food! We post recipes every Tuesday (unless we happen to be travelling) :)
We're Steph and Chris - a food-obsessed couple that lives in Shenzhen, China. Steph is from Guangzhou and loves cooking food from throughout China - you'll usually be watching her behind the wok. Chris is a long-term expat from America that's been living in China and loving it for the last nine years - you'll be listening to his explanations and recipe details, and doing some cooking at times as well.
This channel is all about learning how to cook the same taste that you'd get in China. Our goal for each video is to give you a recipe that would at least get you close to what's made by some of our favorite restaurants here. Because of that, our recipes are no-holds-barred Chinese when it comes to style and ingredients - but feel free to ask for tips about adaptations and sourcing too! 
Хобби
Hey guys, a few notes:
1. So right - pounding vs blending. If you pound your aromatics, the curry's gunna be significantly thinner. We know some chachaantengs add in a slurry at the end to thicken - that would be our recommendation if going the pounding route. You could also strain the curry after blending if you feel like it.
2. If you noticed, the braised brisket recipe is extremely similar to that shown in the Lo Mein video here: ruclips.net/video/H1DNsQ5dyy8/видео.html
3. If you'd like the curry spicy, you can add one fresh red chili in with the aromatics - Heaven Facing, or something similarly spicy.
4. There are some curry pastes in HK that famously use an... impressive number of spices. Like, up to 40. In our tests though, when we were a bit too overzealous with our spice blend, it ended up with a sort of TCM-y aftertaste. Besides what was on the ingredient list on that bottle, we added the star anise (which most blends use), ginger, and clove. That bottle also had salt and MSG added. We preferred to season at the end, and felt that MSG what kinda out of place when we tried it (a rarity for us, I know lol)
5. That bottle's got quite a bit of oil in with the spices. Did they use the same method as us to make the paste (i.e. fry the spices in oil)? No clue. If you want to try another approach - e.g. toasting the spices first - go for it. This was just our best guess for the paste.
6. If you want to toss in some potato, go for it. Slice then cook the potato first, then add it in at the very end. There are totally approaches that use the potato to thicken things, but with this recipe it'd have the potential to make things way too thick if you added it in too early.
7. Fried pork chop and fried chicken cutlet are two of the other classics - my favorite might actually be fried pork chop. Fishball we'll get to next week (hopefully, we're super close but we really want to nail down a fishball that people can make w/ common fish abroad. Can you guys conveniently get mackerel? Red snapper?)
Last thing - just so you know, I only appear to get notifications for comment here if you do the whole "@Chinese Cooking Demystified" thing. Besides that, the only way I see comments is to go into RUclips studio - something I try to avoid if I can, as I don't think it's super healthy to be exposed to analytics all the time (no RUclips, we really don't care if we have a 10-20% variance in our weekly views, but it *does* affect my mood if you're flashing that information in my face everywhere...)
I don't have trouble getting snapper or mackerel here in the states - most fishmongers and asian groceries have them, as well as some upscale grocery stores.
Here in Germany I can get mackerel very easy, and even easier and also cheaper would be pollock
Mackerel and pollock is quite common in Denmark as well and I assume that's the case in Norway and Sweden as well
Fresh mackerel (marketed as “mackerel grey”) and fresh snapper (not called “red” where I saw it) are both readily available in Australia. Both at the top end of regular fish prices but not too expensive (about $30 per kg).
Smoked mackerel is available in most UK supermarkets as far as I'm aware.
Hello! HKer here! My mom always added a peel of orange/mandarin into the curry too! She said, it makes it more fragrant! Very authentic bits of detail! Yum!
My first one with HK curry was from a place here called Hong Kong Harbor Bistro in Toronto Chinatown. My grandmother's friend ran the place and I would always order this but ONLY from here. It was more a mix of Indian curry with some Chinese influences and Portuguese. I've been trying to reproduce it as close as I can.
Generally how I did it was with chicken, preferably bone in thigh and marinated with the following; generic curry powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder, garlic, ginger, chili powder, light soy sauce, chicken base, sesame seed oil, veg oil, and corn starch. I fry the whole thing to give it a slight burn from the wok. Remove, cook up some potatoes with some additional curry powder to crispen up a little. Throw in some onion, return the chicken, stir fry for a minute, and add coconut milk. Cook on low with the lid on for about 10mins.
Is the restaurant still around? I’ve been to a place called Hong Kong Bistro Cafe, but I haven’t heard of Hong Kong Harbour Bistro
@@MadMadCommando
I believe the 2 are one and the same. Back in the mid 90s to early 2000s, it was Harbor Bistro. But I'm wondering if the name change was also due to a change in management, my grandmother and her friend's age weren't that far apart. When I was a teen, I recalled her 2 kids working there, were probably in their early 20s. But Google reviews still has the place at 4 stars serving the same stuff when it was Harbor...so I'm curious to see if its changed at all...one day.
My friends and I go to Hong Kong Bistro Cafe all the time and we always get the curries. My favourites are the curry grouper and curry ox tongue but the sauce itself is really delicious.
2nd floor on dundas. The previous owners moved to run kowloon dimsum on balwin.
The trick is to brown the onions
You guys are so good at explaining this! Can't wait to make!
That was an amazing video! I'm really looking forward to the fish balls next week. Always wanted to recreate that dish but never got to it.
I swear, after every video I want to go out and buy all the stuff to make the dish, you have such awesome recipes!
Also, I gotta stop watching late in the day when the local Asian stores are closed... :P
YES!! ive had hongkong curry when i went to hongkong almost a decade ago and i never tasted anything similar ever since! Thanks for breaking this down. Now i think i can make it for myself
i've been craving chachaanteng curry soo much!! lee kum kee does a curry base but even that's hard to get one's hands on outside hk. thank you for this!! gonna have to collect a couple of these ingredients but can't wait to make this soon
Damn, thanks for making me crave it at 12am in a dorm room.
Seriously, this video's amazing. Thanks.
This is a superb recipe from a superb channel!
one of my fav cooking channel
No need to apologize for "poor lighting" and having to go inside to finish! i just like watching y'all cook and we get to see more of the new place!
My family's favorite Chinese place has curry that I didn't expect to find, but ended up really liking. I think it might be a variant of this! They use skirt steak and leave the onions & garlic unblitzed though, which gives it a little more body. Thank you for the video! Excited to hopefully recreate it sometime
Fantastic attention to detail for a RUclips cooking vid. Guys, you're head and shoulders above in terms of Chinese cooking.
Thank you so much for captioning all your videos!!!
Cheers, hope it's a help! Just FYI though the old ones don't have CCs unfortunately... I only started adding them about a year back :/
you have got an award winning recipe there :D can't wait for you guys to come open a restaurant in Canada
I have to say it again, the diversity of the recipes that you choose is top notch! This basically combines my two favorite cuisines even, chinese and indian. I know this isnt really indian but I cant wait to try this next weekend!
Well, then I think Macanese food is really up your alley.
The new place looks great!!!!!! YAY 4 DECENT KITCHEN LIGHTING :)
Was watching the rinse, then ginger/green onion knot, wine and of course recollected Chef Wang Gang's lessons...
This looks tasty and I shall be making it, but boy am I excited for fishballs next episode!!
@Chinese Cooking Demystified looks really good, I never realized how simple this is to cook. Whenever I've had it in Hong Kong, it contains not just those strands of fat/whatever but also HUGE chunks of jiggly stuff (is it tendon? or something else). Often I'll fish for potato and find this jiggly stuff instead. It's not bad but I prefer the meat. Looking forward to the fishballs, I use pre-made fish balls but am very interested to see the sauce you will make.
I *love* when people say "British style curry" since we bastardise *every* understanding of curry. Regardless, you're helping us create authenticity, so thank you!!!
yeah I mean I didn't get what he meant by it being blended. I've never blended a curry in my life >_>
Yeah I mean, also know that the *idea* of curry as a category of 'thing' is a British invention. But kind of like calling something 'a stir-fry', I think it's still a category that has meaning/value.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Full on agree. I'm mostly satisfying ex's from India and China who would slice off my ***** when I used to say "a curry". We're good.
This looks pretty much what Chinese restaurants will serve as a Curry, same thickness, same colour. To me this is a Chinese curry.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified oh yeah *that* i get. I was watching it at stupid o clock in the morning.
Also keep up the good work. These videos get me through the day sometimes and have helped me massively.
solid as always🙏🏻
the orange peel or powder, what my granny did is to keep and sun dry the peels of mandarin oranges (if this fruit is available in western countries asian groceries).
wow, i was gonna say hongkong style curry paste is not even available in singapore, although i believe i have eaten this style of curry in hongkong style restautants here. thanks a bunch for revealing a close proxy of the required spices.
Looks delicious 😍
I've been a fan of Japanese Curry for a long time, but this looks very interesting. Might have to give this a try.
I'm British so love curry but I'm lazy with my cooking and usually end up using Japanese curry and throw in a ton of Chinese fried fish balls along with chunks of bamboo, puffy tofu and quail eggs spicing it up with dried chilli and sichuan peppercorns pouring it all over some udon noodles. Looking forward to the fishball recipe!
I cannot be the only one who feels exhausted after watching your videos.
I'd like to see you make Portuguese (Macao) style baked curry chicken.
Oh we have curry paste here in Tampa, we're really lucky to have great Asian markets.
I've had this dish a lot in Hong Kong and am a bit hesitant to try making it simply because 50% of the time the CaCaanTeng's curry was incredibly salty and that killed it for me. But I guess I could just leave out most of the salt and see if its better then :) Thanks for the recipe, looks good!
One thing I noticed that Cui Hua (at a time) used to put deep fried potatoes into this right before serving, really liked that.
Really nice!
Another bull's eye on my appetite. Thanks for this recipe!
this is primarily about the specific kicks to a delicious curry, which is more and more some elevation of the most flavorful meat and gravy that one can brew up. Saute a fresh concoction of garum and citrus; tangerine peels are worth saving but I try to make use of all citrus peel if I can. You'll notice some are better than others for different things. Tangerine is nice ground up with coffee and chai mix.
great videos
Thanks for this - really interesting recipe. One suggestion: might be worth taking the tea bag out after 4-5 minutes. I've found it can impart a bitter taste if left in too long. But whatever works for you.
Carefully zest a couple of oranges, let that dry, and then grind the zest with a mortar and pestle. This makes an excellent orange peel powder. Take care to not include any of the white pith, which can be bitter. Cheers!
I made this. Absolutely delicious. I subbed:
A whole onion for the 1/2 and shallots
3 chicken breasts for the beef
4g anise seed for the ground star anise and licorice
Fresh lemon zest for orange powder
Ai ya pang yau 朋友 you making this South East Asianer hungry lol 😩
I miss Hong Kong and the foods :)
Oooh nice new place!
It's also one of the most common flavourings for cart noodles.
It's interesting how ubiquitous curry has become. I suppose that's the colonial influence again!
Definitely pleased to hear of the fish ball tutorial; I've been wanting to make those for a while.
This looks amazing! Thanks for the video!
Quick question: is there a place I could stop with the curry base (after the early oil step or after the blending step later on, perhaps) that I could then keep in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours and then continue with the rest of the steps? I'm thinking of making this in a particular instance where I would not have hours beforehand to make the curry itself but could spend ~30-45 min heating & finishing everything if I made the curry paste/blend earlier.
Yep! Right before you drop the beef in.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Great, thanks! I'm excited to make this for my friends!
Rather than grinding the spices and frying it up, could we use the Sichuan technique of letting some of the spices sit in the oil for 5-7 days? I dont have a spice grinder for my star anise and licorice root.
Fiiiiiiiiinally so happy
Looks amazing. Now excuse me while I dissolve some curry sauce in boiling water:E hehe
nice
TEA Chinese tea how to make and serve? Also what is how to make the red date and goji berry tea, ( fyi goji berry is becoming very popular with home gardeners in the USA.
Also ever try potato in the Hong Kong curry / what about greens like Kale or Mustard Greens. OOPS
I need that plate at 3:59
can I just dry orange peels to make the mandarin peel powder? Then blend it with a thing?
In my opinion some dishes are best left to restaurants because of the time it takes to make. I think this is one of those recipes lol
@Chinese Cooking Demystified - I lived in China for a while and one of the things I'll never understand is how water is used. For example, why use fresh water in the curry base rather than the beef water from simmering to reinforce that flavor?
That beef water is basically flavourless. You need a ton of bones and beef to make any sort of flavourful beef broth.
Will the licorice root give any noticable licorice taste? Just making sure because I can't stand licorice, so would be a shame to make this stuff and find out there was an oppressive licorice aftertaste or something the likes
I will be here for the fish balls next week. And obligatory "that cat plate is SOOO cute" comment is here.
In the US, that cut of beef might be called skirt steak or hanger steak.
great reverse engineering of the paste! There's also this trick of using a lump of yellow rock sugar in the stewing of the beef to help with tenderizing it, so that's in lieu of the sugar at the end.
I'm fond of curry dishes especially in the cold season of the year. I usually prepare either Indian or Thai curries and this hybrid looks very interesting and worth trying.
The idea of preparing the oil based "paste" beforehand and ready to use is attractive. It won't loose the aroma over time like a ground spice mix would do. But I admit that I have a problem with heating oil to 220C, why I have shied away from making chili oil etc at home. I know that refined oil is a prerequisite, and its autoignition temperature presumably is higher than 220C, but honestly I don't feel safe. Besides that I'm afraid that this temperature even in refined oil will create unhealthy substances. Is there any reason why I can't heat the oil to merely 175C and use it straight away?
Merely for my own curiosities sake: when bayleaf is mentioned in Chinese recipes, does it refer to bay laurel/laurus nobilis or Indian bayleaf/cinnamomum tamala?
You'll be perfectly safe getting up to 220C, it's still well below flashpoint. If you're uncomfortable though, try going up to 195-200C then bringing it down. The purpose is to mellow out the taste of the oil itself. Just try to bring up the oil as high as feels ok for you :)
Chinese bay leaf is laurus nobilis, i.e. the same as the Western sort. You only see it here dried though.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified Thanks. I guess I'll need a few more discussions between my conflicting inner selves and then give it a try on the terrace with the fire blanket close by. :-)
I had only recently realized that Indian recipes refer to Indian bayleaf when bayleaf is mentioned. They look both very much alike and are more or less interchangeable, but the Indian one is more spicy with a hint of cinnamon and perfect for spized tea.
6:01 Oh hi there Santan Kara~
So i recently purchased dried tangerine peel for the first time. It really doesn't taste like its former self. When I google it i get images that vary in shade. Is there a difference between them? Btw, Im stoked about the fish balls, next week!
Usually, the differences come in aging and shape. Various shades reflect the age, the darker ones are usually older, which is better. The one that we're using is 12-year (well, theoretically).
How long can you "keep" that Curry paste you made? Does is store in the fridge or freezer?
The bottled stuff we usually keep in the fridge. Can't say for sure how long the curry paste we made can keep, as we just settled on it a final version of it last week. Should last pretty much indefinitely, but if you're worried totally store in the freezer.
The recommendation seems to be a few months in the fridge
The Southeast Asian method would be to blend the aromatics (onion, garlic, lemongrass, etc.) with a little oil before frying.
cheers, delish
I've never seen HK curry here with lemongrass, and only VERY rarely with coconut milk - I'm from Vancouver
Oh, when did you guys move? The new place looks nice!
A little over 3 weeks ago! Yeah it was the right decision. The new place is nicer and is like a third of the price.
What type/brand of thermometer do you use?
To preserve the beefy flavor, I might consider sous viding the steak with those seasonings instead of boiling it.
Or shit, even just use the stock you've created instead of the boiled water in the curry-- why not??
Shrimp! Shrimp curry is delicious!
Did a quick search on beef plate because I've never seen it sold with that name before and found that it is typically cut into skirt and hanger steaks here in the US. Which do you recommend for this curry?
Hmm... I'm also going by a quick google. Seems like neither has much gristle, huh. I'd go with either hanger steak or, honestly, brisket. Beef's a bit higher quality abroad (it's true, Guangdong makes up for it with its badass seafood scene though), so brisket should be fine as well.
Where can you buy the "Hong Kong style curry paste"? What are some brands that are available in the US?
u blend the lemongrass then didn’t strain ??!
Why do you bring the oil up to 200 then let it cool down?
Oil needs to get to a high temperature to cook it. But too hot will burn the spices, so we'll need to cool it down a bit before tossing things in.
Latest Video. Cool.
Do you know why Chinese recipes sometimes soak the meat to get rid of the myoglobin? Is it for texture, taste, or something else?
chinese have very sensitive taste, they do it to get rid of "blood stink".
It’s mostly done with meat to be boiled. Without browning to cover it, myoglobin has a kinda distinctive livery off flavor to it. It also contributes to cloudiness in stocks. It’s a big part of the smell that cooking ground beef also has.
This is a reply from this channel's owner for a same question as yours:
"Yeah it's to remove the Shanwei... we talk about categories of 'unpleasant odors' in Chinese cooking a bit in our Shaoxing wine vid: ruclips.net/video/5UyKUI5U67k/видео.htmlm11s
Now, I'd actually hypothesize that the unpleasant odors aren't actually in the myoglobin per se - my best guess is that some of the volatile compounds that arise from lipid oxidation are water soluble, and a soak helps remove those. It just also happens to remove the myoglobin at the same time, which's likely why the association between the two exists (homecooks it China usually refer to it as 'blood').
"
More HK videos please! Ga yau hong kong
where is that like button? Oh I already pressed it. Can't do it again....
Might make this without the coconut.
Do you record the narration before the video so you know how to time your hand gestures lol
lol nope, when it comes to stuff that needs hand gestures (i.e. places where we're guessing that I'm gunna be gabbing on a bit in the narration) we basically just film a bunch (like ~45 seconds worth) and then cut in the ones that feel right.
We should probably really write up the narration before filming, maybe do a bit of storyboarding or whatever... but nah. Feels less fun that way. We prefer to cook/film on the seat of our pants.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified
I've been meaning ing to ask the exact same question. I thought for the sake of ease, you'd record the audio externally while you record with the camera, then re-add the narration to match the visuals then cut as needed.
@Headless Chicken So yeah! Our process is generally: Film --> Sort/Color Grade clips --> Write Narration --> Record Narration --> Edit Audio --> Cut Audio to Video
This looks and sounds totally amazing! Would it work over noodles, too, y'all?
I mean, you ARE the Lee Kum Kee of your Hong Kong curry...
@@ChineseCookingDemystified ??
Ah just a stupid Chef John reference. Basically, it's your curry, do what you want with it!
@@ChineseCookingDemystified You need to work on it, as his typically rhymes?
Kee, Curry... eh...
Out of curiosity. Why go thru removing the myoglobin from the beef?
My guess is to leach out the shanwei/bloody flavor from the meat
I was also curious about this!
@@bluesSGL Yeah, they've spoken about that in a bunch of their videos, just didn't get into it this time...
Yeah it's to remove the Shanwei... we talk about categories of 'unpleasant odors' in Chinese cooking a bit in our Shaoxing wine vid: ruclips.net/video/5UyKUI5U67k/видео.htmlm11s
Now, I'd actually hypothesize that the unpleasant odors aren't actually in the myoglobin per se - my best guess is that some of the volatile compounds that arise from lipid oxidation are water soluble, and a soak helps remove those. It just also happens to remove the myoglobin at the same time, which's likely why the association between the two exists (homecooks it China usually refer to it as 'blood').
it's a typical step in chinese recipes... maybe, dare I say, because of the meat being sold without refrigeration?
Hong Kong........missing the city
Wow. Santan Kara.
Is this like a malay chicken curry? Chanai?
How can we get chopsticks like yours?
I got some of them at IKEA and some in Thailand, the ones I got in Thailand are made of coconut shells.
Food looks good. The pots need some love and barkeepers friend cleaner on the outside
Could have pressure cooked that in a bit over 1 hr
thiccccc curry
i like these recipes but it’s always got some shit no one haves i’ve never even heard of liquorice root let alone known where to get it
My grandma never used coconut milk in curry. She grew up in hong kong and she'd be over 100
"To get started with Hong Kong style curry, you'll need... Hong Kong style curry paste"
I lost it XD
yes
咖喱鱼饭 beats beef or chicken.
Hello
your link www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/d9ir2r/recipe_hong_kongstyle_curry_%E5%92%96%E5%96%B1%E7%89%9B%E8%85%A9%E9%A5%AD/ says permanently "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable" though all services of reddit are online (checked)
This would 100% give me the worst diarrhea
Why
@@ChineseCookingDemystified because theres so much oil in this and those spices too, my intestines dont do so well with spices.
I wonder if choosing this recipe is meant to be quietly subversive or not. Either way, it looks tasty as hell. Also, #FreeHongKong
I don't think I've seen this channel ever make political statements in any way, so probably not. That said, it would be interesting to see if it attracts trolls.
@Regina Billotti We're both liberals (in both the Chinese sense and the American sense of the word), but we know that some of our viewers are conservatives/nationalists. We'll always stay apolitical here because we feel that if food can't bring people together... then nothing will. I know that sentiment is corny as all hell, but it's true I think. Politics is obviously important but it shouldn't infect every nook and cranny of the human experience, you know?
@@ChineseCookingDemystified agreed. There's a time and place for everything. A cooking channel isn't the place for politics. And I think we can agree that everyone loves a good curry, regardless of their politics. Food is the great unifier.
先free你妈吧,她什么时候有空?
Chinese Cooking Demystified I totally agree with you statement. Plus whatever you say is bound to offend a large portion of you viewership, better to stay out of the fray.
With that said I've been trying to google for the past half hour the hk curry paste that you showed to no avail. Can you maybe give me more info, so I can try to source it from my local chinese supermarket? I've got a mean hankering for some curry fishballs hk style.
Thanks and keep up the good work. Totally dig ur style; like a cooking with babish for chinese cuisine
you guys this is the first ever time I have disagreed with a single ingredient choice in any one of your videos!! You live in *China*!!!!!!! how could you use a teabag oh my heart Y_Y There're like 2000 different varieties of inexpensive real Chinese tea that would have worked perfectly in this dish! like cheap da hong pao, a million kinds of black tea, basically any dancong, etc etc. (still love you guys though
It's probably a simplification because the majority of viewers won't have access to that.
Mostly because it's just for the tannins, it doesn't really impart any 'tea' taste to the beef. Bagged tea is convenient because you can just toss it straight in.
Chinese Cooking Demystified haha very fair, I guess I’m just one of those nerds who buys those make-your-own tea/herb bags for soup. The only thing I will say though, is even at the teabag level there’s a big difference between teabags from China and Lipton/ tetley - the latter are usually made from Indian tea, and it’s a totally different subvarietal of the tea tree than what is found in china - so if you use a chinese teabag it’s less likely that you will get any British/Indian afternoon-teatime flavours ;P (I have actually done quite a few cooking with tea experiments such as this, and while it is a somewhat subtle difference, it’s just noticeable enough that I’d bother). But again, I suppose this is just me geeking out as a Teahead ;P
I wonder if HK style curry can beat Malaysian style curry lol...
Might be a question of taste, but my vote is an emphatic “no”!
My chef heart was broken when you used water instead of the stock you had from the meat. Why?
Also I don't really believe in pedantic skimming. It's a bad religion.
@Carloshache I had the same thoughts exactly! Bad religion - yes! I call it cooking like you are making a witch’s potion (“Stir clockwise three times and sprinkle salt over your left shoulder while standing on one leg”)
Seriously though, I know they do stress about “impurities” in Chinese cooking and there is a relationship there to ancient health traditions which I would not like to disrespect from our ignorant and arrogant Western perspective. This may be the origin of fanatical skimming and the failure to use the “water” (which was of course broth by then). But for western cooks I can understand skimming when you want a clear broth or a very refined taste, but for a beef curry...?!
@@uasj2 in Chinese cuisine there's both clear and cloudy broths. In western cuisine i'd say skimming is only very important in traditional clear consommé and maybe some traditional (non fried) boiled meat dishes.
Chef Magnus Nilsson claims that removing foam actually removes flavour though. 😉
@Carloshache The reason is that if you use the liquid from stewing, the curry will taste overly beefy. Try it yourself! We did when testing :) You'll find that it ends up almost tasting like a heavily spiced beef stew. Not bad, but not a curry if that makes any sense? AFAIK at curry houses in the UK it's the same approach - cook the curry separate from the beef.
Fair point on pedantic skimming. I just try to keep stuff in if I do it when filming... but yeah, probably should've cut it. For something going on two hours, that scum'll probably get reabsorbed - I do like skimming it out though when there's something like Huiguorou where it's only going on for ~20-30 minutes... in that instance, the scum can and does cling to the meat itself.
@@ChineseCookingDemystified I think we have different perceptions of curry. Chinese style curry with the broth in it is very curry-like (according to my memories) and all great curries cooked with a broth flavor added or cooked likestews.
Take for example Japanese curry or all authentic Indian curries (cooked like stews). Here in Sweden our native bastardized curry sauce (that is actually served in many Chinese restaurants) is based on stock, cream, curry powder and roux - and it has indeed a very strong curry character.
British restaurant curries are Anglified and simplified version of Punjabi style food. The sauces are cooked separetely so that the restaurant can serve basically the same sauce for all dishes regardless if it is based on prawns, beef, chicken or even paneer cheese (with minor variations, such as extra chili powder in a Vindaloo etc).
Westerners don't really know the difference between different style of dishes so they can get away with it. In India and Pakistan meat curries are always cooked like stews with their own style of seasoning and not with a separate sauce.
Thinking of such things, like Beef Nihari fennel chili cumin soup or a real vindaloo stew with heavy amount of garlic and vinegar makes me drool.
You certainly know quite a bit more about Indian cooking than we do! Obviously, if you feel strongly about the issue, when cooking for yourself feel free to use the liquid from stewing the beef - we tried it and felt it was unbalanced, but feel free to play around with it yourself.