cinammon sticks

soba

I'm making Goan chicken and part of the prep is to blend a load of ingredients - garlic, chillis, peppercorns and cinammon stick amongst others. I've never used cinammon stick like that, I've only ever cooked it in a recipe and then discarded. If my blending's not perfect and there's bits of cinammon stick in there won't it be like splinters in the mouth or does it soften on cooking?
Thanks

Living_proof

You never blend the stick to my knowledge, it goes in whole and pervades the whole dish. This is really weird as I have posted on cinnamon sticks in the June Grocery Challenge just an hour or two ago. Whichever sort they use they break up and are like bark. I plan to make some muslin bags to put these cinnamon sticks into when I cook so the whole bag can be whisked out before serving. Powdered cinnamon is pretty good as long as you get the quantity right. Maybe they have a variety of cinnamon in Goa that is more obliging than the rest? Let us know!

morganlefay

I agree that it wont blend well - could you cheat and use powdered cinnamon (I wonder how they do it ?) or I'd just put the whole stick/s in and take them out later so no bits of bark between the teeth !

zippychick

Hmmmm i can't imagine that going well at all!

A brave while ago someone did post about grinding cinnamon sticks

We also have a general cinnamon thread which may have some help?

I find it hard to understand how you make it part of a curry paste! What exactly does the recipe say?:eek::o

Ill merge this later

Zip

soba

It's a recipe by Anjum Anand and I had it in a Good Food magazine. I can't find it on the Good Food website but here's the same recipe

http://www.stuffyerbake.co.uk/blog/2009/4/9/anjum-anand-curry-goddess.html

Well we didn't have it for tea so the paste is sitting, blended, in the fridge. It smells divine but I don't think I can bring myself to use it. What a waste.

zippychick

Hmmmmm thats exactly what it says - it can't be misinterpreted. :eek:

If i had went to the trouble of making a curry paste i would use it. I would maybe use a cheaper substitute than chicken so if it was a total disaster then it's not such a great loss if that makes sense

I would use a bag of quorn chicken , orange lentils, and sub the remaining weight (up to 700g) with carrots/potatoes/chickpeas etc. My boyfriend is veggie and i often make us currys from scratch. This is what i do so for pork rogan josh, i substitute the meat weight for the equivalent in veggie options.

Or use half and make a smaller portion ?

Knowing the love and care that goes into making curry paste, i would take the risk knowing it is just that.

let us know what you do !

this recipe also suggests using cinnamon stick as do many others. It's just more unusual for us so we question it more:D

Zip

soba

Have decided not to use it - the thought of having cinammon stick splinters in my throat is not appealing. Will make peppered chicken for tea tomorrow instead.

Definitely not going to use smashed cinammon sticks again!!