My first bulk batch!
Moving to a stone grinder and considering manufacturing in Goa...
Hello everyone!
It’s really nice to be back on substack, now that I have a little more purpose with what I’m sharing - and that is of course the behind the scenes of restarting and scaling my Goan food business. After my last post a couple of weeks ago I’ve had an influx of new subscribers so thank you for that!
I’ve now been in my commercial kitchen for a month, though some of that time has been occupied with ordering supplies, developing my recipes and getting called away on private chef jobs now that the busy summer season has started. I have however managed 3 shifts in the kitchen itself, 2 of which I spent making spice blends and prepping in order to familiarise myself with the equipment again, and one where I took a stab at making my paste in bulk for the first time.
I’ll run you through what I did. Without giving away all my trade secrets, my plan for this first large bulk (7kg to be exact) was to nail the texture. TLDR; I didn’t. As I discussed in my last newsletter, and something I’ve laboured over for a while as those of you who follow me on instagram will know, is the challenge I’ve been having with scaling my tiny recipe and what equipment to use. After making the base of my curry paste (onions, garlic, ginger, spices etc) in a rather snazzy brat pan (see pic below), my Herculean task was now right in front of and no longer a hypothetic. I had to blend all this paste.
I tried a stick blender. Nothing happened. The contents were just far too dense and fibrous. I knew that if I wanted to, I could blend it in my thermomix as I had done at home, but the whole point of this commercial kitchen was to find a scaleable solution, not be blending 500ml (3 jars!) at a time. My next rather impulsive move was to add water to the paste so that I could try the stick blender again. I really didn’t want to do this because water is the enemy of shelf life longevity but I figured if I could get everything very runny and blend it to a smooth paste, I could then cook it again and evaporate all of the water. This didn’t quite go to plan however, as I still could not achieve the desired thick and dense texture after blending, and now had a much more diluted and insipid end product. Despite this failure though, I learned two really important lessions in this trial - I won’t be adding water again and I won’t be using a stick blender or a thermomix to make my paste.
It’s interesting how the solutions actually present themselves when things go wrong. I realised that what I needed to do was to try my stone grinder again.
When I first tried this machine at home, I didn’t really know how to use it, and boy is it heavy. I wrote it off too soon due to the difficulty to lift the stones out of the machine (I don’t have the best upper body strength) and also it’s not always that easy to get all of the product out because of the weight. I know that tilting versions of these machines exist so maybe this is a consideration for the future.
Frustrated with my failed watery attempt at my kitchen, I decided to try a 10 jar batch at home in the stone grinder before I committed to taking this beast of a machine all the way to Battersea. I also prepped all of my base the day before, cooking the onions and making my spice blend in advance so that on the day of making the paste, blending was my only job. I don’t know how the stars aligned on this but for the first time, I achieved the exact end result I was looking for:
Of course, despite how great it is that this machine can achieve what I want it to, I realise the limitations of still only being able to make in small batches. It’s become a serious consideration now to start looking into outsourcing manufacturing (either in the UK or more likely Goa) but this is something I will spend the next few weeks or months researching properly. I honestly don’t even know where to begin with that so it will be something I need to speak to other food founders about to understand the pros and cons. If anyone reading this has any leads in that department, I’d be very happy to hear from you!
For now, and to continue to take this all in manageable chunks, I will be transporting my stone grinder to my commercial kitchen this week and perfecting my recipe in 3kg batches which is about 15 jars that can be blended at once. I’ll focus on sending out samples and getting real life feedback of the product and only then will I think seriously about outsourcing once I have started selling and see if there is demand.
That’s all for now folks, for more behind the scenes I post more regularly on instagram but will keep updating here every 2-3 weeks with noteworthy updates.
Emma x
Hi Emma: I think that going for a tone grinder was the best bet to achieve a fine paste. Our goan ancestors did this using a "rogdoh" ( a thick stone base with a cavity where a pestle turn around with the hand in circles) But today you get stone grinders. Which brand did you choose ? Did you bring it with you to UK ? You cannot get them in Brazil. Good luck to you in your endeavours.
Hi Emma. Your endeavour and commitment has to be commended! My daughter wanted to make Chutney and get it stocked in a local deli. It was great when it was a few jars at a time (very artisanal) but after a while I was roped in and it got seriously challenging to meet demand. Eventually she ran out of road and the condiment phase ended. So your fortitude is amazing. If you need some willing and helping hands in your commercial kitchen - both I and a friend (who're familiar with kitchen work - competent chefs) would be more than happy to lend a hand. Please reach out if you need some grunt work to give you time to perfect other aspects of your work! mikemckibbin@yahoo.co.uk M: 07792 120277. All power to you Ms R!