Topic: 99.9% Vindaloo/Tindaloo Clone (revised)

[DARTHPHALL]

Thanks to so much interest in my recipe & at the request of many members i am re-posting & revising the 99.9% Vindalloo/Tindalloo clone here.
The Madras will be in a thread of it's own but complete with base gravy recipe,sorry for the repeats of the base but it makes it easier to follow.(any questions,feel free to ask).
 
STAGE ONE......[ THE BASE GRAVY ]............


INGREDIENTS

Chop/Dice all vegetables & Coriander.

15 Onions.
8 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil.(You can use 600-700ml of Oil if you like it Bir style...Oily).
2 """"""""""""""  Home made Fresh Ginger puree.
2 """"""""""""""  """""""""""""""""""  Garlic  """""".
3 """""""""""""" Curry powder.   
3 """""""""""""" Turmeric.
1 """""""""""""" Extra hot chilli powder.(This can be left out as it is only my personal addition to this recipe). ;D
6 X 5" Carrots or 4 X 7" Carrots .
3 Green Peppers.
5 Sticks Celery.
1 Tablespoon Salt.
2 Level Desertspoon Garam Masala.
20-30 stalks Fresh Coriander.

METHOD.

Fry Garlic & Ginger until golden/brown.
Add all spices & add half a litre of Water to stop becoming to sticky (should be consistency of Tomato puree).
Add Chopped Onions,Carrots,Peppers,Celery,Coriander.
Add about 3 litres of water until it is just below the level of the ingredients.
Simmer for 1 hour.
Check that all ingredients are cooked .
Liquidize all ingredients.
Cook again for 10 minutes on medium heat.
Allow to cool & separate into approx .. Half liter portions (i use two jugs, put freezer bag in one & pour /serve with other to save making a mess).
When fully cooled you can freeze for months.



One thing to remember when making this base & the curry itself, You must experiment with the Oil quantities as this makes a great deal of difference to the taste of the Curry etc..I think many will agree it is that Spicy Oily flavor which we love about Bir Curries.

[DARTHPHALL]

STAGE TWO.....[ COOKING THE CHICKEN ]......


Chop 7-8 chicken breasts into even pieces (i cut to the size of a ?2 pound coin = width,height).?
Boil a kettle.
Put chicken in pan.
Pour boiled water over chicken to just cover it.
Bring water to boil turn down immediately & slowly cook on simmer for about 4 minutes.
Look for one of the biggest pieces take out & cut in half to make sure its cooked through.
Remove cooked Chicken from the water, put somewere to cool.
Save half a Litre of cooked Chicken water for the final actual Curry stage..

Some members have commented on the aftertaste of boiled Chicken,when i cook my Chicken it is all put in the separate Curry portions & frozen & tastes great.

[DARTHPHALL]

STAGE THREE......[ THE VINDALLOO ]......

INGREDIENTS
All the chicken.
3 bags Base gravy .
10 Tablespoons of Vegetable Oil (if you like it Oily, but its not necessary)
1 Medium Onion.finely chopped
1 whole bulb of Garlic separate cloves & grate with Cheese grater (the roughest side). 
3 Desertspoons Extra hot Chilli powder.
1 """""""""""""   Paprika.
2/3 Teaspoon lo-Salt or normal Table Salt (add to your taste).
1 Desertspoon Hot Curry powder.
 300grams Passata..(You need to experiment with this to get it close to your taste) 
1 Desertspoon Cumin.
1 """"""""""""" Coriander.
1 """"""""""""" Fenugreek leaves.
1 """"""""""""" Garam Masala.
2 large Ladles of water from cooked chicken.

METHOD

Put 3 bags of Curry Base in large pot on low heat.
Fry until Golden Onions & Garlic, in 3/4 Tablespoons Vegetable or Light Olive Oil.
Add Onion & Garlic to heated Base in large pot.
Add all spices & chicken & the Chicken water from above post.
Put in as garnish a Teaspoon of fine chopped Coriander & half a Spring Onion chopped .
Bring close to boil.
DONE !!!


You cant say that is not a quick Curry !!! 


One thing to remember when making this base & the curry itself, You must experiment with the Oil quantities as this makes a great deal of difference to the taste of the Curry etc..I think many will agree it is that Spicy Oily flavor which we love about Bir Curries.

 

[DARTHPHALL]

NOTES & PERCEPTIONS ON MY CURRY QUEST.

1. I can see why cooking in large quantities makes a difference, i have had no disasters since adopting this large base recipe,the old margin for error comment that keeps on cropping up i believe is correct.

2.I don't believe for my particular quest that re-using the Oil makes any difference,I've done several experiments cooking & re-using Oil.This has also appeared & dissapeared several times since I've become a member.

3.The BIR i am trying to emulate makes its Madras different from its Vindalloo, its not just a matter of degrees of heat.

4.The base gravy is good enough to eat on its own, any members who have bought it separately have commented on this,you cant do that with KD's base gravy.

5.There is very little Oil in my local BIR Curries,the picture see below reply after this post (thanks Pete) indicates the low amount & the color of the Curry.

6.My local deffinately uses the water from the cooked Chicken (Vindalloo & Tindalloo only) as you can see those little bits that you always see in the said water.

7.My locals claim to using fresh ingredients is also very true as every now & again you find a little piece of a spice thats not completely pureed & even a very small bit of Tomato skin (this is a great help in discovering the secrets within !).?

8. I firmly believe that Salt is as important to capturing the BIR taste as as the Spices themselves.

 

[DARTHPHALL]

See this post for an excellent rice to accompany this Curry.
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=498.0
RayGraham added a knob () of Butter &/or Ghee,I whole heartedly agree.
Nice touch.

[raygraham]

Hi Folks,

Well, I never made comment about Darth's recipes before as after I made it I felt there were a few folk a little "sceptical" of the 99.9% claim and that my comments might be disregarded.

However, the interest in Darth's recipes seems to have escalated recently and he has now revised it and made it easier to follow so it is perhaps now time for me to add my comments.

A couple of months ago I made the base faithfully from the recipe posted but found I had made a mistake interpreting the amounts and so ended up with a base rather thick, concentrated and very spicy.
Following a few frantic e-mails and some advice from the "Dark Lord" I was then able to produce the results Darth has consistently made for some time. I think he realised himself the instructions were not as clear as they could have been but he seems to have rectified this in the recently posted ammendments.

So, to give my comments on what I made..............................fabulous!!
Very authentic and much like the BIR taste I want to achieve.

The photo speaks for itself in the look of the dish he achieves ( including authentic steam!) and there are a number of BIR's near me who's dishes would not look any different side by side.
But photo's don't tell us much about taste. For me the taste was very, very close to what I have wanted to achieve and I once again made a curry this weekend from some of the original base I had frozen. It was even better than the first time around so would recommend anyone tries it at least once to see for themselves.
I made one dish with reclaimed oil and one without.
For me the dish with the oil was ahead on taste and more the authentic BIR but I know Darth thinks on more healthy lines ( after all he needs to be fit enough to conquer the universe and not have a day off sick on his Death Star!).

Darth lives in a quiet, small community in the West Country so has few take-aways and restaurants to guage his results from but I think he has done a damn good job with his 99.9% clone.
With all respect for the 99.9% claim he does have a near perfect curry and from what I have made he should be proud of his efforts. If it were my recipe I would not put such a high success to it ( although I would give it top nineties! ) as I feel he leaves himself with no margins for improvement even where there may still be some to be made. On the other hand I can understand why he gives it such high rating, he has a remarkably good product and that's a fact.

I shall certainly make this recipe again, I have yet to do his rice, but would say to one and all "give it a go" and see for yourselves, it's well worth the effort!

Ray

[DARTHPHALL]

Thanks for your sincere & kind words Ray.

You don't know how busy the schedule of a Dark lord is these days, with the new Darkside tax, Imperial Star Destroyer insurance is so crippling i mean Ive got 12 of the dam things !! You would think i would get a discount, not a bit of it !!
Some silly clause about "rebels shooting at them all the time",the amount of times I've re-sprayed a Tie-Fighter only to send it into the Hoth system to get all the paint burnt off with that bloody Rebel Ion Cannon.
But i always find time to rustle up a good Vindalloo between battles (the Light Saber makes an excellent blender !! ;D), conquering the Universe is hungry work although i have noticed me old life support suite getting a bit snug these days     

Your friend...............DARTH.....  ........

[George]

See this post for an excellent rice to accompany this Curry.
http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=498.0

I'll vouch for that! When I made Darth's rice, it was and remains the best pilau rice I've made so far - just like a BIR. That's why I'm so keen to try his base and curry, which I will now that the recipe has been clarified and outstanding points like 'bags' have been explained.

Regards
George

[DARTHPHALL]

Thank you George.
I've added three more lines of info in the NOTES & PERCEPTIONS section above.
I will modify the recipes & notes as more info accumulates,but will post that i have added info.
This way the original recipe & the post wont get confusing like my previous one.
Also as you enter the site you will then see a new post has been added to further assist you all.
And i will use red highlight to further help interested members.

DARTH.....

[George]

...now that the recipe has been clarified and outstanding points like 'bags' have been explained.

Darth

I don't believe it...I found your definition of 'bags' somewhere and now I've lost/forgotten it again. Was it half a litre, so 3 bags of base gravy would be 1.5 litres? I've never heard of such a unit of measure before! Also, are all your spoons LEVEL spoons unless othwerwise stated, as would be normal convention?

Regards
George