Curry Recipes Online
Curry Chat => Lets Talk Curry => Topic started by: Kashmiri Bob on January 06, 2025, 11:20 AM
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Found this link for a Leeds student rag from 1983. Clicked/visited and was able to download it as a pdf. The Stranglers were still touring. Perhaps they still are. From page 10 there is a map and several (albeit brief) articles on food. One is called "Currying" with reviews, including the Nafees curry house, which I have mentioned in the past. Interesting stuff. Have tracked my time in Leeds back to 1978-79. I don't even recall madras or vindaloo being available then (at Nafees). Mince and spinach curry was a typical dish. Medium or hot/very hot. The BIR scene was really getting going in the early '80s. The prices though. Gulp!
https://images.app.goo.gl/w8z2TK2E2Cq2fPkm8
Rob :)
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I don't even recall madras or vindaloo being available then (at Nafees). Mince and spinach curry was a typical dish.
No experience of Leeds BIRs at any time, but I can say with confidence that in Chislehurst (Kent) in the late 60's / early 70's one could get many of today's favourites (chicken Madras, chicken vindaloo, etc) but by default they would come "on the bone" — one paid a small premium (maybe 50p) for "off the bone", which almost all of us did as a matter of course. There were two BIRs in Chislehurst at that time, one the "Maharaja of Chislehurst", the other (on the other side of the road) I no longer remember the name, but I still recall two favourites from there — their egg pulao and their chilli pickle. Oh, and the "Lotus Inn", a little up the road from the Maharaja, was somewhat discerning in its choice of guests, and if a potential guest turned up looking rather the worse for wear they would be politely told "Terribly sorry, Sir, we are unfortunately full - please try the Maharaja just down the road" !
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** Phil.
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I remember the breast meat premium, but much later in the North West and Yorkshire. Could be just demographic differences. Or, perhaps I wasn't really paying that much attention to curry houses and dish names at the time. All I recall from the 70's was my mum's homemade curry, which included dripping and sultanas. It was very nice. The only other option was Vesta. My parents opted for a Chinese restaurant mostly. For dessert we always had banana fritters. They were seen as real treat back then.
Rob :)
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My mum's curry recipe from the early '70's. Reckon I will have a go at making this at some point. Sweet & Sour Pork too. A pickled onion. Hmm.
(https://i.ibb.co/99KWp4k/DSC-0379.jpg) (https://ibb.co/4ZvpFSn)
Rob
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Wonderful stuff — I must scan and post some pages from my mother's cookery book notes ...
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I can't post images using previously successful method of Attachments. Any advice?
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Me neither. I use iPad and even when I reduce image size right down, doesn’t work any more. Site not very good these days.
Robbo
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deleted attempts to post images. Frustrating.
I ended up using OCR image to text conversion.
I was trying to upload simple images of this recipe, from a book published in 1970, that very much resembles your mum's handwritten one KB. It is the recipe I always use to make Curried Sausages. I boil about 500 g of thick sausages, allow them to cool slightly and then cut them into rondelles before adding to the sauce. Comfort food extraordinary. (I usually make a double batch.)
CURRY AND RICE
INGREDIENTS
250 g cooked meat
1 apple
1 onion
1 tablespoon fat
1 tablespoon sultanas
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch pepper
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 tablespoon plain flour
1 cup stock or water
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup rice (boiled) (see p. 7)
METHOD
1. Cut meat into small pieces, removing all fat and gristle.
2. Cut apple and onion into dice.
3. Heat fat in a saucepan.
4. Fry the onion and apple.
5. Add all the dry ingredients except meat and rice, and stir for one minute over heat.
6. Add water or stock and stir till boiling.
7. Simmer gently for 15 minutes.
8. Add the meat and lemon juice and allow to simmer in the sauce till meat is thoroughly heated, about 10
minutes.
9. Serve on a hot plate, and arrange rice round the curry and garnish with thin half slices of lemon, standing
the lemon up.
10. Grate the yolk of a hard-cooked egg over the rice, or sprinkle with chopped parsley.
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Oh yes, that's it all right livo! Right down to the Vesta inspired rice presentation. We didn't get step 10. Chutney instead of sugar. It was invariably a chicken curry. Would love to see your photos from the book. I recall now mum going to evening cookery classes at a nearby school. She will have almost certainly got the recipe from there. The home menu got much more adventurous thereafter. The norm was liver and onions, with mash and peas, Fray Bentos, also with mash and peas (and gravy). Fish & chips (sometimes from the chippy). Dad would also have tripe and onions, once a week. I never understood how he could eat the stuff, not sure mum did either. Suet pudding, chips and peas, served with several rounds of white bread and butter, was a regular delicacy. All leading up to the obligatory Sunday roast. Didn't change much, except for special days, like pancake Tuesday (always with sugar and Zif lemon juice).
Then the fancy dishes started. The sweet & sour pork, with rice. The spaghetti bolognese served over hot buttered toast. The curry! Large oval plates for this. When I started making my own curry (from recipes here) I bought two such plates, with the intention of making mum's, but never got around to it. Remember breaking one. May still have the other, will have a look for it.
I still use Onion's suggestion for posting photos (imgbb). It's free and works a treat for me. A few clicks and it's done. Resizing not needed. If the photo is uploaded with the wrong orientation it sorts this out too. I think just a username and email address is all that is needed for registration. Don't get any pop-ups or ads with it.
I wonder what curry powder was used. Can't have been that much choice back then.
Rob
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Found it. 12 inches long.
(https://i.ibb.co/L8v2LDL/DSC-0380.jpg) (https://ibb.co/2y5fD0D)
Rob
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I wonder what curry powder was used.
So do I, but sadly neither Cookery Illustrated and Household Management (my late mother's, dated 1936) not my copy of Constance Spry give any glue. What does intrigue me, tho', is that CI&HM's recipe calls for both "curry powder" and "curry paste" (I had no idea that the latter was around in 1936, and CS says that it contains ingredients not found in the powder [I suspect mustard oil !]), and also has a recipe for chicken pilao, the latter a complete surprise.
Afterthought : almost certainly Veeraswamy's, an inadvertant mis-spelling of Veerasawmy :
Edward Palmer (an Anglo-Indian retired British Indian Army officer, the grandson of an English general and an Indian princess) used the name E. P. Veeraswamy for his food business and the book; Veeraswamy was his grandmother's family name. Initially it was spelled Veerasawmy, it became Veeraswamy because of a printing error.
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** Phil.
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Bob, thank you so much for posting your mum's curry recipe. It brings back fond childhood memories of comfort food.
As to which curry powder, the equivalent today would be the absolute cheapest, bottom shelf, expired 2 years ago, bought from the corner shop where the blend has been exposed to direct sunlight all this time.
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My mum's curry recipe from the early '70's.
And in exchange, my late mother's transcription of her late mother's recipe for Christmas Pudding — the truncated part would have read "Barley wine" before it was partially obscured by parcel tape ... Better (IMHO) than any of today's commercial offerings, good tho' some are ...
(https://westberryhotel.com/images/Mum's%20Xmas%20Pud.jpg)
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** Phil.
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Distributed in the UK from 1893, apparently. Old India (Amazon) do a Vencat, but with not so many ingredients. Bhamcurry may be right though. I can just hear my mum saying, we'll try this cheap one first. It'll be just as good.
(https://i.ibb.co/BVPcn1H/Im196901-HG-Vencat.jpg) (https://ibb.co/hRMLYqx)
Rob :)
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Oh yes, now you mention it, I do remember Vencats. But the fact that it was "by Sharwoods" is little in the way of recommendation ... !
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My mum's curry recipe from the early '70's.
And in exchange, my late mother's transcription of her late mother's recipe for Christmas Pudding — the truncated part would have read "Barley wine" before it was partially obscured by parcel tape ... Better (IMHO) than any of today's commercial offerings, good tho' some are ...
(https://westberryhotel.com/images/Mum's%20Xmas%20Pud.jpg)
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** Phil.
That's one seriously rich Christmas pud recipe Phil. How it should be. Think I have another cooking notebook somewhere with mum's Christmas cake recipe. May be lost though. Could have been in the loft. Don't go there often these days. Not that long ago I could hear something scratching about. My neighbour insisted it was just house sparrows, so I ignored it, for several months.Turned out to be a scurry of squirrels. Loads of them. Absolutely trashed everything that was stored up there beyond recognition.
Rob
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Ah, squirrels — I love them ! Here's one of mine, looking distinctly chilly today ...
(https://westberryhotel.com/images/Snowy%20squirrel/8J5A9662-001.JPG)
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** Phil.
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Bob, thank you so much for posting your mum's curry recipe. It brings back fond childhood memories of comfort food.
Reckon we were well fed back then. Unlike the current chicken nugget generation. Even the kids' menu at the TAs now just have nuggets, and more nuggets, or similar. I was pleased see, however, that after tracking down a TA that I used to go to many years back in the North West, they have a half portion of chicken korma (and chips) available, as an alternative to the nuggets, so there is still some hope for future generations.
Rob
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No hope, Rob, if they're led to believe that chips are a valid accompaniment to curries !
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Over here, my mum had the choice of either Clive of India or Keen's curry powder. To this day I always keep a tin (now a cardboard tube) of Clive of India. Sausage curry just isn't right if I use any other, although Keen's isn't too different.
I noticed your images were hosted KB, and tried imgbb but without actually creating an account. It didn't work. I'll try again, but surely the forum should work. Admin???
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Oh yes, now you mention it, I do remember Vencats. But the fact that it was "by Sharwoods" is little in the way of recommendation ... !
I had no idea Sharwoods had been around for so long. I like the recipe in the Vencat advertisment. Not often you see one where the curry is cooked in an oven. Expect the great Ronnie Barker researched this for his Indian chef sketch. So (paraphrasing) where he adds, ... Or, you can cook it for 350 hours at 2 degrees F.
Rob :)
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The Stranglers were still touring. Perhaps they still are.
Rob :)
Looks like it Rob :wink:
(https://i.ibb.co/q1wkXvf/Whats-App-Image-2025-01-06-at-14-31-15.jpg)
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The Stranglers were still touring. Perhaps they still are.
Rob :)
Looks like it Rob :wink:
I hope your Heroes were full size. A lot of the confectionary old favourites seem to have shrunk these days. Just the other day a friend told me that Toblerone have reduced the number of their peaks.
Rob
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The Stranglers were still touring. Perhaps they still are.
Rob :)
Looks like it Rob :wink:
No more heroes any more! I am a tad slow but got there in the end :)
Rob
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I almost forgot. Bubble & Squeak was also a regular before the fancy dishes. Those were the days. Just found a recipe for it online and there's a fried egg perched on top. No egg thank you very much. Ridiculous idea.
Rob
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Fried egg is lovely with it, if you have it with sausages and your bubble and squeak is fried nice and crispy. Topped of course with HP. :wink:
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Topped of course with HP. :wink:
For which see : (https://westberryhotel.com/images/2025/HP%20sauce%20rotated.jpg)
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:smile:
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Sorry this was posted for the Stranglers "No More Heroes" post, sadly posted in the wrong place :-(
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Our own handwriting can be a surprisingly effective prompt to memory. When American chef and cookbook author Deborah Madison stumbled upon some old handwritten recipes from the 1970s, she was transported back in time. Jotted down in brown notebooks along with notes and doodles and food stains and lists of suppliers that she used for the restaurant Greens in San Francisco, the recipes were “a record of time spent fitting new thoughts together”, she wrote. “At times it looks careful and deliberate. Other times my hand gets distracted and strays, looks sloppy and tired. But mostly it conveys such a deep sense of discovery that reading through these notebooks, I am reinfected with the obsessive excitement I felt then”. She doesn’t think the same feeling would emerge from a list written on a computer: “There’s much to be said for the mark of the hand”.
From https://www.theguardian.com/news/2025/jan/21/signature-moves-are-we-losing-the-ability-to-write-by-hand?CMP=share_btn_url
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** Phil.