I got a normal veg steamer from Argos and it had a rice bowl with it. It's basically a plastic dish that you put inside the steamer bowl. It only cost ?30 for the whole thing.

Lovely, I'll give that a try. Thanks. Any others anyone?

Just as a way of saying thanks, this is our recipe for pilau rice. It's by far the best one we've had and the key is to steam the rice, as we never got such good results by boiling it. I'll put this recipe up in the recipe section of this website too.

For 2 people
1 cup of basmati rice
2 tbsp oil
4 cloves (whole)
6 cardamon pods
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
1/4 tsp salt or msg
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup water

Ground the fennel, cumin and cardamon seeds in a pestal and mortar.
Fry all the spices, sugar and salt together in the oil for about 20 - 30 seconds
Add the rice and stir in. Fry for about 30 seconds
Put in the rice steamer, add the water to the rice and steam until all the water is absorbed.
Lovely!

p.s. Mr Chiz does know I'm using his login, but he wouldn't dare complain because he'd have to make his own dinner!

Hello

I've only every cooked curry for 6 people max. I fry the spices in a saucepan, add the base sauce plus extra spices, then add the chicken and cook for 10 minutes.

Now I need to cook for around 50 people at my house warming party. Now I'm going to assume at least 30 will be having curry since I'm also making 8 pizzas as well.

I was thinking of using a slow cooker that holds 6.5 litres. Fry the spices as usual, then add base sauce. Now transfer this to the slow cooker and add the chicken.

What do you think of this approach and how many people do you think it will serve? I reckon around 30 in a 6.5 litre cooker. I have another slow cooker as well which has a 3.5 litre capacity so I could use that as well.

As for the rice, I'm making pilau rice from Cory Ander's recipe at this site. I've done it a few times and it's great.

So I have some questions:

1) Is the slow cooker method OK for lots of people?

2) My recipes are for 2 servings - when I make curry for 6 I just triple up all the ingredients. So if I make 30 servings, am I multiplying the spices by 15? I seem to remember reading somewhere that I shouldn't do this for large amounts

3) How should I keep the rice warm? What about this rice warmer on eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rice-Cooker-Warmer-ONLY-55_W0QQitemZ300137471469QQihZ020QQcategoryZ122932QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I know about food safety regarding the rice, it will be cooked no earlier than 4 hours before the party.

Any other advice when cooking for loads of people?

Cheers

Hello

Made my first dish last week, never cooked one from scratch before. Made chicken pathia and was very impressed how easy it was! Thanks to Darthphaal for the base sauce recipe and Curry King for the pathia.

As much as I love pilau rice (and I'm making Cory Ander's recipe tonight) I like egg fried rice that bit more.

I don't know of anyone who orders egg fried rice in a BIR, it seems to be just me, but I can't get enough of it.

Now I can make some with a nice texture to it, but it's just bland.

I use American long grain rice from Tolly Boy or Uncle Bens.
I'll steam or boil the rice, let it cool, then mix it with the right amount of salt and vegatable oil. I'll then add the solidified egg I've already cooked so I've got a nice texture to the egg and the egg pieces are different shapes and sizes. I sometimes add a little sesame seed oil to the egg before cooking.

I'll then stick this in a wok on full heat.

As I said, it produces rice with the exact texture I like, just like the restaurants. But it just tastes too bland, I'd give it 5/6 out of 10.

Now I don't want to add MSG to it so can someone give me some tips on making it taste that bit better?

Thanks