Quote from: Keefy on June 16, 2013, 04:32 PM



Reading about bases here, I think I want to make the next one slightly sweeter and the idea of adding a red or green pepper appeals to me for that reason. Cabbage and/or carrot and/or potato? Maybe.

However, my question is mainly about approaches to bases. In the New Curry Secret, KD makes the point that KD2 smells good even while you're making it, and I must admit that I like the smell of frying onions.

OK experts - (1) any discernible differences between frying/boiling when it comes to bases? (2) What difference(s) do the omission or addition of potatoes, cabbage and carrots make?

Many thanks in advance.

(PS - had a brief email exchange with KD - she's really friendly and cares about producing quality, tasty food - bless 'er!)

Answered my own question this weekend, it seems. Made a big pot of CA base sauce, and it worked like a dream. Reasonably thick and with a "zzzzz" of ginger on the tongue. Have some pre-cooked lentils as well - going to try a dhansak some time soon.

Quote from: Brody on June 18, 2013, 06:57 PM
Hello, I'm Brody.
My wonderful wife has only one fault ( me normally) excellent cook she may be in nearly all other types but curry defeats her so we try to make curry dishes between us. Afraid to say a kitchen to me is a lot like rocket science and after all it's her territory. So what if I have a few more dishes than she would use, if I'm heavy handed with the chilli's or the spices. Hey!!! come on you have all been there. Haven't you!!?
Any way thank my lucky stars for this site after years of failure I hope for good curry at home.

Hi from another newbie!

Pleased to report that all previous wives/girlfriends (all except one!) were quite delighted to leave me alone in the kitchen and let me get on with it, on the understanding that I'd leave them to get on with it when it came to sewing on buttons and other tailoring alterations where I have two left hands!

My current girlfriend stays out of the kitchen unless she's making some of her favourite Polish recipes like barszcz (clear, aromatic beetroot soup), wild mushroom soup or cheesecake - in which case I bow to her undoubted superiority and expertise and stay out of the way.

Mind you, I think she's been spying on me - yesterday she made a really spicy and delicious pork and green pepper concoction - in which she placed some devilish Szechuan chilli and garlic sauce.

Yup! Maybe you're right - perhaps a joint effort next time?:-)

Good quote from Captain Beefheart (otherwise known as Don Van Vliet), the singer of Willie the Pimp on Frank Zappa's album Hot Rats :

"All people are coloured - otherwise you wouldn't be able to see them."

Until I (very recently) joined this site, all I knew about BIR was what I'd read in KD's The Curry Secret and The New Curry Secret. I live in Berlin, Germany, and believe you me, BIR is (or can be) wonderful - (I'm a British immigrant/expat here) - German Indian Restaurants, with a few honourable and notable exceptions are generally, well.....ermmm.....think of an anagram of "carp" :-)

So, anyway, I experimented a couple of times with the KD2 base and made a few dishes from the New Curry Secret with which I was delighted - aha!, this is close to BIR, the closest I've got so far, at least - and accompanied them with her Peshwari Pilau - best rice dish I've ever made - sweet and fragrant. I'll certainly make it again.

Reading about bases here, I think I want to make the next one slightly sweeter and the idea of adding a red or green pepper appeals to me for that reason. Cabbage and/or carrot and/or potato? Maybe.

However, my question is mainly about approaches to bases. In the New Curry Secret, KD makes the point that KD2 smells good even while you're making it, and I must admit that I like the smell of frying onions.

OK experts - (1) any discernible differences between frying/boiling when it comes to bases? (2) What difference(s) do the omission or addition of potatoes, cabbage and carrots make?

Many thanks in advance.

(PS - had a brief email exchange with KD - she's really friendly and cares about producing quality, tasty food - bless 'er!)

Quote from: StoneCut on June 11, 2013, 09:37 AM
Keefy, I think you'll find that the methods and recipes you can find on this site are worthy to reconsider doing your Curry nights again

Whenever I invite friends over for a curry they always love it, but they don't know REALLY good curries anyway. On the other hand, if your last "proper" curry was more than 12 months ago then you'd probably be a very happy camper with my curries (and I'm nowhere near where I'd like to be).

I must admit, I'm amazed and astounded at the depth of knowledge, as well as enthusiasm, displayed on this forum.

Amazing pictures, too!

I've been in the UK twice this year - once to Bristol to sort out odds and sods such as pension payments (made sure I had some "proper" curries there, of course!) and in April to Peterborough where my poor old Dad had been hospitalized, but he was ultimately OK - so had some nice BIR there as well as some excellent vegetarian food on an excursion to Leicester. Bobby's on the Golden Mile - you're the dog's b*ll*cks!

Now, I guess I've got some experimentation to undertake - base sauces - how do they taste? How do they improve on what I already know how to do? Blimey, there's a Gold Mine of ideas on this site!

Starters, too - I want to make some really tasty onion bhajis/pakoras (as I said above, I'm already happy with my kebabs) and improve on my samosas - can make reasonable stuffed parathas already but want to move from reasonable to orgasmic - and it's all here!

So glad I discovered this site!

Ask Brit expats what they miss most about the UK - for many (me included) it's the British countryside with hedges around the fields, not to mention the delights of various National Parks, like the wilds of Exmoor/North Devon, Dartmoor, the Pembrokeshire Coast, the North York Moors or the Brecon Beacons or Snowdonia - for others (also including me) - it's BIR food! Tasty, tangy, spicy, aromatic, satisfyingly filling and finished with a real sense of wellbeing (buuurrrp!).....

Never been to that part of the world, but years ago I was a regular at a Malaysian place (now sadly no longer there) in Wardour Street, London.

Their beef rendang was excellent, as was their satay (a nice, cruchy one). Their spicy noodle dishes (such as char kway teow) were also to die for.

Some of the most delcious food I've ever tasted.

If Gordon ""Effing" Ramsay doesn't upset you, here's a link to his Malaysian adventure in the Gordon's Great Escape series. He helps an "Auntie" to make a rendang and looks at some of the other Malaysian fusion dishes.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-jYBmpHW3Y

Quote from: StoneCut on June 10, 2013, 11:31 AM
Hi Keefy,

I also live in Germany. You can also get most of the stuff you might need at so-called "Asia Shops" - they might seem like they only have chinese stuff but the ones I've been to all stock Patak's, TRS and all the other brands, too. Most even have a small british corner for stuff like Bovril and so on.

There are a few Asia-M?rkte close to me (Vinh-Lo in Steglitz and Go Asia in Hauptstr Sch?neberg are pretty good) - then there's Sona in B?lowstr and Punjabi Food Traders up near Osloer Str which are exclusively Indian. Lots of good stuff, although the interiors have all the ambience of aircraft hangars and it's worth double-checking "Best Before" dates.

QuoteAs you noticed, you can get lamb at turkish shops but if you want to be more authentic then ask for Mutton as that's what the takeaways use in GB (Mutton is "Hammel" in German. If they don't get it then say "altes Schaf" for "old sheep" or try "Koyun Eti" which is Turkish for mutton meat).

Many thanks for the tip!

QuoteCurries here are terrible for the most part (the odd exception here and there). A "Dhansak" is very close to what I call a "german curry" (Meat, Curry Powder and Pineapple or Banana even), I think that most restaurants don't have it for that very reason. They want to be more exotic, I think. Don't forget that the german invention "Toast Hawaii" is a household staple, too.

For a while we (we being members of the Toytown Germany English-speaking expat forum) had a Berlin Curry Club, where we'd meet regularly to try out  various curry houses. Brits were joined by Americans who missed hot 'n spicy Mexican/Tex-Mex food, but in the end we gave it up as a bad job! The Taj Mahal on the High Street of Upper Anywhere, UK, is a far better bet!

But it's not all a dismal story - although not curry-related, it's only an hour on the train to Kostrzyn in Poland, less than two to Szczecin - and then I can tuck in to a plate of wholesome żurek soup with smoked sausage and egg and maybe a bigos, before disappearing off to the vodka shop!

Quote from: spiceyokooko on May 10, 2013, 09:07 PM

Quote from: Simplysandy on May 10, 2013, 08:44 PM...so next question I need to stock up on everything anybody know anywhere?

http://www.spicesofindia.co.uk

That's where I get a lot of mine from, good products, good service.

For anything not available here in Berlin (particularly cooking and serving utensils) I use Spices of India. I make an online order on a Sunday and the stuff is here on Wednesday around lunchtime - pretty good for halfway across Europe.

...greetings from a newbie in Berlin!

Moved from Bristol to here in 2007, and, sadly, the place is a bit of a curry desert. Nobody's heard of dhansak, and although I have found a couple of decent, friendly little places in the Charlottenburg district (one vegetarian with a wonderful shrine to Ganesh in the garden), most Indian restaurants serve curries (whatever they might call them, vindaloo or jhalfrezi) in a ubiquitous red sauce, sometimes with great big lumps of raw green pepper floating in it.

It's been a slow process, but my own curries have improved no end, thenks, in part, to Kris Dhillon and her books The Curry Secret and The New Curry Secret, as well as various youtube videos from, for example, show me the curry.com, Sanjay Thumma and Harpal Singh Sokhi. My shami kebabs now tatse like those in British Indian Restaurants (hooray!), and although most German supermarkets don't sell lamb, there are numerous Turkish places that do. They always have fresh coriander, too. There are a few specialist Indian cash and carries as well for essential spices and other ingredients - like Pakistani Honey Mangoes at the right time of year.

So, here I am. I must be doing something right, as my (Polish) girlfriend loves my spicy food as do my German friends.

I want to do better, however, and re-create British Indian Restaurant food with ease and confidence. Looks like I've come to the right place!