Quote from: london on April 30, 2015, 09:40 AM
I tend to use an inbetween method of frying G/G then the spice powders mixed with tomato puree dilute and a small amount of base, which lessens the chance of burning the spices and ending up with a bitter tasting curry.

London.

One of the most frustrating things I've encountered is that I have never managed to achieve success with oil frying the spices and using a dilute tomato puree. I've tried and tried and failed. I can create an *exact* replica of supermarket ready meal curry sauce (!) but never have I been able to pull off a decent curry.

I don't doubt that others can do it. But I'm not burning the spices, not doing anything obviously wrong and so I am at a loss.

Quote from: Phil [Chaa006] on April 30, 2015, 09:47 AM

Quote from: Gareth on April 30, 2015, 09:27 AM
After 12 years of trial and error I've come to the conclusion that by far the best approach, in terms of restaurant authenticity, is Kris Dhillon's approach of wet simmering the spices.

I made a Kris Dhillon chicken curry recipe two days ago (still have some in the fridge) and it is clear that it is  as close as it is possible to get to a very good restaurant curry - as close as possible for a simple and accessible recipe and even much closer than more complex recipes.

So after 12 years and countless wasted or disappointing trials and errors - including futile searches for authentic supermarket or chilled curry base sauces - I am sticking not just with Kris Dhillon's curry base (with a carrot or two added) but also with her chicken curry recipe.

I do oil fry garlic and ginger (blended) before adding the curry gravy and I do add a decent curry powder (bought from Spice Mountain at Borough Market - also available online).

Sometimes the simplest and original things are the best. Just took me over 12 years to grasp it.

Agreed.  Do you also use her home-made garam masala recipe, and if so, do you use it in the quantities she recommends ?  Also trying substituting Bassar curry masala for the ground chillies if you would like a more complex set of flavours ...

** Phil.

Phil, no I don't use her home made garam masala although I have used her recipe in the past.

I do use garam masala when making her chicken curry (or my own variation of it) but not in the quantity she recommends. I use half a teaspoon of garam masala. It does add depth and a softness to the curry that otherwise is lacking.

The garam masala I use is bought from Borough Market but you can buy it online here:

http://spicemountain.co.uk/

It's an okay garam masala - less overpowering than the supermarket bought ones although the Waitrose "Cooks Ingredients" garam masala is also pretty good (although a bit heavy on the cinammon).

I've tried different methods and variations on both themes: dry frying in oil of the core spices versus the "classic" Kris Dhillon method of wet simmering the spices in the curry base.

After 12 years of trial and error I've come to the conclusion that by far the best approach, in terms of restaurant authenticity, is Kris Dhillon's approach of wet simmering the spices.

Dry frying the spice core in oil gives, for me, too much of an intense and overpowering flavour which is a million miles away from any restaurant meal I've tasted.

I made a Kris Dhillon chicken curry recipe two days ago (still have some in the fridge) and it is clear that it is  as close as it is possible to get to a very good restaurant curry - as close as possible for a simple and accessible recipe and even much closer than more complex recipes.

So after 12 years and countless wasted or disappointing trials and errors - including futile searches for authentic supermarket or chilled curry base sauces - I am sticking not just with Kris Dhillon's curry base (with a carrot or two added) but also with her chicken curry recipe.

I do oil fry garlic and ginger (blended) before adding the curry gravy and I do add a decent curry powder (bought from Spice Mountain at Borough Market - also available online).

Sometimes the simplest and original things are the best. Just took me over 12 years to grasp it.

Quote from: Gareth on August 15, 2007, 07:39 PM

Quote from: Secret Santa on August 13, 2007, 08:49 PM
They're available on the "alt.binaries.multimedia.cooking" newsgroup

Yes, but it's a pain to download them - and the lifespan is limited for most servers.

I've been using a number of Vista hacks to use BBC iPlayer but I now find that the license is being rejected - back to Vista I guess. I'll try to get my act together tonight and provide the files for download (can't remember the exact size but they're pretty large).

Sorry - meant to say "back to XP I guess". The BBC iPlayer can be made to work with Vista but you need to fiddle with the registry settings (easy) and the DRM license directory (deleting it and reinstalling if you encounter a problem).

Anyway, the files are ready to go if someone can offer a place to upload them to?

Episode 4 is better than episode 5. I missed the first 3 episodes (although I did catch the majority of episode 3 - the health farm chef who was reluctantly willing to try to introduce Indian food to the menu for his elite clients). Of the ones I did see I would say that episode 4 is by far the best.

Fwiw, I didn't like the passing comment in episode 5 about cooking lobsters alive (even Gordon Ramsay has an electrocution machine in his restaurants); the reference to halal meat in the last episode also caused me some jitters (she doesn't mention that the UK is almost unique in allowing unstunned halal and kosher slaughter and she did seem to be promoting halal butchery - a little odd perhaps for a hindu). In short she doesn't seem to care about the ethics of meat supply and preparation - and this at a time when most mainstream chefs are emphasising the need for animal welfare concerns to be a central part of cooking.

Still, she has a clear skill in presenting the technical issues in an accessible way and the videos really are well worth watching.

Gareth.

Quote from: Admin on August 11, 2007, 03:36 PM
If you email the files to me admin@cr0.co.uk i can upload them to the site for all to view if you like.
Depends how big the files are.

Welcome aboard.
Stew

Thanks!

The file sizes are 178 meg and 198 meg - i.e. too big for email!

Is there somewhere I could upload them to?

Gareth.

Quote from: Secret Santa on August 13, 2007, 08:49 PM
They're available on the "alt.binaries.multimedia.cooking" newsgroup

Yes, but it's a pain to download them - and the lifespan is limited for most servers.

I've been using a number of Vista hacks to use BBC iPlayer but I now find that the license is being rejected - back to Vista I guess. I'll try to get my act together tonight and provide the files for download (can't remember the exact size but they're pretty large).

I have episodes 4 and 5 of Indian Food Made Easy (BBC2) but I missed episodes 1 to 3. Is there an online source for episodes 1 to 3? I have episodes 4 and 5 in wmv format.

Quote from: haldi on May 13, 2007, 08:56 AM
Hi GD
     I made the base and it turned out green
It is a different flavour to most curry gravies I know, but similar to the Andy
(or M) "secret" paste recipe
I didn't make the chicken curry with it
I substituted pre fried mushrooms (restaurant style)
It was the tastiest curry of the evening and certainly had a more-ish-ness about it.
It's not a curry I recognise, but one that I would make again
Thanks
Does the curry gravy come out green when you make it?
That's the curry gravy on the left and the finished curry on the right

Thanks for the pictures.

I'm not having as much success as you however!

Can you confirm - did you use a whole bulb of garlic (for example 7 or 8 segments) or just 1 segment?

Thanks. This base sounds really simple to make - I will give it a go.

Just one question though: how much oil should I use and when should I add the oil?

Thanks again for the recipe!

Gareth.

I gave Kris Dhillon's curry sauce recipe to my "old man" and, embarrassingly, he used a bit of lateral thinking and risk taking to create a bloody good curry sauce.

Basically he added a whole jar of Sharwoods Madras Curry Paste (290g) to the tomatoes.

The result is better than I could have imagined and *almost* captures, spot on, the elusive restaurant taste. I say almost because the end result is a little too salty and too heavily spiced - perhaps 1/2 a jar or 3/4 a jar would produce a better result. But the elusive taste, which I identify as being heavily corriander inspired, is there.

Gareth.