That looks great!  I'm more of a paneer fan, so looking forward to seeing your version of that

John Lewis/Waitrose used to sell buffalo milk but I think they stopped doing that a few years ago - my sister made yoghurt with it mostly.  We liked it because it was the only place you could get whole A2 milk after that disappeared from the shelves.  I've been meaning to try a delivery service for buffalo milk though, not sure if anyone else has tried these guys?

https://www.buffaliciousuk.com/milk

This is an interesting debate; I'm not sure there *is* a clear definition of curry powder really.  I guess it comes down to what ingredients it is intended to be a substitute for, which varies quite significantly by brand and style according to the ingredients lists I've been looking at.

Just to muddy the waters a bit further, certain ingredients can end up being added more than once is some recipes (including mine!).  I use cumin at the initial tempering stage, as well as using it in my garam masala.  Coriander is another one, with the seeds going into the masala and the leaves/stalks going in at the end of the cook.

I always thought of curry powder vaguely as a balancing ingredient, though that doesn't quite fit either as some don't include ginger and others don't include garlic.

The only conclusion I am prepared to draw is that it is a variable mix powder that isn't a good substitute for garam masala but can be a good alternative to turmeric on its own.

Quote from: Secret Santa on December 23, 2020, 10:28 PM
Who here can name the TV series from Gaspodias icon? I got it easily, although I preferred Mary, Mungo and Midge. One for the more mature forum members I think.

To be fair, it *does* rather look like me 

That's a decent range of dishes and the menu includes my Dad's favourite (kitchdi).  It's been a while since I've made any though... might make a batch over the Christmas break!

I've always had mixed feelings (no pun intended!) about using a curry powder in a mix - it feels a bit iterative since the curry powder is itself a blend. That's not to say I don't use curry powder - it's great for making a quick curried scrambled egg or curried beans.

Our local restaurants used to use Korma/Madras/Vindaloo as a heat guide, but the last couple of times I ordered one from two different restaurants that notion seems to have changed to be style-based instead (lots of sour, lots of heat).

I'm going to give the yoghurt thing a go next time I cook a chicken curry too - it wasn't in my handed down family recipe, but it might be a change to my version if it works out well!

The only dish I currently use yoghurt for is Kadhi, which I've always made with plain potato slices that are cooked in the sauce but I see the internet disagrees with my recipe and most people seem to make it with pakora that are added at a late stage of cooking.

I watched the "One-pot Indian chicken curry" recipe with a great deal of interest - it is quite similar to the method I use (except the yoghurt bit).  I was bit startled at the spices being equal in qty at first, but then realised I start with the same premise when explaining how to make a good curry to friends who are unfamiliar with Indian cooking.  I have always had difficulty in defining exact quantities of ingredients in my Indian cooking, largely because the potency of nearly all the ingredients I use varies so much.

We once had a batch of chillies that we bought from our local Indian grocer that were significantly more potent than usual; virtually every visitor to the house over the next few weeks talked about how it impacted their cooking too and some (rather harshly I felt!) were quite disparaging of the shop owner for failing to buy chillies that were more consistent!

Strangely enough, I did save and then use some dripping left over from cooking a lamb keema a few weeks ago

I'd bought the minced lamb from a different source to my usual one and the mince was quite a bit fattier than I was expecting.  I' skimmed off an alarming amount of fat from the cooked dish and, because I never throw anything away, popped it into the fridge in a small container.  Fast forward a week when I rediscovered it as I was scrabbling around trying to see what I could make for lunch in the 20 mins I had to prep and eat it on a busy work day.  The drippings were added to leftover rice, nuked for 5 mins and called Lunch.  It tasted glorious!

Welcome, Iain

While I prefer using ghee, it is now one of the more expensive components of a curry so I've been thinking about switching to half ghee and half something else - not groundnut as husband has nut allergies.  I'm not entirely convinced that ghee has always been used exclusively in British Asian curries; I didn't pay a lot of attention to it growing up, but I do think we used other vegetable oils.  I'll have a chat about this with my Dad on my next visit and report back.

I think there is still a space for fora   I'm on Facebook a lot, but but it's very much an "in-the-moment" platform, as finding and following conversation threads is quite difficult, even for group pages.  I made a brief foray into twitter a few years ago but I really don't like using text speak (couldn't make myself leave off the "e" ) so I struggled a bit with the character limit.