Hi There, Tarik has opened a new shop on High Street\Bethesa Street, it used to be the Chinese grocers. He's got everything in there and what he hasn't got he'll get for you and the prices are amazing.

I think he calls it CRS food store (or something like that) but you can't miss it, it's next door to the Full Moon Pub.

Cheers. Kev Swansea.

Kev's all in one slow cooker base gravy
(makes 3 litres)

First of all I'm making no claims for originality for the recipe, This is a pick n mix of a few recipes on the site and produces a very flavoursome gravy. Remember the buzz word is "SLOW" this is ideal to leave bubbling overnight or while you are out at work. The object of this posting is to demonstate the art of slow cooking so if you dont fancy my recipe - then try your own favourite recipe and get that unwanted gift out of storage and into use

Vegetables
6 medium onions
1 stick celery
1 medium carrot
1 green bell pepper
2 plum tomatoes (canned or fresh)

Spices (spoon measurements are level)
2 tbs coriander
1 tbs cumin
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 tbs garlic paste
2 tbs ginger paste
1 tsp chilli powder (to taste, in my case 2 tbs) 

extras
2 knorr chicken stock cubes (optional)
1 cup sunflower oil
1 3 litre electric slow cooker

method
1:roughly chop all the veg and put straight into the pot

2:make up around 2 litres of hot stock and add to the pot leaving enough room to add the the rest of the ingredients

3:add the garlic and ginger pastes and stir well

4:mix all the dry spices together with the oil and add to the pot stirring well

5:top up with hot stock if necessary

now switch the cooker to high and forget about it for at least 2 hours after which the vegetables should be soft enough to blitz.

After blitzing turn the cooker to low and leave the gravy to slowly simmer away for at least 3 hours, longer if possible. After a few hours the oil will seperate and rise to the top, I have never had a gravy fail to give up it's oil using this method.

comments
The times are estimates, cook longer if you can, you can't overcook this gravy with long slow cooking. My preference is start the cooking procces late evening and let it simmer overnight.

After final cooking if the gravy has reduced (it should be the consistency of a thin soup as with most bases) top up with more stock or water, obviously the longer you cook the more it will reduce.

The all in one method works very well but if you are a purist, I guess you could cook the veg first then blitz and add the oil/spices after, I havent tried that yet, never had any need to.

Sorry I cant provide and pictures to go with this but if anyone tries this please feel free to upload some pics.

Kev aka brum-57

Produced for members of Curry Recipes Online

glad u agree with me - to be honest I was disgusted by this program, how low will the BBC stoop in order to get good ratings, as I said further up I have actualy used the BIR in question and they are highly recomended, if ever you are in Newport please pay them a visit - and stick 2 fingers up to JBR and the beeb.

Kev.

true and he served up plain rice lol - ok even if you're blindfolded surelly you would notice if the spinach was left out? Ive actualy had a meal from that balti house in Newport and they are very good indeed - being a brummie I know a good balti when I taste one. One wonders if the result was erm - fixed lol. not saying JBR dont know what he's doing but the dish he cooked up seemed like a very basic curry imo no suprises there.

Kev.

being as I only make hot curries ranging from madras to phall - I allways load the base gravy with extra hot chilli powder and cook it long and slow to cook out the harshness of the powder - not BIR technique I know but it works for me

Kev.

p/s recipe to follow - using a slow cooker -  great for cooking base gravy (IMO)