You must be telepathic mate, I just cooked up a batch of your gravy last night and was looking at CTM recipes most of the afternoon.   :

I ended up cooking up some of Blade's Tikka and made up your Madras and Pudina Murg with it.  Great combo for the madras!  Just about the best curry I've cooked to date I'd say.

I think I need some ingredients for CTM, so I think I might give Dhansak a go tonight. 

Keep up the good work 

Quote from: Razor on January 26, 2012, 08:45 PM
Hi Smoothound, and many thanks for an honest assessment of my RJ.

QuoteSo anyway, the one last night I followed the recipe to the letter and it wasn't quite as good.  I think it missed the tom puree and extra sweetness.

This could be for a few of reasons

1) My base isn't quite as tasty as Razors
2) My tomatoes aren't very good
3) My local BIR do it with tom puree and sugar

To try to offer a few answers to your theories;

1) I don't actually use my own base sauce in this recipe, much preferring to use Chewy's 3 hr base because of it's 'BIR' sweetness.  Which base sauce and spice mix did you use if you don't mind me asking mate?

2) When ever I cook this, I always use very ripe, red tomatoes.  Obviously, this ensures that they are quite sweet, and breakdown in the sauce perfectly.

3) I wouldn't doubt for a minute that your local BIR does use tom puree, although I'm not so sure about sugar?  I've been trying for a long time to get rid of sugar in my BIR cooking, but still get a lovely sweetness in the dishes.  I think that Chewy's base goes a very long way in helping me with this, and is why I use it as standard these days.

Very pleased that you tried the dish and tweaked it to suit your taste....that, is what it's all about in my opinion!

Well done mate, and many thanks,

Ray

Cheers Ray,

I'm using Chewy's base and spice mix too.  (when I said your base, I meant the base that you had made, rather than mine, sorry for the confusion )

I made it again this week.  This time I used lots of fresh ripe tomatoes and cooked them right down, it still needed a good tablespoon of puree and a touch of sugar - but this was with the same batch of base from before.

I'm about to make another batch of Chewy's base, so I'm going to took it much longer and see if that brings out any more sweetness!

Fingers crossed! 

I made this again last night and thought I'd give some more feedback

Now, if I'm honest, the first time I did that I didn't quite follow the recipe  :  When I tasted it, it didn't seem quite right, so I made two small changes :

1) Added a good teaspoon (so...two) of tomato puree
2) Added a half teaspoon of sugar.

This was after tasting it and thinking it wasn't quite there.

So anyway, the one last night I followed the recipe to the letter and it wasn't quite as good.  I think it missed the tom puree and extra sweetness.

This could be for a few of reasons

1) My base isn't quite as tasty as Razors
2) My tomotoes aren't very good
3) My local BIR do it with tom puree and sugar 

Anyway, thought I'd just mention it!  So if towards the end of cooking you think it could do with an extra lift, give this a try.

I also want to say to Razor: the touch I really love in this dish is the garam masala at the end. That's a stroke of genious! It just gives this light, almost lemony lift to the dish.  Brilliant!  ;D

(for reference, I'm using East End garam masala, which is very fresh, fragrant and almost zesty)

I made it, it was fantastic!!  So good in fact, I made some more last night and am eating some right now for lunch

Got a portion for tomorrow too.   EPIC CURRY WIN!

I will post pics as soon as I can get them off my phone  :

Can't seem to edit my post

I just wanted to add (because I'm excited).  Lamb is all cooked and ready, had a lovely roast.  It's shoulder, but should hopefully be fine for a RJ.

Just got back from Leeds market with all the spices I was missing.  So we're on for tonight!   ;D

Got some lamb for Sunday dinner, so I'll be giving this one a go 

Can't wait!  ;D

Quote from: Razor on November 16, 2011, 07:39 PM
I don't think it will be the same mate.  Just the fact that it is a curry masala will mean it will have a quantity of 'mixed' spices, whereas Kashmiri mirch (chilli) is just chilli powder, albeit, a very superior chilli powder in my opinion.

I think it would be worth your while to seek out some Kashmiri mirch or even order off the net if you're struggling to get hold of it locally.

Hope that helps,

Ray

Thanks Ray, I will hunt some down, but even using the masala blend the curries I made turned out perfect!  As close to BIR as I could ever hope for, and I was convinved the base hadn't worked  :

I made the Madras for myself and the Pudinda Murgh for my other half - we both said that if we had ordered that in a restaurant we would have gone away happy and raved about it the next day.

Chuffed to bits

Afterwards I've got 4 takeaway tubs full of base, which I recon is good for 8 servings.  I am a very happy bunny.  Took a few pics too which I can post up ?

Hiya!

I joined the forum a couple of years ago in search of curry cooking tips and recipes, I learned a few things, learned even more from my Indian friends, and can know make a pretty authentic Indian curry (which my friend from Orissa calls a "Party Curry" as it reminds him of the currys the women make when they're celebrating).

Anyhoo!  At that time, it seemed the forum was still in search for that final "5%".  So, I kinda forgot all about it until last week, I thought I'd check back in to see if we'd found that final 5% (convinced nothing will have changed) and by crikey it seems like we're there

I went on a little shopping trip yesterday to get all the required spice blends for the mixed powder, Kashmiri Chilli blend wasn't in any of my usual Indian stores in Leeds, but I eventually found some "King of Spice" branded Kashmiri Curry Masala in a corner shop which is hopefully close enough!

http://www.kingofspice.com/traditional_kashmiri_curry_masala.html

So right now I'm on the initial  boil, about 1hr 45 mins done, it's almost looking like Chewy's in the video, so pretty soon I'm be blending!

Once it's made, I think I may be adventurous and go for a Madras and a Pudinda Murgh for the Mrs

Big thanks in advance to Chewy for posting up the really helpful videos and sharing the BIR secrets he's learned over the years - 

EDIT : Blended and sieved.  It's pretty thick, added some water but my pan is pretty choc-a-bloc    Tastes nice, not what I expected at all, the ginger is pretty much taking over and I only put 2 inch stick in  :

Second boil now, let's hope it ends up something like Chewytikkas!! 

EDIT : Kinda tastes like carrot and corriander soup.  Can't really tell that it's mainly onion :/

Thanks for the warm welcome everyoene!

Quote from: Admin on October 04, 2007, 04:28 PM
Why not have a chat with your local and see what info you can get out of them.

I don't think I'm cheeky enough to ask them  :

Hi everyone!

I stumbled accross this site while on a mission to find out just how on EARTH do those Indian chaps down the road make those wonderful currys!

I've tried recipes before from books, and just about every jar on the shelf, but nothing comes close to a real take away.

I'm hoping this forum can put me in the right direction.

My real love is the King Prawn Madras from my local Curry House (Bengal Brassrie in Market Weighton).  It's to die for! I really hope I can learn to replicate it one day!  ;D