This is for about 7 breasts of chicken
500 pot of yogurt
1 desert spoon of methi
3 fresh chillies a good handfull of fresh coriander
2 desert spoons of mix powder
half a desert spoon of tandoori paste  /
1 desert spoon of tikka paste
half desert spoon of Kashmir masala
1 level desert spoon of Coleman's fresh garden mint
half a mug of mustard oil  /we have used veg oil when we  run out of mustard oil
colour red and light orange

blend up with a liquidiser cut the breasts lengh ways in half and marinade for about 4 hours or more
to make for tandoori chicken its 1 desert spoon tandoori paste and half a desert of tikka paste
in the house we do ours in a halogen cooker i suppose an oven will do all the best
to serve cut the tikka into pieces use a frying pan with some oil some onions and a taspoon of methi,fry for 3 mins  then add the cjcken tikka a little fresh coriander over the top

I've been attempting to cook curries for about 2 years. My friends think my curries are great, but I'm not really that happy with them. I've been working from recipes I found online as well as Camellia Panjabi's book, "50 great curries of India". What I've been doing is cooking mostly basic chicken curries and madras style curries (usually with coconut milk, but sometimes with yogurt).

I buy my spices whole when possible, then roast and grind them in a coffee grinder. I use ghee, brown my onions until dark, then add garlic and ginger puree (made from fresh garlic and ginger) along with fresh red chilies (I can't find green ones or dried red ones). After that, I add the ground spices, cook for about 1 min, then add tomato puree that I make with a hand blender at a ratio of about 3 small tomatoes to 1 large onion. Sometimes I simmer this for an hour, sometimes I serve it as soon as the chicken is cooked. The spices I use change on a seemingly weekly basis, but I always use tumeric, cumin, coriander, and home made garam masala. Just today I used some paprika, which gave a nice color to the dish, so I'll probably stick with that from now on. In the past I've experimented with fenugreek, fennel, star anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, green and black cardamom, clove, and more I have forgotten. Most of these I still put in the garam masala, but that gets used in fairly small amounts.

What I've been finding is that generally my curries lack the flavors I expect, and the tomato dominates. It tastes like a slightly spicy tomato sauce, and the spiciness comes from the chilies more than anything else.

So, I am beginning to wonder, maybe the problem is my expectations? My idea of what Indian food should taste like comes from restaurants, and I wonder if they are perhaps not doing things in the way that most Indian cooks would recommend, but rather catering to western expectations. Their curries tend to be sweeter and saltier. Probably lots of MSG-based chicken stock. But I was kind of hoping that the spices would do the work and taste as awesome as they smell... but so far, I've managed only mediocre results.

Thoughts?

Mowgli's - Indian Restaurant Indian
151 CRWYS ROAD
CARDIFF, CF24 4XT

http://www.mowglis.co.uk/

My brother in law had been to Mowgli's a few times before and recommended it to me .So six of us tried it on 16th December .We all had  a wonderful meals with excellent service and good prices, Very nice furnishing, seating and clean toilets  .
I recommend anyone who is in the area to try Mowgli's

WelshMick

Can anyone shine light on wheather there is any harmful substances in powdered food colourings or liquid food colourings? I recently read somewhere that there has been food tested in certain establishments with more than the legal amount of artificial food colouring added!

Thanks in advance,
Rob.