After another vindaloo near miss last night I'm beginning to think my mojo has deserted me.  I've a reliable base, confirmed by many as producing excellent curries, beautiful mild tasting soft tender pre-cooked chicken, a standard mix powder (Zaal) a reasonable technique.  But I still cannot nail my local vindaloo nor get anywhere close - YET. 
So feeling a little miffed after last night's failed attempt I decided it was time to return to old faithful and something I knew i would enjoy.  Before i set about cooking my phall, I thought i'd have a read up on some old posts on the subject and check out the phall video at Zaal, although i'd already decided on the cooking method for tonight's curry. 
Some 20 years ago I witnessed my phall being cooked in another local restaurant which is still in business, but I suspect the chef has long moved on.  It involved the normal suspects at the start of cooking, g/g, mix powder, chilli powder and gravy.  Then came the shock at the time, a good amount of water and a heaped chef's spoon of chilli added once the initial sauce had been cooked for a while.  Then a dash of PLJ for those that can remember it, instead of lemon juice.  Reading through Parker 21's Rajvar phall sauce post and the post Haldi's did on phall, and thinking back to the Zaal experience, the combination of water and chilli powder was not something unusual.  So tonight I cooked my phall just as i'd seen it done all those years ago.  A ringstinger i'm sure, but so very tasty.  At least not another falure 
The pain of last night is slowly being forgotten, with a full belly and a nice bottle of 8% La Chouffe Belgium ale to be followed up by similar strength special Xmas edition    Who needs modern vindaloo  :
The plated article



And a little close up of the main event

Looks like 2016 is going to be good looking at that

Looks great, Dave! I'd risk the ring-sting for a few dips of a naan or chapatti in that sauce.

I know what you mean about the mojo thing, I hadn't made a curry in a couple of weeks just because of the whole festive thing, but I had some leftover roast chicken breast from Christmas so thought I'd knock up Chewy's Madras. It's a curry I could almost make blindfold, but it just didn't turn out right. The only difference was the roast chicken breast rather than the usual poached chicken.

It was very disappointing to say the least! Don't know what went wrong, but I'm sure my next one will be back up to the mark.

You wouldn't think such a thing would make a huge difference. would you?  But it does, or maybe it was something else    I'm now beginning to question everything, what I use, the order I use it and how I cook it.  What a satisfying hobby this is  :

When I saw the title of your post I knew it would be something HOT. I predicted NIS! But Phall? Wooooaaarrrr way to much for me but as ever it looks the business.

Awesome looking phall. Will be trying that for sure. I am now officially hungry!!!