i am planning to cook a curry for ten people,chicken balti or buhna, it needs to be fairly simple as i am a novice.
can anyone help with ingredients and preparation?

thanks mick707

Quote from: mick707 on December 30, 2007, 03:47 PM
i am planning to cook a curry for ten people,chicken balti or buhna, it needs to be fairly simple as i am a novice.
can anyone help with ingredients and preparation?

thanks mick707

Hi Mick

Wow that's a bit ambitious! Cooking for ten!!!

Firstly, as you are a complete novice, I strongly suggest you start by cooking a curry on a smaller scale (for two). You will need to select one of the many base sauce recipes (gravies) available on this forum, together with a suitable curry recipe to go with that particular gravy ... but keep to one of the simple gravy recipes. A batch of gravy will be enough for a number of curries - so you will have plenty to experiment with.

Write down exactly what you do so you can duplicate or modify the recipe later (or better still get someone else to scribble down the notes as you're cooking). Pay particular attention to the timing of the various stages. When you're 100% happy with the results then you are ready to cook for your guests.

You will probably need to make two batches of the same curry gravy which will keep in the freezer until your big day.

Your meat can be prepared in advance and kept in the fridge.

Prepare all the other ingredients well in advance and make up a masala (spice mix) enough for the 10 curries (extra chilli can be added separately).

Don't be tempted to make the curry (for ten) in one pot. You will achieve better results if you use 4 small frying pans or pots simultaneously. This will also allow you to vary the hotness of each batch.

If all else fails, get an extremely large dose of curry from the local Indian takeaway one hour before your guests arrive!

Regards
SnS ;D

What he said!
Oh, and go for a fairly simple no nonsense base. If you want a simple good solid BIR result try admins new base sauce or better yet, try SnS' adaptation on admins new base sauce. A good BIR flavour but not overspiced. https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=2189.0

Hi mick,  If you are planning on cooking for ten, BIR style, you are going to be spending all evening in the kitchen cooking. However,I have posted an Authentic recipe here... https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=891.0 . You could do a couple of batches of this, with a bucket load of rice, and all be sitting down to a meal together.  ;D . Hope it helps... regards mike..  ;D

If you do want to try the BIR Bhuna for ten however, I would use this combination as the optimum trade off between simplicity vs BIR flavour.

Base Sauce - SnS' adaptation to admins new base https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=2189.0

Precooked Meat - I would use chicken and go for DarthPhalls method from his Madras recipe here https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=674.0 under stage 2

Main Bhuna Recipe - Seriously, try this out. Delicious. I made it and posted my images on the thread. Just follow the instructions and it's really simple. CK's Lamb Bhuna - obviously just replace the lamb with the chicken https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1914.0

1 batch of the base will be more than enough, probably two batches for the pre cooked chicken to fit it into your pan, and do the Bhuna in 3 separate batches and you should be ok, assuming the portions aren't huge. Good luck! 

Just finished doing curry for six BIR style. Started actually cooking curries at 7:00pm, finished at 9:00pm. I was the last one to eat. Let us know how you got on.... ;D

Hi Mick707,

How did you get on.
Some excellent tips on this thread.

Dont forget to take some photos and post them up so we can all see.


Stew