Hi, having read through a number of the threads it seems I am in the right place for trying to create the restaurant magic in my own home. Ive been cooking Indian for about a year now with various degrees of success, recently Ive been using Pat Chapmans curry bible and the results have been pretty good. Ive also ordered Kris Dhillon's curry secret to see what that has to offer.

The food i usually try to produce is a very hot chicken curry for me (phall/vindaloo) and a prawn biriani for the other half. I start with a base, split it into two and then modify each half for my chicken curry and her veg curry side dish.

When I got Pat Chapmans book I followed the instructions to make a large pot of base sauce, this has nearly come to an end and has been quite good. But now I'm hoping to find something really special here. BTW I never order Phall's in restaurants because of the excessive use of chilli powder rather than green chilli, my dish of preference is Chicken Jalfrezi with lots of fresh green chilli or a chicken chilli masala.

I am looking forward to trying some of the bases here if anyone could reccomend a good base sauce to begin with that would be very helpful. Also has anyone used Pat Chapmans book and what did they think?

Hi Welcome to cr0 

I'm with you on restaurant Phall, I love a hot curry but too much chili powder doesn't do me any favors, at home I tend to use mushed scotch bonnets, work a treat 

Let us know how you get on.

Quote from: vmixture on February 26, 2008, 11:34 AM
OK I'm going with the Saffron Base Gravy for starters and depending on the state of my current illness (man flu) I will hope to get the first batch on the go tomorrow. Lots of reading to get through that entire Saffron thread now.....

Hi vmixture

Welcome to the best curry forum.

Good luck with the base. Make sure you use the newer illustrated version.
If you have any questions please ask - we're here to help.
Let is know how you get on.

SnS  ;D

Quote from: parker21 on February 26, 2008, 12:53 PM
hi vmixture
i have been going into my local Rajver and getting into the phall sauce. i have even cooked it in their kitchen and i have posted the visit here just look. you can get a really hot phall by adding very hot dried red chillies fried until the fumes are over powering then crushing them up this i had done for me.then you can add as many as you want. also a good recipe by bruce edwards curryhouse cookery in the downloads setion for a chicken chilli masala it uses 12 sliced green chillies and a desertspoon of chilli powder.

regards and welcome for a very long and happy future cooking cr0 bir way.
and don't forget to get into your own locals kitchen. this may give you the confidence to ask.

gary

Thanks Gary this sounds exactly what I am looking for. The only problem is i cant seem to find the downloads section  :-[

EDIT: Its ok Ive found the section, I was looking along the top of the page for the downloads rather than a specific forum  :

Hi,

I find that if you remove the seeds and piff then chop them into a mush, added at the very start of the curry you will lose that "caribbean" flavour and smell.  Even more so if you freeze them which I have done when growing my own, they do lose some heat so just add more