Quote from: Spottymaldoon on December 19, 2008, 02:30 PM
OK I shall try to do the Bhuna this week and will post again after but, of course, from a guy who has done a thousand failed curries over 40 years, you'd have to be skeptical unless I started to rave at the result!

I am really looking forward to your post
You know exactly what you're after, but will you get it?
The end of a 40 year search?

Quote from: haldi on December 20, 2008, 08:47 AM
I am really looking forward to your post
You know exactly what you're after, but will you get it?
The end of a 40 year search?

I made the Chicken Bhuna tonight. My son said it was the best curry I have done; my wife said it was "Better than Bombay Bhiel" (our usual take-out here) and I, myself, scored it at 75% (since I started in 1960 I have never done an Indian curry better than 50% on my personal score card). If I had tried the same curry, done by one of the experts here, I don't doubt I would have enjoyed it even more - I did cut a few corners such as making only a small quantity of base and not using grams to measure and such as not marinating the meat for the full 4 hours and also my gas hob is weak so the onion took ages to brown; the chicken a long time to sear.  Oh yes, and I used my supplier's "house" brand curry powder and garam masalla.

So I have lots of room for improvement. I didn't get a lot of "smoky" taste and I should have liked a bit more bouquet from, say, cardamom. Possibly, also, a little more sour might have improved it.

A big "Thank you" to Panpot - you are touching a lot of people's lives here in a very delightful way!

Spotty

Thanks for the report
These are clearly recipes to try
I reckon they will superceed Bruce Edwards "Curry House Cookery" as the standard

Quote from: haldi on December 21, 2008, 08:28 AM
I reckon they will superceed Bruce Edwards "Curry House Cookery" as the standard

Maybe you should try them first Haldi?  I'd be really interested in hearing your (tried) opinions on them 

Hi Guys I have just got myself a fairly reliable connection again so can update on somethings and thank those of you who have been moved to post for the first time and who have been rather kind in your comments. I have just been lucky in getting access to a kitchen and would assume that the rest of the keen contributors would have done the same and been as busy with it as I have.

That said I had a go on Saturday night with a dinner party and with everything cooked from recipes on the site right down to the Peshwari Nans I got fantastic feedback from all my guests. With the Ashoka Kit I did Chicken Ticka Masala, Chicken Jaipuri and Prawn Bhuna.

Some comments that might help. In my earlier post regarding the preparation of the Bunjara I too mentioned that it was overly salty (I am sure the chef has made a wee mistake here and will get detailed corrections to all the recipes in due course) so I added sugar and indeed blitzed canned plum tomatoes to compensate towards the end of the process and would recommend it till we get it clarified. Spottymaldoon your a star for posting and reminding me that the chef recommends the Pataks Tandoori Paste for the Jaipuri which has a big proportion of tamarind to produce the sour taste and alternatives don't produce the same ultimate flavour.

Again taking the leftovers the next day was a measurement of the success of the kit in my mind, but I do feel to be fair to the chef we should do our best to honour the actual recipes for scoring purposes then experiment out for example in creating the best possible Madras from the base and I for one would welcome some ideas.

For whats its worth I marinaded the chicken overnight in the fridge for perfect results and again it did take longer than I am used too to sear the chicken but then again the chef took his time and emphasised the low flame for us to use at home. His preference is always to cook from raw and not pre coked except in the case of the lamb.

Bobby I agree the Bunjara is very very oily both in the recipe result and in the actual photograph you can see from the resteraunt but he uses that to start dishes with, so I have found by recovering the excess before cooking from the Bunjara the final results look the part.

Hope this helps. Panpot

After a 7 hour cooking marathon i had great success with the lamb bhuna. I can honestly say it tasted almost identical to the lamb bhunas i often buy at my local TA. All the effort in making the ashoka base, the ashoka pre cooked lamb, and the banjura paste was well worth it when i finally tasted the lamb bhuna. For anyone who is interested, i added about 5 tbs of the lamb stock from the ashoka pre cooked lamb into the final dish. Without this lamb stock, it did not taste quite like my locals lamb bhuna, but still very very tasty. I dont feel i need to tweak the ashoka recipies in any way, accept for the salt level (possibly). Re-creating my locals lamb bhuna was a real break through for me. I had always thought this dish was going to be a hard nut to crack! NOT ANYMORE THOUGH , GRIN  ;D ! 

Derek, your a star, I have yet to do the precooked lamb and feel that the Lamb Bhuna would be my real test of the recipes I got so I am glad you got a result. For what its worth the chef used the lamb in its finished sauce when cooking with it. Cheers Panpot.

When you cook the ashoka pre cooked lamb , taste the sauce, its marvelous! good luck

Quote from: Panpot on December 29, 2008, 04:17 PM
For what its worth the chef used the lamb in its finished sauce when cooking with it.

This seems to be very common, at least in my limited experience of BIR kitchens. I really think it is part of the missing flavour from the old days. What we, and I suppose most BIRs now do, is precook the chicken/meat and then remove it from that gorgeous spicy stock that's made as a result.

Well, I have just done my first batch of Ashoka Precooked Lamb ahead of my Neerday celebrations tomorrow, if my head and stomach can take it after tonight. Happy New Year to you all.

I managed to pick up a piece of what the local supermarket here in France called a Gigot. It looked like the knuckle end of a leg but enough to get 1.1 Kilos of chopped lean meat and the knuckle for flavour. I decided to keep the amounts for the other ingredients the same and had a go. The outcome is as the chef said melt in the mouth meat and a rich sauce that tastes and smells fantastic. Secret Santa this I suspect is what you are looking for and I intend to cook with it to include the sauce that to be honest stands on its own as a pretty mean curry in its own right.

Photos before and after preparing the lamb
Cheers Panpot