Hi Jerry,

Quotei'd thought fenugreek seed was sort of a bit aniseed.

Think you may be getting confused with fennel seeds here.  They have an anise note to them.

Quotehave now wet finger tasted the methi powder i all ready have (from CA's aka) - it tastes for me worse than the leaf.

lol, sorry to hear that Jerry, I guess it's like marmite for you, you either love it or hate it

Ray

got round to trying a BIR take on Chaa006's recipe.

not that successful - i found in gradually tweaking the recipe i ended up at madras - i was aiming for a very tomatoey bassar based curry that was a bit different.

dish 1 recipe is given below. on dish 2 i took out the methi and mix pwdr and upped bassar to 2 tsp and puree to 4 tbsp. on dish 3 i reduce bassar back to 1 tsp and added 3 off cardamom with the g/g paste.

i had a look at KD2 recipe which adds coconut milk. this may move it in the right direction. other than that i'm struggling to get it away from "madras". i feel i need to taste BIR version to get a better steer.

dish 1 recipe:

oil 1 chef
g/g paste 1 tsp
methi 1 tsp
bassar 1 tsp
mix powder 0.5 tsp
salt 0.25 tsp
tom puree 2 tbsp
bunjarra 1 tbsp
chilli 0.25 tsp (trs v.hot hence low amount)
base 360ml (60ml for spices)
lemon dressing 1 squirt
fresh frozen coriander 1 tbsp

dish1


dish2


dish3


back of spoon scraping

Quote from: JerryM on October 27, 2010, 04:56 PMgot round to trying a BIR take on Chaa006's recipe.

i had a look at KD2 recipe which adds coconut milk. this may move it in the right direction. other than that i'm struggling to get it away from "madras". i feel i need to taste BIR version to get a better steer.

Thanks for the feedback, Jerry.  I think in retrospect you are right -- the dish is really a "Chicken Madras with added eggs" rather than a "Chicken Bombay" per se.  It is a while since I last has a Chicken Bombay, but my recollection is that it is lighter in colour than either you or I achieved, and less heavily spiced.  What a shame I didn't see this message yesterday : we went to the Taj of Kent last night (Tuesday Night Special : one starter, one main course, one side dish, one rice or naan :

Chaa006,

had real good fun trying it out. it's all part of the learning for me.

dish 2 was very nice and will try some coconut flour addition on next make. dish 3 was quite a surprise -  the actual curry was very similar to madras i know from a local restaurant. it was also 1st time i had tried frying cardamom - something i intend to work on - would like to get the cardamom flavour more into the dish. the intense taste from crunching one in the dish is for me - to die for.

it may take some time for me to try out a "BIR Bombay" as my local TA don't list the dish and same goes for my fav restaurant in the midlands. at least now it's on my radar.

Quote from: JerryM on October 28, 2010, 06:01 PMhad real good fun trying it out. it's all part of the learning for me.s on my radar.

Ah well, that's good news at least 

Quote from: JerryM on October 28, 2010, 06:01 PMwould like to get the cardamom flavour more into the dish. the intense taste from crunching one in the dish is for me - to die for. in the midlands. at least now it's on my radar.

Yes !  I think that the first few times one bites into a cardamom in an Indian restaurant, the sensation is out of this world : I used to describe it as "exploding in a ball of flavour", and I can still recollect to this day (from 45 years ago) what an amazing sensation that was.  Sadly one gets inured to it, as with all good things, and although of course I still cook with them it is far too long since I had a real "cardamom moment" 

** Phil.

Quote from: Chaa006 on October 28, 2010, 06:09 PM
I can still recollect to this day what an amazing sensation that was. 

me too. sadly the north west BIR's don't seem to let them slip through like they do in the midlands. i think i'm going to have to add a few via spice ball into the base as i felt frying from dry did not work that well. alternatively i might initially try adding a few to the cooked base.

Quote from: JerryM on October 28, 2010, 06:01 PMthe intense taste from crunching one in the dish is for me - to die for.

It's certainly an acquired taste though Jerry. I can remember the first time I bit into one in a curry, I thought I'd been poisoned!

Of course now I just take it in my stride, that and the fact that I haven't seen any whole spices in BIR curries for a long time.