Hi Spicey,
Yes you are correct, at the very beginning I did follow CA's methods and recipes, but further into the thread I do indicate that I changed this by creating a spice mix that I believe compliments my base and whilst I did still follow CA's methods, the flavour of the dishes changed somewhat, as you may expect them to.
The use of curry powder has always been a contentious issue and "guilty as charged", I used it because that's what I believed the BIR's and TA's did/do. As you rightly point out, it's probably nigh on impossible to pick out the minor spices such as cloves, mustard seeds and so on but as an entity in itself, I did notice a different flavour when I omitted the commercial curry powder. Again, as intermated in the post, I'd tried many variables before I settled on my spice blend and my base sauce, and I thought that the settled versions I'd come up with was the best that I could achieve at the time!
My main reason for pointing you towards the thread was to show you that, whilst I (and maybe others?) may not totally understand the science behind BIR cooking, I do experiment to get me closer to what flavour it is that I'm in search of. Sometimes, that means copying methods that I've seen or heard of, if only to rule them out later.
Very similar to 976's bhuna, I've been experimenting lately with madras. There is a definite anise note to my local TA's madras. Not to everyones taste, and certainly won't be everyones idea of what a madras should be but it's a very good madras, in my opinion. Now, chewytikka had the good grace to try fennel seeds in his own madras which by his own admission "kicked the shit out of it". I also tried fennel seeds in varying amounts, and it just wasn't right. I then tried star anise, frying it off in the oil at the start and it was close, but still no cigar. I now crush/grind half a very small star anise and add this to my mixed powder (only for madras) and it's there, it totally replicates my local TA's madras. But here is the annoying thing, when I mentioned it to the TA owner, he looked at me like I had two heads. Now, he's either a) throwing me off the scent or b) he gets that flavour by other means?
When you start out trying to emulate any kind of cuisine, everyone of us needs a starting point. It just happens that in BIR cooking, that starting point for the most part is a base sauce and a spice mix. Yes, you could try to create your own from the very start but that would take some very creative thinking for most of us and so, the safer option is to try a already published recipe. Once you are armed with these two elements, and you have practised over and over again, it's all down to recipe refinement for me. I suppose that IS the science, even if some of us, don't realise that.
Ray
Topic: New videos from Curry2Go in Chorley (read 313,331 times)
