Since moving to UK that I became a fanatic for curries. I'm now living in Dublin for the past 2 months and completely addicted to cr0, partly because I can't find a decent takeaway around here and partly because I am trying to achieve that takeaway curry taste myself, which we all struggle or struggled at one point. Since the 2nd day of knowing cr0, I've been able to improve my korma (it used to be the persian version, and it is now the BIR version, using a mix of darthphall's base and CA's korma recipe plus slight modifications and I know there is room for improvement, I can already say I had the perfect one.)

I am now about to visit home (Portugal) and as last year I tried to make a curry using pataks, which came out very wrong, but everyone loved it, I've decided that this year I'm making the curries following the recipes in here and Julian Voigt's curry 2 go ebook.

Also just bought all the spices to bring along for the trip (though the attached picture predates it, as I only finished the list yesterday and the picture is at least a week old.)

So, with all this being said, my plan is to:

1. Make g&g paste (again)
2. Make seasoned oil
3. Make curry 2 go base sauce, and if that doesn't work, I'll fallback to darthphall's.
4. Make my own spicy masalas: garam masala and curry 2 go masala
5. Cook my own korma
6. Cook my own jhalfrezi
7. Cook my own madras or vindaloo
8. Bombay potatoes / pilau rice

I'm only slightly afraid about the end result as they have a "clean glass stove" and although it functions properly, I'm not sure exactly if that equates the same amount of heat that is expected in these elaborate curries (based on a post from someone else)

With this being said, is there any advice I can get from you?

Hi gagomes,

That's quite a collection of spices you have there! I'm being nosy, what do you plan to use the dedicated coconut for.?

I use a glass topped hob to cook curry 5 days a week and it's fine. You may find that your relatives' hob has a mix of ceramic and halogen rings - best use the halogen one (which heats up quickest) as they typically produce more heat. On my glass topped hob using the halogen ring I can get a very good pan temperature by simply preheating on max for 2 mins, then leaving the hob on maximum while I cook.

Hope you get good results - but be careful, there's a real danger your guests will want you to stay there and open a restaurant!

Quote from: natterjak on December 22, 2012, 02:02 PM
Hi gagomes,

That's quite a collection of spices you have there! I'm being nosy, what do you plan to use the dedicated coconut for.?

You're not being nosy at all Most of this collection was my original shopping list, prior to read Julian's book and prior to making my second pot of darthphall's base. I bought dessicated coconut because the asian emporium didnt have coconut powder or flour and I successfully used it in my korma (though I had it in water for a whole day, not sure how much of that played an important role). Only yesterday I managed to buy the flour and powder, hence they aren't in the picture. I also didn't include in the picture: Onion Seeds (nigella sativa), panch phoram (mind the spelling), mustard seeds yellow and dark, methi/kasoori leaves, mheti powder, bassar mix, ghee, coconut powder, coconut flour, paprika, garlic powder, etc.

I don't think I need the dessicated coconut for indian cooking anymore and is probably going to be used for garnishing the top of a chocolate cake, however

Quote from: natterjak on December 22, 2012, 02:02 PM
I use a glass topped hob to cook curry 5 days a week and it's fine. You may find that your relatives' hob has a mix of ceramic and halogen rings - best use the halogen one (which heats up quickest) as they typically produce more heat. On my glass topped hob using the halogen ring I can get a very good pan temperature by simply preheating on max for 2 mins, then leaving the hob on maximum while I cook.

I do remember now that there is a more powerful hob in there indeed. Thanks for confirming it should be fine, makes me feel a bit more confident