Topic: unlocking the taste to indian takeaway, ebook out soon.

[Kashmiri Bob]

The spiced oil is made Jerry, how to make it will be in the Ebook. The spiced oil as never seen a curry, base gravy or onion bhaji.

What sort of time frame are you thinking about for the ebook Chris? Lots of intrigued people I'm sure.

W

6 to 8 weeks, i have a lot video and recipes to sort out, i am working hard on it for you.

Excellent news Chris.  Here's hoping UB's naan recipe will be ready soon as well.  Happy days!

Rob   

[JerryM]

H4ppy-chris,

many thanks for clarification on the oil method.

a cautious best wishes on the ebook - so many before have promised but only delivered in part. if your's completes the picture then all will very happy.

fingers crossed.

[Dajoca]

Good luck with all the work on the book Chris. I look forward to getting my grubby mitts on the finished result.

[BIR-TY]

a cautious best wishes on the ebook - so many before have promised but only delivered in part. if your's completes the picture then all will very happy.

fingers crossed.

I agree, a cautious best wishes, no doubt to some you may well give them that bit extra they're looking for.
Other publications may have done the same for some. I think it's too much of a sweeping statement to say that some publications have not delivered all to some.
Bert

[Salvador Dhali]

a cautious best wishes on the ebook - so many before have promised but only delivered in part. if your's completes the picture then all will very happy.

fingers crossed.

I agree, a cautious best wishes, no doubt to some you may well give them that bit extra they're looking for.
Other publications may have done the same for some. I think it's too much of a sweeping statement to say that some publications have not delivered all to some.
Bert

Best wishes from me, too.

My own experience over my 30+ years curry journey has been that, while no one book has given me everything, I honestly haven't expected that to happen. And I hope it never does.

Apart from it being an impossibility (due to the mind-boggling number of permutations involving different personal preferences, different BIR styles, etc., etc), for me part of the joy of cooking is in finding new gems of information in different books, and occasionally having one of those amazing 'eureka' moments.

My BIR cooking today is very much a fusion of a little bit of this and a little bit of that (picked up from manifold sources), underpinned by a few very sound, tried and tested principles that are common to the art. I'm sure it's the same for many here.

So, while I know full well that HC's forthcoming book won't 'deliver all' (because no book can), I'm nevertheless excited about buying it because it will no doubt give me another gem - another piece of the infinite jigsaw that is BIR cookery.

And if it doesn't, well I won't be too upset. I'll happily add it to my extensive collection of cookery books, try out the recipes, and will enjoy watching the videos.

Anyway, as said, all the best of luck with it, HC, and I hope that you enjoy putting it together.

[goncalo]

My BIR cooking today is very much a fusion of a little bit of this and a little bit of that (picked up from manifold sources), underpinned by a few very sound, tried and tested principles that are common to the art. I'm sure it's the same for many here.

My thoughts exactly. What I'm enjoying from cooking this style of food, is the complexity and the infinite chase for more information and for personal improvement in the art of BIR cooking and the sudden epiphanies that it brings with whenever you seem to make some progress and the obvious satisfaction of eating something that pleases you.

I have 3 books to date on BIR: KD1, C2G and CBM. I have used and read C2G's extensively and used a good number of his recipes. KD1 was offered to me as a "leaving gift" from my work colleagues in Cambridge on my last day. I never felt tempted to even try any of her recipes, I got the book before I came across cr0 and was suspicious about the quality of the recipes at the time. I got CBM yesterday and all the main recipes have similarities with C2G and the ones in this forum, but I'm going to try do everything by the book tonight (plan is: base+jalfrezi+pilau+red massala+tikka) - neither of these books are complete, but all of them seem quite useful and nevertheless even if I never manage to find the "definite BIR flavour/smell" I can be proud that I have improved my cooking abbility and can make reasonably tasty/spicy food now.

[Peripatetic Phil]

KD1 was offered to me as a "leaving gift" from my work colleagues in Cambridge on my last day. I never felt tempted to even try any of her recipes, I got the book before I came across cr0 and was suspicious about the quality of the recipes at the time.

Very different to my own reaction, and subsequent behaviour.  I can no longer remember how I learned of the book's existence, but I bought my first copy (yes, I now have several !) with excitement and anticipation, and was ecstatic at my first attempt at a Chicken Madras.  After maybe 40 years of complete and utter failure at producing even an /acceptable/ curry (let alone a BIR taste-alike), KD1 was for me the Book of Revelations.  With the benefit of experience I modified Kris's recipes (doubling the quantity of spices and -- for some time -- doubling the volume of base, so there was actually four times the quantity of spices per unit weight of chicken), and I still use the modified versions today (sometimes substituting Bassar curry masala for ground chillies).  Her methodology is so different to that commonly advocated today, where the spices inevitably have to be bhooned, if not near-cremated, that it is remarkable how both methods can give such similar results.  But similar they most certainly are, and if you have not yet tried KD1 then I think you should do so : you may be very pleasantly surprised at the results that can be achieved.

** Phil.

[George]

book won't 'deliver all' (because no book can)

I disagree that it's not possible for a book to deliver high quality results. It depends on whether (a) the author really does have great recipes and (b) whether the author is prepared to pass those recipes on, accurately.

Think about some of the best curry dishes you've ever had in an Indian restaurant anywhere. Would it be possible to write down those recipes to repeat them? Of course! Easy. But nobody so far has met my criteria (a) and (b) above. I doubt if that situation will change any time soon.

[goncalo]

KD1 was offered to me as a "leaving gift" from my work colleagues in Cambridge on my last day. I never felt tempted to even try any of her recipes, I got the book before I came across cr0 and was suspicious about the quality of the recipes at the time.

Very different to my own reaction, and subsequent behaviour.  I can no longer remember how I learned of the book's existence, but I bought my first copy (yes, I now have several !) with excitement and anticipation, and was ecstatic at my first attempt at a Chicken Madras.  After maybe 40 years of complete and utter failure at producing even an /acceptable/ curry (let alone a BIR taste-alike), KD1 was for me the Book of Revelations.  With the benefit of experience I modified Kris's recipes (doubling the quantity of spices and -- for some time -- doubling the volume of base, so there was actually four times the quantity of spices per unit weight of chicken), and I still use the modified versions today (sometimes substituting Bassar curry masala for ground chillies).  Her method is so different to that commonly advocated today, where the spices inevitably have to be bhooned, if not near-cremated, that it is remarkable how both methods can give such similar results.  But similar they most certainly are, and if you have not yet tried KD1 then I think you should do so : you may be very surprised at the results that can be achieved.

Thanks for the advice Phil! I have since changed my mind about it, it's just that as of late I have been sticking to safe options and "what works". I plan on doing CBM next because of comments I heard on the his jalfrezi and bombay aloo, but KD1 will be following it closely!

Goncalo

[Peripatetic Phil]

Think about some of the best curry dishes you've ever had in an Indian restaurant anywhere. Would it be possible to write down those recipes to repeat them? Of course! Easy. But nobody so far has met my criteria (a) and (b) above. I doubt if that situation will change any time soon.

I have little doubt that Michel Roux, or Raymond Blanc jr., or any other great French chef, could write down their recipes and methodology with 100% accuracy and precision.  But if that recipe and methodology were then tried, using solely the written description, by (let us say) 1000 people, I doubt whether more than 50 would be regarded by Messrs Roux, Blanc, etc., as even passable, and fewer than five would be told that, if they perservered, they might one day be able to replicate the dish.

It is not the description, George : it is the experience and the insight that comes from experience.  They have it, we do not.

** Phil.