Topic: Hi Guys from A Londoner in Toronto

[chelseafan71]

I'm a londoner in Toronto (actually east of Toronto) - Moved here in 98 and was unable to find what I considered a decent curry - moved back to london between 2007-11 and re-introduced myself (and introduced the Missus) to english style curries - Now we're back in the frozen north, I've been cooking more and more curries, but the goal is to reproduce the dishes of our favourite curry house, the Sree Krishna in Tooting (London SW17). The Sree specialises in the cuisine of Kerala and Tamil Nadu (although it also does reasonable versions of the usual BIR suspects) so I'm not sure how the more regional cuisine plays into the base-sauce techniques, but hopefully I can make some progress.
My experimentation has yielded a pretty good chicken 65, a passable chicken masala dosai filling - the dosai itself has yet to come out succesfully, and a karaikudi chicken fry (karaikudi chicken varuval) that is just a couple of steps away from being spot on. I'll post these recipes and probably a recomendation for the Sree in due course.
In the meantime I have a couple of questions that I hope you guys will be a ble to answer.
From what I have read so far, would it be correct to say that the different bases each require different recipes to create the different curries?
Which base or bases would the experts consider to be a) the most beginner-friendly as I am new to the base-sauce technique but not to making curries , b) the most versatile - by which I mean have the largest number of tested or recommended recipes available for use with them and c) the best base of them all
I appreciate your comments

[joshallen2k]

Hi there - my path has pretty much followed yours. I'm in Toronto (High Park area).

You will get a ton of useful advice on bases and recipes. Personally I use a rotation of the Chewtikka base, Zaal base, and Little India.

If you are looking for a BIR style curry, the absolute closest I've found is a restaurant in Peterborough, Ontario called Shafiqs. In fact, I've found nothing in Metro Toronto that comes closer to BIR than Shafiqs. There are some excellent "authentic Indian" ones though.

If you're east of Toronto, make the trip to Shafiqs!

For getting some of the hard-to-find ingredients and spices, I use Bombay Bazaar in Markham.

-- Josh

[Garp]

Welcome mate - we won't mention Basel (oops)

I have my own favourite but there are many on here more experienced than me who will point you in the right direction regarding bases.

By the sound of it, you are a pretty experienced cook of Indian cuisine. I'm sure you will find some useful stuff on here and the guys are pretty helpful.

Greetings again and have fun

[Stephen Lindsay]

welcome from Scotland

You can mix and match base recipes to an extent as a lot of bases are very similar with the differences being tweaks rather than fundamentals.

A lot of bases on here would serve your purpose. As said chewytikka has posted a lot of videos combining his base and his recipes with the added value of a video to show you how. A good starter base is BE (Bruce Edwards who has written extensively and includes an article on how to make a good curry on this site. Both are versatile in my opinion.

The base I use is called Taz and I have posted a number of recipes to go with this. This base does not go with other recipes so much because it requires a different technique than other bases. This is because it is an oil rich base therefore there is no pre-frying ("bhoona-ing") of spices in oil as there is with other bases. The spices go into the base and they fry because of the oil in the base. The advantage of this method is there is less risk or burning or over cooking spices and so you get predictable results every time.

The best base of all is a matter of personal taste and preference, a bit like your team. One man's Chelsea is another man's Spurs, or indeed another man's Dundee United.

Happy cooking!

[chelseafan71]

Hi there - my path has pretty much followed yours. I'm in Toronto (High Park area).

You will get a ton of useful advice on bases and recipes. Personally I use a rotation of the Chewtikka base, Zaal base, and Little India.

If you are looking for a BIR style curry, the absolute closest I've found is a restaurant in Peterborough, Ontario called Shafiqs. In fact, I've found nothing in Metro Toronto that comes closer to BIR than Shafiqs. There are some excellent "authentic Indian" ones though.

If you're east of Toronto, make the trip to Shafiqs!

For getting some of the hard-to-find ingredients and spices, I use Bombay Bazaar in Markham.

-- Josh

Thanks for the heads-up on shafiqs - next time I'm out towards peterborogh I'll try and get there - would have been useful to know a few years ago when my motherinlaw had a cottage out towards hastings which is close by.
I usually get my curry supplies at patel brothers (on markham just north of lawrence in scarborough) - pretty good selection, but beware the chilli powder - their medium is nothing of the sort.

There are a few southern indian restaurants in scarborough that I have either tried already or are on the list, but nothing so far to match my favourite BIR

On a slightly different tangent - have you encountered many decent hakka establishments? - my favourite is the lin garden (pharmacy and sheppard - handy for 401 & vic park). Hakka is the one food that i really missed from canada when I went back to the uk - surprised it hasn't made any impact.

Welcome mate - we won't mention Basel (oops)

I agree - Let's not
Let's also not mention the toronto maple leafs or mayor rob ford

[chelseafan71]

welcome from Scotland

You can mix and match base recipes to an extent as a lot of bases are very similar with the differences being tweaks rather than fundamentals.

A lot of bases on here would serve your purpose. As said chewytikka has posted a lot of videos combining his base and his recipes with the added value of a video to show you how. A good starter base is BE (Bruce Edwards who has written extensively and includes an article on how to make a good curry on this site. Both are versatile in my opinion.

The base I use is called Taz and I have posted a number of recipes to go with this. This base does not go with other recipes so much because it requires a different technique than other bases. This is because it is an oil rich base therefore there is no pre-frying ("bhoona-ing") of spices in oil as there is with other bases. The spices go into the base and they fry because of the oil in the base. The advantage of this method is there is less risk or burning or over cooking spices and so you get predictable results every time.

The best base of all is a matter of personal taste and preference, a bit like your team. One man's Chelsea is another man's Spurs, or indeed another man's Dundee United.

Happy cooking!

Thanks for the response - I had noticed that you have posted a number of curry recipes using the taz base, but I wasn't too clear on the difference between that base and some of the others so thanks for clearing that up. In terms of the bhoona-ing of ground spices, I have been more used in my currymaking to dry-roasting whole spice and then grinding - I'm assuming that the typical BIR would not create their massalas that way - would that be for reasons of time/expense or both? or are there BIRs that grind their own spices & blends?
Dundee united? some lean years behind you I'm guessing and despite our current status I remember them well enough, but it could have been so much worse - If I'd been 10 yrs younger I would probably have been a wimbledon fan (that hasn't worked out so well for my brother, although afc are on the rise), but they weren't on the radar in the 70s when I was a nipper

[Stephen Lindsay]

I don't know if there are any BIRs that grind their own spices and I expect the answer to that is in the main that they don't and the evidence is perhaps the prevalence of Pataks products on their shelves. In any case the majority of spice mixes that authors use to accompany their base recipes, use pre-ground spices bought off the shelf so to speak.

Yes Dundee United had their peak in the 1980s reaching the semi final of the European Cup and then losing the final to Gothenberg, managed by none other than Sven Goran Eriksson. But hey what a period - the teams they beat in Europe - unbelievable to think of it now. Dundee United have beaten Barcelona home and away twice in European competition. Utd v Barcelona now? I dread to think!

[Micky Tikka]

Hi CF7
I'm from Wimbledon(Merton Pk)
I have been to the Scree Krishna once many years ago and it does have great reviews
I think then it was for vegetarians Now I head for the Pakistani Restaurants past Tooting Broadway st
In more resent years a great Restaurant has opened in Morden of all places
And yes I am a Chelsea Fan was given tickets for the last home game and we were truly awful  ;D
Cheers Michael

[chewytikka]

Welcome cf7 I'm in Geordieland by the Sea.

Quite a difficult one to help with really, if Scree Krishna has kitchen staff from Kerala and cooking in a South Indian style.

Most peoples experience here, is with Bangladeshi staff, cooking for the English palate.

In saying that, I met and was talking to a new Tandoori chef here, who's worked all over London.

Interestingly, he said a lot of Pakistani or other regional Indian restaurants, employ Bangla curry chefs.

So if you make a Bangladeshi neutral base (Garabi) and hit it up with South Indian flavours and ingredients
you may be lucky and get somewhere close to what your looking for.

If your already a traditional curry cook, you'll know your prep and spices, so it should be easy for you
to switch to quick fry curries using a base gravy and precooked meats and veg.

You could start off with my quick Garabi and a Madras, just to get in the swing.

https://vimeo.com/40144303

Indian Restaurant Curry Base? Pressure Cooked at home in 1 hour?
A simple and quick method to make that famous onion gravy (Garabi)
Lightly spiced, producing a nice neutral flavoured base.
I've been experimenting with Branded powders, keeping it simple, for people just starting out.

What you need for this one.
200ml vegetable oil, infused with Tej Patta and Cassia
500 ml of tap water. 3kg Onions. 1 medium carrot,Third medium Green capsicum .Third medium Red capsicum.
A quarter of white cabbage. (Small) A handful of fresh coriander stalks.
Half bulb of Garlic. 2 inch piece of fresh ginger. 2 Green Chillis 3 tbsp of a tube of tomato puree. (M&S Italian)
1 tbsp of salt. 1 tbsp of Haldi. (Tumeric Powder) 1 tbsp of Bolst Hot Curry Powder.

https://vimeo.com/33663388

The Classic Madras
To make a madras you will need 3 tablespoons of vegetable
oil, 1 teaspoon of blended garlic and ginger paste, 1 tablespoon of tomato pure

[chelseafan71]

Hi CF7
I'm from Wimbledon(Merton Pk)
I have been to the Scree Krishna once many years ago and it does have great reviews
I think then it was for vegetarians Now I head for the Pakistani Restaurants past Tooting Broadway st
In more resent years a great Restaurant has opened in Morden of all places
And yes I am a Chelsea Fan was given tickets for the last home game and we were truly awful  ;D
Cheers Michael

The sree was one of the first curry houses i went to , back when i was a teenager, but when i moved to canada i kind of forgot about it. When i moved back to the uk in 2007 i ended up living in colliers wood just down the road from it, noticed it on the bus and gave it a try and it was amazing - it's now being run by the son of the guy who was running the place when i first went there - when me and the missus had our final curry there before moving back to canada, he gave us some marinated chicken65 so we could have one last taste the next day before heading to the airport. Nice guys in there and great food - if you go there I'd recommend you start with a chicken masala dosai and/or chicken 65 (they used to split the dosai for me and the missus and we'd share the chicken 65) and then take something from the chefs specials sections - i like the karaikudi and chettinad dishes.

paprika by south wimbledon station is also not a bad place in the more modern indian style - (the "devils tomato" starter is a memorable highlight) but we rarely went ther because the sree was closer and our favourite.