Topic: Should I bother with the ebooks?

[Timpy]

Hiya everyone. I'm an American that lived in England for a couple years (I'm home now), and it was there I had my first proper curry. My pursuit to recreate what I had over there (and here) in the restaurants has led me to this place, and I'm excited to start making good curry!

What I'm currently wondering is whether or not I should look into the ebooks that are often discussed here, particularly Julian Voigt's "The Secret to That Takeway Curry Taste" parts 1 and/or 2. Do these ebooks offer anything that I can't find on this forum? Also, for anyone who has read both, considering I'm very new to this, would purchasing part 2 be alright for a newb like me, or are they meant to go together?

Also, another question: my wife is vegetarian and I'm mainly interested in those types of dishes (aloo matar, dal makhni, saag paneer, etc). The recipes on here seem quite meat-centric and there doesn't appear to be a vegetarian section. Does anyone know of a good place with a collection of BIR curries that don't have meat in them?

Thanks!

[livo]

you can do it without the ebooks.  Check out how to use this site and you'll have all you need.
Vegetarian is easy to manage from here.

[Invisible Mike]

Livo's right there are plenty of recipes on here to keep you going although there's no harm in having ebooks in your armoury if you're serious about BIR. C2G ebook 1 is probably best as the recipes it contains are simpler. Book 2 contains some strange recipes I'm sure even some of the most experienced curry cooks on here have never heard of!

For me a lot of Julian's recipes contain far too many ingredients to be deemed as authentic and he recommends too much mix powder in his recipes in my opinion. But all in all there's no harm in trying them. His dhansak, madras and korma recipes at least are all worthy representatives of those dishes.

Mick Crawfords Curry Barking Mad ebooks seem closer to the real McCoy but again, you may need to use less than his prescribed amount of spice. Nevertheless I've enjoyed some of his curries very much. South Indian chilli chicken being a favourite of mine. Knowing what I know now, if I ever follow any of those recipes again I would use slightly different cooking techniques next time. Try them. I learned from them and no doubt so will you.

Regarding meat free curries. Just follow a pre-cooked chicken recipe and substitute the meat for a selection of vegetables ie potato, cauliflower, carrots, mushrooms and chunks of onion and just part cook them.

All the best.

[Sverige]

I bought Mick Crawford's book 1 and found the spicing to be a little under what I'd normally use. But I was measuring out level teaspoonfuls like he says in the book. If you're adding heaped tsps I can see how you might think the recipes was over spiced.

[Graeme]

What Mick Crawfords (Curry Barking Mad)  ebooks do for me
is to keep everything on one place and they are good, both part's 1 @ 2

As suggested by others Micks books are good to have to hand, I printed mine out.
I will be looking at buying the printed versions as self printed
ebooks in A4 folders don't site quite right on my book shelf, ie looks untidy.

At the time of writing I would not bother with the other ones.

However saying that we do have a new Scottish ebook
out now. This may be of interest to some and it looks like
the Author works in a take away.

Regards Graeme.

[Invisible Mike]

Sverige. In all of the above ebooks the standard amount of mix powder in most curries is 1 Tablespoon. I think a tablespoon of mix powder per curry to be too much personally. I think half a tbsp/1.5tsp to be the optimum amount.

[Secret Santa]

I think half a tbsp/1.5tsp to be the optimum amount.

Surely that depends on the type of base and the quantity of spice it already has in it?

[Invisible Mike]

Good point... I just find too much mix powder is the kiss of death in most curries as is too much methi. Less is more as they say. In the case of chilli powder however, more is more! 

[ELW]

I'd agree a Tbl of mix powder is too much for an individual curry.
The problem for me being the flash fry method of cooking it. Like most foods, spice tastes better cooked longer, either in the base or a paste.
The ebooks are cheap enough & there's normally something in them worth the price of the book imo

[loveitspicy]

The ebooks to have for a beginner are CBM's British Indian Restaurant style cooking 1 and 2 and the Glasgow Indian Takeaway book from Alex.

Both nice guys - both documented as it is in a takeaway.

best, Rich