Topic: Hello from NZ

[MEB]

Hi there
Firstly I'd like to say what a great site this is. Been nosing about on the internet for a base gravy and found this place..
Moved over to NZ from London ten years ago. The hunt for a 'real' curry started and ended quickly here in NZ. On the whole Kiwis don't do hot food. So I tried every curry house I came across and was hugely disappointed with all of them. Over here curries are mild, medium or hot. Even a korma or a vindaloo.. I asked ALL the curry houses why they don't make hot curries and was told the Kiwi palate can't deal with it so they don't make hot curries or even spicy curries. So I had to cope with making my own and then ran into the next stumbling block. I live in Northland. No Indian grocers here ten years ago. We now have two very good ones - still can't get Bombay Duck though Just recently we had a new curry house open here. I had gone from eating curries 3 times a week to 3 times a year and my tolerance of heat had gone. However a week ago I was on the way home and was stuck in traffic - I had stopped for more than 3 secs - that's a traffic jam here  right next to the new curry house. So I pulled over and ordered a Madras for me, CTM for the wife and some poppadoms and couple of naan. Fanbloodytastic!! At last! I then stopped in on my way home for the following 4 nights. trying most of what they had on offer. However this is way too expensive for me to maintain. Especially coupled with my passion for a few 'refreshing beverages'. So I decided I needed to cook them myself. I'm a pretty good cook - made it onto Masterchef NZ this year. So I know my way around a kitchen.
Really looking forward to having a go at some of the recipes here - especially a good CTM for SWMBO and for me Madras, Rogan Josh etc etc

Right now I'm making the 'new base sauce' recipe on here.

I look forward to chatting with you and joining in.

Cheers
MEB aka Martin

[Sverige]

Hi Martin and welcome. Good intro by the way and sounds like you should chip into the "what's for dinner tonight Josephine" thread and show us a few masterchef level dishes, to see what you can teach us while we are teaching you about curry.

Couple of suggestions from me - first, don't give up on visiting your new favourite curry house, keep in touch with them and see if you can blag your way into the kitchen as there's no better way to learn than to see it first hand. If you've read up on recipes and techniques from this site you'll be able to cross reference and put some of the info here into context better hopefully.

Secondly, more and more people are discovering BIR these days as the info slowly spreads throughout the Internet. That's a good thing but it means there's some reet dodgy info sources out there. If you are to achieve good results you must be selective. Avoid ebook authors and "YouTube sensations" who can't and never could cook a decent curry.  Try to spot and be wise to the narcissistic novices who showed up on this site one minute and the next were posting recipes for the "ultimate" this and the "best ever" that, with shouty thread titles which attract pages of follow up comments, but which, ultimately, will disappoint. Forums have a strange dynamic and some posters have a way of leading people by the nose.

Last word of advice. Cooking a BIR curry is like building a house. You have to get the foundations right. It's all very well tinkering with the colour of the roof tiles but if the foundations are dodgy it's gonna be a crap house.  Don't get distracted into the discussions of the finer points of the spice blend or spiced oil, or bunjarra or the endless search to achieve "the taste" - just get your foundations right.

Foundations of BIR flavour are as follows: onions cooked on a good rolling boil for long enough during your base sauce recipe so they're ready to fall apart; turmeric (the definitive base flavour spice in BIR cookery) cooked with the onions as part of the base sauce recipe for long enough that it mellows and sweetens; base sauce comprised mainly of onions, with just 10% or less of other veg; plentiful spices seared in hot oil when cooking the final dish (use more spice than you think and don't be afraid of burning them - BIR chefs do not pussy around) and lastly, dilute your base sauce down and cook your curry for a good ten to fifteen mins, don't try to get it made in six or seven. You do not have a commercial range at home so adjust and cook that curry longer and ignore it like a good BIR chef with 15 things on the go does. Let it settle and stick to the pan for five mins at a time.

You can quickly start to achieve good results by getting some things right, but getting a full-on harmony of BIR delight requires all the building blocks to line up at once. Be selective with what you believe on here,  including this post I guess...... 

[MEB]

Thanks for the advice Sverige.

My first curry came out very good indeed - the wife said it was as good as the ones from the curry house. It was a very enjoyable day of making base sauce, spice mix and pre cooking meat. I have a list of spices and bits n bobs that I'll be getting this week.
Looking forward to making a CTM for the wife next.

[Sverige]

Sounds like a very good start then. My first attempt at BIR was shocking

I'm hoping someone else will say hi to you at some point. They're all a bit tied up bitchfighting at present, but I'm sure it'll settle down soon.

[MEB]

Waaahahhaaaa.. Bitch fights on a forum?? That surprises me 

Really impressed with the base sauce. It was delicious, sweet and had a good depth of flavour. The precooked beef I done was a 'lamb' recipe but my chuck steak came out tender and full of flavour. It was chuck from my own cattle so it was v good to start with. Really looking at a few of my chooks now and trying to select a couple that 'need' to be CTM...

[Sverige]

Which base did you make?  The JB base? You won't go wrong with that.  To have your own cattle and chooks sounds idyllic to me, but I guess it's easy to romanticise such things and no doubt it all involves serious work. I take it you have some kind of small holding?  I've always fancied farming alpacas for some reason - they're just hilarious to look at  ;D

[MEB]

Alpacas are funny animals and v friendly. Taste good too. I have a few acres. 4 for grazing, a sty for pigs and my chooks are free range. So they get to shit wherever they want. Which isn't that great to be honest. I raise Wagyu Cattle. I've had Herefords, Red Devons and Dexters. Wagyu knocks the socks off anything in regard to taste and weight of meat on the bone. Mine don't get massages or beer. They get grass. I get the beer and I'm yet to convince SWMBO that a massage makes me more 'tender'.. 

It is a lot of work but it isn't 'work' at the same time. It's more a hobby. I'm a builder so I do sometimes struggle to put the hours into my block. But you do find friends are keen to help when they know I have great meat to trade 

[Sverige]

 ;D well I hope you stick around here. This forum gets loads of new joiners but few stay around. I'm starting to think it's me driving them away.

In any case, don't be a quitter!