The last curry that I made recently was not particularly good; nothing in particular leapt out as wrong, but it was simply not up to my normal standard. So today I went back to my roots once again. I made a Kris Dhillon chicken Madras, with almost zero deviation from either her recipe or her methodology (I omitted the tomato and used raw chicken leg chopped across the bone rather than pre-cooked breast). When the allotted time was up, the chicken was not fully cooked for obvious reasons (raw, on bone), but as my paratha was ready I decided to eat it with the sauce alone. It was absolutely delicious, with a good rounded depth of flavour, and certainly as good as any sauce you will find in a typical BIR today. So what does this prove (to me, at least) ?
- Simplicity is everything
- A curry does not need g/g paste
- The spices do not need to be fried before base is added
- A special aluminium pan is not needed (I used copper-bottomed stainless steel)
- A chef's spoon is not necessary (I used a wooden spatula)
- Kris's methodology is as good as any.
I made a fresh batch of KD garam masala especially for this dish, exactly to spec. apart from gently roasting the spices then allowing them to cool before grinding.
** Phil.
Topic: "Back to my roots" (yet again) ( 8,490 )
