Topic: Mad-ras a hatter!

[Tomdip]

Wow!  I have found my internet home! Great site all. Love the forums here, love the recipes ? some real experts too! Wish I had found this place years ago!

I have been curry mad since uni days when some Pathan cousins from Bradford invited me round their house to share their meals once a week.  Since then I have been trying to recreate that elusive BIR (great acronym!) flavour. 

In the 13 odd years since I've cooked some of the worst food known to man!  Only in the last 4-5 years have I began to find my feet.

For the last 3 years I ran a pub in North London (just quit), and started adding curries to the Friday menu.  Big pots to serve 10-15, then adding a veggie curry, then moving on to offering 30 different curries to order as I got more confident(cocky).  The curries were very popular and at ?4 ? 5 each (with pilau rice and popp) I could make over 25 in 2 hours on a Friday lunchtime ? and was able to have 4 pans/curries on the go at the same time!

I used a combination of Khris D's base, but ignored a lot of his faffing around (skimming etc) I tended to whack all the roughly chopped onions, in the water, add the pureed ginger/garlic and after 45 mins add the tomatoes, oil and turmeric/paprika and just place a hand-blender in till it was smooth. 

For my recipes I basically went thru a lot of books/online stuff and adapted the recipes to be able to cook in 10-15 minutes each, and serve 1 person.

Becoming bored with offering such a huge range ? I changed to doing 4-5 different curries every Friday.  With people able to request those they wanted.  My most popular curries were Chicken Achar, Chilli Paneer, Masala Dosa (using tortilla wraps), Lamb Podina, and Lamb Methi. 

I guess my style was speed and shortcuts (based on trial & error) preparation and having someone else do the washing up!  I wouldn't say I got the BIR flavour all the time, or on all the curries, but was regularly complimented on ?best curry I have ever eaten? - Which I put down mainly to our beer 

I have some photos of the some of the curries, but no web hosting.  I still have all the recipes in my head so if anyone is interested just let me know.  Look forward to many happy discussions.

[Mark J]

Welcome aboard mate

[Curry King]

Hi,

Great stuff and any recipes are most welcome 

cK

[Chilli Prawn]

Welcome Tomdip, just go for it.  All input is welcome.
CP

[Yellow Fingers]

Hello Tomdip, welcome to the forum.

You're not with that Harry fellow are you? Because we're quite a select group here, we don't let just any old Tomdip or Harry in you know!   

YF

[spicysarsy]

Welcome Tomdip, and Looking Forward To Your Input.

[mike travis]

Hi Tomdip  welcome along.. As you can see there are plenty of good cooks here and a few comedians  ;D nice one Yellow Fingers.......

[extrahotchillie]

Welcome, good first post

[NairB]

 

Welcome Tomdip. 

[curryqueen]

Hi Tomdip,

Welcome to this wonderful forum we have!  We have recipe sections here for BIR and Authentic so get posting.  CQ