Result

[emin-j]

a good old Madras or CTM can be knocked up fresh in 30 mins with devastating results.

I'm sure the results could justify 30 mins or longer being spent at home but very few commerical restaurants would want to spend that long when they can produce a similar (even if inferior) dish in 5 minutes by using base sauce.

Agreed George  ,I have received the recipes now and will forward them to your email George.

[George]

Agreed George  ,I have received the recipes now and will forward them to your email George.

Many thanks. I look forward to seeing and trying the recipes. My main interest in any of these dishes is for use at dinner parties, rather than for everyday food. I see BIR food as far too unhealthy for everyday food. Therefore if a dish using base sauce takes  me 5 minutes to prepare and tastes pretty good, but another dish takes me an hour to prepare and tastes even better, I know which I'd use - the dish which tastes best in absolute terms - not closest to a 1980s BIR taste, or close to anything else - but simply tastes best in absolute terms, here in 2009. I hope your recipes become contenders for the few curries which one would ever prepare for a relatively small number of dinner parties per year. Just to take one example of a leading dish from this site, i.e. Blades chicken tikka: I simply don't know of a better-tasting recipe from any source, so that's the recipe I would always use for chicken tikka, until something better comes along, and perhaps it never will.

[joshallen2k]

Emin-J - could you post the recipes for the forum?

-- josh

[emin-j]

Hi all,
Further to my tour of the kitchen of  my fav T/A last week I popped in yesterday and ordered our food and asked if I could watch the Chef cook our Madras Curries  The guy who takes the orders said " I will ask the Chef " he was gone a few minutes so I thought it was going to be a " Sorry, No " But he came from the kitchen and asked me into the kitchen  ;D I didn't write anything down or take photo's as I didn't want to seem to be probing too much  ::)The amount of spices etc were difficult to judge as he used the Chef's spoon to ' dip' into his Spice containers.
I was talking to the Chef all the time he was cooking and asking questions.

He had a 2.5 ltr saucepan on the right of the hob half filled with fresh oil and the make of oil was Taj Mahal ( yellow container )I asked if they use any residual oil and he said no only fresh oil ** with some Butter Ghee melted into it ** :)he would use his Chef's spoon to put the oil into his cooking pan , he did not use a Wok more like a Omelet Pan deep enough to take a single T/A serving of curry.At a guess it was probably about half a tea cup of oil so a fair bit !
He then added a very small amount of Methi ( the dried variety )then about 2 teaspoons of Garlic Paste then 2 - 3 tablespoons of Tom Puree ,this was then fried for a minute or so and then 2 - 3 teaspoons of Chili powder was added plus some Salt , a squirt of ** Lemon Juice ** a small amount of Salt then his 'Chefs Special' Curry Powder.They wouldn't tell me what was in it but it looked like your usual Curry powder  :-X he continued to cook for a couple of mins then added Pre Cooked Chicken and finally about 1 good tablespoon of fresh Coriander ,this was cooked for another minute or two then poured into the takeaway container and garnished with a sprinkle of fresh Corriand er a a slice of Tomato.
I asked about the Curry Base and the Chef said " Onions,Green Pepper,Carrot,Ginger,Green Chillies ( small amount ), and fresh Coriander.** The Chef did add " If the Curry Base is not right the Curry will not be "**
I did notice there was no Ginger used in the Curry .
He also had a container of water to the side , I would guess to get the consistency of the Curry right - if he needed to.
I think I have given the basics of what I wanted to know  but as to exact amounts you will have to experiment .Oh ! and our Curry was lush
If you have any questions I might have the answer  ;
PS - forgot to mention  :-[ the Curry Base : 1 ladle went in just after the Spices and a second ladle went in just after the pre - cooked Chicken.

Further to this post , I called in for a Curry this evening and I got to talking to the guys who work in the T/A , one guy asked how I was getting on with my Curry making ( this guy was most helpful when I watched them cook some months ago )
I then asked about their Spice Mix when previously he wasn't that forthcoming with the ingredients  :-X but I must have caught him on a good day today  I started by saying Coriander ? Cumin ? he said yes plus Turmeric , Curry Powder and Garam Masala  ;D
I asked how much of each and he said more Curry Powder and Turmeric than the others  :
Basically I will start the ratio 1tbs Coriander , Cumin , Garam Masala , then 2tbs Curry Powder and Turmeric . Then got to find out how much to put in when making the final Curry 
What do you think .....

[parker21]

hi eminj you could/should/would use 1-2tsp per dish, remember normally the hotter the dish you tend to up the spice mix eg for a vindaloo/phall max 2tsp so the flavour is not lost to the heat of the chilli powder.

regards
gary

[emin-j]

Thanks' Parker21,

When I think back to the kitchen visit and the Chef making my Curry , to me it looked like 1 - 2 tablespoons of Spice mix went into my Curry ( using his Chef's spoon ) and when I think of my Madras Curries I would use 1 rounded tsp Coriander , Cumin , and Turmeric that equals 1 good tablespoon plus 1 tsp of Chili.