Topic: introducing...

[fourmations]

....niall!

hi all

curry fan, and all that

my holy grail is to replicate my local madras

I,m a decent home cook

Ciao

niall

[Yousef]

Welcome aboard fourmations,

We are a friendly bunch here and look forward to getting your feedback after you've tried a few recipes out.
Good luck its a long road with this type of cooking.....

Stew

[tonyh]

Welcome and nice to see everyone is not anonymous!!!!




              Cheers Tony

[Jaffer]

Hello everyone,

I'm rediscovering Asian cooking after a stroke and trying to take up where I left off.  I'm new to here and have been browsing curry ideas and views with great interest and thanks to all.  One thing that strikes me - I can't find anyone talking about the use of fresh curry leaves in recipes.  Jamie Oliver, Madhur etc all use them.  Trouble is where (I live in Stoke-on-Trent) does one find them?  My local Asian stores are full of promises but never seem to come up with the goods.  I'm scouring websites of various suppliers but no luck so far.  I want to know if anyone has expert views on how important use of curry leaves is to achieve the authentic flavour?  I'd love to hear views on curry leaves.

[CurryCanuck]

Wouldn't worry too much about the use of curry leaves in a recipe...they don't impart all that much flavour in most  BIR dishes . In stand - alone subtle dishes such as pilau or fish they do impart a rather " nutty " flavour .

Cheers ,
CurryCanuck

[traveller]

Curry leaves are great!!  I use them in most vegetable dishes as well as in the tarka for the dals I make.  Asda carries them..I have not seem them anyplace else - except for indian stores.  But they have rather large bags at the indian stores so I dont get them from there.  If I buy a larger amount, I wash them, and put them in the freezer in ziploc bags - they work as good as new!!!  Otherwise, they seem to go black and spoilt rather quickly.  I am not sure if anyone here in England even makes dals and the such.  if so, I could post a lentil recipe for anyone that cooks lentils.  They almost always go hand in hand with black small mustard seeds - the combination is used in south indian cooking mostly.  I plan on posting some recipes later this week.

Payal

[raygraham]

Yes I agree the use of Curry Leaves does not do very much for flavour. I have tried them and can't say they are strongly flavoured. They are available near me mainly dried in packets. Fresh leaves are available but not always. This makes me think if they are not in abundance then they don't get much use. Coriander on the other hand is available all over so it's widespread use is clear.

Jamie Oliver and Madhur Jaffrey recipes are very good but don't resemble the taste this site is mainly interested in. I find Madhur's dishes very powerful and heavily spiced with aromatics, not everyone's taste!

Ray