Topic: Anyone consistently making restaurant-quality dishes w. "the taste"? If so, how?

[Peripatetic Phil]

I'm interested to know how frequently you do include the ground fenugreek, as I think this is a highly influential contributor to the restaurant style curry aroma and flavour.  I learnt 30 years ago that it adds a character to a dish that I thoroughly enjoy.

Absolutely.  If I include ground fenugreek, my wife complains "the house smells just like an Indian restaurant".  No ground fenugreek, barely a whinge ...

[livo]

It dawned on me that I don't ever recall making and using Taz base, so I thought I'd better give it a try based on Stephen's post.  Anyway, what I found is that the references to it on the forum are a complete mess.  Posts moved around by CA back in the day, links to posts within posts that go back to the same posts you've already read, etc.

I've found the mixed powder and base recipe, so that's taken care of.  There is however not much I can find on actual curry recipes specifically for use with these.  Am I missing them or is it just use whatever recipe you want but substitute the base and powder for these?

[Peripatetic Phil]

No hyperlinks in the following, nor have I followed any, but the search engine throws up the following :

• House Specialities / Lamb Keema with Taz Base
• House Specialities / Chicken Chettinad with Taz Base
• House Specialities / Chicken Achari with Taz Base
• House Specialities / Chicken Bengali with Taz Base
• Korma / Chikcen Korma with Taz Base
• House Specialities / Chicken Sharabi with Taz Base
• Dansak / Chicken Dhansak with Taz Base
• House Specialities / Chicken Punjabi Masala with Taz Base
• Pathia / Chicken Pathia with Taz Base
• House Specialities / Murgh Makhani (Butter Chicken) with Taz Base
• Lets Talk Curry / BULK - North Indian Chicken Special - with Taz's Base
• Jalfrezi / Chicken Jalfrezi with Taz Base
• Bhuna / Chicken Bhuna with Taz Base
• House Specialities / Goan Coconut Chicken with Taz Base
• House Specialities / Chicken Methi Palak with Taz Base
• House Specialities / Chicken Kerala with Taz Base
• Vindaloo / Chicken Vindaloo with Taz Base
• House Specialities / Garlic Chilli Chicken with Taz Base
• House Specialities / Chicken Shakuti with Taz Base
• House Specialities / Chicken Bangla Garlic with Taz Base
• Ceylon / Chicken Ceylon with Taz Base
• Madras / Chicken Madras with Taz base
• House Specialities / North Indian Special with Taz Base
• House Specialities / Chicken Chasni with Taz Base

Stephen Lindsay is by far the most prolific poster on the subject of using the Taz base, so as he had posted here recently let's hope that he can help with your search.

P.S.  Isn't it good to see the forum coming back to life ?!
--
** Phil.

[livo]

Thank you Phil. More than enough for me to use the search again, and hopefully with more success.  I'd searched for "Taz Base" and I ended up in a recursive loop for some reason.

And, Yes.

I have my ingredients ready to go, and my spice sensitive daughter departs tomorrow on a 10 day trip to Bundaberg Queensland.  Let the curry festival begin.

[livo]

The forum is broken.  I'm reading through Taz Base threads from the search results (34 pages) and any links provided within posts lead to 404 errors.  How sad.

Pictures are missing and Stephen Lindsay's ingredients for the Chicken Jalfrezi are 1 portion of pre-cooked chicken.  Not very useful.

It actually appears that all (or most) recipes posted by SL have been truncated. Several have just chicken and nothing else and others are apparently (possibly) incomplete.

[peshwarinaan]

The forum is broken.

Yes I noticed this myself several years ago. I sent a PM to the admin (Yousef) about it but never heard back.

You could try finding a historical copy of any broken pages using the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine but it's unlikely that many pages have been archived.

[peshwarinaan]

I hope that helps. If anyone has any reasonable questions or constructive I'm happy to respond.

Thanks a lot for replying, Stephen, and well done on achieving a result you're happy with.

Like livo in the post above, I had a search of the forum for recipes using the Taz base but it seems that they've all been lost; truncated by a forum bug or similar. For example, one of your own posts for Chicken Punjabi Masala is missing most of its content.

Do you have a copy of your recipes stored offline? If so, would you be willing and able to upload them again for us please? You're very welcome to send them to me directly and I can type them up / format them for the forum if that's easier.

I hope we can recover at least some of the lost recipes; it would be such a shame to let them remain lost.

[livo]

I have my Taz Base made as well as a quantity of Mixed Powder. Tomorrow is pre-cooks and hopefully a dish or two.  What dishes I attempt will depend upon what I can find still intact here or maybe just wing a few.  It's a shame the forum is in such a state of disrepair / decay as far as historical integrity goes.

[Robbo141]

Livo, I have one recipe typed up long ago that uses Taz base.  I just entitled it ‘Taz Basic Curry’. Must’ve been ok for me if I typed it up - I have others from Chef Syed, Romain / Glebe, Rik etc etc

Taz Basic Curry
400ml Taz base
3 TBSP chopped tomatoes
4 cloves garlic
1 1/2 tsp Taz mix powder
1/4 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp kasuri methi
Pre-cooked chicken

Taz Mix Powder
8 parts turmeric
5 parts coriander
4 parts mild madras curry powder
4 parts cumin
3 parts paprika

Add 200 ml base to pan and bring up to heat
Add tomatoes and all the spices and fry to reduce right down to dry paste consistency
Add chicken to pan and coat well
Add remaining 200ml base and reduce to desired consistency
Garnish fresh coriander

It’s been a long time since I made this base, but maybe time for another bash.

Robbo

[livo]

Thanks Robbo. It doesn't come more basic than that, but it will certainly allow anyone to judge the potential of the gravy and mixed powder.  That will be #1 dish for sure.  I'm about to sit here and search for the dishes in the list Phil provided to see if any are still usable.  I already know that for some odd reason, many of Stephen Lindsay's recipes are missing.  The threads are still there but the Original Post of each has been cut off part way through.

Edit:  I've just searched for 12 recipes from the list Phil provided.  Only 1 of these had the recipe. The Bulk North Indian Chicken Special - with Taz's Base.