Topic: another curry recipe book

[Peripatetic Phil]

This is interesting. But why do you leave out the Kushi Balti Cookbook (Haydor) and the recent Undercover Curry book? Do you really rate Dhillon higher?

I can't answer for Haldi, but I have ordered a copy of the "Undercover" book yet would steer clear of any book with Balti in its title on the (perhaps unreasonable) basis that I am unconvinced that Balti really brought anything worthwhile to BIR cuisine (rather like CTM, in fact !).  But I also rate KD very highly, mainly because she is the one who took the cork out of the bottle; without Kris's lead, how many of these later books would have been published, I wonder ?  And I also owe her an eternal debt of gratitude, since until I purchased my first copy of her "The Curry Secret" I remained as far from achieving the authentic taste of BIR food as it is possible to be !

[George]

[...without Kris's lead, how many of these later books would have been published, I wonder ?  And I also owe her an eternal debt of gratitude, since until I purchased my first copy of her "The Curry Secret" I remained as far from achieving the authentic taste of BIR food as it is possible to be !

Your comment sounds like a contradiction. Are you saying you're grateful to Kris for keeping you as far as possible away from the BIR taste which we all seek?

[Peripatetic Phil]

No !  I wrote "until I purchased my first copy of her "The Curry Secret" I remained as far from achieving the authentic taste of BIR food as it is possible to be", where the key word was "until".  Not sure how this was misunderstood ...

[Gazza63]

I'm going to send a Mail to the Curry Crunch booksite to see if they are connected with the Curry Crunch Takeaway in Colchester, I hope they are.

[commis]

Hi

If the chef is Kashmiri, the opening statement is way off. Unless the author is the proprietor and not the chef or he needs a geography lesson?

Regards

[Gazza63]

I'm just saying that if you look on the book site Butterfly prawn is mentioned as a starter recipe and is sold at the Curry Crunch takeaway as well , so he is probably proud of it on his menu, the book site also mentions learn to cook Kashmiri and Indian Takeaway and the specials at the Curry Crunch Takeaway just happen to be Kashmiri, I must admit the Curry Crunch is such a common curryhouse name I put it up there with The Rajh ,Bengal lancer and Tajh mahal, I'm going to send the contact at the booksite a Mail to confirm if they are one and the same ok.

[Peripatetic Phil]

58 pages including photos does seem short but as long as he gives us the menu favourites that most punters go for then that's all I need

Having just finished editing the PDF mentioned at http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4644.msg48897#msg48897, even 58pp may be overkill if there is as much repetition as there is in the PDF !  It seems to me that rather than listing individual recipes for (say) Chicken Vindaloo, Meat Vindaloo, King Prawn Vindaloo and so on, all that is really needed is to give a recipe for generic Vindaloo and explain in the preface how to tailor the recipes for different main ingredients.  And this could then be taken one step further by giving a generic recipe for a whole family of curries (Madras, Vindaloo, and so on) and then documenting the differences.  Of course some recipes are unique, and would need individual treatment, but there is a great deal of commonality that could easily be factored out if the author were so inclined (and if his/her publishers would allow him/her to do so !).

[Razor]

Hi Chaa,

I wouldn't be so quick to rule out The Authentic Balti Curry cookbook.  In my opinion, it took me much closer to the "holy grail" than either of the KD books. 

Yes, KD gave an insight to restaurant curry but if it wouldn't have been her, it would have been somebody else.  Pat Chapman certainly would like to take some credit for that insight too, although I'm not a fan.

The thing with Balti, in my mind at least, is that it is not BIR!  I have searched everywhere for a plausible explanation as to how Balti and BIR differ.  The usual response is, a Balti is cooked in a Karahi or Balti pan.  This for me doesn't explain how they differ, just tells me that one is cooked in a different pan than the other.

For me, the difference in Balti to BIR is the flavour.  Proper balti, and I mean proper balti that specialises in Balti cooking, not some BIR with a Balti section, usually has less but thicker sauce and has that unmistakable flavour of whole spices i.e, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, and so on.

Try the Kushi base, and I think you will agree, it's quite different than most on here and that of most of the so called "BIR cookbooks" but if you do, please try to use the Kushi spice that complments it.

Ray

[commis]

Hi

The book invites you to cook Bangladeshi/ Indian recipes. The TA specials are Kashmiri ?

Regards

[Gazza63]

Your right, my 'O' level geography didn't cover the Indian sub continent very well did it, anyway I have sent the takeaway a mail  and the booksite a mail and await any response.