Topic: Curryheads "Madras 2011"

[CurryCrazy]

Interesting that you only used 1 teaspoon of spice mix - I used more as per instructions.

I'll use less next time for sure. MIne tasted overly "pungent". The earhty taste you get from too much cumin.

I'm in Cheltenham, and am always served a more reddish coloured curry, never brown. (The brown madrases remind me of the pataks/sharwood type jar curry). Although I have never seen food colouring used in my local BIR.

BIR curries for me are a much lighter/fresher taste, rather than the deep flavours!

mmmm.....food for thought  ;D

Cheers

Phil

[Ramirez]

That Madras looks lovely!

What is making it so red - I can't see anything in the ingredients list that would make the colour that vibrant?

[PaulP]

I thought I'd knock up a double size 6 litre Taz base. I used whole seeds as I now have a 200 quid pro stick blender and I thought it would be doddle to blend.

Not so - even with 1 horsepower and 18,000 rpm the coriander seed husks are buggers to blend. I'll re-blend it tomorrow morning. Next time I probably won't use whole seeds.
Can't be arsed cooking a curry now tonight.

Paul

[CurryCrazy]

One day someone will come on a thread and say they've bought a mass spectrometer and can identify every element in their curry  ;D

Got a takeaway tonight - It's incredible just how much better/different it was to mine 

[peterandjen]

I made a curry using the base and mix yesterday, i added g+g paste, extra tom puree, pre cooked onion and peppers, a fresh chillie and upped the spice mix to 1 1/2tbsp, same with methi oh and half a dozen cherry toms 5 mins before serving.
It was very nice, but im starting to think about doing a side by side comparison of the taz method and Dips method to see which is closest to bir. My thinking behind this is that they are both straight from the horses mouth so to speak.
Both times i have used the Taz method now i have come away thinking how easy it is and that it is very customizable, it seems to cry out "Mess with me".

[976bar]

I thought I'd knock up a double size 6 litre Taz base. I used whole seeds as I now have a 200 quid pro stick blender and I thought it would be doddle to blend.

Not so - even with 1 horsepower and 18,000 rpm the coriander seed husks are buggers to blend. I'll re-blend it tomorrow morning. Next time I probably won't use whole seeds.
Can't be arsed cooking a curry now tonight.

Paul

Hi PaulP,

I bought a spice ball. When I made Taz's base, I put the whole seeds in that and let them cook with the base.

I found it easier to retrieve them at the end and I just emptied them into a much smaller blender with a little of the base. This seemed to blend them to a smooth paste without any husks. I then added this paste to the blended base and simmered for a further 15 minutes until the oil appeared on top.

I posted some pictures this morning on the Zeera Restaurant Madras recipe, as I had made that last night and put a picture on there plus four pictures of the base being made in various stages.

I hope this helps

[Ramirez]

I've made this curry with the Taz base 3 times now. First time was completely to spec and it produced a reasonably nice curry, although the taste of tomato was overpowering to me.

The second and third attempts I introduced a number of small modifications, with the third resembling Ray's suggestions - 1 TBSP tomato paste, 2 TSP of curry masala and 2 TSP of GG paste (Ashoka). This produced a fantastic curry and is certainly up there with the best I have made off this site. Ashoka pre-cooked chicken was used in all three curries. Is it a breakthrough for me? Probably not, but it is a very fine curry.

This is the first time I have used the reduction method, and have others have said, it is very difficult to get wrong. It's a perfect starting point for beginners.

Anyway, here is a picture of last night's curry.

[solarsplace]

Hi Ramirez

That curry looks absolutely perfect - Hope it tastes as great as it looks!

Is that your first picture? you opened with a good-un.

CHeers

[PaulP]

@ 976bar,

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm a bit disappointed my 200 quid blender couldn't do any better than my cheap Braun stick blender. In fact although it is very powerful the blade is not as sharp as my Braun. It would be fine without those coriander seeds!

@ Ramirez

Great photo - making me feel hungry!

Paul

[Curry Barking Mad]

Hi Ramirez,
How good does that look?
Nice work,
Mick