Topic: Curryheads "Madras 2011"

[Peripatetic Phil]

Just to clarify Phil, you don't nor have you ever used the spice mix detailed in the KD1 book?  By that I mean the one with brown cardamom and nutmeg. 

This is as in Kris's "Garam masala" ?  If so, then no : I confess I never have, for reasons that are in hindsight totally unclear ...

** Phil.

[PaulP]

Sorry Phil but I think you may mislead people over this when you've never actually followed KD's recipes.
Remember the previous and quite painful thread "a couple of changes to KD..." with me, yourself, Razor and Spicey involved.

I nearly fell off my chair when you admitted you'd not followed the recipes in the book.
I'm sure I could take a standard KD1 base and still cook a reasonable madras but then it wouldn't be close to a KD1 recipe.

The ABC balti cookbook would take a newcomer closer to BIR than KD1 if you follow the recipes, IMHO

Cheers,

Paul

[Peripatetic Phil]

Sorry Phil but I think you may mislead people over this when you've never actually followed KD's recipes.

Paul, I understand your position.  I respect your position.  But I cannot, in a million years, accept that I "may mislead people over this" when I categorically state :

I use g/g paste now, bhoon the spices, add the sauce ladle by ladle (and ideally warm it first)

** Phil.

[PaulP]

Well I don't want to get into a bun fight over this but you stated that the KD1 madras does it for you but you've never (by admission) cooked the chicken curry recipe on page 51 of KD1 modified to make a madras by increasing the chilli from a pinch to a teaspoon. The only spicing in her recipe (for 3-4 people!) is her strange garam masala at 1 teaspoon and half a teaspoon of cumin. I say "misleading" in the context of a BIR newbie reading that Phil likes the KD1 madras when to me you are cooking something entirely different.

As far as the base recipe goes, it looks ok although very lightly spiced. I know I knock the recipes in KD1 but I bought it before I discovered cr0 and had I not found cr0 I would have cooked the KD1 recipes to spec and I would have hit that cooking brick wall again and possibly given up making curries again. By my own admission I've never cooked the KD1 recipes but with the experience I now have I can tell they wouldn't work for me. I might try the base one day out of interest. I would like to see what you do put in your modified KD1 madras with regards to how much base per person portion, how much spice mix (and what spice mix) how much chilli etc.

Anyway, enough from me on the subject and hope you have a happy Christmas, Phil. 

Cheers,

Paul

[ELW]

Phil/PaulP,  I have made Kd1 base 2 or 3 times & recipies almost to spec..1st time the only changes i made were garam masala: cinnamon powder instead of whole & i used British bay leaves(iv still never got round to buying the asian ones) Ive made a few allegedly 'garam / punjabi masalas' as the menus here sometimes mention them in every other dish, most of the blend recipies i used were from the net. I'm still not sure what makes a bir spice blend, if anything at all. I'm not convinced that they are nothing more than chefs touches. The juice wasnt worth the squeeze if you know what i mean
Never knew what I was aiming for with the base 1st time around...it tasted pretty good on on its own...the smell from boiling onions & garlic/ginger was awful(clothes/hair) really bad!!
The low spices in the base & dishes had me almost doubling the amount in the recpies, which taught me what burned & raw spices taste like & if i remember right, there was no tomato puree used in the dishes or g&g
Comparing those to any others i've made, the spice levels could be brought up with careful cooking & I made some pretty good curries, but I now realise the dishes lacked the g&g & tomato puree flavours of the recipies on here

Never did the pre cooking of meats with the 1st stage paste or added a spoonful to a dish at the end of cooking

regards
ELW