Topic: Bombay Aloo Group Test

[luke465]

They look amazing!!!!!!!

[Ramirez]

Thanks guys. Looking forward to the results now! 

[Ramirez]

Are all the results now in or are we waiting for a few others?

[natterjak]

I'm considering cooking up some Bombay Aloo to go with my Chicken Tikka tomorrow, but which one?  Will look forward to the results of this test!

[chriswg]

I think I have them all in now, I'll get them up as soon as I can.

[curryhell]

Going by memory and the fact that this was a very large pot of spuds I would suggest the following for home use.
As long as you understand this will be close but may not be totally true to the amounts the chef used..........disclaimer ;D

For 2 lb of potatoes,
150 ml of veg oil
1 tennis ball sized finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon of garlic/ginger paste
Cassia bark 2" x 1" piece
1 bay leaf (Asian)
1 tablespoon of panch phoran
1 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of tomato puree watered down 50/50
2 teaspoons of turmeric powder
1 tablespoon of mix powder
Water to cover

The mixed veg are done the same way.


Cheers
Mick

The other night the curry craving hit me, as it does at least twice weekly .  I fancied some bombay aloo with it.  Whilst my bombay aloo is quite respectable i can't seem to get that BIR flavour to penetrate the spuds. It always looks the business but is found lacking when i bite into the spud.  Maybe it's just me being over critical .  So i thought i'd take advantage of the hard work done by member of this forum who took the time and trouble to do the group test on bombay aloo .  So i read through the thread and decided on cooking Solarsplace's, as it came out top on taste.  Just to make it interesting i thought i'd pre-cook the spuds using Currybarking Mad's posted method.  Well,  ;D ;D ;D ;D i've got to say spuds will definitely be precooked using this recipe again.  The smell in the kitchen during the cooking was absolutely BIR .  Now came the acid test.  Had that lovely smell actually got into the spuds???I tasted the finished article and there it was, that characteristic slightly sweet subtly spiced flavour that all good bombay  potato has.  And this was all before i even cooked the dish .
Next i set to using Solarsplace's recipe using half my precooked spuds.  Verdict a very nice dish, full of taste with a depth of flavour rather than a portion of spuds just coated in a sauce which can be the case with your average bombay aloo.  This was quickly followed by Razor's Chicken Tikka Rogan Josh and special fried rice less any spice (a little experiment on my part)  End result -
Tonight i decided to use up my lovely precooked spud using the runner up's version to see how it compared.  So dug out Dip's recipe and cooked it up but added a portion of saag when adding the spud to give me one of my favourite accompaniments.   Got to say, again the results were very good and as good as get from my local BIR.  The only thing i did with Dip's recipe was to cook for longer toreduce the sauce.  There is nothing more off putting when a veg side dish comes up looking like a vegetable curry and potentially from comments made already, there was a danger of this.  The result -

Thanks to all who took part.  That's another one i can cross off the list

[Graeme]

my local uses new potatoes,
very nice.

[Panpot]

Curryhell thanks for taking the time to do this, your meal looks fantastic. When I first found the site there was little or no photographs I can imagine a newbie joining now and finding your post this morning and thinking they must have landed in curry heaven. Can you share which rice recipe you used? PP

[Ramirez]

Great pics curryhell!

I really enjoyed Solar's recipe when I did the group test. It's unlike Bombay Aloo I usually have, but it has a great taste in its own right.

[curryhell]

Great pics curryhell!

I really enjoyed Solar's recipe when I did the group test. It's unlike Bombay Aloo I usually have, but it has a great taste in its own right.

  Thanks Ramirez. And there lies the last 5% we're all looking for mate which i think we'll never all agree on .  There are obviously regional differences up and down the country of which some will be quite considerable. We are all trying to emulate dishes that we are familiar with through personal experience and all our experiences are different.  For me Solarsplace's bombay aloo and Dips for that matter are very close to what i'd expect in my neck of the woods.  Maybe i clouded the issue by precooking the spuds.  Next time i won't just to see what difference it makes but i'm sure it'll be quite a marked difference in taste.  Out of interest which recipe was the closest to what you would expect from a bombay aloo??