Topic: North Indian Special (vindaloo strength)

[Razor]

Hi CH,

I'm so sorry mate, I still haven't had a chance to try this one but if this is your final cut, then I guess hanging back was no bad thing, especially now you believe that you have cracked it.

It does remind me very much of a good Jal Frezi in parts, then the addition of mango and pakora dipping sauce takes it further on.  I'm guessing that this dish is going to be rich, sweet and spicey?

It looks really good, and it should be because I know how much effort that you have put in to crack this one.

Very well done my friend

The tandoori masala, is it your own or a branded variety?  I ask because your dish looks quite a deep red, something similar I would say to my rogan josh but I do use colouring in that and you have no mention of it in your list of ingredients?  I know some TM's do have red food colouring in them, hence the question.

Ray

[curryhell]

Hi CH,

I'm so sorry mate, I still haven't had a chance to try this one but if this is your final cut, then I guess hanging back was no bad thing, especially now you believe that you have cracked it.

It does remind me very much of a good Jal Frezi in parts, then the addition of mango and pakora dipping sauce takes it further on.  I'm guessing that this dish is going to be rich, sweet and spicey?

It looks really good, and it should be because I know how much effort that you have put in to crack this one.

Very well done my friend

The tandoori masala, is it your own or a branded variety?  I ask because your dish looks quite a deep red, something similar I would say to my rogan josh but I do use colouring in that and you have no mention of it in your list of ingredients?  I know some TM's do have red food colouring in them, hence the question.

Ray

Hi Ray.  I think i have gone as far as i can with it.  I know i am enjoying eating it ;D and will be doing a side by side comparison next week which will confirm if i have any more work to do.  Sure you'll get round to trying it next year mate.  The spicey onions were the missing ingredient.  Re. taste it kind of boarders on the sweet to savoury IMO.  I wouldn't say it was rich like CTM but it does have plenty of body to it.   I scaled back on the chutney as the spicey onions also contain this.  My tandoori masala is in the thread and does contain red food colouring.  The redness has increased because of the inclusion of the spicey onions but unlike your rogan it's not red but a rich reddish brown.  Never having had a jalfrezi from a BIR i'm not sure how it compares but with the onions and chillis there's going to be a resemblence.
Next up South Indian Garlic Chicken,  will this curry milarky never end ;D.  There's a couple of dishes i want to try first from the site before i embark on this venture though. Have good Xmas mate and happy currying in 2012.

[jamieb728]

Hi CH

Gonna finaly get round to making your version of this tomorrow quick question the tamarind at 0.25 is that tsp or tbsp

cheers
jamie

[curryhell]

That is 0.25 of a TEASPOON Jamie.  Look forward to the feedback mate.  Hope you enjoy  ;D

[jamieb728]

Hi CH

Finally got round to making it and it was fantastic i even kept the chilli level which may have affected my taste buds and my arse will be making it again in the week ill try and get some pics next time

Jamie

[curryhell]

Hi CH

Finally got round to making it and it was fantastic i even kept the chilli level which may have affected my taste buds and my arse will be making it again in the week ill try and get some pics next time

Jamie

Glad you enjoyed it Jamie .  You can now scale back the chilli to your own taste, or scale up if you dare  ;D If you do make it again in the week, post up a couple of pics to show how it looked.

[curryhell]

I haven't cooked my NIS since the Zaal experience as i've been too busy trying to perfect my singeing technique with a bit of "shake and scrape"  on Az's phall recipe with varying degrees of success .  Having withdrawl symptoms, yesterday I decided to knock one up using my Zaal base and mix powder to see if there were any marked differences compared to previous efforts using other gravies and mix powders.  So as not to introduce any more variables i used cooking oil as  I have before, rather than using veg ghee which is what i currently use for the phall recipe.  Here's a pic of the end result, IMO looking every bit as good as before. 





Taste wise, there didn't seem to be that much of the peppery overtones i would normally expect and there was a tomato taste coming through .
Now, having cooked this a few times you would have thought I'd be getting pretty consistent results and the recipe should be ingrained in memory.  I could excuse the lack of peppery taste, either an inferior quality pepper, purchased from tesco whereas normally i get my peppers from my local asian store, or i hadn't cooked the dish for long enough after its addition to release the flavour.  But the tomato flavour was puzzling me.  It couldn't be the base as the Zaal base contains a minimal amount compared to other bases i had used in the past to make this dish.
Why i decided to look at my NIS post, i don't know, as i should be able to cook this recipe in my sleep, but i did and found a GLARING error.

- 2 tbsp tomato paste (triple concentrate) dilute with 6 tbsp water

It should read

2 tbsp tomato paste (triple concentrate) ALREADY diluteD with 6 tbsp water
Not that i added 8tbs of diluted tomato paste  but i wouldn' t want anybody trying the recipe to do this ;D
I added 2tbs (sometimes i add only 1 1/2 ).  However, i did find that in my haste I had missed what now turns out to be  a key ingredient to the flavour of the dish - tandoori masala.   I had completely forgotten this when getting the spices ready
My excuse is it's got to be an age thing   But i will be making it again in the week just to get a true comparison against the Zaal base, having seriously cocked up on this occasion .  Just means i'll have to eat yet another curry during the week . This curry malarky is hard work ;D

[loveitspicy]

Well CH me ald

what a great looking curry!!! just makes you want to dig a spoon in for a taste

best, Rich

[Stephen Lindsay]

Looks great CH!

[jb]

That looks damn good to me!!