Topic: Spice Mix

[pete]

What spice mix do people use for their BIR cooking?
I've managed to get a few from chefs
My current favourite is this ratio

coriander x2
cummin x1
curry powder x 1/2
turmeric x2
paprika x2

I am suspicious of garam masala unless the make is specified
It varies so much
Did you notice how the Kushi site would give no brands for garam masala or curry powders?
What's wrong with a recommendation?
My spices tend to be either East End or Rajah

[raygraham]

Hi Pete,

I think Bruce Edwards is rather good.


Coriander x 7
Turmeric x 7
Cumin x 5
Curry Powder x 4
Paprika x 4

I tend to use home made Garam Masala ( Pat Chapman does a good one ), whole roasted spices and ground in a coffee grinder but as it is far more aromatic to shop bought I use only a half what the recipe says.

If I use shop bought it is either Rajah or East End, both being fairly aromatic but not overpowering.

Ray

[Ashes]

Good point pete someone should pin them down on that point, what curry powder they actually use and is it for trade only or available in the shops

[raygraham]

Hi Ashes,

The Kushi website does half answer the question as it has been asked by someone else.

The Kushi Chefs answer was this:-

"I recommend that for the recipes in this book you use pre-bought garam masala and curry powder.? Some restaurants make their own, and some don?t (I do both) ? but for the purposes of making dishes at home, it?s easier and more effective to use the bought variety.?
One word of warning though, we would advise against getting these from supermarkets, and would encourage you to buy them from traditional ethnic shops, where available.? They?re normally sold in small clear plastic bags (see Chapter Two of the book) and will be more like the varieties used in restaurants.? There are a number of different brands available, but we?d rather not recommend any one above another ? but as a general rule it?s considerably better to buy any one of these brands than it is to get it from a supermarket".

So there you have it, branded packets from ethnic shops are what they suggest we use as they claim they are "easier and more effective"
I am fairly sure a lot of BIR's buy branded spices in bulk as I regularly see what appears like restaurant owners in one large ethnic supermarket in Bradford with trolleys full of the biggest bags of spices you have ever seen and are commonly East End and Natco brands.
I am guessing they are restaurant owners just by the volume of stuff they seem to be buying.

Ray

[pete]

Hi Ray
? ? ? ? When they say

I would encourage you to buy them from traditional ethnic shops, where available.

I still feel it could be clearer
I have tried loads of different brands and ,whilst they are consistant to themselves, they really are very different to each other.
The curry powders are nothing like each other, and neither the Garam Masalas
I think ground spices, such as cummin , coriander and paprika are all the same
What harm is there in saying " we use Natco" ?

[George]

I still feel it could be clearer
I have tried loads of different brands and ,whilst they are consistant to themselves, they really are very different to each other.
The curry powders are nothing like each other, and neither the Garam Masalas
I think ground spices, such as cummin , coriander and paprika are all the same
What harm is there in saying " we use Natco" ?

Pete

Too right. It certainly could be a lot clearer. To my mind, this book and the web site Q&As are falling into a familiar pattern which reminds me of Pat Chapman (and Tony Blair actually!) i.e. promise the world and appear to fall over backwards to help. You get the impression before, or even after, reading the books that you definitely are on the same wavelength. These people will deliver. But the outcome, after trying the recipes, is very different. They are not telling the whole truth. They are holding things back, like half someone's question here, and the whole of my question to Kushi (BIR vs Balti taste), which never had a response.

It would be so easy for them to say that the chef buys 10KG sacks of a specific brand of spice and uses 50 onions for his base sauce, say. Let us scale it down, or see if we can buy the same spice in 100g sachets. I agree that the various curry powders are different. Therefore you need to know which one to use, or the precise DIY mix, like Bruce Edwards gives.

I also note they said in one Q&A that the base sauce needs to be quite neutral/bland (true) as a starting point for most other curries. So how come people here have reported that all the spices used give it a strong flavour? We know how to follow a recipe. Their recipe for base sauce looks wrong. It doesn't tally with their own Q&A response. I also laughed at another Q&A response where they said you need many years/decades of training/experience to be able to make good curries. Absolute hogwash. If you have a good, tested recipe, you can get most things right, first time.

Regards
George 

 

[DARTHPHALL]

I agree George , i have a good base recipe & now i cannot make a bad Curry, its the same one given to me by my local BIR (very nice people  ;D).
Thanks to them my Madras is 100% right(their Madras is slightly different in taste than their Vindalloo, its not just a heat differential either).
DARTHPHALL..... .....

[John]

I agree George , i have a good base recipe & now i cannot make a bad Curry, its the same one given to me by my local BIR (very nice people  ;D).
Thanks to them my Madras is 100% right(their Madras is slightly different in taste than their Vindalloo, its not just a heat differential either).
DARTHPHALL..... .....

Hi Darth, any chance of an update to your base and madras recipe pls. i'd like to see it.
many thanks

[DeeDee]

I must agree with George on sumfing ... My base sauce is pretty bland, as made by following the Holy Grail page, but a Rogan Josh I made was awesome and a Mahkan Chicken (from Dhillons) was pretty damn good too.

So far I've stuck with the Holy Grail Spice mix with Natco Garam Masala and unless someone knows something I don't (very likely) I'm happy with it.

[pete]

Thanks to them my Madras is 100% right

100 % ?
Let's see the recipe
What I love about bought curries is their flavour, and heat
But you should be able to take away the chilli, and still have a cracking curry