The Joy of Curry

[DARTHPHALL]

And some condensed Milk ?

[woodpecker21]

hi guys/ girls happy new 1

this is the story of how CTM was first created......

a customer in an indian restaurant was served thei order of tandoori chicken and was reported to have said to the waiter my chicken is awfully dry so the waiter took the tandoori chicken back to the chef and reported to him what the customer had said so he  promptly looked in a cupboard pulled out a tin of heinz tomato soup poured it in a pot on the stove added some spices , some coconut and then poured in some single cream stirred in well poured it over the chicken then garnished with fresh coriander took it back to the customer and behold the birth of chcken tikka masala. many people seem to have reported that it was they who had created this dish but only 2 people must know who the chef was and who the customer was .....themselves.

never made a ctm not hot enough for me but i did have something quite close in a sense.the name is quite a mouthful it is a Balti garlic chilli chicken tikka masala one of the best curries and most flavoured i've ever eaten.that was many years ago but i did order it in my local but not the dish i remembered.

anyway that's my 2p on the matter  ;D

regards to the best chefs in the world cr0......
gary

[Ashes]

Hi Woodpecker! i also read that story in the "star of india" book,(great book if you want to read about BIR) the only problems with the story i have, are what is a chef doing with tomato soup in the cupboard, was the curry base made with that(once upon a time?) as well and the other problem is, why bother going to the hassle of tomato soup when he probably has a big pot of base sauce on the stove. Its more likey he had a jar of tandoori marinade lying around and threw that in with the base sauce, a lick of cream, bit of tomato paste and voila CTM. But its a good story, the other story i like is that CTM is the favourite food in the UK, actually i think it ranked somewhere 6th, well behind fish and chips and probably McDonuts. It was the late Robin Cook who anounced that, but it just goes to show that we want to believe, the truth is out there somewhere!

Indian food is no where near as popular in Sweden as it is in the U.K, but neither is the Indian population. Although compared to when i arrived here 15 yrs ago, the curry scene has really taken off in Stockholm., but we are a long way behind, and sadly so, as id love to see more BIR curries here. Another intersting piece of information i read this week was that one third of the adults aged between 18-24 have served up food at home to guests and passed it off as their own cooking (in the UK). Two thirds of those were women, Im glad to see people on this site can produce a restaurant meal and proudly own up to cooking it themselves. Long live homemade food! Keep the faith!!

[Curry King]

It feels better the other way round when your guests are accusing you of buying the food in, you know your close then

[George]

...what is a chef doing with tomato soup in the cupboard...Indian food is no where near as popular in Sweden as it is in the U.K, but neither is the Indian population.

I'm so sceptical about all these fairy tale type stories. If the bit about the tomato soup was passed down accurately, how come nobody knows for sure which restaurant was involved (in inventing CTM).

Also, why is the Indian popluation of Sweden not as popular in Sweden as the Indian Population of the UK is in the UK? (!)

Regards
George

[Ashes]

I dont know why the food isnt as popular, but the Indian population is treated no different from the other immigrant populations of the Far East and Asia, just there hasnt been the amount of immigration that there has been in the UK and thats to do with history. I guess the food just isnt as well known, 15 years ago Chinese food was very popular, Thai food is major, Sweden hasnt got anywhere near the amount of curry places Britain has and so popping out for a quick takeaway isnt the same.

Wasnt such a long time ago swedes were popping out to the chemist to buy garlic, work that one out! Although i dont remember growing up with much garlic myself, no wonder when i discovered it i was addicted for life.
But Britain is very unique in that the Indian food and takeaways you get in restaurants were developed by Indians for the English, and is still even being exported back to the mother land. England can lay claim to Indian restaurant curries  being as British as fish and chips, potatoes werent here (UK) until the 1600?s and by then England had reached India and was exporting exotic spices back to the UK, the Portuguese were taking the chilli over to India and we in Europe were exporting fenugreek and coriander (both go back to the roman times i think).

Curry powder and paste are a British invention(although you could argue that a curry powder is just a premade masala), as well as the word "curry" (as we know it now), so the Indian food you're eating at your take away is as much British as it is Indian (sort of .

[George]

.Indian food is no where near as popular in Sweden as it is in the U.K, but neither is the Indian population.

Also, why is the Indian popluation of Sweden not as popular in Sweden as the Indian Population of the UK is in the UK? (!)

ashes

Thank you for telling us about Sweden. It's very interesting. I'm sorry that my previous comment was light-hearted, when I assume you really meant to say: "Indian food is no where near as popular in Sweden as it is in the U.K, but neither is the Indian population AS LARGE".

Do you get to enjoy BIR curries back in the UK much, these days?

Regards
George

[Ashes]

Hehe, yepp, I guessed you were kidding but you never can tell on the internet;)
As for BIR?s, nope i dont get over to the UK much, maybe once a year and but usually make it over to atleast one restaurant.
Last year (2005) I got to sample Tescos "takeaway" curries, and to be honest i was really surprised, they were better than
alot of curries ive eaten at  restaurants in Sweden and the UK. The nans werent though, but the Vindaloo and Vegetable curry was
pretty damn good for supermarket food. Just goes to show how far the UK has come with Indian food!

The other place I visited was in Brum and it was an Indian restaurant which served a buff? (trad) for about 10 quid, eat as much as you can, it was excellent, and i came away with only that feeling you get when you know you have had really good and way too much. Needless to say i wasnt Hungry for about 24 hrs afterwards.