Hello!

[Glenn]

Hi everyone, my name's Glenn, 20 years old from Sunderland. I have just joined the forum as I am interested to know more about cooking Indian & Chinese food. After having a quick look through, there are some great threads which seem to be very helpful! I cook most of the time, but I do love a takeaway or two on a weekend after being at the Football and having a few pints. I'm really liking the Tikka Chilli Chicken Masalla at the minute from my local Indian. As for Chinese food, I love the Shredded Crispy Chicken in Cantonese Sauce. I wouldn't mind being able to know how to make them myself, to try and save a bit money lol!

[curryhell]

Welcome to the forum Glenn.  You've come to the right place to learn about how to cook Indian BIR food.  And we do have a small section devoted to Chinese as well   Having looked throught the site at some of the threads you've a good idea of what's involved in the process so it's just a matter of deciding where to begin, whose base to use etc and developing the right technique ;D. Good luck mate.  Let us know how you get on.  If you need any help just shout, there's plenty of knowledgeable people on here more than willing to help out and point you in the right direction if needed.

[Glenn]

Welcome to the forum Glenn.  You've come to the right place to learn about how to cook Indian BIR food.  And we do have a small section devoted to Chinese as well   Having looked throught the site at some of the threads you've a good idea of what's involved in the process so it's just a matter of deciding where to begin, whose base to use etc and developing the right technique ;D. Good luck mate.  Let us know how you get on.  If you need any help just shout, there's plenty of knowledgeable people on here more than willing to help out and point you in the right direction if needed.

Thanks very much mate! I will try and post on here as much as I can, I have made one or two bases in the past and they have turned out half decent. (just a matter of patience and practice really!) I used CBM's demonstrations on Youtube. The only problem I have really is, every time I make a Madras kind of curry, it turns out to be really brown. I think it could be to do with the mix powder I am using. If I am perfectly honest I haven't a clue how to make a decent mix powder lol, I will have to have a search around to see if there is a good thread about the easiest way to make it, because I know something Isn't quite right with the final product at the minute. Once again, thanks for the warm welcome mate! 

[PaulP]

Hi Glen,

Regarding the colour of your madras curries: If you use about 1 Tbs of bright red chilli powder e.g. kashmiri or deggi mirch and only use about 1 tsp of mix powder your madras should look a lot more red than brown.
Also overcooking a base sauce after blending seems to make them go browner.

I wouldn't worry too much about the colour, a lot of tasty food is brown. 

Cheers,

Paul

[Stephen Lindsay]

Glenn

Welcome from Scotland - Sunderland is a great place for curries, my brother lives there.

My g/f moved up from England and she too commented on the colour of my Madras curries - brown, not red. That is my experience of them here in Scotland. I agree with PaulP's comment but what I do is simply add some red colouring (available from Asian grocers) - a quarter tsp added to your curry while you are cooking your base should do it - voila transformed from brown to red.

regards

Steve

[Glenn]

Cheers for the welcoming lads, much appreciated! Thanks for the tips about how to change the sauce ect, it seems to be extremely spicy aswell, more like a Vindaloo/Phal heat. And I was only using 1 tablespoon of Chilli powder, And that is only the Rajah one, so it must be in the Mix Powder, maybe too much Paprika or something ?

Steve, We have a few very good Curry Houses in Sunderland, It's about the only decent thing left here apart from Sunderland AFC . We always go to The Midnight Moon Spice, absolutely excellent in there, not too expensive either. Best Madras I have ever had was in there .

[Stephen Lindsay]

Glenn

I have a lot of time for your team and am pleased to see how they are now doing under a quality manager. But back to topic and re the chilli powder. It is amazing how different brands vary in their hotness. To be honest I've stopped bothering about whether the packet says hot or extra hot or whatever, I just open the packet and dip my finger in to get a sense of how hot it is.  Whenever I change from one brand to another (not through choice or preference but just because I went to a different grocer) I then do a test recipe to gauge how hot the chilli is. That recipe is my Taz Madras and once made I'll have a good idea as to whether the heat is about right or to take it back a bit or increase it.

As an aside my experience has tended to be that curries in Scotland are a slight notch higher in heat than in England, e.g. a Madras is hotter here in Scotland. That's a bit of a generalisation I know but curries I've eaten in Yorkshire, the North East, North West, Midlands and Dorset have all been slightly milder. But then it is a good few degrees colder up here!

Steve

[curryhell]

No worries.  Have a look at chewytikka's video for madras sauce or chicken madras.  You'll find his mix powder somewhere in one of the threads too.  Another good mix powder is Zaals but you would need to make your own garam masala for that rather than using the inferior shop bought stuff.  A very good alternative to that is Abdulmoheds to be found in the BIR bandwagon thread in recipe requests.

As for colour, do as PaulP suggests and use a quality chilli powder like MDH deggi mirch or MDH kashmiri mirch (milder).  Both are a vibrant red and will give your curry a lovely colour.  The base certainly will have an influence but at the end of the day as long as it tastes good.  Or you can cheat as SL suggests (shame on you SL ).

[Glenn]

Thanks for the help lads, appreciate it! I'll just have a chop and change around with the bases, spices ect. I will get there one day lol!

[Stephen Lindsay]

Or you can cheat as SL suggests (shame on you SL ).

I'm sure I don't know what you mean  :