Hi there !
I'm so glad I found this site and its very knowledgeable members!
I can hopefully soon enjoy a proper BIR curry again, as I always do on my trips to the UK, thanks to this site. So far, I've had to resort to either traditional curry recipes at home or use a glass of Pataks, but even those are really hard to get in Germany ever since you fine folk pulled most of your troops back :/
Anyway, so far I've been collecting info in order to create some primers such as this Bruce Edwards document I made:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dx2juzgzf4xnicp/Bruce%20Edwards%20-%20Curry%20House%20Cookery%20%28Complete%29.pdfI also did the same for all of the Ashoka recipes that Panpot posted. Next up is doing the same for Cory Anders' "Az" recipes. After that I want to make a master recipe collection and analyze the respective recipes in order to find average amounts of spices etc. As you can see I have a lot of work to do still.
My goal is to come up with really good recipes for some of the basic "mild" curries, such as Chicken Tikka Masala, Madras or Rogan Josh along with the proper base sauces and spice mixes. I'm also looking for good recipes for Samosas and Onion Bhajis as well as sauces to go with them.
However, before I move deeply into those areas I'd like to try some member-tested proven recipes first. The only Indian Restaurant we have in my area is really crap, it tastes like canned food, so most of the recipes on this site will probably blow that place away ...
Here's where I could use some help from you people:
- What is the most popular base sauce / which one would you recommend ? Please note that I can get most Indian spices quite easily, but any recipes based on Curry Glasses such as Pataks are hard to do for me to do - plus, I have reservations even though most people do like Dipuraja1's recipes, for example.
- Which spice mix should I use ? Keep in mind that I'd like to start with a well-proven and good one before I start wasting money on perfecting things (I'm ready for that; just not yet)
- Based on the previous recommendations: Which recipes for CTM, Madras and Rogan Josh do you suggest that deliver a fairly good BIR approximation ?
- Are there any Samosas recipes with a vegetarian filling ? I'm trying to recreate some Samosas I had years ago. I believe they had corn, peas and probably Potato or Chick Pea puree in them. Is this a common filling (apart from Keema) or are these actually "african" samosas (I've been told that Samosas also get cooked in Africa).
- I keep reading about smashing Onion Bhajis - all the different Bhaji styles I've had so far were actually balls (mind you, I only ever visit the same area in the UK). Are these smashed Onion Bhajis common and is there any advantage to doing it ?
- Talking about Cory Anders' recipes: Who exactly is "Az" ?
- What/Where is this restaurant webcam I keep finding references to in old posts ?
As for actual input from my side (food for thought):
I've previously been studying a lot of Copycat recipes for (fast) food from the US. One of the most interesting authors in that area is Todd Wilbur. Anyway, one of the things you often stumble over when trying to create that "Restaurant" taste in this area is that it's considered "not possible" simply because they produce totally different amounts commercially. The amount of oxygen that food gets exposed to in a commercial manner is much lower this way. That is one of the reasons why commercially produced ice cream by "proper" gelaterias is so hard to copy even if you have the exact recipe: When you make ice cream at home it gets much more exposure to oxygen because the pot is much smaller so the turning of the mass exposes more of it (and all the time). This does not happen in this way in big-scale production.
Maybe similar factors play into making BIR curry ? Maybe that's why the Curry Base pots are always filled to the brim ?
I really don't know but I sure would appreciate if any of you could give me some pointers regarding my questions. Cheers!