Topic: Elaichi North Indian Special

[Peripatetic Phil]

Just a a note of interest, Bart's Tamarind Paste is 34%.
** Phil.

[curryhell]

Hi CH

Is this the right 1 they had both this and the eastend imli went for this 1 as it has 15% tamarind as apposed to 9% in the eastend version
jamie

That's the one mate.  Look forward to hearing how you get on Jamie

[Naga]

Made this tonight and have to say that it was delicious!

I have to admit that I gasped a little on the first mouthful as the garlic and chilli combo hit my palate, but it was splendiferous throughout and the dish is now on my list of recipes to repeat. Looking forward to part 2 tomorrow night.

Thanks CH!

[curryhell]

Actually Naga, i'm kind of looking forward to doing it again myself tomorrow ;D So glad you tried it and enjoyed it. It's always good to get some feedback on a recipe.  It makes the time and effort that's required to write one seem so worthwhile, more so when they say it will be made again :.  Shame there was no pic to urge me to cook it right now

[Naga]

As it happens, here's one I took earlier lol!

[curryhell]

Mmm, could eat that right now for breakfast .  Looks a nice plate of BIR mate

[curryhell]

I managed to get hold of Tamarina sauce after jb told me where he got it locally.  I wanted to see if it made a difference.  And i wanted to see if i could recreate the same dish again that i so enjoyed.  Using the recipe posted above but substituting the East End Tamarind sauce for the Tamarina and upping the chilli to 3 tsps to suit my own tastes here's a few pics of the process along the way and the end result.

Ingredients (omitted the garlic / ginger paste)



Browning the garlic / ginger puree and fresh garlic



In with the diluted tomato paste shortly followed by the spice mix and quenched by 2 chef spoons of base



In went the Tamarina, masala sauce and onions and peppers




Half the gravy added along with the tikka and reduced down



Remaining ingredients added and reduced until desired thickness achieved



the finished result



Ready to be served up



Accompanied by mushroom rice



Ready to tuck in 



Last nights efforts the only difference being i reduced the Tamarina to a level dsrt spoon and the chilli to 2 tsp



And served with keema rice -  Yum



Was there a difference using the Tamarina?  The last two attempts were certainly good.  But I thought there was a slight difference, hence my reduction of the Tamarina.  This has a higher tamarind concentrate so will add a little more sourness.  This however was only marginal.  I now intend to use the East End and see if i prefer it.  Maybe a very similar taste can be achieved by reducing the Tamarina further.  Who knows?  But i will enjoy trying  ;D

[jb]

Looks very nice indeed.I ordered yet another take-away tonight(I told the wife it was just for research purposes!).While my efforts from Saturday were still fresh in my mind I wanted to see how they would compare to a real BIR meal.I ordered an Elachi North Indian,mushroom rice and sag aloo.I can honestly say there was very little difference between what I cooked on Saturday and the stuff I got tonight from my take-away.If anything the sag aloo was actually better.I have to say your NIS recipes is a definite winner. 

[joshallen2k]

The NIS has been on my to-do list of curries since it was originally posted (thanks for that!).

Scanning the ingredients and looking at the pictures, it looks a lot like what they serve over here as chicken tikka masala. Little resemblance to a BIR CTM, but often a tasty curry in its own right.

I will give this a go on the weekend.

-- Josh

[curryhell]

Looks very nice indeed.I ordered yet another take-away tonight(I told the wife it was just for research purposes!).While my efforts from Saturday were still fresh in my mind I wanted to see how they would compare to a real BIR meal.I ordered an Elachi North Indian,mushroom rice and sag aloo.I can honestly say there was very little difference between what I cooked on Saturday and the stuff I got tonight from my take-away.If anything the sag aloo was actually better.I have to say your NIS recipes is a definite winner.

I think after your efforts in preparing that feast you deserved a TA on whatever grounds . The things we do in the name of the BIR quest, eh?  As for their saag aloo, it can sometimes be a little "slimey" for want of a better word, although tasty.  I've still quite some work to do on veg dishes.  An area for the winter months i think  :.  As for the TA being virtually no different from you own efforts, why am i not surprised  : .  As for the Elaichi NIS, whilst i have 4 or 5 things i wish to experiment with, Tamarina vs East End and timing of adding it and the masala sauce, but for me the dish is virtually there, as per my first attempt.  Such success happens so rarely .  I'll provide an update on my experiments if i feel they improve the dish further.  Glad you liked it jbm,so it must be pretty close as i suspected ;D