Topic: Where are we now - will all of us get to where we want to go?

[curryhell]

I started to add a comment to Petrolhead

[Stephen Lindsay]

Good post CH.

I've been cooking a couple of curries per night for my g/f and me for the past 12 to 18 months. The quality of my curries has certainly improved over this time as has the consistency of results. I've pretty much stuck to the same base and spice mix (Taz and BE) during that time and although I've developed recipes for most of the classic BIR dishes I've tended in the main to cook our personal favourites more often, i.e. Madras, Pathia, Ceylon.

I think I'm producing curries that are as good as many takeaways locally and in some cases I've ordered a takeaway only to be disappointed with the results. Looking at the quality of posts, recipes and videos I find it hard to believe that others are not also doing the same. There seems to me to be a breadth and depth of knowledge amongst forum members that to my mind is sometimes played down.

I've learned so much on here and am satisfied with what I can produce. I enjoy eating those curries! I don't know where I'm going next though no doubt time will tell. Until then I'm happy carrying on doing what I'm doing.

[Naga]

I'm with Stephen here. With the knowledge and borrowed skills gleaned from member's posts here, I'm making the best curries, accompaniments and sundries than I could ever have dreamed of.

I think, since I started off, that I've made 1 middling curry - the rest have been superb (to my mind, anyway! ) and, even though I have to turn the chilli heat down for my family, they agree that my curries are better than the takeaways.

I must admit, I don't quite understand the level of obsession that some people have towards achieving the "perfect" curry - it's never going to happen and it's too subjective across individual tastes anyway. But, in saying that, I'm on a number of other, non-food forums and similar obsessions are evident there. Just a human thing, I expect!

But to those guys who are producing the good food and good ideas on here - keep it up! It's all good!

[natterjak]

I think one of the problems is there are so many individual elements which build up the flavour of a curry, there are plenty of stages at which you can get derailed and not know which. For me the big advances in my results have come from frying the spices properly, getting the flavour of my base nailed, using a good pre cook method to get flavour into the chicken and finally getting a way of making a good flavoursome spiced oil.

[Dajoca]

Hi Natterjak, are your methods for frying the spices and creating the Spiced oil on the forum at all? If not could you elaborate?
Thank you.

[natterjak]

Hi, not at present, but next time I cook a batch up I will write it up with pictures. I have a good stock of oil frozen at present but I reckon in a few weeks I'll need to replenish it.

[JerryM]

firm believer in asking this question.

i am pretty confident the answer will be yes. the collective efforts of us all is real powerful stuff. there's also more knowledge coming out of the restaurant circle too these days.

i'm still not convinced it can be done without heat but we've talked that to death. all is in a song... "so many steps to heaven". mine is about 33 steps round the house and into the garage. a load of hassle on a tray too.

i'm still not 100% sure on the last part of my gap. the ongoing work on the oil is 1 area. after that i think it's just down to recipe.

being well happy having far exceeded expectations - i would never have thought i would be worried about which mains to delete from my make often list to add in the jafflon and mogul.

at some point i would like to master a few dishes that i like but never got right so far. these being sylheti, pathia and rogan josh. balti is another but even further away down the road.

no mash and gravy here.

the only downside i've experienced is that family start to think of me as TA menu and can order what they want not realising the vast range of dish ingredients and that kind of prep is just out of the question for just a few servings. the freezer does help but i'm not sure it works for all.

[Kashmiri Bob]

After the meal my wife and I have just endured at a local BIR, we're thinking the header to this forum should actually read:

This forum is all about creating your favourite curries a lot better than what you get from an Indian takeaway or restaurant.

Rob

[JerryM]

getonthegarabi,

i think it's even worse than you suggest.

pretty much all BIR are suffering from our lack of cash. there are so many outlets and there just isn't enough cash out there for them all to survive.

in cutting corners to try and make ends meet is making it worse - as you say - glad of the forum.

[natterjak]

Hi Natterjak, are your methods for frying the spices and creating the Spiced oil on the forum at all? If not could you elaborate?
Thank you.

Hi Dajoca, I've added the recipe to the forum here: http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=8952.0