Hi all,

Does anyone have a recipe for the Vegetable Curry that normally accompanies the Biriyani at the BIR?

Cheers,

Blondie

Hi All,

Does anyone have a GOOD recipe for Bombay Potato or Bombay Aloo as some choose to call it.  I have tried many from recipe books and none even come close to a BIR type dish.

I am pretty sure that one of you clever guys must know how to achieve what I guess must be a simple dish to prepair,

Cheers all,

Blondie

Hi all,

back in the days of in2curry there was a woman there that taught Indian Restaurant style Cooking.  From memory, I think her name was Janet.  She claimed that one of the main ingredients used in her cookery was spiced oil, which I believe she taught how to make. Did anyone do the course with this lady? was it of any use? and the main point of this post, could the spiced oil be the way to get the taste without re-using oil many times?

Just a thought,

Cheers all,

Blondie

Hi all,

I don't know if this question has been answered before on this forum (please forgive me if it has).  Is the Curry House Cookery Book available from http://www.curryhouse.co.uk/ any good and is there much useful additional information available in the Premium area on the site.

cheers all,

Blondie

Hi All,

I don't know if this is the place where some of our members have been for cooking lessons

Curry cookery classes are held every Monday night, 7-10pm at Preem and Prithi restaurant, 124 Brick Lane E1 (020-7247 0397).

cheers,

Blondie

Hi all,

I went to the Kushi Balti house (as discussed here https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=334.0) yesterday evening to meet the chef and the guy that he is co writing the book "Authentic Balti Curry" with. ?I also ate there and managed to obtain sample recipes for the base sauces and spice mixes to test for them. ?i will be cooking today and will report my findings.

Please do not ask for the recipes, as of course they are subject to copyright and I have signed an agreement to that end that I intend to keep to. ?Having said that, I will be able to let you know what I think of the book (with the writers permissions).

On first appearances (and it is only a rough draft of part of the book) it looks very very good. ?It contains methods, spice mixes and ingredients that I have seen rarely if at all, on this web site or anywhere else.

The food at the restaurant was excellent and fairly inexpensive and the main man Mr Ali Haydor and his co-writer Andy Holmes are really nice guys and are looking forward to my findings as a keen amateur cook.

Watch this space,

Blondie

Hi all,

does anyone know anything about these DVDS?

http://www.thebaltikitchen.com/aboutus.htm,

Cheers,

Blondie

http://www.harlequinrestaurants.com/indian_food.htm

cheers all,

Blondie

I have been making poppadums to eat before or with my curries for many years and they have been pretty good, but not quite right (where have we heard that phrase before?).

I have always followed the method that gave me the best results years ago and always thought, perhaps it isn't possible to get them just right at home.

The method I used for years is:

Heat some deep oil until when you can drop a small piece of poppadum in and it cooks and expands immediately.  Then hold one poppadum in the oil with tongues for a few seconds until it starts to expand and curl up, and then quickly and carefully turn it over and cook for a further few seconds, remove from the oil and stand vertically in a toast rack or something similar on some kitchen paper to allow oil to drain off.  I must have made thousands like that, but they were never perfect.

UNTIL, recently, I asked at my local what make of poppadums they use.  Rajah they said.  So off I went to find some Rajah poppadums, thinking this might be the difference, as I had never seen or tried them.  Anyway, I found some without much problem.  Just out of interest I read the cooking instructions.  I FOUND WHERE I HAD BEEN GOING WRONG.

HEAT THE OIL TO SMOKING POINT.

That's it (you probably all new this, but I didn't) Now my poppadums do not have that powdery sort of starchy taste and expand to the size of restaurant ones and are lighter.

I then tried my usual brand "Ruby" using the smoking oil method and they turned out just as good.

Hope this helps somebody,

Blondie

Hi All,

I am going through a stage of frustration at not getting "THE TASTE" again and wondered if it would help everybody if we all tried to describe "THE TASTE".

Of course the taste will be different for different people, but if wine boffins can describe tastes why can't we?

To me the taste is a mixture of oniony (raw) aniseedy, Mustardy and almost vinegary (but this vinegary taste could be something like lemon and another ingredient mixed). The Sort of smokey taste that sometimes gets a mention is only present from one of my locals.

I do hope someone else can describe the taste better than I have been able to but we need to start somewhere.

Cheers all,

Blondie

Hi all,

What does everyone think about the possibility of there being Fennel seeds in the base sauce.  The reason I bring this up is that for a long time now I have had a suspicion that there is a slight aniseedy taste to my favourite takeaway's curries. I asked them if there was any Fennel seeds in the base and they said there is. Am I being spun another yarn?

Does anyone else detect this taste or is this specific to my locals,

Cheers all,

Blondie

http://www.openkitchen.net/cook/curry/index-e.html

Cheers all,

Blondie

Hi all,

from a newspaper article,

The hybrid Bangladeshi-Indian curry house is a much-loved institution, but its cooking is scarcely inventive. And though the food may be irresistible in its way, especially on a Saturday night after a few pints, it's not exactly of the highest quality. As Pat Chapman, the founder of the The Curry Club (an organisation that promotes Indian food), explains, the classic curry gravy will include taste enhancers such as 'factory-bottled curry paste, garam masala, asafoetida, fenugreek seeds and even some chemicals. Monosodium glutamate enhances taste and thickens sauces. The restaurateur achieves his bright oranges, reds, yellows and brown colours using powdered food colouring and then there's tinned tomatoes and tomato puree and ketchup, and sweeteners such as sugar or even pureed mango chutney.' Still fancy that chicken Madras?

Who says there are no secret ingredients now ?

To read the whole article go to

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/foodmonthly/story/0,9950,711834,00.html

Cheers,

Blondie

The Kits supplied by this web based company http://www.curry-kits.co.uk do not appear to contain anything that we do not know about. The book that they supply with the Kit is Khris Dillon's Curry Secret, which I am sure we all have a copy of, BUT !!! when I made an email enquiry to the company, one of thier staff telephoned me and during the conversation assured me that beside the curry secret they supply a manual prepaired for them by a restaurant chef and also they have plans to produce a DVD showing how all aspects of the cooking are done. The kit which we don't need the majority of costs ? 11.99 + postage but this is maybe a good price for the addittional information alone.

I was very interested in buying a kit just to see what extra information might be in there but my gallop has been halted by my little daughter who is insisting on buying it for me for my birthday in July.  So if no one has taken the plunge by then, I will report back with any new findings in July,

Cheers all,

Blondie