After reading about the AnySharp Global knife sharpener in other threads in this fine forum, while I wouldn't use anything like this on my quality knives, I decided to click on the eBay link provided and buy one to sharpen my cheap knives. As someone else pointed out, for

Just been browsing the web in search of a good source of unusual / difficult to find chillies and seeds, and came across this excellent site:

http://www.chilliesontheweb.co.uk/

Not only do they offer an impressive range from around the world (India, Mexico, Peru, China, Thailand, Turkey, Burma, etc), plus a great selection of seeds and other chilli related goodness, but their prices are really good, and postage is free on orders above

Just been browsing the web in search of a good source of unusual / difficult to find chillies, and came across this excellent site:

http://www.chilliesontheweb.co.uk/

Not only do they offer an impressive range from around the world (India, Mexico, Peru, China, Thailand, Turkey, Burma, etc), plus a great selection of seeds and other chilli related goodness, but their prices are really good, and postage is free on orders above

Couple of interesting vids outlining Julian's latest project and collaboration with Adey Payne, who opened Curried Away in Boston, Lincs, after reading Julian's eBook.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeXurwWh0dY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7ECknztiVk

CBM has also been uploading video's from Adey's place, which can be viewed via the other forum or his YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/CURRYHOLIC1

To celebrate daughter No. 2's 30th, last night I decided to take a break from the kitchen and ordered in a takeaway from one of my favourite local BIRs.

They were busy so said it would take an hour to deliver, so daughter No. 1  said: "Why don't you knock up one of yours and see how it compares, dad?"

"What a splendid idea!" said I, silently cursing her for ruining my night off... 

Out came all the gubbins, and not long after there was a Chewy Tikka chicken Madras steaming away in a recently buffed serving dish.

The takeaway arrived, and the blind tasting commenced (I was, understandably, excluded).

Now, had I not been there to witness the event I would have suspected a fix to massage dad's ego, but it was a proper blind taste test and all 5 participants voted for the CT Madras hands down.

"Much more flavoursome", was the general consensus. "Not as aniseedy", was another comment. And indeed, when I was finally allowed to have a go myself, the star anise used in the BIR Madras was clearly apparent.

That's not a criticism as I quite like a bit of star anise - just an observation.

Personally, I liked both dishes, but was really chuffed that my effort went down so well, and it's further testimony to the winning qualities of CT's recipe.

It's also testimony to the fact that many of us do ourselves down a bit too much (for far too many already discussed reasons to mention here). Whatever the reason, I can thoroughly recommend that the next time you order a takeaway you conduct a similar (dish for dish, like for like) taste test.

If nothing else it allows you to pick out different nuances in flavour between your local BIR's dishes and your own.

I've been after a pressure cooker for a while, but strapped for cash so the dog's bollocks stainless steel all-singing/dancing model I wanted is out of the question at the moment.

Then I saw that Argos are doing a third off this baby:

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/8605782/c_1/1|category_root|Kitchen+and+laundry|14418476/c_2/2|14418476|Cookware|14418537/c_3/3|cat_14418537|Pressure+cookers+and+steamers|14418546.htm

So I ordered it. Something of a bargain, or a crock of crap?

Time will tell, and I'll report back on findings as soon as I get to grips with the mother.

Linke many here, over the years I've tried just about every mix powder known to humanity and tweaked them this way and that in the search for the ultimate mix.

Such a thing probably doesn't exist (or if it does then it's as elusive as the Higgs bosun particle), but there are mixes I find myself returning to time and time again, and this is one of my favourites.

There will be no massive surprises here - it's a mix powder, nothing more, nothing less - but I do apologise in advance if it replicates any others posted here.

I prefer to make it up in relatively small batches, and find the below quantity lasts for a good few weeks of base/stock/curry making:

4tbs mild Madras powder (I use Rajah, but any decent brand will do. East End, Natco, etc)
3tbsp turmeric powder
3tbsp cumin powder
3tbsp coriander powder
3tbsp paprika
1tbsp garam masala
2tsp fenugreek powder
2tsp garlic powder

Simply mix thoroughly together and store in an airtight container in a cool, dark place.

As said, no surprises, but I find it works well...

I've wanted a Waring professional spice grinder for some time now (http://www.catertrade.co.uk/Waring-CD409-Waring-Spice-Grinder/), but at

Thanks to the fantastic generosity of Michael.T (https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=7896.0) I at last have my hands on some of the coveted commercial Rajah Premium Madras powder, so thought I'd do a side by side comparison to see how it stacks up against its domestic market counterpart, Rajah Mild Madras powder.

In the picture below the Rajah Premium is on the right:



As you can see, the Rajah Premium is a little darker and not so yellow as the standard powder, which could indicate less turmeric and/or a little more cumin or other darker spices in the mix.

Taste wise there's definitely a difference.

The Rajah Premium has a less harsh, more rounded, balanced and 'sweeter' taste. In fact I found it quite moreish, and went in for a fair few finger dabs.

Heat levels are identical.

It's not life changing, nor is it going to magically transform your dishes and take them to a new stratospheric level, but given the choice the Rajah Premium is the one I'd go for every time.

 

Today, I have mainly been making up a batch of base a la Zaal:

https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=7859.0

And following a very rushed lunchtime stab at an egg phal, plumped for a more relaxed approach to an evening vindaloo.

Ingredients

350-400ml Zaal base (although this will of course work with any decent, balanced base)
Pre-cooked meat of choice (I used turkey thigh, which is excellent value, succulent with great texture, and, when used with hot curries, works well as faux lamb. I'm always amazed at how many people ask me what meat it is)
A few pieces of potato, cooked in turmeric water and a bit of salt
1.5 chef spoons of oil or ghee (or 2.5tbsp)
1 generous dsp of garlic/ginger paste (mine is 50-50 mix)
1 chef spoon or 2tbsp of dilute tomato paste (I use 1:4 ratio paste to water)
1.5tsp of mix powder (any you have already to hand - on this occasion I used my own mix, which is so similar to many others it's not worth banging on about, to be honest)
1tbsp chilli powder (I used deggi mirch, but if you're using extra hot powder you may want to tone it down a little. Or not, as the case may be.)
Generous pinch of methi leaf
Salt - getting salt levels right is, in my view, critical in BIR cookery, and there's only one way to do it and that's by trial and error, so start off with a quarter or half a teaspoon and keep tasting, tasting, tasting...
Fresh coriander

Optional extras:

(These are a few things I do from time to time, as the mood takes me...)

A squirt of tomato ketchup (quell horreur!), added with the tomato paste, for a touch of extra sweetness if desired, and a squirt of lemon dressing added at the end, for a touch of balancing sourness
Fresh chillies, added about half-way through the cooking process, for that wonderful extra dimension of texture and unecessary additional heat
Garam masala, added at the end (though personally I don't bother with curries hotter than Madras...)
Extra garlic/ginger paste added towards the end, as in Julian from Curry2Go's vindaloo recipe. (Not recommended if romance is in the air...)

Method

1. Pan on, oil in and get up to a reasonably high heat. (On my poxy self-regulating ceramic hob this means full power and a relaxing 30sec wait. On a powerful gas burner such as this one, recommended by Solarsplace, it's a matter of nanoseconds to achieve napalm heat levels. http://www.gasproducts.co.uk/acatalog/Large_Square_Gas_Boiling_Ring.html)

2. Garlic/ginger paste in, and get that spoon working fast to keep things moving. You're looking for a nice golden brown colour to the garlic/ginger, and how long this takes depends on your cooker, pan, how much water is in the paste, etc. As ever, the eye plays the crucial role here.

3. I'm a big fan of initially singeing my spices in hot oil  when using my ceramic hob, as the addition of tomato paste at this point merely robs the pan of precious heat, so in goes the mix powder, chilli powder and salt, followed by a short period of frantic spoon action as it all comes up to heat, followed by the tomato paste and a big dollop of anxiety, sweat, and finally abject panic as you play dare and singe as far as your frazzled nerves will allow. For me, that point is reached when they're smoking and I start choking, and the spices reach the point where you think "Bollocks. They're f**ked". Obviously there's a fine line, but for me, a 'caramelised' dark brown is okay, but black is a disaster. If black happens just bin everything and start again.

4. Once choking, in goes a ladle of gravy. If you've been good, your gravy is already up to temp and bubbling away, and if your curry pan is hot enough the first ladle will almost disappear in a small pyrotechnic display bordering on the theatrical  (yes, even on a poxy ceramic hob). You'll also notice that oil separation happens almost instantaneously.

5. In with another ladle or so of gravy. I like to reduce this right down, Taz style, until it's a thick paste before adding more gravy. I also add the methi leaves at this point, as they're delicate and I find they can carbonise if added in the early supernova stages.

6. Once reduced, add your main ingredient and some more gravy (plus a little water if needed), and leave to bubble away until the sauce has reached the consistency you like.

Job done!

A double portion of vindaloo reducing nicely...




The finished dish (minus coriander, as I'd run out...)

I mentioned in the 'Just Joined' section that one of my favourite dishes is saag bhaji, cooked in the simple, dry style (i.e. no base gravy/garabi). I was asked to post a picture, so here it is, along with a couple more to show just how much liquid you need to get out of that frozen spinach to make this dish work. (You can of course use fresh spinach, but this will naturally result in a wetter end result unless you pre-wilt the spinach and then squeeze moisture out).

Keen observers may note the large amount of onions (and garlic) in my dish. This is simply because I appear to be a largely allium based life-form, and is just the way I like it. Similarly, the reddish tinge to the onions comes from the addition of chilli powder (deggi mirch in this instance). This isn't added in restaurants' saag bhaji unless you ask for it, but I seem unable to create anything without adding chilli to it.

Making it couldn't be easier, so without further ado...

For a good portion you'll need the following:

1. Around 5 briquettes of frozen spinach, defrosted. This needs to be thoroughly squeezed of excess liquid (you'll be surprised at how much liquid comes out). It's key to the success of this dish.

2. 3-4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced (or to taste). To add an 'edge' to your BIR cookery, I recommend the use of an unguarded mandolin to make swift work of this task. You can thinly slice 4 cloves of garlic in about 12 seconds (though it may take slightly longer to pick out the slices of finely sliced finger...).

3. Using the same mandolin with the remaining uninjured hand, deftly slice half of a medium sized onion (a bit smaller than a tennis ball in size). Or again throw caution to the wind and use the whole onion. I know I do.

4. 0.5 tsp of salt (or to taste). As with tarka dhal, salt is a critical component of this dish, and getting the amount right is something that is very much down to personal taste. Most restaurants serve it fairly salty, and that's my preference.

5. 05 - 1 tsp turmeric. Another key component, and one which lends a subtle but wonderful taste and aroma to the dish (as well as a lovely aroma to your kitchen)

Method

1. Ingredients neatly arranged and fingers bandaged, take a black iron or carbon steel pan or wok and whack it on the heat. (Because this is a dry dish you need something that has a little non stick quality when the going gets hot. You can use an aluminium pan, but it's bloody hard work keeping everything going without adding loads of oil.

2. Add a generous chef's spoon of oil or ghee (my chef's spoon is a 2tbsp size, and I use butter ghee for this, but veg would be fine, as would veg oil), and get it to the point where it begins to smoke slightly.

3. Add your garlic and finger slices, and get straight in there with your spoon to keep them moving. You're looking for some nice colour but no carbonisation (at this stage).

4. Nice colour achieved, it's in with the onion next, followed swiftly by the salt and turmeric. The onions will have brought the pan temp down a little, so you may need to whack it up to get that gorgeous smokey 'singe' going. (See the 'Cooking with Chef Az' thread for more on this.)

5. Add the spinach and vigorously integrate it with the other ingredients with your spoon. Because the spinach has little moisture content this stage doesn't take long, but you're looking to get the spinach and the odd bit of onion and garlic to catch here and there (which is where a lot of this dish's great flavour comes from), so let the mixture sit in the pan or wok for the odd ten secs or so from time to time. It all depends on the pan, the heat of your hob, etc., etc., but as always it's only down to practice and after trying it a few times you'll have it nailed.

They really don't come much simpler than this...

Now the weather is starting to warm up a little the prospect of returning to the delights of al fresco flambeing is starting to appeal, and inspired by pictures of Solarsplace's 'take no prisoners' approach I was thinking of replacing my knackered old burner with something similar:

http://www.gasproducts.co.uk/acatalog/Large_Tripod_Gas_Boiling_Ring.html

With an 8.8 kw output there are no concerns with its power. My only concern is its size. At 35cm wide it may be a little on the large size for a standard (24cm) curry pan.

Anyone here used one of these babies?

Or if it is indeed the same as yours, Solarsplace, maybe you could advise, kind sir?

Any thoughts gratefully appreciated.

Cheers

Gary

I've been trolling around here and soaking up the succulent juices of sage advice for a few months now, and while a crazy work schedule has kept me from posting I thought it was about time to say hello, but most importantly, thanks. This is without doubt the best forum known to humanity, and the dedication of its contributors is without parallel.

As with so many here, I've been at this game for a while (I don't like to think too much about it, but dammit it's been over 30 years. Where did they go?  ).

Although my parents introduced me as a babe in arms to the early wave of BIRs that began to open in London in the late '50s / early 60s (they used to plonk me in a pushchair while they laid into their madras'), what really got me started was exposure to the stunning curries of Glasgow and surrounding areas in '81 - '82, when I moved up there to work for a few years.

There's an intensity and different dimension of depth to the curries from the better establishments in Scotland, and even the more ordinary restaurants still manage to trounce many of their more southern counterparts (in my experience). Or there was back then. Maybe it's changed?

I'd never had 'that taste' from a BIR down south, and I set about trying to recreate it in my kitchen like a thing demented. Most will recognise the story. A period of intensive research followed, hassling the owners and chefs of my regular haunts, and buying everything printed on the subject (which wasn't much back then). I learnt a lot, but while I've enjoyed success reproducing (mainly Bangladeshi style) BIR dishes more common to my home ground down south, I've never come close to treading the ghee-splashed boards of the 'Scottish play'.

It became an obsession that took me towards the edge of madness.

Most of the restaurateurs I spoke with in Scotland were Pakistani, and while they were happy to chat they had absolutely no idea what I was talking about when I kept asking how the hell they did it. "How do you get "that taste", I pleaded, time and time again. "Pleeeease..."

A sympathetic shrug of the shoulders and a look that's only used when in the presence of one who is unhinged was the best I could elicit from them. At the end of '82 my job took me back south, and I ceased my quest for the Scottish Holy Grail to concentrate on refining what I could do, which was a reasonable fist of a BIR madras, vindaloo and phall, tarka dhal and saag bahji (my favourite dishes), plus rice and various breads.

As we all have, I've had highs and lows (still do), and the learning process never stops. You wouldn't believe what I've tried (actually, you probably would), but I've learnt that simple is often best when it comes to bases and recipes, that technique is king, and that for us part timers who don't knock out hundreds of dishes a week at lightning speed, consistency is hard to achieve. There's a fine line between f**ked and fantastic.

Now I've calmed down a bit, I've also learnt that none of it really matters that much. I get so much enjoyment out of this madness I no longer worry when things don't turn out quite as expected. Gone are the tantrums and hair pulling (the latter helped immensely by anthropogenic male alopecia  ); these days my curry cooking is my main form of relaxation.

And it's been greatly enhanced by the discovery of this fine portal. As said, I don't get much chance to post, but I'd like to thank those that do for an amazing job.

Keep up the great work, and if any of you know how they do it north of the border please let me know!

Cheers

Gary