Well a weekend trip full of food down in London meant a meet up with forum member Micky Tikka and as the booking times at Dastann didn't work out it was back to Blue Junction in Morden for a second visit and once again it didn't disappoint.

The restaurant is Indian with some Indo-Chinese dishes. As I'm not good with lots of chili at the minute we ordered mainly 'girly curries' but I have to say I really enjoyed the Paneer Mutta with peas in. All the dishes were lovely with a special mention to the Paneer dish and also the Aubergine fingers which are fantastic. Going to have to give them a go at home.. Well worth the visit.


Pizza Poppadoms - daft name but really tasty.


Special Mixed Grill


Lamb Cutlet Chops


Crispy Aubergine fingers and Crispy Bhindi


Haryali Pahadi Tikka (apologies for the blurry photo)


Chicken Sagwalla and Chilli and Garlic Rice


Chicken Tikka 'Lababdar' Masala


Hyderabadi Keema


Bombay Aloo


Paneer Mutta


Plain Naan

Also had a bowl of the obligatory chips with their signature dry hot spice on.

Not BIR but got an Instant Pot for xmas so i thought I'd have a go with a curry, chicken thighs and a few potatoes with some egg pilau

Inspired by one of Chewy's curries, I made this.

Boys and Their Toys

Got an uuni wood fired pizza oven for xmas and only had a few goes of it due to weather. Anyway took it over to Chewys yesterday for a play with and made some pizzas and also wanted to try Naans. The oven runs of  wood pellets in a small crib at the back and the flame is drawn across the inside of the oven and up the large flue. It'll cook a pizza in 2 minutes. Cooked pizza straight in the oven, a few naans and also tried a pan pizza. The oven cooks really quickly and you can go from hero to zero in 5 seconds. When cooking the naan, I caught the first one on the edge and then reduced the time to just over a minute with a turn at the halfway stage. The photo of the straight in the oven pizza isn't very good but it shows the crust which the pizza lovers seem to like. Next is one of the naans which came out good. The last lot are in the pan and the base could have done with a little bit more so next time I'll reduce the temperature on it to allow a slightly longer cook. Can't wait for some warmer weather so i can do some other stuff on it.. Overall its a great bit of kit and i'm well pleased with it.

And coupled with Chewy's gas tandoor try-out, it was a great day out.

Came across this on Youtube. Looks awful but perhaps it may appeal to someone 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHRpZAZE_1I

Well, I called into Chewy's yesterday to drop some stuff off and pick up some Pizza flour from him. As usual he's curry prepping so I kindly got the offer of a curry for lunch. Decisions, decisions but after a bit thought, one curry I've never ever had is an Achari so 15 mins later my first Achari is in the bowl and very nice it was too.   

Nice one Chewy thank you.

Right, with less than 6 weeks to go you better get your list for Santa sorted.

This year I've asked for more boys toys (well boys toy) in the shape of a Uuni 2 Pizza oven Fingers crossed, I've been a good boy.

Anyone else got a list? 

Theres a chance next week that I may get to Brick Lane, therefore any recommendations as they all seem to be touting themselves as the best curry ever?  :

Sent in my B3ta newsletter, heres some TripAdvisor reviews written about some top tourist places. Reading them I reckon they could have easily been written by a couple of members on here.. ;D ;D ;D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVJzC8c32Lg

I've always fancied a tandoor and when Stu-Pot joined the forum with some great opening posts and along with the summer approaching coupled with one of my bbqs needing replacing, I thought I would do something about it. One of the problems was that I would be taking it to France for a week and I thought a clay one might not stand the bashing about so after seeing CBM

Prompted by Curry Addicts Bob post https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,12318.msg119615.html#msg119615 and CH mention a couple of Leffes and I realise this has been covered before but for me there's a lot more varietys out there these days including ciders and real ales.

For me when I'm at eating Indians at a restaurant, its the Kingfisher or Cobra (I'm a real ale man normally)which I find varies from place to place. If I'm at home my favourite is Grimbergen which is a 6.7% Belgian Abbey Ale. Out of the fridge its my favourite curry beer by far.

So I ask, whats peoples current favourites?

We been using the same Indians for about 29 years. We obviously do go to others and have had better food but its the main one we use as its reasonably priced, reasonable food and very friendly.  The father left to open another place a while ago and now the son runs it with whom I'm quite friendly with. My missus for some reason likes their madras and Sri Lankan better than any other anywhere for some reason so tonight I got into the kitchen to see how its done and why can i not get near it.
My plan was to video it but it went out the window when he said you'll be cooking the sri lankan. Its amazing how quick these chefs knock these curries up and the multi tasking (at 100mph) makes it hard to keep up with what happening. Anyway I watched him do the madras and as it was bubbling away out came the pan for me to do the Sri Lankan. And heres the difference. No oil but they use just garlic which is blended with oil to start it off and a splash of garabi and then mix powder, chilli, coconut powder, salt, and tom puree and the a wedge of lemon Cook off for a minute then in goes the chicken and the rest of the garabi. A few mins later its in the tub. I asked about their garabi (they had just started a pot) and basically it was Onions, carrots and then some green peppers with tom puree and mix powder in the second stage. I'll get more details next time i'm in. As for the mix powder, he quite happily told me what was in it ( 5 spices) but he couldn't really say how much as he just does it by eye in a massive bowl. The same with the cooking with his pretentious chef's spoon. I was close with my measurements but he was telling me a bit more or a bit less with some of them. I could have put more chili in as I thought I had a good tablespoon in. Anyway they are moving premises soon and I'll definitely get back in. I also got a tub of mix from him to try.

His father has another place and he's said a few times that he would give me a few lessons at lunchtimes if I brought the meat. The father also keeps giving me a bag of his 21 spice mix (which his wife hand grinds) every time I go to his restaurant.

Heres my result and although they look the same which they are apart from the coconut powder, its Sri Lankan on the left and madras on the right. Chicken just under the surface.

Quote9 April - I deleted the topic/thread started by Graeme entitled something like "Do you think George should resign?"

I think you'll find it was started by me.

Since CH has been made a moderator you've continually posted self justifying posts bringing the forum into disrepute.  You obviously didn't like the poll that was clearly democratic. You've lost the plot George. You post that prospective new comers would be put of by seeing posts mocking kormas and what they really are seeing is your persistent rantings that for somehow you are right whilst very nearly everyone else thinks your wrong.



PS. Perhaps you should apologise to Graeme. 

Well sitting this afternoon after an early finish from work (I seem to work more now that I'm retired  ) and with the missus going out to try the new Indian restaurant in Tynemouth, I sat pondering what to have. Had some chicken and base out but I really couldn't be bothered to cook and couldn't decide wether to cook or buy in. So cutting to the chase, it was cook and firstly I decided to try Julians Pakistani Onion Rice as I fancied a change from what I usually make.
The new restaurant my missus went to does a Punjabi Style Chicken Tikka Mossalla (Strips of marinated chicken tikka in a minced lamg bhuna sauce and punjabi spices). Not a creamy type curry but the other type of curry that we all like on this site (hopefully that won't deter prospective new members George). So I thought I would try to recreate something similar and with a rake round I made 'a what's in the fridge/freezer curry' with a bit of lamb keema in, some fresh garlic (bin day approaching) and a bit red and green pepper, a couple of cherry plum tomatoes and instead of my current mix powder, I used some Al Noor bassar powder for that punjabi spice bit.
Feeling a bit Reg Prentice for using a chef's spoon, I made this with a teaspoon which involved some rigorous stirring which was good as it worked up an appetite. A bit hot on the hands and forearms though.



I made a bit of a pigs ear of the rice for some reason    and it came out a bit soggy. I'll try it again but i think its a bit sweet for my taste. Curry was good (although I think I stirred it to early) and nice and spicy. Teaspoon is a failure, back to the chefs spoon.



N.B.  Flaming predictive text..... Reg Prentice should be pretentious

Decisions, decisions for last night as I was home alone so I finally decided to have an attempt at Chewy's Murgh Sagwalla he did.
https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,12815.msg104518.html#msg104518
Basically just following what he posted and I made it with some chicken leg meat I had in the freezer. Slightly lacking in the heat department because as per usual (its usually salt) I forgot to add my chopped up chilis on the bench so knocked up a madras with them in for today.    Anyway, very happy with the result.

New Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyqSK3QKDTE

Happy Birthday Mr Taylor

As promised on a Wednesday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aclwt_jh_d0

Julians new Veggie recipe.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scrWF7I9cL0

A recipe every Wednesday as well

He's a banner waving veggie now as well.

After hitting the Balti houses on Saturday (and a free indian meal on Monday with an agreement for some cooking lessons  ) I had to travel back down to Birmingham on Tuesday, so after recomendations for the above place, we decided to to take the long way home and call in at Bukhara.
http://www.bukharasamlesbury.co.uk/#_=_
Arrived about 9pm and it was chocker and it also had a lot of asians in which is always a good sign in my opinion.  Very nicely done out and the staff were very friendly. For eats, after a couple of popadoms, I settled on Afghani Lamb Tikka for starter which was just melt in your mouth tender slices of lamb    followed by Karahi Chicken (hot) with a plain naan. My mate had the Karahi Lamb along with some Pilau rice and a Peshwari naan with some mango lassi to wash it down with. The food was really good and I'll definitely make the effort to get back some time on my travels. Definitely recommended. It was made even better by my mate copping for the bill

http://www.bukharasamlesbury.co.uk/Bukhara2012_Menu%20(9).pdf

I also couldn't come away without a takeaway for Chewy and I got him the Karahi Lamb which I dropped off on the way home and took a couple of photos (both before re-heating).