This is my first attempt at doing a BIR version of a traditional Sri Lankan curry.
My inspirations were :-
Sri Lankan black lamb curry  https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,12690.0.html.
CHs North India special  https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,5948.0.html
Blade's chicken tikka

Precook 1/4 onion plus green chilli. I use large Morrocan ones because they're easily available and they don't disintegrate. I didn't bother adding any thing to this.

Heat oil: 1 1/2 pretentious chef spoons
Add GG paste. 1 tsp garlic, 1/2 tsp ginger
Add 1 star anise + 10 (ish) curry leaves.

Add 1 tsp tomato puree mixed with water

Add 1 tsp black curry powder (in the first link), 1/3 tsp tumeric, 1/3 tsp black mustard seeds, 1 heaped tsp chilli powder, 1 tsp black pepper (freshly ground)

Add ladle of base ( CT's I believe although it may have been JB's)
Add Chicken tikka, I use Blade's recipe as a base, but this was a little different. I used 750g of chicken, 1 tsp of black curry powder, 1 tsp tandoori masala, a 1/2 tsp of 'paprika', 1 tsp of GG paste, squeeze of lemon, a splash of veg oil and 1 blade of lemon grass (minced).

note:- I only used half the chicken in the recipe.

Add rest of base
Add 3cm piece of pandanus (ranpe)
Add 1 tsp cider vinegar
Add precooked onion and chilli

Cook til you happy with the sauce.

I'm sure I've made some mistakes, I've eaten nothing since a 'London' cheesecake for lunch, I'm sick which is why I'm at home and I've nearly finished my bottle of wine...



Anything not clear, just ask. I won't teach you to suck eggs on the basic method.

I know it's a long shot, but does anyone have any info on the BIRs in Matlock, Derbys? I've checked out Trip advisor which as usual leaves you more confused; lots of good review but a few really bad ones that make you think twice.

As it's going to be my first BIR takeaway in 3 years I'm anxious to make it a good one. It's not going to be until May, but I'm already scanning the menus .

I accidentally let slip that I was planning to do a duck curry on Saturday night while the missus was away, 'no chance' she said 'I want to try that'.

So, I did a rush job on Friday evening. Turned out very nicely.

The recipe is basically CH's NIS. I used a different 'mix' as I had some hand roasted stuff that I'd been using for trad stuff to use up. The green chillis are larger 'Morrocan' ones we get in France, not too hot but I like that they stay a bit crunchy.

The duck is tikkaed, using a easy variation on Blade's recipe, but without the Pataks. I managed to get in 3h marinating time. I then pan cooked it as normal for 'magret de canard' i.e skin down, getting rid of the fat, finished off with my little blow torch.

I cooked the duck rare, sliced it fairly thickly, then added it for the last 5 mins of cooking time.

The photo was a bit rushed due to doing rice and paratta at the same time. Sorry about the spoon, I normally use a spatula, but I thought I'd look cooler with my pound shop chef spoon.

Does anyone have any chilli sauce recommendations?

I'm looking for something that will be used in a lot of different cooking and maybe a splash as a dip. It needs to be hotter than a tabasco sauce, but not some Insanity type stuff. Nice taste too.

I also don't like sauces that are too vinegary or too salty. I picked up a bottle of Nando's extra hot piri-piri sauce yesterday as I spotted it in my local asian shop, this is far too salty and wouldn't be hot enough in a recipe.

I've got Mr naga on my list to try, but are there any easier to source products ( I have family visiting from the U.K, so I'm going to try to get them to find it).

Thanks.

I've managed to get hold of some goat (kid in fact) and I'm doing a Jamaican style curry with it. I've never used scotch bonnets in a recipe before, how many sounds O.K for a madras hot curry (just over a kilo of meat). The recipe says half chopped. I spoke to a friend a while ago who's African and she said just cut the top off and use them whole...Any thoughts?

Has anyone bought/ tried or seen this product, that was much used on the above series? It looks good but I'm wary of blenders in general as they never seem powerful enough to do the job unless silly money's involved. Fed up making pastes with a stick blender

Any thoughts or alternative suggestions welcome.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Premier-Kitchen-Machine-Super-Super-g/dp/B0030HSLC4/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=23YABL2RH087L&coliid=I1PKO1GV9SPVFC

I might get the chance to pop in for a curry when I'm coming back from the U.K after Christmas. I know there aere a few posters from London, but does anyone have any restaurant suggestions for Kings cross/ St Pancras?

I like the missus to get a taste of something good, but must be real BIR, so, no caf?s, new-style cooking or south-indian dhabas.

She's got a much better sense of taste and smell than me, and I want her to get an idea of what I'm after taste wise.

I did a bit of a mixture for Saturday night. The first curry is a fried Aubergine curry ( vegetables; healthy and all that!). I looked around the site and there's not much for aubergines which is suprising since they're used extensively on the sub-continent. I regularly go to the little snacky Sri-Lanki places around Gare du Nord and there's always an aubergine side dish in the Thali, this is always delicious. I wanted to recreate this recipe but instead I came across this Fried aubergine recipe which caught my eye.

http://mytamilkitchen.com/2012/09/22/fried-eggplant-curry/

Very nice it was too, not the usual BIR taste, pungent and smokey.




The main dish was the family favourite - NIS (madras hot). Curryhell's recipe  https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,5948.0.html . This always comes out well and today was no exception, lovely oil seperation. I've finally worked out how to caramelise the sauce on my induction.



Lastly, I bought some frozen parotta. The missus wanted to make them herself but unexpected visitors put paid to that! As she was cooking them she kept repeating 'these are not parottas'. Our local Sri-Lanki restaurant make these in front of you. They are thick, soft and flaky. These are more like a pancake. Having said that they are much better than frozen naan.

Inspired by recent thread I made curry 'n' chips yesterday. Kefta Dansak, using CA's recipe omitting the pineapple 'cos I'm fed up with throwing away tins of them.

The meat is beef mince because I have a backlog in the freezer that I want to get through. The chips are triple-cooked and honestly if I lived in the U.K I wouldn't bother, they take far too much time to cook but it was Sunday and I had time. The presentation's not bad by my standards...

I just discovered that there is a butcher's in my Indian area that specialises in goat. I've been meaning to make a Jamaican style goat curry for years, but if I can get a good deal I may well stock up with a few kilos.

I'm told that in some places goat is used in place of mutton, and the two are interchangable.

So, any advice?, do I just cook it like mutton. Any good recipes, thoughts or experiences?

Cheers

Quote from: Masala Mark on August 08, 2011, 11:33 PM
Would be great to try the Pasanda and Malai dishes for something different for them rather then the same old Korma all the time.

I'm going to have a go at doing a lamb passanda as part of a meal I 'm cooking for 10 people (as I can't get away with just chicken!), but I can't find the recipe for precooking the lamb, any help would be welcome.

I decided to start another thread rather than derail another thread.

I'm interseted in this question because of a conversation I was having with my mother-in-law. She's off back to Turkey for a few months and as usual will be getting us a kilo of Paprika.

I was asking her about what exactly is used to make the Paprika and she was explaining that there are different paprikas ranging from mild to hot, but also with different flavours depending on the usage of the paprika. I'd love to go to see the markets and have a try of some different varieties!

So, I was making some Red curry paste (Thai) using dried chillis, big ones that I asumed were probably 'Kashmiri' chillis. I got the M-i-l to have a taste of one and she said it would make good paprika.

My mother in law doesn't speak English (or French) and my missus was translating from Turkish to French, but as far as she was concerned Paprika was the same as chilli powder.

I checked wikipedia and it says that paprika comes from a species of capsicum of which bell pepper and a lot of normal chilli varieties come from.

I know what I have believed is the difference between the two, but is there really any accepted difference in terms of BIR or traditional cookery?

Calling all chilli experts.

I recently bought some green chillis which aren't available where I live. I get these from around Gare du nord in Paris which isn't too far but I like to keep a bag in the freezer for emergencies.

The last batch I bought has a really peppery after taste, not unpleasnt but strong. I noticed it when I first made an omelette with them but put it down to the copious amount of black pepper I use. I've noticed that I can still taste it the morning after I've eaten them.

The shop I go to has a couple of varieties of green chilli, one slightly smaller than the other and at different prices. These were the smaller of the two most between 20-30mm. All the shops are Tamil, although I don't know if that makes a difference to the supplier.

I've never noticed this before and maybe it's due to freezing them or a specific chilli variety. Or possibly the onset of some sort of ageing dementia.

Any thoughts?

I've been meaning to make a biryani for a long time and finally got round to it last night. The rice was a bit over-cooked but not a bad first effort. Not BIR, but I've never had a decent one in a takeaway or a restaurant and haven't orderd one for years. So a traditional one pot Biryani.

I used  'Vahchef's' Chicken biryani recipe easily found on Youtube. I wanted to try something fairly simple to get the timing right before having a go at this.....https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=5185.0

Even managed to convince the missus that this wasn't a curry.

Just posting this for posterity.

The missus is on some new kind of fad diet, so I'm just cooking single potions. Big single portions. This has meant changing the way I cook a bit as the usual pan is too wide and the sauce evaporates too quickly. Using an idea from someone here I cooked this in a normal saucepan, meaning I could go to town with my metal chefs' spoon.

I went back to basics, a Madras - CT's base, CA's mix and Zaal GM and used a basic version of CT's recipe. Just G/G paste, tom puree, mix, kashmiri chilli, methi, Worcestershire sauce and a dash of lemon. The chicken was cooked from raw.

I've been really happy with the majority of my curries recently but this was absolutely the best yet. Real depth of taste that lasted in the mouth like a fine wine.

Christmas is coming and me and the missus usually buy ourselves a join prezzie, normally kitchen related. I've promised her a replacement for one of her pans that I scratched all the protective coating off :-X

I in return can get a new pan. I'm fairly happy with my non-stick aluminium pan, but it's a bit too non-stick and a bit convex.

I'd love a steel pan something like:http://www.amazon.co.uk/De-Buyer-5610-32-Mineral-Diameter/dp/B00462QP1G/ref=pd_sim_kh_1

I'm cooking on induction and I want something that I can use my metal chef's spoon in and that'll caramelise a bit. I'm worried that it might be too thick and difficult to adjust the temperature with.

Any thoughts?

I have an up and coming curry night to organise. Only the 4 of us, so I'll be doing 3 dishes. Probably CTM as I'm not sure if they like their food too spicy, plus a not too hot North India special.

Which leaves the last dish, I'd planned to do something with chicken but the missus has told me I have to use up some mince that she's already mixed with garlic and onion.

Any suggestions? I don't really want another yogurt based dish. I don't usually cook curry with vegetables but I could be persuaded. I don't really want to have to cook a traditional Indian dish with all the other stuff I have to do.

Thanks.

A while back I bought a can of ghee which I think I'm going to risk opening tomorrow for 976bar's passanda recipe. Firstly I should stop buying tons of stuff I never use from Asian shops, but since I'm stuck with some ghee that doesn't seem to figure too highly in the recipes I'm cooking at the moment, I'd like to not throw it away after a few weeks in the fridge.

So, any ideas if it would freeze O.K? I can't see why not.....