Wife is one of those weird veggies, so I tried this last night. Something a bit different, but packed with flavour. One of the best veggy curreis I've had, although it's not really BIR.

I was a bit worried that the whole spices and seeds may give it a "crunchy" texture, but I think the 30-40 mins cooking softened them enough not to really notice. Just the odd bite into a clove and cardomon which gives a bit of a taste explosion, which I like. I did remove the cinnamon and bay leaves though.

I think it would be great with chicken or lamb in there. Would be very easy just to add some pre-cooked just before the end of cooking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s24QQ2t0pmo

Had a curry night for a few friends on Saturday. Didn't have starters, but made onion, tomato and cucumber chutney, yogurt and cucumber chutney, spicy onion and tomato chutney, along with purchased mango and lime pickle (no photos of these, sorry). Bought the pre-made popadoms (don't have a deep fat fryer).

Main meals were chana masala, chicken korma, chicken masala (not tika), lamb jalfrezi and tarka dhal.

I bought a large 3 tray hotplate thing a good few years back which is ideal for keeping the meals hot while you carry on cooking. Plus a small double electric hob from Lidl!

Rice was finished in the oven at around 120oC to keep it warm and loosen it up.

Lot of preparation work and cooking (started at 1pm, finished around 6.30pm), but everyone loved it all!

To finish off, wife made some chocolate brownies which were awesome! Totally stuffed and knackered!


MY home made spatter guard! Obviously no good for gas cooker as it's made out of cardboard!



Chana masala, chicken korma, chicken masala.



Tarka dhal, lamb jalfrezi.



Pilau rice.

Fantastic, healthy, tasty soup! Bit like a fancy base recipe.

This is my wife's recipe. Just basically veg and spices, but I'm  always amazed how tasty this turns out.

Makes around 8 full portions. Can freeze for later use.

Veg -
1 stick celery
1 leek
2 medium potatoes (or replace one with sweet potato)
2 heaped teaspoons garlic paste or around 6 garlic cloves
1/2 courgette
1 carrot
1 onion
1 cup of washed lentils
1 red or green pepper
1 tin chopped tomatoes
4 green chillies

Spices-
1 hpd tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 hpd tsp coriander
1 hpd tsp cumin
1 hpd tsp mild madras
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp oregano
2 tbs tomato puree
1 stock cube
Handful fresh coriander
Good splash of Worcester sauce
2 1/2 pints water

Chop all veg.
Put in pressure cooker (you'll need around 6-7 litre one).
Add all spices.
Add water.
Bring to boil, pressure cook for around 12 mins.
Give it a quick blitz with hand held liquidiser for chunky soup, or longer for smooth soup.

If you like it spicy, add a decent chilli sauce for extra zing!

Try it, you'll not regret it. 

Hello Everybody! 

Not been cooking curries for quite a while. Have had the kitchen gutted and refitted, and didn

My bases have generally been the more "full" type of base, with quite a few veggies in, and spices also added.

My query is what difference is there between a simple, basic base (like the KD1 base) and a more full base when it comes to the end curry? Does it taste much different? If so , how?

I am wondering whether I should try a simple base just for a change.

I bought a "Modern Player" stratocaster recently (ebay

Been busy trying new recipes over the weekend. Most turned out very good (Saturday = first 3 photos, Sunday = last 2 photos, quality not so good for some reason).

First was a chicken nawabi from Cook4one site - very interesting recipe - includes crushed/ground cumin and fennel seeds. Give it a 8.5/10, into the favourites book.

Next up, daughters favourite korma (Georges/Ghanas recipe with a few of my own mods) - think I've got this spot on now. Daughter says better than any take away! 9/10.

Balti recipe from 100 Best Baltis Book -nice tasty curry. 8/10.

First time I've tried chewys madras - fantastic! Think I could have done with a little more base, but incredibly tasty for such few ingredients. Probably better than any take away madras I've had. 9/10. Into the favourites!

Finally Geezahs dhansak. This is the best dhansak recipe I've tried, although I did make some pre-cooked lentils to go into it, with onions/garlic/bay leaf/cinnamon/coriander which tasty really good on it's own (a pretty good dhal). 8.5/10. Into the favourites also.

Chicken Nawabi (Cook4One recipe) -


Chicken Korma (Georges/Ghana recipe) -


Sweet Potato and Mushroom Balti (100 Best Balti Recipes book) -


Chicken Madras (Chewy Tikkas) -


Potato Dhansak (Geezahs London Style Dhansak) -

Anyone else find a sprinkle of sugar quite often lifts the taste of a curry?

So, I made my base tonight, and I fried the onions in the oil for a good amount of time until they were pretty translucent. I think the resulting base has a sweeter taste to it, a little less bitternes than usual. I suppiose frying creates a higher heat and affects the cooking of the onions in a differet way. Don't know how this will affect my curries yet.

Anyway, I got to thinking about which bases forum users make, and why, what steps they take, and whether these steps make any differencew to the end result. I thought it might be good to share our knowledge. I'll start.

1. Do you always cooks the same base, have you settled on a base that you think gives you the best results? If so, which one?

I usually use CAs base with Abdhuls modifications. Have tried others. but I feel this gives me the best result.

2. Do you fry onions before boiling?

See above! Have to wait and see what the final result is.

3. Do you filter out the fibrous bits after blitzing? If you have done both (filtering and non-filtering), do you think it makes any difference to the end result?

Yes I do, I assume a smoother gravy will give a better result, but to be truthful, never tried a base with fibrous stuff left in.

4. Do you re-boil/simmer after blitzing? Do this make any difference?

Yes, because of point 5.

5. Do you skim off the froth if you simmer? Does this make any difference?

Yes. I remember reading in a book (Kris Dhillon?) that this was an important step, so I do! Not really sure if it makes a difference, but as I am making a base I think I may as well do it because if I don't, it might be as good!

Hello all,

Thought I would put up my curry document (now removed). Its my collection of information, curries, side dishes etc that I have cooked over the past 12 months and found to be good. This is obviously personal, so I don't expect everyone to like the same things. Most are recipes taken form this forum, cook4one, etc, with a few changes here and there. It's gradually been built up over the past 12 months, and I've passed it onto friends who came for curries and liked what they had.

It's probably not much use for most people on here who have been cooking for a while, as they will no doubt be familiar with most of the information that's in it, but it may be of use to newcomers as a starting guide. There's a pdf file, and a doc file for anyone who wants to modify it.

Anyway, happy cooking!

Meggeth requested later:  "George, can you delete the original docs in the first post please! Ta." So I have, whilst he updates them.   Regards - George

Leftovers for lunch,

moong dahl with egg fried chapati with red onion, chilli, coriander.

Chapatis much nicer like this, and much less fattening (fingers crossed.....)

Just wondering how much people pay for their chicken? I've been using tesco value diced chicken breast, bit expensive I think at around 6 pound for around 800g. At the local Asian store they said they charge only 4pd per kilo.

What price do you pay, and is the chicken from Asian stores usually good quality?

I have recently purchased both vol 1 and 2 of CBMs books, and have tried the masala naga and south indian garlic/chilli dishes - both very good.

Looking through the recipes, I see that quite a few of them specify 1 tablespoon of spice mix - I have never seen this amount before. In fact both the masala naga and south indoin G/C recipe specifies this - I thought it was a misprint and put in 1 tsp only, not tbs - still were both great.

Anyway, my question is have those who have used the recipes from this book used 1 tablespoon of spcie mix in any of these recipes - and what was the result? Not too overpowering?

Maybe I'll try it out on the next recipe.....

I was thinking of getting CBMs ebooks, but I have a query. Can you print them out? Surely it would be a pain to have your kindle/tablet next to your cooker and ingredients?

I had to cook 2 large curries for a party tonight, but didn't have any base left. I have wanted to try a soup based quick base for some time, wondering what the results would be like, so this was the chance I had to do that.

Nipped to Tesco and checked on what was in the tins/cartons of soup. I had previously read that onion soup is good to add, then I also though I would add a mixed veg soup, along with carrot and coriander.

The photos show the ones I chose.

Recipe -

Should make about 2-2.5 litres

4 tbs oil
2 x finely chopped onion
1/4 finely chopped green pepper
(optional) 4 off cardamon, 2 off bay, 1 star anis, 50mm cinnamon
5 tsp garlic/ginger paste
1 tsp mild madras
2 tsp mixed powder
1/2 tsp salt 
1 x Baxters French Onion Soup
1 x Heinz Farmers Market Seven Veg Soup
1 x Carrot and Coriander soup
1/2 large tin (200g) of chopped tomatoes/passata
4 tbs tomato puree
30g fresh chopped coriander
20g creamed coconut block
Approx 300-400ml of water

Add oil in saucepan and heat
Add onion/pepper and (optional) hard spices and fry until soft
Add garlic paste, mild madras, mixed spice, salt and cook for 1 or 2 mins
Add soups, chopped tomato/passata, coriander and bring to boil
Add coconut block, then simmer for 10-15 mins, stirring occasionally to stop sticking
Take off heat and cool a little, remove hard spices
Hand blend until smooth
Add water if too thick



Soups chosen


Base before blending


Base after blending

I made two very large curries with this, and had loads left over, which I have frozen.

The results were, unexpectedly, very, very good. In fact, I think the curries I made were as good as using a full blown base, don't think I could tell the difference if the two were to be put in front of me. I think it's a very good way to make a quality base, very quickly. Not saying that this should replace your normal base, but it an option to have available when in a rush.

I see a lot of recipes have pre-cooked peppers/onion, etc. I have never done this. Is there any benefit? If a recipe has onions/peppers, I just add them at the start and fry them for around 1 min, then continue wiht the recipe. I cant see how pre-cooking onion/pepper would add much extra flavour - not the same as meat which has a more ability to soak up flavour.

Anyone pre-cook veg and find it makes a big difference to the end result? 

Thanks to Goncola for ponting me in the direction of Abbots Langely Viceroy recipe. My rice was based on this, with a few minor mods. Video here, good to watch how they make it -

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

Makes around 3 good portions.

Ingredients
      
3 tbs oil               
4 tbs chopped garlic            
2-3 finely chopped chillis         
1/2 quite fine chopped onion      
4 slice green pepper finely chopped      
4 slice red pepper finely chopped      
1/2 tsp salt               
1 tsp mix powder            
1/2 tsp chilli               
3 portions pilau rice            
2 tsp butter ghee            
2 tbs fine chopped coriander   


Method

Heat oil for around 1 min
Add chopped garlic and chilli, fry for 1 min
Add onion, green and red pepper and fry for 30 secs
Add salt, mix powder, chilli and fry for 30 secs
Add pilau rice and fry for around 1 min, mixing well
Add butter ghee and coriander and fry for 1 min

Adding the ghee makes the rice nice and rich tasting. Could eat this just on its own!

Next time I might try Coriander and chilli rice, replacing the garlic with with around 4 tbs of coriander stalks (add later in the frying process).

Should have taken pics - next time!!

It was back in, I think, 1980.

I had never done it before, I was inexperienced, but one night it happened unexpectedly, in the bus station.

I didn't know what I was doing really, but with the help of someone more experienced, with strong, but gentle persuasion and encouragement, I began to learn what it was all about. Then it happened for the first time. It was like an explosion, it blew my mind. How could something like this have existed, and I never even knew about it? I had never known such pleasure! From that point on, I knew that I would always want this feeling in my life, I would never tire of it, would want it at least once a week, and I didn't mind paying for it!

I ventured out, enjoying getting my fix at every opportunity. I wasn't always faithful to my first love - I was eager to experiment, to try new things with new, different people, who made me exiting offers. As I got more experienced, I would spice things up - at times things things would get really hot, even making me all sweaty and steamy.

But still I regularly returned to to my first love, to rekindle that "first time" experience. Unfortunately, she passed away in the early 90s, and I still often think about her, and the way she made me feel.

Omar Khayyam, above Hanley bus station, Stoke on Trent. Lamb Rogon Josh, with pilau rice. 

What was your first time, and what do you most remember?

 My curries, I feel are good, and I am happy with the taste I get. However, standard curries, eg bhuna, jalfrezi, rogon josh, while having very good flavours, tend to have a background similarity. I suppose this is to be expected to some point, because of using the same ginger/garlic paste, base, spice mix, pre-cooked meat, etc. Sometimes though, I would like a different tasting bhuna or jalfrezi. I do like the special dishes, eg butter chicken, bahar, jaflong, because they come out different because of different ingredients. It makes a nice change.

There are obviously massive variations on the same dish from restaurant to restaurant. So, my question is, what is the best way to get taste variation? 

1. Try different spice mixes? - not sure this would make a great difference.
2. Maybe use freshly chopped ginger and garlic?
3. Different base recipe - think many seem to say bases don't change the taste that much?
4. How about adding some curry pastes? Is that sacreligious? 

Any suggestions how to get good taste variations?

Tried black cumin seeds today for the first time, after a few had said how much better they are than normal cumin seeds. All I can say is....

YEEUUUGGGHHHH!   

Really don't like the taste of them. Bought a whole bag of them, but have now thrown them away. Put just a small amount in the pilau rice. To me, they taste very similar to black cardomon, which I also dislike.

Isn't taste a strange thing?