I'm gettin really annoyed. It is getting increasingly hard for me to find local BIRs that still make good curries with classic taste. Crazy given thet I live in central Oxford, but so many BIRs nowadays are churning out tomatoey curries that have got nothing to do with the BIR food I knew and grew up with.

Had a Bhuna from a place called Samads last night - if you closed our eyes and did blind taste test on it, it could have been an italian pasta sauce with a bit of chilli in it. Terrible.

The only dish that I can still get reliably these days is a Vindaloo; most places still do a decent one of them.

The thing we are all  chasing is something that is becoming increasingly rare.

Ok, I've tried the simple Madras/Vindaloo recipe as posted by Pete, the one he part cooked in a BIR.

100% success - absolute carbon copy of a decent BIR Madras/Vindaloo. Everything was right about it - taste, looks, smell. Perfect. BIG respect for Pete for this.

As far as I'm concerned, the hunt for a BIR Vindaloo is now over. We know how to do it. I'd advise EVERYONE who has not tried this recipie to try it asap. It's PERFECT.

Kris Dhillon base used. For the tomato paste I used tomato puree with a little bit of water to thin it a bit. I'll try tomorrow with creamed tomatoes, I bet any money they'll work fine. For the ginger/garlic paste I used a ratio of about 3:4 ginger to garlic, and it was fresh - so its not important to leave it go green/blue overnight. I cooked with bog stadnard oil - so as far as I'm concerend skimmed oil is not a requirement for this. If your garlic/ginger the right consistency, with enough moisture, then you can stir fry it for a good 2 mins or so at max heat without it burning.

One tip - this applies to ALL our BIR cooking.

In a resturant, the base is sitting next to the chef, ready to be added to the pan. ie, it is at room temperature - and a warm room at that. The temp in a BIR kitchen is probablt not far off 30degrees. I bet a lot of us take our base out of the fridge, then add it in - meaning we are putting it into the pan when it is about 4 degrees, a LOT colder than in a BIR. This will cool the pan right down, and prevent you from maintaining the sky high temperature that BIR chefs achieve.

So - my tip is to warm your base up before you start cooking. I put mine in a pan and heaty it it gently to the point of simmering, then take it off. This means that its going into my pan hot, and its not bringing down the sizzling temps that we need.

Well done Pete.

What blending equipment do people here use? At the moment I use a Magimix system 31000. Its very good, but requires you to blend in 3 batches when making Dhillon, as the container isnt that big.

I've thought about getting a decent hand blender. Does anyone here use one of these for making their base?

Hi. I'm going to be cooking one of my curries for a vege on the weekend, so I will need to bung in  200g  or so of something other than cubded, pre cooked chicken

What do people here use and recommend for this? I was thinking maybe an equal mix of potioe cubes, cauliflower florets, and green pepper chunks?

A few people have mentioned in the 'describle the taste' thread that BIR dishes often have a slight toffee type flavour. I think I know where this comes from.

Mark J's observations from his local involved the addition of finely chopped pre-fried onions, and pre fried pepper/onion chunks into the dish. I prepared a bowl of both of these last week when following the recipie - last wednesday to be exact. I returned from a weekend away today and made a curry using the last of the pre fried onions and onions/peppers. These tasted slightly sweet and toffee like - exactly like the toffee taste from a BIR. They were fried 6 days ago, and have been in the fridge since.

This makes quite a lot of sense - VERY few of us will have ever used week old pre fried onions in our home cooking, but it must happen all the time in a resturant. Using them brought the 'toffee' taste that no-one seems to be able to get. Try the above, and I think you'll find you do get it!

Hi. Many moons ago, I used to own a Pat Chapman book, 'The Curry Bible'. On the wholre, I thought it was useless, but it had one recipie I liked, for a kind of Pork Vindaloo, involving red wine, and red wine vinegar. I don't know how authentic this was but it tasted fantastic. I can't find the Curry Bible anywhere at the moment, and don't really want to buy it again just for this one recipie.... is there anyone who has it, and would be willing to put it up?

Thanks
Tom

I've come across an easy way to come reasonably close to the texture, appearance and flavour of tandoor cooked chicken tikka, and thought I'd share it with you. Here is what I do:

(for one)
Chop a chicken breat into tikka sized chunks. Put them in a bowl, and drizzle with a small amount of oil. Squirt in a teaspoon of garlic purre, 1/2 a teaspoon of turmeric, and 1/2 a teaspoon of paprika, plus a pinch of chilli and red food colouring. Mix well with your hands to evenly coat, and leave for about 30 mins.

To cook, take a nice thick cast iron wok/karahi, and heat a tiny amount of oil to a very high tempertaure. Chuck in the chicken. Proceeed to stir fry. Stir very quickly, else the chicken quickly sticks after a few minutes, the chicken will be sealed, and you can relax a bit. Keep stirring at a slower rate, and keep the heat nice and high. After 5 minutes, or so, you should be getting a hint of charring on a few of the pieces, at this point remove from the heat. If the heat was high enough, the chicken should have JUST turned from pink to cooked. It will be incredibly tender and juicy, and look just like chicken tikka. If you've gotten it to char a bit, it will taste quite like it as well. It is then ideal to chuck into a curry as 'pre cooked' chicken, and serve up. However, you can't cool and re heat it, otherwise you lose the tenderness and juicyness.

Also, dont use more than  pinch of chilli powder, or you'll do your throat in when frying it.

Vindaloo for one:
Heat 2 tablespoons hof oil, fry a small ish squirt of garlic puree (teaspoon or so) for 20 secs. Add 1 cup of khris dhillon sauce, 1/2 a teaspoon of salt and as much chilli powder as you like fo make vindaloo strength. Blast on max heat for 5 miinutues, stirring all the time. Turn down the curry a bit. Add in: 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar, a small squiirt of tomato ketchup, and a teaspoon of spice (equal parts corinader, cumin, curry power and turmeric). Cook for a few more minutes, then stir in pre cooked chicken, and maybe a lump or two of potato, and teaspoon of chopped coriander roots and leaves, and a pinch of garam masala. Warm the chicken through, and turn off the heat. Transfer to a serving bowl, sprinkle with a further pinch of coriander.

Lovvvvely.

Where my head is at right now

BASE SAUCE
I've come to the conclusion that any of the popular base sauce preparations are adequte to make a true BIR with. The Dhillon, the Bruce... any method involving onion boiling and blending is gonna be on the right track. Personally I use the Dhillon. I've tasted the exact sauce in quite a few Biryanai vegetable side dishes over the years, so I know that this base is out there and being used. I think any decent base will do, and it doesn't really matter which one it is, so just use the one you prefer cooking. Based on my experiences, and reading the experiences of those who've had dealing with their local takeaways, I am perfectly satisfied that we have got the base sauce nailed, and that the 'secrets' lie elswhere.

WHAT TO DO TO THE BASE SAUCE
My excitment all those years ago at getting 90% of the way to a BIR, using Kris Dhillons book has been gradually eroded as I realised I was not getting any closer. Dhllion's methods weren't quite getting me there, and my expierments weren't really proving successful. Maybe it is the case that without a professional resutrant style gas hob, we will not quite get there. We don't know this though, and so I think its worth ploughing on.

For vindaloo, what I'm doing at the moment is this: heat generous amount of oil, fry a squirt of garlic puree, add a cup of dhillion sauce, decent salting, good lash of chilli, and blast as hot as possible for 5 mins. Add a few shakes of lemo juice, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, small squirt of tom ketchup, and a generous tespoon of spice mixture (equal parts of coriander, cumin, turmeric and curry powder). Cook for a few mins more, then and a decent pinch of garam masala, pre cooked chicken and coriander stems and leaves. cook until chicken is warm, then leave to stand for a few mins, so as not to serve it too hot. I find that the lemon, sugar and tom ketchep give a slight tang that definatyl propells this into an authetnic tasting BIR vindaloo....

However, theres more to life than madras and vindaloo, and my big heache at the moment is the 'smokey' hint you get in a good bhuna/jalfrezi. Obviously I use fungreek when making these, but find its not quite enough. The smell you get from a BIR bhuna is very like the smell you get from holding a black cardomman to you nose and inhaling. However, when you grind a BC, you get something very different. Popping a BC into the oil before cooking up a portion does not allow for much flavour of the BC to seep into the sauce.

I feel the BC has major untapped potential here. Does anyone have anything to report on their experiences with them?