Ok some of the younger users might not know why i've names myself after a duck, long and short I haven't. As the more mature Indian enthusiast you will know that the Bombay Duck was a very tasty battered fish starter in all the restaurants back in the day. On my recent trip to Goa I found some restaurants offering it and couldn't wait to remind my taste-buds what it was all about. Needless to say I wasn't dissapointed.
Here is a pic of the starter I had which was reminiscent of exactly what I remember from back in the day. Very thin battered with only a mild fishy taste.



Bombay Duck stopped being a dish in England some time ago due to import difficulties, having it again in Goa was a nice reminder. Did any of our users here have this starter as part of their meal? I am interested to know.

I have to post this pic also, I was in a restaurant in Panjim and asked the waiter if he had any beer on tap, he said sure and brought me one and a half litres of pour it yourself Kingfisher....ingenious! I think you could fit about 3 litres in the thing!



Heres a pic of a typical feast...Curry, Tandoori chicken, Shish Kebabs, panner bhajee, butter nans...



Lastly a pic of one of my fave Goan currys, the traditional Goan fish curry. This time with Kingfish.

Besides Madras, Dhansak is a dish I've been on the trail for replicating for sometime now and find alot of variations in recipes.

As stated in some of the recipes here, Amchur (mango powder) and Mango chutney seem to be used alot which seems to be a norm, the use of red-lentils also seems to be widely used. I have always used a mix of red-lentils and either yellow split peas or chana dall...I've never really understood the difference between the yellow split peas and chana dall though, the chana dall has always been a bit more expensive. When I asked the girl at my local Asian supermarket she said the difference was chana dall is used more is soups/broths?? They both seem to work just as good to me anyway.
When cooking the Tarka dall I normally use ghee but find a normal salted butter works just as well also, I also find that after adding the tarka (garlic fried golden in the butter) adding a little smoked paprika adds even a little more smokiness to the dish. Not sure if anyone else has tried this or maybe it might be wiser adding it later when cooking up the sauce. I find the ratio of yellow split/chana to red lentils about 70/30% 70% yellow split peas.
Anyway other variations include the use of white sugar or brown for the sweetness and also whether to add cream to the dish, one BIR I visited once told me they include carnation milk into their Dhansak, and it was very tasty.

I also prefer King Prawn when doing mine, I notice most the recipes are chicken which is great but the King Prawn Dhansak I grew up on is one hell of a dish.

What other variations are tried and tested by members?

Hi eveyone. I can't believe I've only just found this place as cooking curry or trying to achieve that authentic Bangladeshi flavour has been an obsession of mine for many years. I'm really looking forward into trying a few different things out, it has been a goal of mine to replicate a decent Madras for years and whilst I'm somewhat happy the results I get I love experimenting to trying and get closer to that BIR flavour.
To date my current base gravy has been a mixture of the curry secrets and Pat Chatmans version which uses celery, carrot and radish...so im very intruiged to try a few peeps bases out and other techniques.
hope I can contribute with at least some mouth watering pictures!
Adam