I came across a foodie video about corn dogs yesterday. First I'd ever heard of them, but apparently they're a 'thing' in the US, Korea and elsewhere. Who knew?

Anyway, it was the method used to form chilli corn dogs illustrated on the Chefclub TV website that caught my attention as I thought it looked ideal for preparing foolproof seekh kebabs that wouldn't fall apart. There is a video describing the recipe and method, but you'll have to sign up to the site to see it all.

Essentially, the method of forming the 'dogs', or kebabs as I'll now call them, is to use a home-made sausage machine:

1. Prepare the mincemeat mixture as usual.
2. Cut a plastic water bottle in half.
3. Stuff the top half of the water bottle with the mincemeat.
4. Place the cut end of the bottle over a suitably sized plunger (a glass jar was used in the video).
5. Push the bottle down onto the plunger until the meat reaches the bottle mouth.
6. Insert a skewer down into the mincemeat.
7. Push the bottle down onto the plunger to force the meat out.
8. Snip off the kebab once the skewer is clear of the bottle top.
9. Refill the bottle as required and repeat.

I grabbed a couple of screenshots just to illustrate the method.





I'm going to give it a bash myself next time I do kebabs.

While surfing the web looking for a recipe, I came across this YouTube video for Sri Lankan Fish Curry. It looked decent enough, so I followed the video and transcribed the recipe.

I didn't have all of the ingredients to hand, and, as I had the fish, but not the time to prepare the 'jaffna curry powder', I adapted the recipe a little to suit my circumstances.

What can I say? It was delicious! Very tasty indeed.

When I make it again - and I will - I'll leave out the additional 1 tsp of turmeric called for in the cooking phase. The amount of turmeric in the marinade was quite sufficient.







Adaptation Notes:

1. I substituted the jaffna curry powder with MDH Fish Curry Masala.
2. The black mustard seeds refused to be found, so I substituted 1.5 tsp panch phoran.
3. I didn't have curry leaves, and didn't substitute anything.
4. I made a bouquet garni of dried pandan leaves, cassis bark and tej patta.
5. I finely chopped 2 red and one green chilli to provide some background heat.
5. I added 2 tsp of sugar before cooking the fish to counter the bitterness of the extra turmeric.
6. I substituted a can of coconut cream in place of coconut milk.

I've recently been flicking through my recipe files with a view to to revisiting curries I haven't made in a while.

Last night, it was a choice between my adaptation of Domi's Dopiaza, a South Indian Garlic Chilli Chicken (the origin of which is lost in the mists of time!), or my de-Tazified version of Stephen Lindsay's Punjabi Masala.

As the topic title suggests, the Punjabi Masala won - and it was delicious! Stephen has posted some excellent recipes to this forum which are definitely worth revisiting.

Flicking through my curry recipe files, I came across lovieitspicy's Chicken Rogan Josh recipe which I last revisited almost 4 years ago.

It was delicious, as all Rich's recipes are, even with my added green pepper and tomato adaptations this time around. It wasn't as red as I remember, but that's probably down to the fact that I had some spare chopped tomatoes in the fridge which I substituted for tomato puree.

I bought half a kilo of large prawns at the weekend with the intention of enjoying a nice, hot, saucy curry based on the tried and tested Chicken Ceylon recipe I habitually use. (I suppose I really should start calling it a Sri Lankan curry, although, in truth, I wouldn't know what a typical Sri Lankan curry would taste like.)

So after 30 minutes of shelling and de-veining the prawns, I was left with enough large prawns for 2 meals. I think I probably need some practice in the de-veining department as the cooked prawns ended up looking like miniature pink tyres! They tasted and texture was fine, though.

Incidentally, I made a stock for a seafood paella with the shells which I fried off with onion and carrot and boiled for 20 minutes in 500ml water. I blitzed the stock and strained it through a fine sieve and again through a very fine reuseable coffee filter.

Long-time members will be aware of my fondness for this particular recipe and, because my good lady wife is neither fond of prawns nor hot curries, it was going to be mine, all mine!

The only addition I made to the standard recipe was a heaped tablespoon of chilli, coriander and garlic paste which is based on Chewy's recipe and made with a handful of eye-wateringly hot bullet chillies, a large bunch of fresh coriander and half a large bulb of garlic all blitzed together in sunflower oil.

It was really good, and the best news is that I have the other half in the fridge to look forward to.

I was having a flick through my curry recipes last night and came across Rich's Chicken Chasni recipe. The happy memories of a deliciously hot, sweet, creamy curry came flooding back and made up my mind for me. It was Chasni tonight!

I should have known to check my curry supplies before taking the decision. A major clue would have been the out-of-date poppadoms I opened to mop up my spicy onions. A best before date of April 2019 sounded OK right up until I took a soggy bite. Ho hum. I resorted to a teaspoon to demolish the spicy onions.

A further check of the cupboard revealed the absence of orange food colour, mango pulp and evaporated milk. The food colour wasn't a problem, and I substituted Geeta's mango chutney for the mango pulp and a lump of soft brown sugar to add sweetness in place of the evaporated milk.



The result was - delicious! Not quite Rich's Chasni, but almost! Really enjoyed it again. It's funny how favourites just drop from memory. So many curries, so little time!

Something tickled the back of my mind on the subject of Lamb Balti recently, and I found myself looking for a suitable recipe without quite knowing why.

I ended up on the YouTube channel of Misty Ricardo (aka rshome123, late of this parish) and found a Lamb Balti video that looked pretty decent.

I made a 4-person balti (hence the giant wok!) according to MR's recipe this morning for later consumption, and I can honestly say that it is one of the best curries I have tasted. Highly recommended!



If you're looking for something new to try, have a go at this one - it's delicious!

Spurred on by the recent tandoori chop topics posted by Unclefrank and Chewytikka, I dug out my chops from the freezer and got to work.

Unfortunately for me, I managed to defrost the pork chops instead of the lamb, but hey ho! - onwards and upwards!

I was intrigued by Chewy's Aloo Bhorta, so after discovering it was a sort of spicy, mashed potato side dish, I checked out a few recipes and settled on one by Shanaz Rafiq.

Not owning a tandoor, the chops were fired on the charcoal BBQ before hitting the plate with the Aloo Bhorta, side salad and Naga pickle. Very nice indeed. I never got around to making Unclefrank's suggested nargis kebabs - but I will! - and thanks to Chewy, I've discovered a new and delicious side dish.

As long-term forum members will be aware, I am a great advocate of the Ceylon Curry. I just had to have some again last night with some home made naan bread.

Alway full of good intentions, me. It's only taken 9 years to get around to making these curry puffs!

I can confirm everyone else's opinion, though - it's a first-class snack!



Admittedly, the pastry is a little peely-wally, but the puffs were still nice and crispy. My oven seems to be a little slow (and there was a queue for oven time!) so I'll maybe bake them at Gas Mk 5 next time.

The Guardian: Competitive eater taken to hospital after eating world's hottest chilli pepper

Yesterday, I made jb's Garlic Chilli Chicken curry using the Malai Chicken Tikka recipe from UF's recent Tandoori Mixed Kebab post and my own homemade garlic pickle. It was a lip-smacking combination! The mild, yet tasty chicken tikka perfectly matched the hot, garlicky curry and the hot, slightly-sweet garlic pickle added to the combination. All in all, very nice, and something I'll be making again and again.

I have plans to make jb's Garlic Chilli Chicken at the weekend, but garlic pickle is one ingredient missing from my store cupboad and isn't readily available at short notice.

I decided to knock some up in the kitchen myself and had a look around the web for recipes. I couldn't find any that conformed exactly to the ingredient list of 'Ahmed Foods Garlic Pickle in Oil' mentioned by jb in his thread - most had many more ingredients, but the preparation methods were pretty standard.

At last, I plumped for VahChef Sanjay Thumma's recipe. Unfortunately, the quantites of his ingredients used in the video didn't ring true with his written ingredients list. So I had to guess a bit. As a garlic pickle virgin, I had no idea what it should look like, far less taste like, but I have to say the finished article is pretty moreish and I'd be happy to eat it with a poppadom or two never mind put it into a curry!



If anyone fancies trying it for themselves, here's my interpretation of the VahChef's recipe:

GARLIC PICKLE
By: Sanjay Thumma (VahChef)

Makes: Approx. 800g

Ingredients

For the Pickle Paste

250ml vegetable oil
2 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds

We had a bit of a mini-feast recently. On the menu was vegetable pakora and Alex Wilkie's chicken pakora with chilli and chilli/yoghurt dips, followed by CA's excellent Chicken Ceylon,



Stephen Lindsay's fantastic Murgh Makhani/Butter Chicken (adapted from the Taz method)



and a Lamb Karahi from rshome123 (aka MistyRicardo, I think!) along with turmeric-boiled basmati rice and shop-bought garlic and coriander naan.



The Ceylon Chicken and Butter Chicken recipes have long been standards for me, but I've been on the lookout for a Karahi recipe that comes close to an excellent dish served by a local takeaway. I made a couple of adaptations to rshome123's recipe and it definitely isn't a million miles away - it's a good recipe IMO.

I added some chunks of onion and green pepper to the recipe as they're included in the takeaway version and I added about 60 ml stock from the reduced pre-cooked lamb gravy just to deepen the lamb flavour.

There's a link to a video recipe in the Karahi thread. Definitely worth a go!

Having pre-cooked a load of potatoes for my recent and future vindaloo curries, I decided to use up some fresh spinach in the fridge, so went for CBM's take on Saag Aloo with some plain boiled basmati and a couple of chapattis.







I left the curry a little saucy so I could mop up with the chapattis, added a couple of chopped green chillies for additional heat and threw in a couple of tbsp of the gravy left over from cooking the potatoes. I also skimmed off about 4tbsp of spiced oil from the left-over gravy to start the curry off. Delicious!

With all the talk about Vindaloo lately, I became interested in reading up about the dish. I came across a recipe by Hari Nayak from his book, My Indian Kitchen: Preparing Delicious Indian Meals without Fear or Fuss and thought I'd have a go at it. I later found out that he produces a similar, but not identical, Pork Vindaloo recipe in his latest book, The Cafe Spice Cookbook which can be found on Google Books here. Inconveniently, the spice mix isn't shown, but the recipe can be found here for anyone interested.

I chose this recipe as it seemed to loosely combine elements of traditional cooking with the sort of thing that would be done in the home nowadays. It uses a freshly roasted and ground spice mix in the meat marinade and a freshly prepared paste at the cooking stage.



What was it like? Well, it was delicious! Deep, deep mouth-warming flavours - not sour or vinegary at all - and nice contrasting textures of potato and pork. Apart from South Indian Garlic Chilli Chicken, this is probably the hottest curry I've eaten to date - and I thought it was brilliant! My fellow diners, however, and despite good intentions, made manful (and womanful!) attempts, but failed to reach the finish line. Both really enjoyed the flavours of the curry before their heads exploded!

After last week's unexpected, unwelcome, but unmitigated disaster with a simple Madras, I thought I would stray from the tried and trusted and go for a curry I hadn't made before.

After a trawl of the Main Dishes board, I settled for loveitspicy's Chicken Rogan Josh. It had somehow fallen under my recipe radar.



It was good - I mean, it was really good! Very flavoursome and it cooked like a dream, taking no effort at all to reduce to a bhuna consistency.





I was cooking for 3 adults, so I had to mess around with the ingredient quantities a little (but not too much!). In fact, I reckon that the increased ingredient amounts would have done nicely for 2 hungry people using only 2 portions of pre-cooked chicken instead of the 1kg I used.

The major difference to the cooked recipe compared to Rich's written version was the absence of fennel powder. I had none, and I couldn't be bothered grinding such a small quantity, so I added 1.5 tsp of fennel seeds at the initial stage and then continued with the recipe once the seeds began to pop in the hot oil.

I wasn't quite sure how to interpret the "little" amount of sliced onion and chopped tomato so I used half a medium onion and, although I chopped 2 fairly large tomatoes, I only used about 3 tbsp. Also, I didn't include the optional yoghurt as the curry looked and tasted just right when it was done.

I would definitely recommend Rich's recipe to anyone looking for a new dish to try. You won't be disappointed!

I always like to try new recipes posted to this site and elsewhere. I've still loads of dishes to try out from Rich's 'Josephine' thread, for example, but there's only so many days in the week! Anyway, I fancied that CH's Patala would go down well with my good lady wife, so that was yesterday's dish of the the day.

As it happens, the Patala went down extremely well. It was pronounced as being full of flavour with just the right heat levels and, once the plate was polished, it received the accolade of being her favourite curry! There can be no higher praise!

I liked it too. It was very nice indeed. I followed the recipe to the letter, using Abdul's 8-Spice mix powder, JB's base gravy and Pat Chapman's tandoori powder. I also reduced the amount of almond powder as revised by CH.

It turned out to be very saucy in the pan, and I wasn't able to reduce the sauce sufficiently without over-cooking the chicken tikka (the tomatoes were nuked!), so there was plenty to mop up if only I'd done a naan or some chapattis! It's probably down to the heat levels I'm able to generate with my hob, but next time, I'll revert to my usual method of adding less base gravy at a time and reducing the sauce more prior to adding the tikka.





Given that the Patala was such an instant hit, there's no doubt that it will become a regular on the menu in this household. Recommended!

Chewy's Rezala recipe is a big hit in my house. Everyone looks forward to eating it and, when the plates are clean, they always comment on how much they enjoyed it.

I was cooking curry for three tonight and, as my good lady wife isn't too keen on king prawns, one third of the curry was obliged to contain chicken.

No real problem as I just upped the ingredients and cooked the sauce first before splitting it up between the seafood and the poultry. The curry ended up a little more saucy than I would normally make, but as the dish is so delicious anyway, a little extra sauce isn't a problem at all!

Just about ready to divide the sauce:



Chicken first:



Then the king prawns:





Delicious as always - I can't recommend this recipe highly enough!

I'm always open to trying different curry recipes, so when Rich posted up the video recipe of his very own Chicken Tikka Achari I thought that I must give it a go.

I didn't have any Tikka prepared, but I had plenty of my own pre-cooked chicken in the freezer.





Verdict? Very nice indeed! On paper, its a relatively standard curry with the twist of adding mango chutney and mixed pickle towards the end of the cooking time, but this simple addition certainly lifts the dish. I cooked it down towards a bhuna consistency and it was perfect with an accompaniment of plain boiled basmati rice and a couple of chapattis.

My thanks to Rich for posting the video recipe. That's another curry onto the regulars list.