Hi again all - I posted about a month ago looking for a legit 70's/80's style (old school) BIR recommendation in Central London. I was sadly disappointed by the responses that they seemed few and far between - no recommendations.

Well the good news is that I'm no longer bound travel-wise to central London. I can realistically travel anywhere within about an hour outside of the M25. So I'm widening the net for recommendations.

Can anyone help out an original cr0 curryhead who has been away from the UK for way too long? Thank you all!!!

p.s. Phil - I actually did look up your place in Cornwall, while it does look ideal, 4 hours is just too far for this trip!

Hi All - been many years since I've posted but I'm going to be in London for a few days travelling from Canada, and looking for some BIR recommendations. Not fancy ones, but proper old style ones who do it closer to the 70's and 80's style. Willing to travel a bit for what I'm looking for, so "Central London" is a guideline. Appreciate any and all input!

Hi all - I will be back in the UK after many years away and am looking forward to enjoying good, old school British curries. From what I can gather the standard seems to be dropping, so I am reaching out to members to give me some recommendations.

I am so serious about this, that I can amend my itinerary to suit my curry quest.

I will be in London, Manchester, up the M4 corridor, the south east, the south west.

Looking forward to some recommendations. Thanks Gang!

Hi All,

I've tried a few times to make HappyChris' naans. I've followed to the letter, even tried making my own self rising flour. I just cannot seem to get the bubbles that many of you have managed to recreate. Mine end up as tiny bubbles, slightly larger than the bubbles on a poppadom. I don't believe heat on the tawa is the problem. I've cranked it right up and charred the bottom within seconds on some trials, but alas no large bubbles. 5 or 6 trials later, I put it down to the formulation of the SRF here in North America.

However I really like the flavour of the HappyChris naans, so I thought I might try it with dried yeast. I know that yeast and salt are enemies, so I cannot use self-raising flour.

Does anyone have any suggestions or pointers on how they might adapt that recipe for yeast? Just replace the SRF with regular flour and add half a teaspoon of yeast? Appreciate any and all suggestions. Wife is sick of me chucking out naan because "they aren't perfect".

Also would someone be able to point me to the word doc or text recipe that someone did that summarized the HappyChris video?

Thanks!
Josh

Hi All,

I've had to put my curry cooking on the back burner for a while, but I find myself hosting a dinner party on the weekend, and thought it was prime time to show off the BIR curry skills.

Recently I've been using Chewy's base, but I'm out.

I always like to experiment, so I thought I'd look at a few others. Appreciate experienced members votes on a base to try for the event.

Thanks all for your input! I will report back with pics.

Cheers,
Josh

After eating at well over a hundred curry restaurants across Canada and the US, I thought I'd post this as "typical" for anyone who travels over here and wants a curry.



Clockwise from top right:

Chicken Tikka Masala - notice the capsicum and onion chunks. Robustly spiced, this bears little resemblance at all to BIR CTM. No sweetness, no cream, no coconut. Its more like a cross between a BIR Jalfrezi and Curryhell's North Indian Special. The chicken tikka is mostly similar to BIR though.

Pilau Rice - almost always with cumin seeds (and often way too many) this one has peas. Colourings other than turmeric aren't all that common.

King Prawn Korma - it may look like a BIR korma, but its not. Not even slightly sweet, it is a mild dish with either almond or cashew powder and cream. The absence of a sweetener and coconut makes it a very different dish to BIR. The "standard" starter curry for the less adventurous tends to be Butter Chicken.

Chicken Madras - at first glance, it could be a BIR Madras, but again, not even close. Notice the curry leaves and mustard seeds. In addition, this dish has coconut. Its actually quite a tasty curry, but I can't think of any BIR dish that I'd equate it with. I usually order it "as hot as you can make it" in order to get it close to BIR Madras heat. Only a Vindaloo over here is what I would classify as a hot(ter) curry.

The curries themselves are almost always made with a base gravy, but are more heavily spiced than BIR, but with much less chilli across the board.

The net of it is, there's some decent curry houses out there - but if you're looking for BIR you will most definitely be out of luck.

-- Josh

Hi All,

I'm sure this question has come up in another thread before, but a quick survey of this category came up blank.

Up until now, I've always pre cooked my chicken for a few days/curries worth at a time. I've started buying chicken breast at Costco (bulk warehouse) as its about a quarter of the price of my local grocery. There is so much of it though, that I need to freeze it.

Would I be better off freezing the fresh breasts? or precooking the chicken in bengali spices etc and freezing then?

Just wondering what others have found...

Thanks!

-- Josh

I noticed a link to this recipe on another post... http://thoughtsfromajoy.wordpress.com/2012/08/29/the-king-of-kebabs-perfect-for-a-fathers-day-lunch-or-dinner/

Not having had tandoori chicken in over a decade, I thought I'd try this recipe out. Here are some pics:





I intended to follow the recipe to spec, although some of the measurements are suspect or unclear. For example, that's considerably more than a teaspoon of whole cardamon in the "Kebab Garam Masala". There is also no measurement of garam that actually gets applied to the chicken. I guessed here and there but followed to spec mostly.

The instruction on prepping the whole chicken for tandoori, as well as the stage 1 marinade were very useful and could be applied to different variations of the main marinade.

I was expecting to be disappointed by the end result, as it seemed quite simple and devoid of many of the "BIR tikka" marinade ingredients. The result was actually delicious. I will play with the marinade going forward though to try and replicate closer to the tandoori flavour I remember.

-- Josh

I was recently reading through a few threads mentioning the use of panch phoran in Bombay Aloo, contributing to taste and aroma.

Does anyone use this mix in main curries? If so, where in the process do you use it? What does it add to the dish?

Thanks,
Josh

Here's some pics of tonights dinner.

Everything turned out great. No issues with the BIR quality of this whatsoever.

I am hoping to get back to the UK later this summer and compare to true BIR fare.

Razor's Seekh Kebab
Chewytikka Jhal Frezi
CBM Madras

Everything was to spec, with the exception of an added tablespoon of Ashoka Bunjara in the Madras. The base was Chewy's one-hour pressure cooker version.

Really liked how the 'fresh' heat of the minced green chillies in the Jalfrezi, contrasted with the Kashmiri Mirch of the Madras. Both were excellent.

-- Josh

I've been making chicken/lamb tikka for years, both as a standalone and as part of a curry. Nowadays I use a hybrid of the Blade and Dipuraja methods. I thought the most recent recipes on cr0 all seemed similar, and thus narrowing in on BIR standard. I've been happy with these.

Earlier this week, I went to a Pakistani restaurant here in Toronto Canada called Lahore Tikka. http://www.lahoretikkahouse.com/menu.html#Sizzling%20BBQ%20from%20our%20Tandoor

Though nowhere near BIR, their speciality is tikka meats from their tandoors. I ordered several different tikkas, and they were miles better than anything I have ever produced. The chunks were larger, and I could cut the meat with the side of a fork like it was butter. Spicing was similar to my home BIR efforts, but depth of flavour was far superior.

I'm wondering what could be causing the huge gap between their tikka and mine... Does the tandoor make that big a difference? Are they somehow tenderizing the meat?

How does your tikka compare to what you get in your locals?

--- Josh

PS - and before anyone asks, I have not tried the Brain Masala  :-X

Hi cr0!

Its been about a year since I've posted on the forum, but I've tried to stay semi-regular in following the goings-on in our quest for BIR! Personal and other issues had meant I wasn't able to give the forum my full participation it deserves, but I'm back now.

Over the last year, my curry quality has improved significantly, due much in part to new learnings on the forum, and the input of some of members, new and old. (And thanks Michael T. for sending some Rajah Premium curry powder over to Canada!)

TECHNIQUE - I think the notion of high heat and singeing spices has been around in different terms for some time. I think the work of the Fleet 5 and the video demos highlighted just how important this was, and input from Chef Az spelled it out for us. About a year ago, I was having good success with the Taz method, which in hindsight was a different way of properly cooking the spices, in a "less scary" way by reducing a small amount of base. After some practice, I feel I've got spice frying well in hand.

BIR STANDARD PROCEDURE - following BIR standard procedures I now believe is also key. Aluminium pans, chef's spoons, premixed garlic/ginger pastes, puree mixes, etc. Moving to high heat with a proper aluminum pan, and moving to a chefs spoon instead of my old wooden one have made the whole experience more authentic, and the quality of the curries have followed suit. For example, I always had a problem with frying my freshly minced garlic and ginger - it burned if I used high heat. Using a pureed mix with a little oil has reduced the chances of burning significantly.

In any case, here's some pics of last night's work. Note the new "home" commercial gas stove. I can't say definitively if high heat is "necessary" to achieve smoky BIR flavour, but this new stove has produced my best curries ever.

Its a Chicken Madras (Chewytikka/Zeera), and King Prawn Tikka Masala (Mick's), Pilau Rice (RobinB's). The base is Julian's Curry2Go.

Cheers,
Josh

I will be in Edinburgh in April for a few nights, my first trip back to the UK in a long while.

While I'm there, I need a local recommendation for the best curry houses.

Any suggestions?

Thx
Josh

Does anyone know where I can find it? I used to get it off YouTube. Now it seems to have disappeared.

Does anyone have it?

Cheers,
Josh

I'm planning on giving Dipuraja's CTM a go. His masala mix calls for kebab paste. They don't have that around here.

What does it taste like? Can anyone suggest an alternative?

Thanks!

-- Josh

Has anyone tried any of the Dipuraja curries and base?

They seem a little underwhelming to me, especially with his method of bunging everything in cold and basically heating it up. I may be wrong, so figured I'd ask if anyone's tried them verbatim.

I did try the naan recipe and found it to be pretty poor.

-- Josh

It was suggested that I move this thread here. Thanks to Admin and AchMal for the inspiration to try a Taz version of Admin's Jalfrezi, with a couple of added tweaks. Thanks Panpot for the Bunjara.

Hi All,

Tonight's dinner -- Chicken Jalfrezi...

1) 10 seconds in, adding the spice mix to the base



2) Adding the pre-fried red, orange, and green peppers, and chillies at the end of the reduction stage



3) Adding the second stage of base gravy



4) Final simmer



5) Served!



I was really pleased with this. Fantastic curry. How I rate it vs. previous Jalfrezis, I'm not sure. I don't make Jalfrezi often (enough!)

Having enjoyed Admin's Jalfrezi in the past, I thought I would adapt his to the Taz method. I used the Taz base, but added a carrot and a handful of coriander. I used 450ml of oil in the base. While the base was bubbling away, I made a batch of bunjarra (discussions on the forum seem to have been re-kindled), which I remember I liked. I added a spoon of the caramelized onions into the base too (before adding the spice ingredients of the bunjarra).

The precise method I followed is this:

Ingredients:

1 Small Yellow Onion, Chopped into quarters, then halved
1/4 Red Pepper Chopped into chunks
1/4 Green Pepper Chopped into chunks
1/4 Orange Pepper Chopped into chunks
1/2 Tomato, cut into two wedges
4 Green Chillies, pierced with fork
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 tsp ginger, minced
0.25 tsp black pepper
Tbsp Tomato puree
Tbsp Taz Spice mix
1.5 tsp chili powder
tsp methi leaves
0.5 tsp salt
200 + 250ml Taz curry base
tsp lime juice
1 batch of precooked chicken
Tbsp Bunjarra
Pinch of MSG
Tbsp of fresh coriander stalks and leaves
Coriander leaves for garnish

Method:

- Fry the peppers, onions, and chillies in oil, over mediun-high heat, until starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
- In a pan heated at medium, add 200ml base, spice mix, chilli, methi, salt, pepper, garlic, ginger, and tomato puree.  Stir to combine.
- Reduce the pan contents over medium heat, as specified here: https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4165.0
- Once fully reduced (approx 7 minutes or so), add the prefried peppers/onions, bunjarra, and precooked chicken.
- Give a quick stir, then add 250ml base gravy, lime juice, tomato wedges, and coriander
- Cook on medium-low until desired consistency
- Add pinch of MSG, stir, serve, and garnish with coriander leaves

--- Josh

I used my last of the Taz base to try a couple of sweeter curries - a KP Tikka Masala and Chicken Tikka Korma, with Pilao and naan.

I used the single reduction recommended by Mick. They both turned out very well indeed!

I thought I would repost some of the latter discussion from an earlier thread I started on Chicken Vindaloo. I thought it was important to get some input on a new base and technique I've recently been working with, since I was particularly happy with the results.

Quote from: cory ander]It's a shame you haven't had a response from the originator (yet).  Hopefully they will permit you/us to post more specific details soon (and hopefully they will be willing to join in discussions on, what is, a different and  interesting technique)

But, in the meantime, would I be right in saying that the "technique" roughly involves:

- a rudimentary base, containing about 400ml, or so, of oil, in a total volume of base of about 2 or 3 litres

- using no extra oil, at the cooking stage, but adding some of the base (200ml, or so), together with about a tablespoon, or so, of spice mix (similar to Bruce Edward's) and garlic, ginger and salt and boiling that, for several minutes, until it really reduces, the water has gone and the oil separates from it

- adding more base (about 200ml, or so) and chilli powder (to taste), tomato paste, dried fenugreek (and other pre-fried ingredients, such as onions, chillies, capsicums and meat)

- seasoning with salt and sugar (to taste)

- adding chopped coriander

- simmering until the right consistency is obtained?

And would I be right in saying that the interesting differences with this technique, compared to what might me called "normal practice" are that:

- the base has lots of oil (which is left in the base)
- no oil is added at the main dish cooking stage (it comes from the base)
- the spices aren't fried, as such, but are added to the boiling base
- the first amount of base (plus spices) is thoroughly reduced until the oil separates
- chilli powder is not added until later in the process (together with additional base)?

Anything (in general) that I've missed Josh?

Quote from: josh]Yes, that's pretty well it.

The single biggest difference is in the reduction of the starting base, with no starting oil.

After boiling away the initial base, you are left with caramelized base vegetables, decent oil, and well fried, but inherently non-burnt spices. It looks very similar to the "usual" method after the initial reduction.

I do have some questions about the method, primarily:

- why the chilli powder (and possibly the methi) isn't added with the original spice mix in the reduction stage
- why the tomato puree isn't added as part of the reduction, or added before the second base stage starts
- how the method could be applied to sweeter curries, like CTM and korma

I suppose I could experiment with the above, but it would be beneficial to have the originator comment if the above have already been explored.

-- Josh

Chicken Vindaloo, pilau rice, and homemade naan. One of the best dinners I've made.

Even added a dessertspoon of coconut milk for good measure!