Hi been a good few years since I was on the site. Delighted to see it still going strong. I put a good 30 years into searching for the Glasgow Curry taste and between this wonderful place and my visit to the Ashoka and the recipes I gathered there (posted on here)I found it. The secrets I Found were the bunjarra and the fried garlic ginger paste with turmeric. These added the moorish thing that was missing in all other attempts. So I had no need to return and just got on with it. Now out of curiosity I came on today and found the Glasgow base which I have made and it tastes rather nice so hopefull of it blending in well. I have attempted to find the eBook by Alex Wilkie to add to my collection but can't find it anywhere. Can anyone help? I will be most grateful. Keep up the great work one and all, thanks

I've just blitzed my second batch of Abdulebad's base and it tastes like a spicy vegetable pureed soup. It got me wondering about a previous post on the site regarding short cuts when we are in a hurry or have forgotten to defrost the kit. I find myself returning to the notion that if a good vegetable soup from the supermarket could be blitzed then added to a typical curry routine of GG Paste, Tomato Paste, Spice mix (perhaps a little more than usual) the usual herbs and meat would we have a descent solution when caught out?

I have to admit I have used a tablespoon of Patak curry paste in boiling water to pre cook chicken for 10 minutes ahead of adding to a curry with favourable results. Given the above or from experience can anybody recommend a brand of soup to keep in the back of the cupboard?

Don't you just love them. Genuine BIR pans. I have three as they are do cheap to buy. Last night I cooked a Dopiazza and Jalfrezi side by side. Not only did I have the fun, the art of cooking, the smell and flavors already in my mouth but I also have the sound. Yes the authentic sound and when the meal is over they are so easy to wash and clean. Wonderful.

I had a meeting with a well known Glasgow BIR owner today and asked him about the pre cooking or otherwise of onions. He explained that they put sliced onions I. A pot of oil with some spices and in particular Jeera. He wouldn't give details of spi e mix but did add that they are softly fried until turning brown and cooked till soft. They are stored in fridge for up to three days.

I paid a wee visit this week to a favorite haunt of mine The Shish Mahal in Park Rd Glasgow. It was originally in Gibson Street round the corner. It was probably Glasgow's most popular Curry House back in the 70/80s. The Founder the father of today's owner wrote and published  his ground breaking cookbook and I am proud to say I have a well stained copy from back then among my many cookbooks.

Anyway tucked away deep in the extensive menu. There is a number of Masala dishes. I noticed for the first time that they claim there that The Founder created the original and first ever Masala Sauce by accident.

I asked the present day owner about it and he explained that his dad was struggling with some stomach ulcers and was unable to enjoy any spicy food and of course curry. One day eating a bowl of tinned tomato soup that was easy on his stomach he poured half of it into some base and the first Masala Sauce was created. A few more experiments and the UK's most popular meal was on the menu soon becoming a favourite with those who prefer milder options when visiting the Shish.

Great story and I really enjoyed sharing a Lamb Bhuna and a Chicken Dansak with my son. PP

Guys on the evening of Saturday 11th of September I will be in downtown Torronto on my own and fancy having a curry. Can any of you Canadians or expats over there recommend where I should eat. Even better if any of you are free and fancy sharing a meal I'm your man PP

As I have stated elsewhere I have been searching for the perfect Glasgow Vegetable Pakora. More recently Martinwhynot sent me his recipe which included crushing some of the Coriander Seeds and grating the Potato. I followed again the Ashoka recipe and technique but added the Potatoes grated and crushed the Coriander Seeds in a mortar with the other spices and salt. As you may no the breakthrough with the Ashoka recipe was the leaving of all the ingredients mixed dry until the water was drawn out of the veg. On previous occasions on my own I was unable to get enough natural liquid and had to add water. This time within an hour the mix was perfect. In fact I had to add more Gram Flour before pre frying them as per the Ashoka advice to rest them half way through. So the now look right, smell right and will be finally cooked later tonight served with JivyJ's sue and Martinwhynots spiced onions. Then we will dine on The Ashoka Chicken Dopiazza and The Ashoka Chicken Bhuna Karahi. Magic

Guys, I have had in my possesion for a little while some new recipes given to me by a restaurant owner in Glasgow. I am not at liberty to say where from but may well be able to do so in the future. Before I post them I am not sure if the chef has modified them for our use or whether they are the real thing and again not sure if the ingredients have been scaled down and so  may effect the end result. My advice as with The Ashoka recipes is don't be a smart so and so and attempt to tinker just do as it says and good luck. PP

PILAU RICE

Makes 5 portions - take 1 1/2 cups of basmati rice and wash twice.
2 tbs cumin seeds
6 cloves
3 mint leaves
1 1/2 tbs salt
4 small cinnamon sticks
8 tbs oil

Put all the ingredients in a pot on a high heat for 5 minutes. Add 2 1/2 cups of hot water and bring to the boil, and the rice and keep stirring until the water has absorbed into the rice. Put the lid on the pot and turn down till a low heat for 10 minutes, remove the lid and separate rice with a fork.

NAN BREAD

For 6 nan
Take four cups of self raising flour, add 1 tsp salt,1/4 cup of milk, mix together into a dough and leave for one hour, give a good few punches then make into 6 balls. Put some oil on the top then cover it. Roll out with a rolling pin and put in a tandoor.

CHICKEN CHASNI

4 portions, first you have to make the curry sauce.
6 big onions - chopped
2 tbs cumin seeds
3 pints of water
1 tbs salt
Add all the ingredients into a pan and boil until the onions are cooked. Add 1/4 cup vegetable oil, 1 tsp of chopped red chillies, 1 tsp turmeric powder, 2 tbs tomato puree, 1 tbs curry powder and 1 tsp coconut cream. Blend everything together.

Then take 8 tbs of mango chutney, 8 tbs tomato ketchup and 1 tsp red colouring and blend together

Take a frying pan and add 4 portions of the curry sauce and the red chutney then pour in single cream until you get the right colour Add chicken and heat until cooked and then serve.

TIKKA MASALA

Use the same recipe to make the curry sauce as above. Take 1 portion of curry sauce and a big spoonful of chopped green peppers, 1 big spoonful of onions. Add single cream until you get a rich yellow colour. Add pieces of chicken tikka and keep on the heat for 7 minutes then serve.

MADRAS/ VINDALOO.

Take 1 portion of curry sauce, add 1 tbs mixed red and green chillies. For Vindaloo add 4 tbs of red chillies.

ONION BAHGI

Take 1 onion, cut it in half then slice.
Take one cup of gram flour,1 tsp salt, yellow food colouring, 1tsp red chillies and add water until the mixture is runny. Put the onion in a bowl and add some flour base and mix. Put in a fryer on the same heat you would use to make chips. Cook until they turn nice golden brown colour.

Well there you go. I worry when the recipes are all split up by Admin as I feel like the Ashoka posts they should be kept together as they relate to each other and deserve to be kept together for what they are genuine recipes from a BIR and not the attempts of ourselves. Maybe you could comment on that point and convince the powers that be to keep them together. Anyway I just as ever want to help. The site has been a major part of my culinary life and its good to give back PP

I have (weather permitting) a meeting on the 18th of January with the owner and chef of one of Glasgow's top Birs. He has agreed to have the chef help me by answering a few questions I may have. He has asked me to email him ahead of the meeting what the questions are. I am more than willing to pick up on any you guys would like me to raise so feel free to contribute. My meeting is about a separate matter but within reason he is prepared to help. Bye the way I have stayed away from the site over the festive season so happy new year to you all, it's amazing how many new posts have appeared in that period, its great to share with so many enthusiasts. PP

Guys I have a dark secret to share, ON my last visit to The Ashoka the Chef actually gave me a copy of the Chefs Handbook. Yes the insiders guide to all the recipes, they are in real time quantities and I have them all. He did however ask me to never share it full but said I could share a few. So below I will outline two further "Essential Base Sauces" and a couple of recipes.

South Indian Garlic Sauce:  https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3908.msg35388;topicseen#msg35388

Rogan Josh Curry Base Sauce:  https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3909.msg35390;topicseen#msg35390

Today I took everything I needed out of the Freezer for the Sunday Curry except the chicken which is marinating as per The Ashoka recipe as I type. I thought it was worth posting that among the colourful freezer bags were the Following goodies and none of them negatively effected by this means of storage. All of the list come from The Ashoka Posts.

Base Sauce,
Bunjarra,
Garlic/Ginger Paste
Green Chili Paste
Reclaimed Oil from the Base
Half Cooked Pakora
Masala Base

Cant wait to put it all together with the marinading Chicken. For those not confident with Freezer storage I can genuinely say that I find Little or no deterioration in my end results. Hope this encourages our newbies to get to work on the basics and get a good store of all you need t to cook great BIR replicas. Hope this helps .PP

Guys on another thread CurryOnRegardless mentions Garlic/Ginger pastes causing "repeating". I am assuming he means reflux which given the amount of spiced food I eat together with alcohol I have my fair share of having to deal with this by product of my passion for curry.

I came accross an unlikely and natural cure for this 6 momths ago and being someone open minded about anything alternative in health matters I had a go and it worked just as it was promised to do.

You probably won't believe this just before bed or when it come up (sorry) eat an apple. Yes an apple and you will be amazed no more off the shelf remidies causing all kinds of other side effects. Cheers Panpot PS the spell checker isn't working.

Green Chili Paste:  https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3914.0

Garlic/Ginger Paste:  https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3915.0

Chicken Marinade and Precooked Chicken:  https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3916.msg35418#msg35418

Chicken Tikka Marinade and Chicken Tikka:  https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3917.msg35419#msg35419

Chicken Pakora:  https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3918.0

Vegetable Pakora:  https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3919.0

Pakora Sauce:  https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3920.0

Bunjara (Onion Paste):  https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3921.0

Ashoka Base Sauce:  https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3199.0

Pre cooked Lamb:  https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3922.0

Korma:  Basic Curry Sauce heated through then add UHT Single Cream to taste add pre cooked meat and if desired coconut cream for Ceylonese or other variations including powdered nuts.

Bhuna Chicken: https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3923.0

Karahi Bhuna: https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3924.0

Chicken Jaipuri:  https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3925.0

Chicken Tikka Masala:  https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3926.0

Potato and Pea Curry:  https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3927.0

Thats it folks I cant do any more and not sure I have any more for now anyway.

I have cooked the base sauce to the letter tonight and it smells and tastes the best I have ever made. likewise I made the Garlic/Ginger Paste to the letter and it is superb together with the best Pakora I have ever made after 30 years of searching. Good Night Panpot

Folks I am just back from the afternoon in heaven. I got more or less 3 hours behind the scenes in the above BIR the latest in the famous Scottish Chain of BIRs. I was given full permission to share with you what I found although I did explain it was for the personal use only of the members.

The Owner kindly gave me permission to spend the afternoon with their award winning chef in the working kitchen with clients still ordering and eating and while they prepared the buffet for the evening trade.

I have taken notes and I managed to record most of it on my iPhone which has just completely justified its existence.

I will take time over the next wee while to bring it all to you but I do have a busy couple of weeks ahead of me.

For starters some highlights, They take pride in the base and believe it is critical,without it being perfect all else is worthless. It contains amongst other things tomato puree (White Tower Brand) but any should do, curry powder medium (East End Madras Brand) turmeric,chili powder again East End brand, he swears by this make. Blocked Coconut Cream and wait for it vegetable margarine and vegetable oil. The full recipe I will post asap.Bye the way not a lot if any oil is recovered.

Two other stand out ingredients was a pre cooked Garlic and Ginger Paste which has oil and turmeric with a 70/30 Garlic Ginger proportion. The really important ingredient was a caramelised onion sauce, which is extensively used along with the Garlic,Ginger Paste. This onion sauce may be what was substituted in the controversial Onion paste posted elsewhere.

So much to report,he also showed me how to make the Pakora with some secrets and how the chicken ismarinaded before pre cooking,however the same marinade was used to cook my take home Chicken Bhuna to prove that pre cooking is only a convenience thing while actually cooking fresh is so much better and boy did it taste amazing.

I was shown how to make the Ticka Marinade, how to cook Korma and how he pre cooks his lamb the most melt in the mouth lamb I have ever tasted. I can go on and on, They use ali pans as they feel they are safest and don't burn, they don't use ghee other than for dressing nan breads. The never use Worcestershire sauce they pointed out that your nostrils adjust after a short time in the kitchen so you cant really smell it after a while so I had my theory posted elsewhere vindicated. They don't eat these meals for no other reason than their home cooked has no pre cooking is so much better they say and more healthy. They don't eat Kormas or Patia or such things though they would eat the Bhuna. The chef does all he can to cook the food as near as he can to Indian home cooking. There is absolutely no food dyes used.

Korma is made with the base sauce(yellow in colour)and UHT Single Cream only. The addition of coconut or nuts etc is just for simple variations on the menu.

I need to stop now since I have a life beyond this addiction (just) and will edit my recordings and decipher my noted before posting below in due course. I had the time of my life, bye the way they do not flame the food claiming after initial high heat they cook on a slow flame. I could go on but need to stop now, cheers a delirious Panpot.

How about this then. I just had a Chicken Bhuna from my local TA. It has an open plan set up and its possible to watch everything though some of the tubs of ingredients are out of sight so cant be sure of everything but here is what was done with the Bhuna.

First he used the spoon(chefs spoon) to take out a little of what looked like Ghee and put it in the pan. Now the interesting thing about the pan was that it was not cleaned from the previous dish. He immediately added a little (about a quarter of the spoon) base sauce (yellow in Colour) and gave it a stir he then added again with the spoon about a table spoon of what looked like tomato puree then off the heat turning round away from the cooker he put in spoonful of what looked like precooked onions in an oily almost sauce like state. he stirred it all round scraping round the pan,as they do.

Next to my amazement he put in with the precooked chicken about a quarter to a half of a block of Coconut Cream cut into rather big chunks roughly an inch square in size. Next a quarter of a spoonful of methi leaves before almost immediately adding a ladle of base sauce. All stirred round while tipping to let the pan catch fire then added from a plastic bottle not unlike a catering tomato sauce bottle a good squeeze of spices together with two quarters of a medium tomato and what looked like a good dollop of the red onion paste and a little chopped coriander but as it was all stirred together it coloured the rest so I feel it had red dye in it as the chicken was a kind of off pink once it was served up. The finished dish had a red colour to it but not overly so.the pan was left to cook the lot on a medium heat for about five minutes with an additional quarter of a spoon of base sauce added with a stir half way through.

That was it,it did taste good and had much of the smell but not hot chili wise. The menu describes it as "Cooked in tomatoes,onions,ginger and spices served with a thick sauce". The Coconut block may have made the sauce thicker but it certainly didn't add a coconut flavour. There was no obvious addition of ginger and again no taste of it in the final dish.

A bit different from our best BIR Bhuna. Not sure this is how it would be cooked in a BIR locally but will find out all going well Sunday as per my other posts.

I hope this is the correct location to post this.

I trust too that this wont be controversial in that this post may bring back some challenging memories for some of us who were about a couple of years ago. At the time someone who many of us ended up not trusting came onto the site with a big splash and finished by setting up another site taking with him a number of our contributors at the time.

He particularly annoyed a number of us with his post regarding a "Secret Ingredient" which was an onion paste which we later found out was copied form another source. Due to the general trouble and mistrust at the time I suspect many of us missed out in what he was getting at.

I eventually had a go with the idea but I am sure it was a modified recipe coming from the thread of experimentation and simple trial and error of members and dont remember it now. For many at the time I remember concerns of it taking to much time and something about a soapy smell. My own effort which turned out to be a dark red/brown paste was absolutely fantastic, it had the BIR smell and taste and having made a decent sized batch I froze it in ice cube trays for single portion use. To be honest It kept me going for a year and more and definitely made all the difference.

I ran out at the start of the summer and since I tend not to cook curries over the warmer months I assumed when I returned to the site a few weeks ago to make batches of base sauce and pick up on the forum and new recipes I would find the post and figure out how to make it again.

It has been removed probably for good reason which I can only understand and agree with but the resultant recipe was the business. I asked elsewhere for help and on another post I got the Link to the original recipe. I have made it and it does smell OK but its a green colour and without whatever I did as a result of the thread is missing something least of all the colour.

Can anyone help and maybe on our behalf Stew could go through the old thread if he still has it and gleam from its entirety the resultant versions that may give us all a chance to see if it can add any value to us, I know it will for me.

I certainly don't wish to open old wounds but there was something in this paste and I do see something similar being used by my local take away with an open kitchen. Cheers Panpot.

I am an avid fan and user of this fantastic site and tonight I have a bit of a challenge.

Normally when having friends round I cook a couple of curries and keep them for a reheat just before serving, they are always delighted but I know something is missing.

Tonight I intend to cook each individual curry on its own and absolutely fresh. I am wondering how I keep the completed ones hot before serving them. I have the kind of hot plates that use a little night lite candle or I can put them in the oven, any ideas?

Also I am having onion baghi as the starter and wondered whether I could precook then till about half cooked and finish them just before starting. I am only cooking for four so not too much but I want to minimise the time between each course and keep things as fresh as possible, can anyone advise? Certainly in Scotland Pakoras are all precooked but not sure whether fully or partial.

Almost desperate Panpot

Can Anyone recommend some good Stores in London to brouse and stock up an spices,goodies etc. I am visiting on Wednesday and Thursday. Thanks

Panpot

Hi Everyone, I have been so inspired by my results and great feedback from people i have tested the food on that I have organised a curry nite on Saturday for a total of eight people.

I will probably stick to my tried and tested recipes from the site but wondered if anybody could offer any good tips for preparing and serving on the day and night. How to keep stuff warm and looking and tasting great etc?

Starters  Pakora, Shish Kebab, Papadoms and sauces Spiced Onion's

Main   CTM, Chicken/lamb Madras, Piluo Rice Chapatis

Sweet  ?

Further to the ending of another thread here regarding getting rid of old spices and replacing with a fresh batch does anyone have any good ideas for storing spices once the packet is opened?

I realise they deteriorate fairly quickly and where possible we should freshly grind them and so on but I cant imagine the BIRs do this but you never know.