Being as the malliard reaction is essential to BIR cooking, I thought you'd find this article an interesting read.  Especially the bit about sodium bicarbonate and onions.

http://blog.khymos.org/2012/06/04/maximizing-food-flavor-by-speeding-up-the-maillard-reaction/

Also wondering about the practicality/desirability of a 'Malliard Pan', ie a temperature controlled sauce pan set to sustain Malliard temperatures? Hmm...

Steve

Hi peeps,

It's been a while since I last visited this forum with a vengeance, due to the other half going off curry when she was preggers five years ago.

I have dabbled on occasion, making an impromptu base on the fly and it has been ok.

I bought mick crawford's ebook and have only just got round to seriously testing out the recipes and methods in there. I am quite impressed really! Easy to follow and some nice meals had out of it.
However, has mick done any updates to it(I think Mick posts on here)? It also hasn't got a balti recipe, so I want to have a go at one.

To me balti is rather like mick's madras recipe but with more prominent aromatics, ie aniseed or fennel seed, cinnamon etc, but not so much to overload the olfactory senses.

Anyway, what are the most upto date or recomened methods, recipes etc please chaps?

I note that most of mick's mains use the same method- hot oil, fry garlic for a minute, add tomato pur?e, fry then add spices, cook, add meat and gravy, reduce.  It seems to work nicely.

Anyway, a bit of a ramble.

Ta

Steve

Hi chaps, my friend has an invention on Kickstarter he is trying to get noticed by foodies and I wonder if you'd have a look see if it's something you'd find useful?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/968891328/the-oven-spit-guard-no-more-oven-cleaning

Ta peeps,

Steve

Fancied a change last night, so did Vindaloo and Dansak! 

Firstly i made up a Dansak paste-

I boiled up for 45mins a cup of red split lentils and mixed in a tin(500g) of pinaple chunks in juice and 2 tbs of sugar and let it boil a little longer until it was reduced to a loose paste kind of consistancy.  There was far too much dansak paste, so i froze two thirds of it.

Made my usual BIR style basic curry with moderate spices, and then halfed it into 2 pans.  Half went into the vindaloo pan and half into the dansak paste.

I added some butter to the dansak pan and fenugreek, extra garlic and chillies to the vindaloo.

I was amazed how simple it was and very pleased with the result of both!

So it just goes to show how easy it is to knock up very different curries from a basic base.

Steve

This is one dish i make time and time again, i discovered it in south India in the Kerala area.  This dish is cooked by the muslims and sirian-christian setlers with minor diferences.

Dead easy to make too!


2 small-medium white onions thinly sliced
6 chillies - i use tescos bog standard chillies-6 is way to hot for me so i use 2!
4 garlic cloves sliced thinly
1 inch ginger finely chopped
20 curry leaves

1 tsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp black peper (interestingly, the muslims dont use pepper, so they omit this)
1/4 tsp cumin powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
4 more cloves of garlic

1 400ml tin of coconut milk (not the low fat version)
1 lb of fish - i use Cod
2 tomatoes sliced

first fry the curry leaves in 2 tbs of hot oil for a few seconds,
then chuck in the garlic, ginger and onion and turn down the heat low,
cook until the onion is well softened (15 mins)
add the spices (mixed in a little water) and fry for 5 mins more,
carefuly add the fish and pour in the tin of coconut milk,
put slices of tomato on the fish and cover for 10 mins.

Dont forget to season with salt to taste before serving.

Serve!

Yum!

Steve

Hi all,

this is my first post of a recipe, but this is my tried and tested version of lamb and spinach madras, which I'd like some feedback on.  I discovered this website some time back and have been working my way through the base sauces posted on here and by far the best so far and the closest to my local curry houses base sauce is Darthphalls.  However i have modified it over the months as i felt it needed refining to be a truly flexible base sauce which is important to me as I'm looking to develop a wide reportoire of BIR style and authentic curries.  I have been on Indian cookery courses in India recently and have used these experiences to move my curry making skills forward.

I hope you enjoy this curry, its a rich, robust curry, not too hot- about what my local BIR would call 'Madras hot'.  Its most prominent spices are cummin, coriander and fenugreek.  Sweeter aromatic spices are minimal IE cardamom, Cinnamon and cloves, but there is a little fennel.

Serves 4 people very well, (or 2 people extremely well!)

Fry (in 2 ladles of oil)-
1 tsp cumin seed
1 tsp fennel seed
Pinch mustard seed
till popped then add (quickly and in this order)-
3 finely chopped cloves of garlic (oil should spit and splatter)
1 rounded tsp ginger pulp (stir)
4 finely chopped chillies (keep stirring)
2 onions finely chopped and fry until slightly brown, then slow until soft-about 15-20 mins.
Then add the spice mixture (all these mixed in a little water)
1 & a half tsp cumin powder
1 & a half tsp coriander powder
Pinch fenugreek powder
Pinch cardamom powder
half a tsp garam masala
1 large tbs dried fenugreek leaf
fry for a minute then add-
500g raw or precooked lamb
500ml curry base (I use Darthphalls base sauce made with no chilli powder, half the amount of curry powder and the onion is fried along with the garlic and ginger at the begining until golden and then on a very low heat until well softened)
1 X 400g tin of spinach
One handful coriander leaf and stem and cook for another 10 mins add a little more coriander leaf and serve.  Alternatively, to make the lamb more tender, keep cooking on a very low heat for an hour, then add the coriander leaf and serve.

Enjoy!

Steve