Quote from: 976bar on June 26, 2011, 08:09 AM
It's even better if you cook it on a charcoal BBQ

I invited some curry loving friends around last week and cooked it in my tandoori oven. They said it was the best that they had ever tasted, far better than anything that they had eaten at a restaurant

Quote from: gazman1976 on June 20, 2011, 03:35 PM
Wonder what happened to this dude?

Maybe he was the secret ingredient

OMG OMG OMG I can't believe it
For as long as I can remember I have been marinating my chicken in Pat Chapmans tikka marinade recipe, before adding it to my curries and I thought it was the dogs b*****ks. This morning I found this recipe and decided to give it a go. OMG it is the elephants b*****ks, it is the best ever.
When it came out of the grill I tried a piece and I wasn't 100% sure, it tasted great but a little bit too tangy, then I added it to the curry and tried it, wow! my tastebuds went on the biggest roller coaster ride ever and they are still on a high. I don't think I would alter anything about this recipe, it's the holy grail of chicken tikka.
Thank you blade1212 for sharing this recipe.

My wife got her hands on the book before I had a chance to make a curry and she made the Balti Butter Chicken (page 54) and it was gorgeous. She made a couple of slight changes, she fried the onions in 1 tbls of ghee instead of using butter and she blended the onions to a puree once they had been fried. We also didn't have any almonds so they didn't go in to it.
It's my turn to cook the next curry and I am going to try the 'sweet & sour balti'

Your curry looked so good I bought the book off amazon the day I read it. I got it second hand for

Quote from: Phil (Chaa006) on April 24, 2011, 08:01 PM
Hells bells, man, you must eat a serious amount of chillies if you can recoup an investment of GBP 100 over a reasonable timespan; I think it would take me at least ten years to recoup that investment, at an absolute minimum !

I will probably sell some of the chillies at the local car boot. I grew about 250 plants last year and sold a few at the carboot, but the majority of them we either used them straight away or froze them and they have just about run out now ;D
To be honest it was more about making my own hydroponic unit and seeing the results than making money. I also have about 150 chillies growing in soil and the difference is amazing.
Here's a photo comparison at 8 weeks growth, both of the plants were planted at the same time and they are both scotch bonnets

I am trying a homemade hydroponic system this year to grow 24 chillies, I am also growing plenty of chillies in soil as well and the. The system cost me just over ?100 to make but I am sure it will repay itself as I don't have to buy soil and the water is recirculated. So far the signs are good, the hydroponic chillies have grown a lot bigger than the soil grown chillies.
I don't use any lights to grow the chillies, they are grown in a polytunnel. If anyone wants the details of how to set up your own hydroponic system let me know and I will post the details.
This years chillies: Bhut Naga, Purple Jalapeno, Bulgarian Carrot, Scotch Bonnet, 7 pod, Red savina, Fatali, Habanero Chocolate, Hungarian Yellow Wax, Serrano Tampiqueno, Fresno, Scorpion Trinidad, Red Savina, & Peter Pepper

Quote from: Unclebuck on October 10, 2009, 02:57 PM
ill email them see how much ?

that one in the pic above would be perfect if i could get enough out of it as its quite cheep

Hi UB
I could have a look and see how much it would cost to send you one of the ones from http://www.optimgas.com/index_an.htm. There are loads of different types and brands of them here in Spain. I use a double ring burner because the wok fits inside it perfectly and it gets really hot all around the wok.

Quote from: travelbug on October 19, 2009, 02:46 PM
I used to think the Mumtaz were the best ready made ones.

I haven't tried one of Mumtaz shop bought curries, but if they are anything like their restaurant curries I wouldn't bother. I went to the Mumtaz a couple of years ago with friends and the curries that we had were terrible, way too salty and no way near as good as some of the other curry houses in Bradford.

Quote from: Jethro on August 31, 2007, 07:12 PM
Any of you out there who have made any of the dishes that include lots of garlic, (Darth's base and subsequent Madras spring to mind) you will know what a pain it it to peel each individual clove with a knife.

Try this:

Top and tail each clove and then, with the flat of a knife blade, just give them a gentle thump enough to semi crush the clove of garlic.
The skin will then be very easy to remove.

Another quick tip that an Asian friend gave me to remove the skin from garlic.
Place the cloves on a plate and microwave for 10 to 15 seconds (this is for a 4 or 5 cloves)
Remove from microwave and you can just push the garlic out of the skin.
It's trial and error how long you need to microwave for, too long and the garlics get too hot to handle and can pop, too short and the garlic doesn't squeeze out.