Quote from: Unclefrank on July 15, 2011, 12:49 PM
I cook mine on a low/medium heat stirring nearly all the time, because i am doing other stuff as well when cooking curries, so just make sure you dont cook it so much that it gets reduced too much (did this last week with CA's CTM recipe, was nice but flavour was a little intense,but you can always add water/stock etc to get back to that taste you are looking for).
I know CA says in his recipe to add ladle at a time but i have just poured the whole base sauce in(due to not being able to add ladle at a time because of other stuff being prepared etc) and cooked on low heat for about 30-40 mins, you can see the "red oil" forming on the top of the sauce showing you that it is nearly ready.

Also dont forget to taste ALL the time.

My rule of thumb is never walk away from a cooking curry because you get used to seeing the reduction from start to the finished.

Thanx for that. Will cook all of my curries for much longer now and on quite a high heat. I just made a large jalfrezi and madras and they are thicker and tastier now.

Quote from: ThaiExpat on July 15, 2011, 10:06 AM
Your right Phil, it is easier to shop here in Farang friendly Pattaya point taken, as I mentioned if you do get to visit there is a small Indian shop next door to the Sikh temple Soi 17 just off 2nd rd, they stock Mango powder, garam masala and sometimes the ready mixed boxes of tandoori masala along with big bags of basmati rice and cans of ghee they also stock other ingredients that are hard or expensive to come by like green and brown cardamons and Indian bay leaf , no mint though, I have seen it fresh in Foodland as well as in those small expensive jars, have you thought about drying it and grinding it yourself as it should work out a lot cheaper, also there is a similer plant available at the markets that smells and tastes a lot like mint  maybe you could use it as a substitute.

Regards...........Gary

Cheers Gary

I pretty much have everything I need now. It has taken me awhile to find all the spices I needed but I have enough now to last me for a good few months. Just the powdered colouring is all i need, but I can live without that until someone comes over from the UK.

It would be very handy to have a shop nearer me like the one you have that sells everything, but I'll get by.

Quote from: Tomdip on July 15, 2011, 09:59 AM
One cheat when making big portions like I used to in my old pub, was to add sweet potato mash to the curry - it has a lovely flavour, blends in to the sauce and adds a bit of sweetness to this style of curry too.

Apart from that - I would use less base relative to the increased portion size, if that makes sense.

thanx for that Tom, I will look into that further.

Quote from: Unclefrank on July 15, 2011, 10:02 AM
Hi Missy i have quadrupled CA's base and made curries CTM,Madras,Jalfrezi,Korma and Ceylon all in one go, its getting used to the thickness that YOU think should be right, buy a CTM or Korma from your local TA and try to get the thickness the same (thats what i do, every curry i make which i havent tasted before or for a long time i always buy it first from a few local TA's ).
Gazman stated by cooking the curry a little more stirring and scraping back (getting the little crusty bits off the edge of your pan) then reducing down to the thickness you desire, it enhances the taste because you are cooking out the liquid in the curry and leaving all the goodness of your base and spices etc behind.
Check the Post Your Pictures section and check to see other peoples curries it helps alot.
Hope this helps.

Thanx for that. I will cook it for longer next time. I was always a little worried that I'd cook out the flavours/ spices. So, like in CA's recipes he adds a laddle at a time, should I leave it cooking on very high heat for quite some time in between adding the laddles of base?

Quote from: Tomdip on July 15, 2011, 08:22 AM
Just a thought phil, are you using precooked chicken? I'm sure you know some raw meat can put put a lot of water - this has messed up a few of my curries, especially when cooking bigger portions.

I'm only using pre-cooked chicken. I am making bigger portions, like quadrupling CA's recipes. That could be the reason, but it's a way that I'd prefer not stopping because it's so much easier for me than making individual dishes.

Quote from: gazman1976 on July 15, 2011, 07:54 AM
Hi missy keep cooking until the curry is reduced down to the required consistency on a high heat , this will evaporate excess water making your curry the required consistency

Garry

Will that cook out some of the flavours though?

Hi CA

I made this recipe yesterday for my shop and it tasted amazing, but like all my other CTM's and korma's I've made it came out very watery. I have no idea why my curries are coming out thinner than I'd like. The base I recently made that I used to make your CTM is very thick. The cream paste I made with coconut and whipped cream was very thick. I added the curry base to it a ladle at a time. Any idea's on how I can thicken up my curries, i.e mainly the CTM and korma?

Cheers

Phil

Quote from: loveitspicy on July 14, 2011, 03:31 AM
Phil

how big a bag of mango powder did you get hold of
could do with that myself up here in the North

He brought back 5 fairly small boxes of it so that when I open a box I will hopefully use it before it dries out and clumps together.

If you know of anyone coming from the UK soon I'm sure they can find some there easily enough and bring you a few boxes.

Quote from: loveitspicy on July 14, 2011, 12:18 AM
I agree Thaiexpat - im up in the North and the Chilies are some of the hottest I've eaten. Its been a  while since i was in Pattaya - there are a lot of things up here that i cant get hold of and if i get into Chiangmai there are a couple of western aimed little supermarkets which sell some of the spices but not all (which is  pain) however the little spices they have are ridiculously high priced!!
Phil (Missy) should be OK he is in the Capital and should be able to locate things down there.
Tamarind paste to make today!

Thai chillies are certainly hot. I sure can't eat somtam (papaya salad) like Issarn people do. But I would like to try using Birds Eye Chillies, Jolokia Chillies or Habanero Chillies, just to see the difference. Unfortunately, with teaching and running a restaurant I don't have 7-8 hours spare to go shopping around Bangkok to look for these things. I looked in Villa market and makro and they have only Thai chillies. My friend will be going to India soon, so he will bring back some Jolokia chillies for me and I will dry them out.

Quote from: ThaiExpat on July 13, 2011, 08:47 PM

Quote from: missy on July 13, 2011, 02:55 AM
Thanx for that CA. Thailand is difficult to find anything that's even slightly out of the ordinary for Thai people. Thai chilli powder is very mild and even a little bit sweet, so I have found some hot chilli powder that's been imported here. And have a friend that goes to Indian regularly and he brought back enough mango powder, onion powder and mint powder to last me for a couple of years. Gonna ask him bring some hotter chilli powder back with him next time. I also need some red and yellow powdered colouring, but will have to wait until someone comes over here from the UK. At the moment I'm only using the liquid form.

I'm using your recipes now for all my dishes in my shop apart from my Bhuna masala and my customers love them. The only thing that I've been doing is quadrupling your ingredients to make larger batches, and they have been coming out just fine. I will try your curry masala spice and curry base soon as well. At the moment I'm using razors base but I added green peppers, celery and tomato paste to it last time and it came out much thicker and a better consistency.

Cheers for your help.

Regards

Phil

Phil ? where are you living mate, unless you are in the middle of some village in Issan , I cant see any problem for obtaining the ingredients to cook the curries on this site, I have lived here in Pattaya Thailand for over nine years  and can obtain everything except poppadoms, there are two companies who make cocconut milk/cream powder Chokay and Yaearra  both available at friendship foodland stores and carrfour all over Thailand,   liquid food colouring is just as good but not as cheap and as for Imported spices they are also readily available at Friendship, Tops, Foodland, Carrfour supermarkets, and if you are anywhere near Pattaya we have an Indian supermarket next to the Sikh temple just off 2nd rd, and there are several in little India in Bangkok, and as for Thai chillis they are as hot as anywhere else in the world as most of the hottest one's origonated in south America anyway, just to assure anyone thinking of visiting Thailand that are reading this that western food is  available all over Thailand, i.e. PizzaHut, KFC,McDonalds, Sizzler, Burger KIng,Subway, and European and other ethnic food is available in many supermarkets as well ,either  fresh or frozen and in any tourist resort you will get Expat bars  serving pies pasties all day brekkie, pizzas spaggheti bol plus Thai food and in some Indian curry though maybe not as good as you can cook on this site.

You are right mate, you can get most of the spices and western foods here in Thailand, but at a cost and must travel to the other side of Bangkok to go and buy them. None of the shops near me sold mango powder, which I use quite a lot of for my tandoori masala spice. And the mint leaves I could only buy the very small jars from carrefour/ Villa market which was costing me a small fortune. Makro has a good selection of spices and I can buy big bags of cummin seeds, coriander seeds, turmeric, mustard seeds, cardomons, etc. But, a few other spices they never have them.  I'm sure that india town sells everything I need but I dont have the time to travel there as it's miles away and would probably be just as easy for me to go to Pattaya as I live not too far from the airport. I never said I couldn't find coconut milk powder, I just never thoughtn about using that until now. And, I don't like the heat that Thai chillies give off compared to whatever chillies they use in BIR's. They instantly burn your mouth and lips. And yea your right the liquid form of colouring is expensive when you make 30 CTM's, etc every week, so hopefully one of my relatives or friends will be over here soon and can bring me the powdered kind.

You are right, you can buy everything here in Thailand but have to go out of your way to find them, and to find them at a reasonable cost. And, I'm sure that in Pattaya your shops aren't as spread out as they are in Bangkok, so much easier to find things.