Not many posts in this thread anymore, but with the weight of positive comments, I just have to try it. I can't bring myself to use Pataks though, that tang will have me toss the lot, so I used tamarind instead. I guess Pataks is used as some don't have tamarind to hand, so I'm not going to worry about this.

I'll be oven cooking as I don't really have a grill, so a bit worried about drying them out if I don't cook them quick enough. My peices are about the size you'd put in a curry, so not so big. I'm going to set my oven at 250 degrees C and judge by eye, oh, and my trusty Thermopen.

I quite like chicken in plain tandoori masala and oil, so interested to see what the rave is about.

My last attempt I tried reducing the sugar to 40g, but it was too far; previous 70g versions had tasted much better. Perhaps 60g is a good starter for a sweetness reduction.

Perhaps I overcomplicated my question. In any case, I added 220g of puree spit pea in place of 200g bread crumbs. The kababs were on the highly flavoursome side, so I'll try upping to 250g of puree next time.

All in all, the substitution of breadcrumbs for puree split pea was a real good idea. I haven't changed my Shami Kabab recipe for 20 years, but these were my best so far. I plan to experiment replacing more of the meat with puree.

Yes, it's not the intent of this thread to offer a perfect curry from start to finish. It's intended to show a shorthand approach that can aid recipe building, for those who already have good knowledge. Korma definately needs less oil, and that is touched on in the OP. How much less depends on personal preference and the base used. You need to adapt your final curries to each base in any case, with different levels of salt, oil, chilli, etc.; trial and error as you work through different bases.

There was some discussion earlier about the ingredients listed in my Korma. Despite my profile name, I'm not a big Korma fan, but my first and only Korma effort produced an excellent curry, which tasted just like restaurant Korma. So I ticked Korma off my list and moved on. Rogan Josh is proving more difficult; I have captured the basic undertones but not quite in the right proportions yet.

There are also loads of little skills you build to support all this, such as knowing the right final consistancy of the sauce, being sure there is a good period for cooking the spices, and daft things like frying capsicum longer than onion because onion goes softer quicker. Little things which make a big difference.

Chewy's video's, and in particular H4ppyChris's Chef Shams video's, are an easy way to pick up loads of tips. I recenty followed Chef Shams Bombay Potato; the first time I ever tried anything like it and it just came together easily and produced a restaurant standard potato curry side. Again, it was the base sauce that helped bring it all togther, fast and tasty.

I just did NIS1 above and it was spot on; no tweaking necessary. Never had a NIS in a BIR, but was great as a new distinct curry to add to the repertoire!

The Tandoori Masala didn't come through as strong as I was expecting, so it coud be increased a bit with no worry. Makes me think the half teaspoon on the NIS2 won't be enough.

First time I ever cooked with tamarind. Now I know what that underlying flavour is that I get from my own favourite BIR. Damn; only took me 20 years to figure it out.

I you were replacing breadcrumbs with precooked pureed green split pea, and didn't want to upset the recipe spice balance, how much puree would you add in proportion of crumbs?

I'm presuming a lot of the water in the puree will boil away as I fry my kababs, so I guess I need more puree to match the dry breadcrumbs. I aim to replace 200g breadcrumbs, I cooked 185g of chick peas and ended up with 410g puree!

Am I being too fussy? Will 200g puree do, i.e. that would be 200g dry breadcrumbs replaced by about 90g of pre-cooked split pea?

I agree with the method being the biggest influence. Most of the bases are pretty similar. I split Chewy's into 6 portions, each making about 3 or more curries, so say 20 curries from the base. So the 2 heaped tbs (say 8 tsp) of Chewy spice mix  that is added to the base is divided into 20 curries, so about 0.4 tsp per curry. It's clearly not going to make a huge difference if I change that mix to say CA's, particuarly as I'm adding extra spice to each final curry in any case. It's pretty clear when you fil the pan; there is so much onion in comparison to everything else.

It results in the best curries of course  ;D. 4 guests coming for a curry this Sunday.

And here curryhell's two NIS's broken down. Not done these yet, so the shorthand might need some minor adjustment, but looking forward to them. Had been looking for a curry with tamarind and tandoori masala. Those who go to the troube to compare with curryhell's original posts will notice I skip seperate prep of sauces or similar and just add the largest contributing factor. For example, in #1, I substitute Chewy's Red Masala Sauce with yoghurt and red food colour; the spice and oil I have already. I have also adjusted for my preference, like the removal of Patak's paste, which I hate.

North Indian Special 1
Pre-fry: 1/2 medium onion, 1/4 green pepper, 3 garlic cloves (thick sliced).
Spice fry: 1.5 tsp CA mix powder, 1 tsp tandoori masala, 3/4 tbs tomato puree, fresh chilli.
Main cook: Chicken Tikka, 1/2 tsp tamarind, 1/4 tsp red food colour, 1 tbs yoghurt.
Late additions: fresh coriander.

North Indian Special 2
Change to standard: no ginger.
Pre-fry: 1/2 medium onion, 1/4 green pepper.
Spice fry: 1.5 tsp CA mix powder, 1/2 tsp tandoori masala, 3/4 tbs tomato puree, fresh chilli.
Main cook: Chicken Tikka, 3 tsp mango chutney, 1 tbs lemon juice.
Late additions: fresh coriander.

My shorthand approach is far superior to notdelia, but then I would say that wouldn't I  . As the last post points out, there are obvious differences when you look in detail. In short I'd say my approach is much closer to that which is considered standard here, and it would be I guess, given that much of what I've learned has come from here.

So, if I've managed to persuade that this came from me and I'm not affiliated to anyone else...
I'm convinced that BIR chefs think in this simplified way. Yes they'll have some specials, but the bulk of the menu will be built around their own base sauce and a few simple differences for each curry. And although the differences between my listed recipes seem very subtle, each does return a very different curry.

All I ever do when I review a recipe is to pick out what it is that makes that curry unique and adapt it to my own method. So far I'm really happy with most of my recipes, but some are a bit weak and need further research. I must say though that it's tough to trawl through all the recipes on this site and pick out the subtleties of each curry; it would be great if there was a simple "short-hand" resource. So Garp, you say you wouldn't go along with all my recipes; I'd be interested to hear which in particular and what you'd do instead?

Quote from: George on October 20, 2014, 04:07 PM

Quote from: Garp on October 20, 2014, 03:08 PM
Thanks for Sharing, KC 

Should you be thanking KC or the person behind notdelia? Or are they one and the same?

KC - please clarify.

It's not me if that's what you are asking. I'm actually Delia incognito  . I've never before seen a recipe written in such a way. Such probably does exist, and proven now, but I developed my shortened approach on my own and for my own benefit. That said, when I look deeper into the recipes in the nondelia link, base sauce etc., it's not really close to what I aim for. Some of it looks like it probably wouldn't turn out so well, like for instance having 4 tsp of spice mix as well as the other spices added to make each curry for 2. It strikes me that would be over spiced. But that's sort of irrelevant to my thread, as what I bring to the party here is the concise method approach, one that helps me and would probably aid others who tried it.