hi all

Thread starter here

The fromage frais stuff is not fromage frais at all
its low fat greek strained yogurt and i use more than I had suspected
probaly more like 5-6 level tablespoons

There is a lot of talk about not using low fat yogurt
as it congeals - but his does not happen as I add the end of the cooking
and stir in gradually

Thanks for your comments - has anyone tried it yet?

I do have faith in my beliefs on the garam masala
My recipe is from Camellia Punjabis 50 curries book
and she does not dry fry it, just measures and grinds
It smells like nothing on earth!

Regards

niall

hi ck and all

step by step:

1: heat two or three tblsps of veg oil (tesco cheapo variety)
2: I then put in two cubes of ginger and one of garlic (i mince and freeze them in ice cube trays, probaly a tblsp per cube)
fry til just browning slightly
3: put in a few tablespoon of base - lower heat
4: Put in tblesp of the MDH powder - fry for few minutes - low heat - add water if it sticks
5: Put in precooked chicken cubes (i fry fast until sealed and white - but only barely cooked)
6: Put in the rest of the base sauce
7: Simmer / splatter for 10mins
8: Put in creamed coconut - stir in
9: Simmer another 5mins, put in the fromage frais stuff or yogurt ( Stir the fromage frais in well bit by bit)
10: turn off heat
11: put in 1/2 tsp of garam masala - NOT COMMERCIAL MIX - equal weights of cloves, cinnamon, blk cardomon seeds, pepper
12: put in methi
13: squeeze juice of a lemon in

Hey presto!

Notes:
I notice that lemon juice is not used a lot in recipes - but i think it makes a big difference

I also think that the usual garam masala with cumin and coriander ruins a curry as it makes them all taste the same.
It is basically a curry powder, whereas the one i use is very fragrant and not like a curry powder.

the methi is a great ingredient and smells soo good!

I know that creamed coconut is usually soaked to make a milk - but I cant be bothered and just use it stright from the package

The chilli amount I use suits me, I have found that the chilli amounts used in most recipes here to be way too hot.

I use at least twice ot three times the amount of ginger as most recipes use - I love the zing

I do not have a lot of experience with various curry powders as  I usually do the dry-fry spices and grind for each dish
(I used to only make authentic curries with a full dish recipe rather than the base and final dish BIR style)
the MDH Chicken Curry masala powder seems very good though

Let me know if anyone trys it, I thought is was superb


Regards

niall

hi all

just thought I'd share my experience

i have made mark j / blades - "10 onion base" twice
and the second time it was amazing

I made the following modifications:

Quarter the chili powder and used four of the fat green African Chilis - deseeded
Double the amount of ginger and garlic - I used fresh
used "MDH" Chicken curry masala powder - from asian grocers

The final dish:

Chicken for four people
1" cube of creamed coconut - added towards end
tsp of methi - soaked for 10 mins - add 10mins from end
tablespoon of "MDH" Chicken curry masala powder - from asian grocers
heaped tablespoon of "total" fat-free fromage frais "total"
juice of one lemon - at the end

it was by far far, the best curry i have made and was so close to my local madras

I just hope I can reproduce it on demand

Regards

niall

hi all

I tried the jamie curry as posted in this thread and thought it was excellent
Its not you BIR type - but I thought it was a really good and a very different flavour altogether
to the one we are used to

my two (euro) cents

niall

ireland

hi all

anyone made a soup from the gravy?
mullingatawny springs to mind

any thoughts

rgds

niall

hi all

Im a noob

What in general opinion is the best base here?

Has anyone used the one off thecurryhouse.co.uk
any thoughts? - its the only one i've used

regards

....niall!

hi all

curry fan, and all that

my holy grail is to replicate my local madras

I,m a decent home cook

Ciao

niall