Quote from: Onion B on August 24, 2009, 08:37 PM
"Be careful with where you put your fingers, especially after handling the birdseyes. The Swedish recipe says this: "If you put your finger in your nose you might as well have tried picking it with a soldering iron"

After 3 ltrs of lager i could probably stick a soldering iron in my eye and feel nothing, but i will give it a go..

Well you're either a strong man or you can't take your booze then

Okay, here goes:

Spices
2 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp oregano
2 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp sugar
1,5 dl chili powder
Salt to taste
I also sometimes add: A few bay leaves and some cinnamon sticks. I always add alot of coarsely ground, mixed with hole seeds of, black pepper.

Main Ingredients
Six cans of light lager (About 3 litres is good)
5 dried ancho chilis:
1 chipotle http://www.thespicehouse.com/file/misc/chipotles-pair.jpg (the small ones should be anchos and the larger ones chipotles, but when I buy them they're both often the colour of the anchos)
3 birdseye (described as small and red, so I supposed it's piri piri, that's what I use anyway.
4 green jalape?os
10 large garlic cloves
5 red meat, cubes of 1x1 cm.
0,5-1 dl wheat flour
3 dl beef broth (I usually just add some extra water and add appropriate amounts of Bouillon cubes, I'm lazy, but whatever you have handy you know)
Some cornmeal

For variation and an extra touch I sometimes add an extra chipotle (I love its smoky taste), a glass of red wine or whiskey (I never use both at the same time, doesn't seem like a good idea).

How to cook it:

The Swedish recipe makes alot of allusions to drinking tequila while you cook, I hate tequila and I think that's highly optional, I'd go for some whiskey instead!

1. The chilies: Remove stalks and deseed, and chop into pieces. Boil the dried chiles in water for 15 minutes with a lid on, don't thrown away the water! Note: Be careful with where you put your fingers, especially after handling the birdseyes. The Swedish recipe says this: "If you put your finger in your nose you might as well have tried picking it with a soldering iron". Wash your hands when you're done too.
2. Chop up the garlic (you don't need to chop it too finely)
3. Brown the garlic and put into a large cast iron cooking pit.
4. Fry the meat and add it too, make sure the pieces have a nice colour, don't fry too much too much at the same time.
5. Mix the spices with the wheat flour and add to the pot.
6. Remove the boiled dried chilis from the water, again don't throw the water away, and mash the chilis. Then add them and the unboiled chili peppers to the pot. Add all the liquids (chili water, beer and broth/stock/whatever) so that it covers the meat.
7. Bring to a boil, make sure to stir often so that nothing burns.
8. Keep this up until the meat starts falling apart, this usually takes 2 to 3 hours, so make sure to have a good book, or even better make this outside on a warm summer's even with alot of friends around to talk to.

You can also use the time to prepare something to eat with the chili. Recommended: A good guacemole or just sour cream with chopped onion is good help against the heat, so is tortillas. Grated cheese is also good. Some like a good piece of bread to dip into the stew, and beans to the side is nice, though you shouldn't add any in the stew (they'll be boiled to nothing). Of course you should drink beer to this, and whiskey if you like.

If the chili isn't thick enough when it's done add some cornmeal.

I've used this recipe many times with good results, but I think it's pretty important that you get the chili peppers right if nothing else.

Quote from: Ader1 on June 16, 2009, 08:39 AM

Quote from: Hargiwald on April 04, 2009, 03:33 PM

Until then, maybe I should translate this Swedish recipe for the other kind of chili that I found and make a thread later on here, that recipe is truly awesome.

Did you ever translate the Swedish recipe?

I'm sorry I completely forgot about it. Anyway I've since found out it's based on Frank X. Tolbert's famous chili recipe, but the ones I find in English are often less detailed (possibly that's desired anyway). I suppose I might get to work on a translation now, shouldn't take too long. It's the texas style stuff, where tomatoes, onion and minced meat are usually frowned upon in a chili.

If you just want to see the recipe just skip on. Here comes a lot of blabber about what kind if vindaloo this is and why:

I love hot food, I really do, I am one of those people who can get high on torturing myself with food that you have to struggle to eat. As such I do order vindaloo from time to time, but generally they don't seem to taste as much other good and flavour rich curries so I settle for something milder unless I need that kick. As a result I always try to make vindaloos that give me that desired heat but without being flavourless. The Francis Tolbert chili con carne and its well-rounded and not too harsh heat is a big inspiration, and I must say that dried chilis, which are used in this recipe, work great. I also use red wine instead of vinegar, because to me in cooking that's always better, and I can get more of that winy taste without making it too acidly harsh. I think that I've finally made a good one that actually resembles many vindaloos I've had here in Sweden (though the cooking is probably far off), but with a richer taste that I find delicious.

I must add straightaway, though, that I think a good vindaloo should have a spicily dry flavour, not sweet or sour (that's never happened to me anyway) and I've never had one with potatoes so if you're into that kind of stuff that's up to you.

Here is the recipe, good for about 2 people:

The recipe:

Spice mix
3 tsp Standard chili powder (or more if you like)
2 tsp Extra hot chili powder (I used dried piri piri)
2-3 tsp Coarsely ground black pepper
1 tsp Medium to hot curry powder (I used a Madras powder)
1 tsp Ground dried coriander leaves (or just add a little extra fresh)
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Turmeric
1 tsp Garlic powder
1/2 tsp Coriander powder (seeds)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Ingredients
1 Green jalape?o
1 Hot chipotle
2 Anchos
100 ml oil (or less if you don't like it too oily, I for one love oil)
5 Big garlic cloves, minced.
1 tbsp Minced ginger
4 tbsp Heinz Chili Sauce (pretty close to ketchup, so ketchup will do too)
2 tbsp Tomato pur?e
200 ml Red wine (I used an italian one called Briccotondo because I had a bottle and it's cheap)
500 ml Base sauce (I used the SnS gravy with the small addition of two celery sticks. Those, according to my taste buds, didn't seem to effect the base much, so don't bother)
Some fairly undecooked meat, enough for 2 portions (mutton is my favourite, but you do as you like)
A lot of chopped fresh coriander leaves (adjust to taste, I used about a deciliter worth)

What to do

1. Put a sauce pan with about 400 ml of water on the stove and set to boil.
2. Get started on the chilis (jalape?o, chipotle and anchos). Deseed and chop up. Then thrown them into the boiling water and let it boil without a lid. The longer the better, but I recommend boiling until the water is reduced by half.
3. While the chilis boil, make all other arrengements, mincing garlic, and ginger, for example, and preparing the spice mix.
4. You can test to see if the chilis are done just by chewing a piece of one of the dried ones (chipotle or ancho) to see if it's gone soft. When they are done get the chilis out of the water, but save the water!
5. Gently fry the ginger and the garlic in the oil until brown.
6. Add spices, chili sauce/ketchup, tomato pur?e, fresh coriander and the chili peppers and continue stirring for a minute or two.
7. Add the red wine little by little, stirring as you keep it cooking.
8. When all the wine is added cook to a thick sauce. Then amp up the heat and start adding the chili water and base sauce a little at the time. Keep it simmering constantly.
Note: Depending on how warm the chili water and the base sauce is you can add more or less at a time, so I can't put a good time on the procedure, nor can I tell you how long the vindaloo should cook, if you've made curries before and know how you want your vindaloo in terms of runny vs. thick you'll know when it's done.
9. Add the meat when you've added all the water and base sauce. Towards the end of the cooking add a touch of garam masala. Tasting with salt might be a good idea, and a nice squeeze of lemon is optional but I didn't have any around when I made this and didn't miss it.
10. Serve hot! A good pilau rice, naan and tomatoes are all recommended for a hot vindaloo (as if you didn't already know that). This particular recipe isn't unbearably hot, but it has sting (and of course you can adjust this yourself).

Note: If you don't want red wine in it for whatever reason, vinegar could be used as replacement, or it can be skipped completely. If you use vinegar I suppose about 50-100 ml would do.

Ps. I tried taking some photos with my phone camera, but no matter what settings I used the vindaloo looked blue and disgusting, so pictures will have to wait. The result is pretty thick, gleaming with oil separation and has dark red and brown colour.

Please do give this one a try, I know it's a bit more complicated than the usual BIR fare, what with dried chilis that have to be pre-cooked and adding red wine, but it's really good, take a chance.

It's mine too. Actually I still haven't tried any of the other base sauces several months after finding this place. Maybe that's a mistake but I find that this one works perfectly for all kinds of dishes, and if I want it to be a bit hotter to begin with I have on occassion thrown in different chilis and never with bad results.

I made a lovely vindaloo (for which I'm going to post a recipe in that section) with this just the other day, for example, and I've made good CTM's with it too, so it works fine with anything.

Thanks for the help!

That is indeed quite an amount of sugar. Quite absurd actually, but hey, no one ever said BIR curries were healthy.

Quote from: Secret Santa on March 27, 2009, 06:58 PM

Quote from: Malachyte on March 27, 2009, 12:04 PM
"Cool Whip" kind of thing.

Always cracks me up when I see 'cool whip'. Watch Stewie from Family Guy to know why!

As far as the coconut thing goes, the restaurants use coconut flour and not coconut cream (block) in the final curry making. The coconut cream is used in some bases though.

The amount of sugar and coconut flour used in a korma is frightening, about a heaped chefs spoon of both, and about the same for a CTM!

This is interesting, but just to clarify, how much is a chef's spoon? And are you speaking per portion?

I want to try this recipe, but I have to get my hands on the coconut flour first.

This looks good, though I myself am a bigger fan of chilis without any tomato and with whole meat that is cooked so that it starts falling apart. This kind is generally quicker though, and I've never found a perfect recipe for the tomato and minced meat kind, so I'll try this and see if it does the trick it looks good, but no beer? I generally find that beer in the sauce is, well, a great thing simply put. Well, either way, I'll give it a go when I get well and can go buy ingredients again.

Until then, maybe I should translate this Swedish recipe for the other kind of chili that I found and make a thread later on here, that recipe is truly awesome.

Quote from: SnS on March 17, 2009, 06:31 PM
Hi Hargiwald

Wondering how you were getting on now you've got the missing ingredients?

SnS 

I made another Madras, even better this time, partly because the madras powder you sent me was better than the stuff I found here in Sweden, but also a lot because I had methi now. I've also done some experimenting with different stuff, nothing to write up here but all good curries. I tried to make a Lamb Daal Gost (a dish that seems to have a thousand spelling variations), it worked out fine, but not great. I can't seem to find any recipes for that here though, so I'll just keep trying.

Funny thing though, I did make a really good curry, which reminded me of the Korais I get in my favourite place, just the other day. But I have no idea how to write down a recipe for it. This is partly due to the fact that instead of adding water I used a broth that I made by cooking water in a pan in which I had made a Chicken Tikka Masala earlier. It was just an attempt to get the dried in masala sauce to loosen up but the smell was lovely and I added some spices and bones and let it cook for a while. Doesn't sound very hygienic, I know, but the pan had only been standing for a few hours, and it worked. Is this something that others do? Because so far I haven't encountered anyone else mentioning it. Using broth, yes, but making it that way? The problem is that it seems totally unpredictable, because the broth didn't taste that much like the masala sauce, it seems only certain spices, mostly chili and paprika, gets stuck in the pan.

Damn I'm good at rambling. Anyway, SnS, do you have any more recipes as good as your madras to go with your base? It's time to try a recipe next time.

Well, I've been giving it some thought and in all honesty, the tikka masala of my favourite place looks just like all others but it is a bit different in taste, but not vastly... Well I don't know.

And about the cardamoms, I think I'll have to do some heavy revising on that part, I do suspect that the pods I have are getting a bit old and don't give off as much taste as they should, so there's a big risk that anyone who tries this with fresh cardamom gets a cardamom shock. (Mine are still green but just barely)

I also followed this recipe very closely yesterday because I was in the mood for a Tikka, and I think I might have got some measurements wrong, because while good it didn't taste quite like the time before. For one thing I will have to mint things up for the next version of this recipe, but if you still dare try it please do and any suggestions are welcome.