Hi all,

I have read in many places on this forum that the creamier dishes are easier to recreate than the spicier ones, but I can not find a recipe for a korma or chicken tikka masalla that looks like it is a restaurant clone. They look wonderfull recipes but have far too many ingredients or ingredients I don't believe are used in the standard BIR.

Please help,

Blondie

I agree with Dylan, split red ones,

cheers,

Blondie

Hi Darthy,

In my area we have a chef who has been one of the top BIR chefs in the country for a good few years.  He has been planning to open another restaurant in the city centre which it is planned will have a training school for chefs upstairs.  I am not holding my breath because it has been in the planning for 18 months that i am aware of.  I'll try and get into the training course if and when it ever happens but I suspect it will be (without it being said) just for ... I don't want to cause offense but you probably know what I mean, it won't be for joe public.

Anyway I'll try, but some time off yet I think,

cheers Darfty,

Blondie

aha Darthy,

caught ya, you don't know the German for white, no, neither do I.

If anyone doesn't know what I'm talking about read the previous couple of postings in this thread.

OK, enough about blenders you bunch of old women, let's get back to the food you'll be talking about knives and how sharp they should be next,

cheers all,

Blondie

Hi all,

the ground black cardamom I mentioned earlier is East End and is either just the husk or the whole cardamom.  It has a very smokey smell and taste (just like cigarette butts to me, but I don't smoke). The "powder" is quite sort of hairy / fibrous if you know what i mean.

Hope this helps the people who are trying to make thier curries taste of fags.

Cheers all,

Blondie

Hi all,

I agree with Dylan, my hand blender, a cheapy braun, that I've used for about 10 years, does a 10 onion batch in a couple of minutes.

cheers all,

Blondie

Hi Thomashenry,

I know that some of us are in areas where some ingredients are difficult to find, but my local asian store sells packets of Ground Black Cardamom (either Rajah or East End I can't remember which).? As I have said before only one of my local BIRs has a smokey taste, but just by way of experiment I will try some of the ground black cardamom and see what it produces by way of the smokey taste.

I have experimented in a simillar way with different ingredients that have an aniseedy taste (ie fennel, star anise etc) because my favourite BIR definately has that taste but I can't reproduce it.

cheers all,

Blondie

Hi All,

I am finding this very annoying, I have had the KD book for many years and after all that time my conclusion is that the base sauce needs to be very simple like the KD version with very very mild slightly savoury taste.  It seems to me that the KD base was very near perfect all along, but the method and overspicing of the final dishes let them down.

Having said that, most of the bases posted on this forum are excellent in themselves, but probably more suited to more upper class BIRs.

Don't worry about me giving up, there is no chance of that.  I am so practiced at making not quite good enough curries, that I can make even the worst disasters quite enjoyable to eat.

Over the years I have found that slightly too much capsicum or slightly too much garlic or slightly too much ginger or slightly too much spice can all completely destroy the base.  Maybe this is why chefs say that cooking the base in small quantities at home won't work.

Here we go again, more cooking in the morning.

cheers all,

Blondie

Hi darthy,

You know I'm not one to nitt pick, but can you tell me how "The Taste" is present in the most basic curry sauce with nothing but salt added, if it isn't in the base.

The reason I ask is that my local say (and maybe they don't tell the truth) that the basic curry sauce only has salt added to the base gravy.

Still none the wiser,

Blondie

Hi all,

There is no smokey taste in my favourite local's curry, there are some in this area that do have the smokeieness.


HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT KRIS HAS JUST BECOME A MEMBER.... KRIS..... I KNOW THAT NAME FROM SOMEWHERE.

I still am not sure if the taste is in the base or the final dish and if you look at the posts all over this site no one has made the diffinitive statement.

cheers all,

FED up (literally)