I found the technique by DARTHPHALL - i may give that a try today - I am planning on making chicken pakodas with it and it uses cooked chicken to coat in the besan.

Payal

Hmm..the chicken was not leathery yesterday!  I sliced it in thin strips - chinese style - and it was very tender!  This is the first time I actually used a 2 step cooking method in that I made the madras base sauce first and then made chili chicken in coconut.  It turned out great!!  I am not sure if it qualifies as a "curry" but it was really very good!  I will post the recipe today or tomorrow for sure.  I have some chicken I will cook today according to a method recommended by someone here when I mentioned the chicken was very tough.  But cooking the chicken in the base sauce until it almost al dried up was great - so much flavor in the chicken!!

Payal

I finally read through this new book - "Fast Curry Cookbook" last night and must say I am so disappointed.  There is not 1 recipe I want to try!  The ingredients seem strange - fried dried onion flakes and tomato soup powder....the dal recipe has 1 masala and it is dried methi leaves!!

Payal

Yes, I can do that very soon - post the madras sauce that is but it has fresh curry leaves - hence the "madras" label I assume.  I am actually making it right now and will use it as a base in another recipe from the book.  So I will let you all know what happens...i just hope the chicken is not leathery again!  The only time it wasnt was when i sliced it into thin strips, not chunks.  I cant wait to finish this frozen chicken - I will never buy the frozen chicken breasts again - at least not from Costco.

Payal

Thats the impression I was getting from this website!  I was asking more about the particular book, not the author   But this book has "fast" curries - so that sounds interesting and almost contradictory to how a curry sounds like it is made.

Payal

Does anyone have an opinion on this cookbook by Pat Chapman?  I just picked it up from the library - just came in to them - 2005 book.  I want to try making a curry but am not sure where to start - that system to rate the curries would be great!!

Payal

I have her book "Real Fast Indian Food" (2002) and the recipes for the kadhai and butter and madras sauces are quite different from the ones you posted!  Too many variations

Payal

Oh, the taste and aromas are so different when you dry roast the spices!!  It is a must I feel.  I read somewhere that some spices, like fenugreek seeds, are so hard that by dry roasting them, it makes them easier to grind.  I dont make my own garam masala but roast and grind my own coriander powder, fenugreek powder and cumin powder.  I always roast them on the stove until they turn a shade darker and start giving off their aromas - cool them - and then grind them.  Cumin is perhaps the most important one in that when they call for roast cumin powder, it means to roast the cumin until it turns a deep shade of brown and then grinded.  Other spices are not deepened in color like cumin is.  The taste is 100% different when cumin seed is browned and ground!  This weekend, I accidentally roasted the coriander seed too much and it turned brown but when ground, it gave off a totally different taste! But it is not meant to be browned because the classic coriander taste was lost when I did that.  Give it a try and see what happens.

Payal

I have not had a BIR curry but have been reading how everyone is missing that special taste/smell.  I wonder if they reuse the oil that they fry with.  Has anyone seen if they use fresh oil or if it could be oil that pokodas or other appetizers could have been fried in and rebottled? After deep frying, I use up the oil in my cooking rather than refrying in it.  I notice my food has a different taste in it - especially if I fried something that had garlic or onion in it.  It gave my food a very "heavy" taste that reminded me of an indian restaurant.  I am probably the last person to try to find the secret as I have not eaten a "curry" here in the UK but am trying to think what in indian cooking may help in giving a restaurant type flavor and smell.  I am intrigued that this idea of duplicating a restaurant recipe has turned out to be such a mystery.  I may just have to go eat a "curry" to see what you are all talking about ;D

Payal

That is a really practical idea but I get grossed out by bones and the such....even raw chicken grosses me out so much i wear rubber gloves while handling it
I am trying a different recipe with the frozen breasts tomorrow....then i hope to find out if the chicken is the problem.