Seems like we're going in circles again. If you look at the ingredients and method used in the base it's not a million miles from KD's method. Have you never tried KD's base Mark J?

YF

No problem terry 

I don't know if you've noticed but your recipe is almost identical to the one poppadom_pete posted after you?

YF

I was typing and reformatting this for my own use so I thought I would post it.

Fry 10 cut onions in 1/2 cup of oil for ten minutes.
Add 2 pints of water, bring to the boil and continue boiling for 6 minutes.
In another pan add half a cup of oil and when very hot add 2 TBSP garlic/ginger paste mixed 2:1
Fry for 3 or 4 minutes, then add the following spices mixed with water to form a paste:

2 dessert spoons turmeric
1 dessert spoon Rajah Gold
1 dessert spoon cumin
1 dessert spoon coriander
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp chilli

Continue to fry for 5 minutes adding small amounts of water if necessary to avoid burning the spices.

Liquidise the onions without removing any oil.

Add 2 dessert spoons of double concentrate tomato puree and 1/2 tsp of salt to the spices and fry for 4 minutes.

Now add the contents of the spice pan to the pureed onions.

Add 1/2 block coconut cream, 1 dessert spoon sugar and boil for a further 10 minutes adding more water if
the mix gets too thick.

Add all purpose seasoning to taste.

YF

Have you tried the pre cooked vegetables from the Kushi balti book. It's not exactly the same but I thought it was close and with a bit of tweaking who knows?

YF

Quote from: Ian S. on July 11, 2006, 03:50 PM
I'm at the stage where - like some others - I think it's down to technique.

I don't think you'll find anyone her disagreeing with that. Although it's really a combination of the right base AND the right extras AND the right tehnique! It's no wonder we have such a hard time getting it right.

QuoteI'm determined to ignite the pan somehow.

You can do this but because we don't generally have the huge burners that the restaurants have everything has to be hot. So, make sure your base is boiling, not simmering, not cold but boiling before you add it. Preferably use a heavy base pan that retains heat. Only add a little of the base to your oil/spice/garlic&ginger mix as this helps create the oil/'water' aerosol which is what gets ignited with a liberal amount of pan shaking. Do all that and you should be onto a winner. Be warned though, if it isn't already obvious, these flames shoot up about a metre and can last for quite a while. Have a damp tea towel at hand and make sure your household insurance is paid up.   

YF

Hi George

I'm not so convinced that several base sauces are needed, but I am sure that using one restaurant masala is not the way to go. It just produces dishes that are too samey. I'm convinced that some of the eyewitness reports that get posted here are unwittingly incorrect. How for instance, unless you have been specifically told, are you to know that the little tub of brown powder that you thought was cumin, say, wasn't in fact a similar coloured alternative masala?
So I think you've got a point, more attention needs to be paid to the restaurant masalas and we shouldn't always be using just the Bruce Edwards' one.

YF

Hi Curry King

It's a good point Curry King and one that I think I've made on here before. I've tried quite a few of the curries posted in this forum and while they are almost always good they have, at least for me, neither the 'taste' and more particularly the smell of restaurant curries. So it always intrigues me when people claim that they have achieved curry Nirvana and yet I'm left thinking 'well it's OK but it ain't a restaurant curry'. Maybe it's just a question of what you are used to?

I think it was George who first mentioned the great waft of curry odour that greets you when you open the door to a take away delivery. I've never been able to get this smell into my curries and that has to be the final missing element. Find the ingredient(s) that create this overpowering smell and I reckon we will have cracked this bloody curry lark!

While I'm on the subject, I recently tested the theory that cooking a curry dulls your sense of smell. I ordered a take away and then started to make a few curries for freezing, while I was waiting. It took about 30 minutes to arrive so I reckon my sense of smell would have been well overpowered by spicy cooking aromas. I went to the door, opened it , and guess what, I got a nice big waft of the curry smell I am trying to replicate. So it's so strong that it's quite distinguishable even after having my senses  saturated with my own curry making efforts.

YF

P.S. I forgot to say, I only started eating curries  around about 1980 myself when I lived in Notting Hill. I was  a two curry a day man then (ahh, those were the days ), and I never had a bad curry and they all had the 'taste' and the smell.

Hi woodpecker21

Funny, I'd been thinking about this method just yesterday and here you are bringing it up today (cue spooky music).

What I noticed here though is that you specify separate tandoori and tikka pastes. I thought the only difference was one was on the bone and one not, but both use the same paste. So care to elaborate please?

YF

Hi Fat Les

Quote from: Fat Les on July 09, 2006, 07:20 AM

Surely it cannot have ?run its course? since not one person here claims to be able to replicate BIR curries at home!

Perhaps I should have said it's hit a brick wall! There aren't the great advances that were made in the early days.

QuoteSurely we should recognise that there are now 658 members on this site

Yes, but how many are actively participating, 20?...30?

QuoteWho wants a site that fails to grow?simply because the needs of a relatively small number of original members are seemingly not being fulfilled?

So you are implying that the newer members aren't interested in achieving the goal of exactly duplicating the best of indian restaurant curries. That after all was, and still is the aim of the forum and its original crew.

QuoteI just hope they don?t take one look at the recent postings and walk away again!

I, and I would hope many other members of this forum, am not the sort to let direct or implied insults pass me by, nor will I just gloss over posts that are factually incorrect. If members don't want any more of the "recent postings", have the decency to not post pseudo science, based on conjecture and lack of scientific knowledge.

QuoteI would certainly be likely to contribute significanlty more if I felt I was getting positive responses to my posts.

If your posts further the stated cause I would think you'll get nothing but positive responses!

QuotePS:  I've changed the picture in my profile to better conform to some people's pre-conceived sterotypes of names!

Away and get yourself a bucket of Vindaloo.

YF

Hi Curry King

I reckon Pete's disappeared because he probably feels the way I do about the current state of the forum. I think it's run its course as far as its original reason for being, i.e. to replicate at home the unique flavour and smell of the restaurant curries. Remember the early days when new ideas came in thick and fast and those lucky enough to have access to Indian restaurant kitchens and chefs were always posting new ideas and recipes? This was the impetus for the great threads of old.
Now we're reduced to looking at pictures of each others curries and talking about what we are going to cook at the weekend! Now actually I'm the sort of sad git who likes to look at pics of other peoples efforts, but let's face it, it doesn't forward the cause one bit.
There's the occasional nugget of new information, like Stew's tip of adding a little bit of water to the spices in the pan, but I don't think there's been any real progress, at least for the long term members, for the past six months and maybe longer.

And just out of interest, that little bit of water added to the hot spices can only be for two reasons:
1. The chef isn't all that competent and he's cooling the spice/oil mix to prevent burning the spices, or
2. he's deliberately trying to ignite the oil, which would imply that it is definitely a necessary step in achieving the 'taste'.

As a final teaser, has anyone ever managed to make a curry with the unique restaurant curry smell? Were you able to repeat it?
Sadly I never have so I will still read the forum and live in hope of ultimate enlightenment.

YF