Phwoar!  ;D Curry porn!

Looks great UB, I'm sure to try this soon but sadly I'm flat sharing with 3 others and a small kitchen for now so the old BIR cooking has taken a back seat! The pictures make my mouth water though! Great effort!  ;D

Been yet again. The nicest staff you will ever meet. They are happy to talk curry. I got a few tips tonight. Brilliant curry.

The wise looking chef I mentioned before was on again (head chef). Best chef in Edinburgh IMHO. I actually met a guy from my previous favourite takeaway the Shapla who outright told me this guy is the best chef in Edinburgh. I quite believe it.

They gave me some amazing lamb mice / spiced little fritters while I was waiting - they're trying it out as a starter. They were lovely. I could taste lamb, fresh chilli, mint, fenugreek seed, fresh coriander and I think lemon juice. I think they were coated in gram flour and deep fried. Awesome.

If you're in Edinburgh, try this takeaway! 10/10!

Quote from: Cory Ander on August 14, 2009, 04:05 PM
In my experience, best curries are generally produced (by ANY BIR) on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights...their busiest nights and, presumably, when their head chef is present.

Hi CA, I hope you're well! It's funny you should say that, I'm utterly convinced Thursday is the best day to get any takeaway. It's always so good!

I couldn't agree more on what you said about the head chef being present. My new local Asha is really good. The head chef there looks like a wise old monk with a long white beard. He's just great.

They're a really friendly bunch and I give my usual chat to see what info I can get. You can see into the kitchen - it's pretty standard stuff that is mentioned on the site. They don't use too much heat mind you... Also, they LOVE the veg ghee. I see loads of empty ones in the bin outside. I think it's mostly for the rice.

I speak to one younger worker quite often who is usually front of house. He says he's spent a couple of years in the kitchen working when it's not so busy. I was explaining how much I enjoyed their curry. I was also talking about which takeaways are good / bad. Oddly enough my other favorite is run by their friends.

Anyhow, this young guy was happy to discuss technique but insisted that the reason they get it better than me (I told him what I do and he says all the ingredients etc are correct) is because their more experienced chefs have been doing it for so long and are very proud of their trade. Makes sense to me. I certainly doubt that someone given the tools and some brief info about how to do my job would produce results like I do!

Ultimately I think what I'm getting at is that you can give 2 people the same ingredients and recipe and get very different results. Especially when it comes to spices - a little deviation from the recipe makes a substantial change. The experienced and skilled chefs present in the better BIRs will just have so much more of a feel for curry making than the layman. I'm not suggesting that this is where "the taste" is per say but I am saying that this explains the consistent high end result offered by a good BIR's curry. Mmmmmmm curry!!! ;D

Well done Haldi! I can't wait to try this. If at all possible, a picture of your used oil would be very helpful. Did you target a take away that didn't make fish, or do they all use a separate fryer for fish and you asked for the chip fryer oil? What kind of take away do you suggest that we approach?

I must say, I always thought the missing taste would be something filth related ;D. I can really imagine it's used oil doing the trick. Although all the small food particles in the oil have been fried and fried, tyey will have been sealed on the outside by the hot oil. Boiling the oil up in the base sauce will release all of that sealed in  fried tastiness. This could explain why the oil doesn't smell of much until used in base sauce.

I'm really excited about this breakthrough. Once Haldi manages to post his advice on acquiring the right kind of used oil then I'll go and try to get some. The chip shop near me serves fish so I think perhaps I should try elsewhere.

Once I have the oil, I'm tempted to try a very minimal curry session. A basic minimally spiced base with just onion, tomato, garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin, coriander powder and paprika (all spices used sparingly, E.G. 2 dsrt spoons total) and a BE style curry with just 1 tsp spice mix. Really looking forward to it!

Congratulations on your obsessive hard work finally paying off Haldi! ;D Well deserved! If anyone was going to get there it was going to be you!

As far as your health concerns go, I wouldn't worry too much. As long as your only getting a few tbsps a couple of times a week it'll be fine. I imagine saturated fat would be worse for you. Just try not get the oil smoking when you cook with it because as I'm sure you know, that makes it more carcinogenic. That's the only concern really. Any microbes in there would be dead instantly at that temp! The stuff's probably sterile!

Does the darker oil effect the colour of your base and/or curry?

Cheers,

BB.

I've been there for the gentle onion frying at the start of the base. It did make it sweeter if I recall but after discussion with the forum I think I was in the minority so shifted back to boiling it all up. I'm lead to believe that BIRs just boil it all up.

I seem to recall Bruce actually says to take a knife over the dsrt spoons of level spice mix to ensure they are genuinely level. For me, this is the key. I didn't actually take a knife over the spoon, but judged it. He's not wrong I'll tell you that!

Hey guys,

Yesterday I got back to basics and made what for me was a really bare bones base sauce, which is giving me great results. I didn't add any whole spices, fresh coriander, coconut block and so on... All that went in veg wise was onions, garlic, tinned tomatoes, a carrot and a little green pepper I had left over.

It's left me thinking... When's the last time someone made a base with just onion tomatoes and garlic for example. What's the significance of the other veg. Would my base have been notably difference without 1 small carrot and a little green pepper? I feel my base sauces are getting more and more complex as I experiment and I'm sure I've lost something along the way!

So what do you think on the use of the following and which could / should be left out?

• Carrot
• Fresh Coriander
• Green or red pepper
• Coconut block
• Whole spices
• Ginger

(I'm assuming onion, garlic and tomato are rudimentary but feel free to question that - I seem to remember the Rajver has no garlic)

Quote from: emin-j on July 12, 2009, 03:18 PM
Made a visit too a Asian Supermarket this morning wow ! paradise ! everything you could wamt !

I love going there too. Such a little adventure. It's quite sad how much I enjoy it. Although that said, it probably doesn't compare with UB and his sniper's eye for nan bread accommodating garden furniture!

Hey Jerry, I used 4 fairly sparse dsrt spoons in the base.

The final curry I made was a chicken Bhuna/Madras type thing. Delicious.