Can we nail this one on the head and put it in the FAQ perhaps so that it doesn't rear its ugly head again?

If I cook 10 pots of curry all with exactly the same ingredients, including the spices, and I then pour them all into one big pot, the big pot of curry will taste exactly the same as the curry from the smaller pots, right? If anyone disagrees with this then you urgently need to go on a basic science course.

So, to the question "when scaling up a recipe, do I scale up the ingredients proportionally", the answer is a very incontrovertible YES!

The only thing you would have to watch out for is different evaporation rates when cooking in different size pots.

Quote from: waldini on June 23, 2006, 08:59 AM
but many friends say that they prefer mine to any restaurant.

I don't think that there is one person on this forum that hasn't at some time had that comment made to them. But I think it just reflects the poor quality of the current indian restaurants' fare. Personally I still can't, and I'm beginning to think I never will, replicate the depth of flavour, the 'taste' and the smell of my favourite curries from the old days.

Try MarkJ's Biryani demo. It tastes like no biryani I've ever had but it makes a very passable indian restaurant fried rice.

YF

Hello Nessa

I've tried to find that program but I haven't had any luck. Can you be more specific about times etc.

YF

Quote from: Nessa on March 31, 2006, 11:14 PM
Canola is corn oil

No it's not!

Canola is derived from rape seed oil. It is called Canola because it is short for 'Canada Oil' where it ws invented. The trade name was a neccessity because it is made from GM rape seed and that wasn't sellable to the public.

This is exactly the sort of question I had hoped that the FAQ would remove the need for. Would it be possible to make it so that the FAQ is on the home page or somewhere more obvious so that it is the first thing that newcomers read?

and the curries...

Here they are, taken with a phone camera so they are quite blurred!

Because I've been fairly content with my own curry making efforts I haven't been for a sit in or takeaway curry for over a year now. Well, I was passing through Northampton the other day and decided to drop in and visit a friend of mine. We met up at the Tamarind on the Wellingborough road. We ordered achari chicken and chicken dhansak and I was full of anticipation after such a time away from the 'real' thing.

Now, when I tasted the dhansak I got a very big surprise, it was almost exactly the same as the Kris Dhillon dhansak, right down to the lack of a strong lentil flavour. Also both curries were very thick and orange rather than brown. I could actually spoon up a bit of the curry and turn the spoon upside down and it stayed on the spoon. They did have a slight hint of the old taste I was accustomed to but to much less degree. There was no excess oil to be seen and I wonder if this was part of the reason?

It had been really bothering me that people on this forum were claiming to be getting restaurant style curries and yet when I tried the posted recipes they were just not up to scratch. I now understand why so many here claim to be able to reproduce the restaurant style curry exactly if this is now the standard that is served up, because I can too, infact I can do better. This does raise a point though. If this is what some people who contribute to this forum are getting served and know no better, then they are never going to be able to add to the general debate here about getting that 'old fashioned' smell and taste that a lot of us are/were used to in the past, because they won't have experienced it.

I can also see why some people claim that all restaurant curries are very alike. The chicken achari and dhansak were virtually the same orange colour and both were very thick. Curries I've had in the past have varied in colour and consistency and had a greater variety and depth of taste as well. It's a very sad day if this is the way that the curry houses are going.

I took a couple of rather blurry pictures of the curries if anyone is interested.

Seems to be a trend to me. First there was ifindforu, then heidi showed up promising a lot and promptly disappeared. I think some people just like to dangle the prospect of help in front of others only to promptly snatch it away, but I'd love to know what they get out of it?