Does anyone know where I can find it? I used to get it off YouTube. Now it seems to have disappeared.

Does anyone have it?

Cheers,
Josh

PaulP,

I had the same reservation on the mustard oil. And I was proved correct. It was the overpowering flavour.

Someone made the recommendation to heat it until smoke point and then cool completely before use. That subdued it to a usable level.

Like asafoetida, its one of those ingredients that if you have a bad experience with, it will stick in your memory for a long time...

-- Josh

Really looking forward to this. Thanks Chris for pushing it along.

QuoteI agree. From a logical and near-scientific point of view, I think Josh's test has been totally invalidated by missing out what appears to be a crucial ingredient. I can't believe he went to all that trouble and expense with the vital ingredient missing. As a result, I really wouldn't place any credence on his conclusions.

In ways George, you're right. Every other time I've seen asafoetida mentioned, its been a pinch or thereabouts. This base calls for more of it than I've ever seen (chef's spoon?)

If this makes a fundamental difference, which it may, then not only have I made a mistake, we may have also found the missing ingredient.

The smell the way I made it was not noticeably different from other bases I have made. The resultant curries weren't noticeably better either.

I may have missed it, but did anyone try it with the full asafoetida measure?

-- Josh

I've had the book for a couple of weeks now. I decided to make a few dishes and give an honest opinion on the results. I made the base, a Madras, a Vindaloo, pilau, naan, and CTM.

The base was easily the most time-consuming I have ever made. I made it completely to spec with the single exception being that I did not have asafoetida on hand. I would appreciate thoughts from others on how important (or not) this ingredient is. I made the bhaji oil per spec, as well as the garlic/ginger paste, tomato paste, tandoori marinade, and vindaloo paste. The lack of a true specific measurement system made the whole process more challenging than usual. I realize that BIR chefs do not measure teaspoons, veg weight, etc, but I would have preferred more specific measurements than the dipping system, although its certainly more true to BIR practice.

The base took forever to cook. I used the full-size recipe in a large stockpot. Cooking on lowest heat, meant that the base never got to boil. I had to crank it up to start the simmer process and then put it back to lowest heat. After the first hour, it was clear to me that the veg was not yet fully cooked. It took close to another hour for the veg to be sufficiently cooked. After blitzing and adding water, it took about an hour longer than specified for the oil to separate - but it did separate and give me a finished base that wasn't unlike the many bases I have made from CR0. So far so good, just a little (a lot) time consuming.

Madras - the Madras was good. I personally do not think the tandoori masala belongs in this dish. Its part of the tomato paste, the dipping, and I used the optional step of adding a little tandoori marinade (again without a measurement recommendation to go by). A decent Madras for sure, but too much tandoori masala for my taste.

Vindaloo - I made the Vindaloo paste, but strangely enough I can't see anywhere in the book where its used in a main dish.    I took a flyer and decided to add the Vindaloo paste to the Vindaloo dish. In my opinion, a Vindaloo should have more differentiation from the Madras beyond just heat level. The Vindaloo paste provides this. I used about a chef's spoon (again had no measurement to go by). This was by far my favourite dish, but again the tandoori masala did not belong.

Pilau - it was OK, but not as good as the usual pilau I use (Bruce Edwards original - not 2nd edition - pilau recipe).

Naan - the naan was actually pretty decent, and close to the formulation I use. I used my own method for cooking the finished naan.

Chicken Tikka - the tikka marinade was similar to many others I've tried from this site. There are better tikka recipes available here IMO.

CTM - I can see why the author didn't consider it a curry, as this one uses no base. It was a reasonably tasty dish, but it was not IMO a CTM I've had from a BIR before. I actually thought the pureed sultanas and fruit cocktail had a very nice taste. I might consider adding some of this to my usual CTM and see how it tastes. This recipe needed curry base.

Will I use these recipes going forward? Probably not. I think my usual Madras and CTM are better than these recipes. I may adopt the Vindaloo paste, as a way to differentiate the Vindaloo from a hotter Madras. The base is too time-consuming. CA's, Razors, BE etc all produce equal or better curries. The book itself was worth the buy, and the dipping system is most likely spot on BIR practice. An interesting and worthwhile experiment overall.

-- Josh

Hi Panpot,

If you're determined to stay in downtown Toronto, your pickings for quality will be slim.

Chef of India on Eglinton is probably your best bet. Its pretty good, but isn't standard BIR.

The closest to BIR you will find is Shafiq's in Peterborough, but that's an hour out of town.

If you fancy a bit of a walkabout, there is the Little Bangladesh area on Gerrard East. Loads of restaurants there, unfortunately haven't had a chance to try out many of them yet.

Hope this helps a little. Please do tell where you end up going, and your opinion on the food.

Cheers,
Josh

VC - your bhajis look great!

Question - why do you use plain flour instead of gram flour? I've never tried with plain, but always assumed that gram flour is a must for a BIR bhaji.

Looking good!

-- Josh

Can someone who has experienced a range of both Scottish and English BIR restaurants perhaps summarize the differences between the two?

There seem to be a number on this forum that swear by the "Ashoka" style curries. I've made some very good mashups of my own in the past using the Ashoka base and bits of the technique. But then when I read through some of the recipes, a number of them simply do not resemble their English counterparts. If I recall correctly, there wasn't even a Madras on offer at the Ashoka.

Can anyone comment?

Thx,
Josh

I decided to bite the bullet and ordered this book. I was worried that it would have to ship from the UK and that I would be gouged on shipping. To my surprise there was a local Toronto Amazon reseller (or whatever they are) that had it in stock.

Does anyone who has the book notice any obvious errors? I recall seeing that there are two base recipes and the scale was off. Anything else to be aware of?

Thx,
Josh

Hi CA - thanks for posting the Bhuna recipe. Good stuff!

If I may, two questions:

- Why do you suggest adding sugar to your savoury (non-korma/CTM) curries?
- Why do you add curry powder instead of making it a higher proportion of your mix?

Thx.

-- Josh