Quote from: ifindforu on February 15, 2006, 12:50 AM
Or dont you like somone who comes here who knows the art of indian cooking,and take away the limelight from you.

I think the problem Ifindforu, is that you haven't answered any of the questions that people have reasonably asked of you. It's difficult to believe that you know Indian restaurant cooking when you don't seem willing to share your knowledge. Infact your posts so far do seem to be solely aimed at attracting people to your commercial enterprises. That's not what this forum is about. People here share information freely, with the emphasis on the 'free' part. Perhaps you could redeem yourself by telling us what the brand name is of this curry powder that you mention that can only be purchased in 10kg tins please?

Hi ifindforu/Terry

Well don't keep us in suspense, what is the name and brand of the curry powder?? ?

YF

Quote from: leehill on February 05, 2006, 02:18 PM
When I order a madras or vindaloo the chicken seems to be infused with the sauces i.e. if i remove a peice of chicken and cut it in half the sauce appears to have soaked deep into the chicken

Yes I've noticed that on some of the takeaways I've had too. Tandoori chicken has a similar sort of effect and that's because it has been marinated for about 24 hours before cooking. So perhaps marinating in a mild curry mix with added turmeric might do the trick?

Quote from: extrahotchillie on January 03, 2006, 01:20 PM
CTM would probably be OK but there is no way that he would put in cumin seeds, Lemon juice, Fresh Mint or Fresh Chillies

Neither would I, CTM is supposed to be a creamy, sweet and mild curry.

Quotehe said no Indian dish (BIR Style) uses lemon juice

Definitely wrong. He may not use it, but all UK pathia and dhansak curries have some in.

Quoteput mustard seeds into a madras dish and to obtain the redness of a vindaloo dish he uses the big long red sweet chillies dried.

This is just his variation on the theme. Mustard seeds are very noticable when whole and no madras I've ever had has had them in.

You didn't say how the curry you had there compared to your usual fare.

Quote from: George on December 29, 2005, 11:51 AM
Has YF or anyone else tried and succeeded at cooking a BIR-style chicken biryani yet, please?

I've definitely tried George, but alas no success yet. In principle it's easy. You heat up some curry base with your choice of meat, add some biryani masala, bung in a portion of cold pilau rice and stir fry until the curry sauce is absorbed by the rice. Then of course you can add raisins, almond slivers etc. and top with any combination of slices of tomato, cucumber and boiled egg to make it like your local version.

In practice, unsurprisingly, it's the biryani masala that's the problem as I just can't seem to get a blend that's right. In desperation I recently picked up a jar of biryani masala from Tesco and I'lll give that a go when I have time.

Mark's recipe is definitely not biryani, it's indian style fried rice. That's no insult to Mark, he'd never had biryani before so wasn't to know and I appreciated his effort in trying to get the recipe.

Quote from: Mark J on December 23, 2005, 09:11 AM
"It is a secret blend only the chef knows, hand ground on the backsides of virgins from Baltistan" etc etc

Ahhh, so that's the secret! All this time I've been using virgins from Birmingham and you know how hard they are to come by. No wonder I can't achieve the results I want, It's so obvious when it's pointed out to you.   

This thread brings up a good point. Questions like, "which measures do we use?", "how big is an onion?", "what's the best base to use?" etc, will continue to be repeated because the forum has no FAQ.

In a few months' time threads like this will be lost in the mass of other posts, and if you hadn't actually read it at the time it was posted, for example you may have only just found the forum, you could be forgiven for asking obvious questions that the regulars have seen repeated over and over again.

There should be a FAQ on the home page. And before anyone suggests it, no I am not volunteering.

Don't be ssssssssssssilly.

And no you can't have a pint, you can have a 330ml bottle like the rest of us.? ?;D

As this is primarily a British forum, shouldn't we standardise on grams, centimetres and millilitres?? We have been metric for over 30 years after all!

If we must mix measures, for example by using ounces, can I also request that when prices of goods are mentioned that they are also given in pounds, shillings and pence (to the nearest florin) and that weights are also provided in noggins, pecks and bushels.

I'm going to go for a nice long walk around the town now to cool down, It's only about 30 furlongs.

Hi George

Biryani is one I'm still trying to crack to my satisfaction and not really succeeding. I know the rice is pre-cooked cold pilau rice. You say you didn't catch much of what was happening, but did you see him put any base sauce into the Biryani rice and if so how much?

Also I've tried the pre-cooked vegetable method from the Kushi balti book and I felt that this was not far from the veg curry that is served with most biryanis. It's a little too flavoursome in a spicy way because of the whole spices used, but if these were omitted and a little base sauce were to be added I think it would make a passable veg curry to accompany the biryani. The secret is not to overdo the spicing.