Quote from: George on July 05, 2022, 09:04 AMInteresting comment. That was my thought when I visited Shababs (twice) and had their chicken balti. So I think it bodes well for your recipe and Misty Ricardo's.

Come on George, less talking, more doing.

As you've actually tasted the real thing I'm interested to hear your feedback.

Quote from: livo on July 04, 2022, 08:31 PM
I'm afraid I'm with Santa.

I think you're in the same boat as me. You have to have been brought up on baltis for it to impress, and neither of us have.

Quote from: mickdabass on July 04, 2022, 08:17 PMA couple of things I am considering tweaking is:

I did find the 3 pot method a bit of a faff. Certainly if I did this again I wouldn't faff about making a separate akhni stock. Instead I'd bundle the spices in a bit of muslin cloth and just throw that in with the onions. And maybe fry off the garlic/ginger paste in the onion pot and then add the water, onions etc. I don't think it would impact the flavour at all. Actually, thinking about it, I'm wondering if it wouldn't be simpler to just leave out the akhni stock and instead dump a teaspoon or so of garam masala and some ground cassia in right at the end of cooking.

QuoteIn previous versions I have adjusted the powdered spices upwards and to be honest they just kill it stone dead.

Its more to do with the aromatics as SS says ie whole spices

It must be to do with what we're used to in our "normal" curries. Having just made the curry again but this time with a teaspoon of plain curry powder and a teaspoon of chilli powder, it made a much rounder, more full-bodied curry that was quite enjoyable.

QuoteThank you again Bob for your positive comments - to my taste it is exactly like the Baltis I have eaten.
Quite mild with a great depth of flavour. Too much chilli would mask all of that imo.

Ok so we'll have to agree to disagree on the "great depth of flavour" but tell me, what do the balti houses do if you want vindaloo strength balti? Or is that not a thing? This is all quite interesting to me as, despite being a Brummie born and bred, I can't recall ever having had an "authentic" balti, so I'm not qualified to judge.

Quote
Its a completely different animal to a vindaloo for sure!

In fact its a completely different animal from any other curry any way

Yes, no argument there. Although, on the assumption I actually made it right, I'm a little perplexed as to why it ever caught on.

Quote from: Robbo141 on July 03, 2022, 11:53 PMI am 100% a vindaloo guy so now a little wary after Santa's post but we shall see.

I wouldn't let what I said put you off. It's a decent enough base but using it to make a curry without any further spices such as mix powder and chilli powder, as it is in the basic recipe given, doesn't cut it for me. I think I'll try again tonight but with the extras I need and making sure to really concentrate on the reductions where the flavours are developed.

My first impression having now tried the base and the accompanying basic curry is that it was, for me, a bit bland. There was flavour there from the aromatics but in general the base didn't taste all that different from many other bases I've made.

I realised reading the latter posts that I used exact teaspoon measures rather than "rounded" so it may have had a bit more oomph if I'd not missed that. But the curry reminded me of the vindaloo I made from Chef Din's base by his method where again there are no added spices in the curry. The base is the curry.

I think if korma is a "curry" you like then this base/curry combination will appeal but if you're a madras, vindaloo type of person like me, it's a bit meh. I'll try it again with added mix powder as I did with Chef Din's which made his palatable from originally being bland. And of course add more chilli powder. And for those that haven't made it yet, really go to town on the staggered reduction as that's mainly where the flavour is coming from.

Oh and against my best judgement I did use raw chicken rather than precooked. It produce the bland chicken flavour I know goes with essentially cooking it in base sauce and that didn't help the overall impression. But that was down to me not using precooked as I should have.

Quote from: Bengali Bob on June 30, 2022, 04:29 PM

Quote from: Secret Santa on June 30, 2022, 02:46 PM
I was thinking of making this and while perusing the ingredients I noticed that the base has no tomato and the curry has only a tiny amount of fresh tomato. Is that right as it's quite unusual?

There is 250 g of tomato in the base's spice mix.

Rob

Ah yes, that well known spice ... tomato!

I was thinking of making this and while perusing the ingredients I noticed that the base has no tomato and the curry has only a tiny amount of fresh tomato. Is that right as it's quite unusual?

Quote from: mickdabass on June 19, 2022, 04:06 PMUnfortunately Al Frash is now long gone so...

Well I never had a balti from there so I wouldn't know the difference. But I'm tempted to try the base if only because of the mental amount of cassia in it. Are you sure you didn't drop a decimal point?

Quote from: Onions on June 20, 2022, 01:50 PMWhat happened?

Birmingham.

So is it a 100% clone because you've eaten at Al Frash and your version is exactly the same?