Does anyone use a pressure cooker to produce the likes of base gravy or onion sauce for dopiazas etc etc in ten minutes as opposed to an hour or two?

Would this alter the balance of flavours too much? I see that in the Curry2go videos he has a couple of pans around the kitchen that look suspiciously like pressure cooker bases 

Like many, I guess, the base gravy preparation is the drudge part of the process and if I could get it out of the way quickly, or - of course - easily whip up a smaller quantity of base gravy "on demand" rather than end up with buckets of it in the freezer.

Thanks Mark, Thursday evenings sounds the go as I work weekends and probably couldn't make the Sunday. So many questions I want to ask 

Thanks Les, I'll do a version of that. Interesting that the koftas are just lowered into the pot without pre-frying, I guess most people would pre fry without even thinking outside the squaree, and poached in the gravy.
Yumm.

Hmmm. Interesting read. I've got a big jar of pure Monosodium Glutamate - I use a slightest teaspoon-end of it in Chinese stir fries etc.

Now I'm tempted to try a sprinkle in a curry.

Supermarket had lamb mince on special so I bought a small tray. Any recipes on this forum for kofta curries in gravy? I used to make a killer one, but it wasn't BIR, more like BSC (British School Canteen)  with mango chutney etc, but would appreciate a BIR style one.

Sounds great and I'd love to go, but I don't trust those "group sales" websites that take your money and don't deliver, or say "oops sorry, not enough people booked so here's a credit voucher which you'll probably never be able to redeem" . Is there some way of directly booking and paying for the course with the guy or with the club? Sorry to sound cynical but there's been a lot of bad press about these sales sites recently.

My Monday beer drinking mate (fellow home brewer and gardener) is here for a few jars. He tells me he bought a pack of dehydrated Kashmiri Chillies from the Indian Supermarket in Brisbane - the long medium-hot ones - and he sowed a few of the seeds. They came up like the clappers and he's looking forward to them.  I think someone here was looking for the Kashmiri?
They were fully imported of course, not local. Obviously not irradiated or nuked whatever.

Starting to look the picture  - I used the dry heat then oil swish and heat method. Good suggestion with the animal fat, might give it another couple of sessions with some ghee before I try it out with an actual recipe.



Baby Butcher Bird came round for its afternoon snack and seemed quite unconcerned about the unusual equipment on its normal feeding spot - the weird things those humans get up to  ;D



(Note, in the UK from what I remember as a nipper, when you feed the birds you give them seed and bread and lame stuff like that. In Australia prepare to arm yourself with slabs of raw meat - can get a bit like Jurassic Park haha.)

Well I went out and got the gas cooker and a 12" Wokky thing with wooden handle, from a Chinese supermarket so I'll be using the pan as a Tawa, (is that what it's called? I'm still a bit confused with the different pan names as I've seen the flat chappati plate referred to as a Tawa) I actually like the long handle, as opposed to the two side handles on the Indian version, so I can do the swishing and stirring etc and look like Iron Chef  

It doesn't show up well in the photo but it's perfectly rounded, I could have done with a flat area on the bottom, but I can work around and knock up a wee timber decorative handle rest.



Also SWMBO is partly Chinese and still likes the occasional so it's good for Chinese cooking as well.

Around the equivalent of thirty pounds UK for the lot, so well pleased.

Any tips on seasoning the beast? I've washed off the protective coating it came with and wondering whether to use veg oil or ghee? As I don't really know what I'm doing I don't want to ruin or burn the surface on my first attempt and end up with a blackened mess. The cooker seems to put out a fair blast. 

Off to the Indian today (they didn't have trad. Tawas) for a flat chappati pan.  ;D

I didn't realise that chillies were perennial until I started growing my own. I always imagined you should pull them out at the end of the fruiting season, like tomatoes. They overwinter perfectly in most parts of Australia. Aubergines (eggplant) are also perennial, I've had heavy croppers going for three seasons. I'd bet they would overwinter ok in Southern / Western UK, especially in a greenhouse.

I had a flower bed under the bedroom winter (waste of space) and replaced with chillies, must have had hundreds this year, I stripped the plants of all the red fruit two weeks ago, dehydrated them, now they are bushing up again after a good feed and water, and there's a new flush of flowers coming on.