No surprise to hear tomarto ketchup used in pakora sauce, from what I've seen of BIR expedience this does not shock me at all: I've seen worchester sauce and cream of tomarto soup used in 'cheaper' places; and tomarto ketchup is popular in chinese restaurants ("CIRs"?)

Very interested in this 'margerine' idea. I was jhust wondering 'though if there is potential for something getting lost in translation here.  Are you sure he meant margerine and not vegatbale gee?  I take your point, of course, that 'normal' gee is only used for brushing nans.

I agree Jerry, I tried replaced half my standard spice mix with basaar a while back, added a different, pungent almost slighty 'fizzy' note, good, but not really good enough to warrent using it that often, except as you suggest to add a bit of difference when making several dishes for guests.

I keep meaning to try it alone (with maybe some chilie) in a madras type dish but without the tomarto juice I normaly use.  I'm wondering if it will prouce a flavour similar to one of my fav cheapo currys in London: the chicken karahi in the Lahore Kebab House down the Commercail Rd in the East End  (down towards Brick lane but closer to the city).  The  Kashmiri Basaar I have smells very similar to this curry i.e. lots of turmeric and ground fenugreek seed.

Jerry

I guess I reduce the 450ml of base down to 250/300ml ish.  But that's just a guess, I havn't measured!  By base is a fairly thin one, and the curry ends up like BIR consistancy at the end.

I too use loads of fresh corry, about a third Of a small (Morrisons) bunch.
having madras tonight in fact, I start to get withdrawal symptoms after about 5 days!

Ditto  C K, I always use lamb for my meat, which means lots of preparation faff, and quite of lot of wastage (which the dog seems to like!), as we don't like all the nasty sinuey bits!

Sorry the toal amount of tinned tom juice I use 3or4  tbs ( the big old fashioned table spoons), so that's proabably slighty more than 3 or 4 lots of 15ml!

I always use either tinned tom juice or the 'blitzed' contents of tinned toms ( a tin of plum tomartos blended with their own juice).  

Firstly I fry  a chopped chilie "Bruce Edwards'" style,  add a small ladle of base to help prevent the spices burning, add the spices and fry this right down, and repeat with another ladle of base.  The process seems to caramelize the sugars in the the pureed onion within the base, and consequently adds to the flavour; as well as cooking the spices to 'toffee' without burning.  The the chopped chicken goes in, I don't pre-cook chicken 'cos it only takes 10 minutes to cook.

Next I add the rest of the base in stages, allowing each addition to come up to the boil, TOGETHER with the tinned tom juice a a quarter tps of worchester sauce (no more than that, that's important!), total base volume is 450ml at start.

I tried pretty much everything in my currys to get the right sourness: vinegar (wine, rice, malt, cider), lemon juice, lime juice, tamarind paste.  Nothing worked really well until I tried tomarto juice.  I got the idea from Camella Punjabies book (traditiona Indian stuff), in which she stated that tomarto can be used for souring as well as sweetening.  I use tom puree for sweetening (bhunas stc).

I was was quite pleased to note that C.K., who writes a lot of good sense stuff here, had found the same thing, although his technique is slightly different.

I am REALLY happy with my madras now, have have moved on to trying to get other dishes right!

I wrote the method I use in the C.K.s madras thread somewhere asI recall, I hope he didn't mind, I wasn't trying to steal his thunder so much as reinforce what he said.  But in any one is interested my  spice mix for madras is:-

-4 lev tps Bruce Edwards' spice mix (with paprika), using Rajah mild madras as the curry powder (the hot madras is not necessary as chillie goes in as well, and anyway it tastes to strongly of bayleaf.
-2lev tps Rajah extra hot chilie powder
-1/2 lev tps (or just less than that) salt
-1 lev tps (or a tad less) brown sugar
-1/4 lev tps of GROUND dried methi leaf.

Just this minute finished another big batch (2Kg) of pre-cooked lamb, Ali Haydor style.  Bl@@dy good in a Madras or Bhuna!

Graeme

Authentic Balti Curry, by Ali Haydor and Andy Holmes ISBN 1-4120-5592-X Trafford Publishing 'phone 01865-722-113, you have to order as they only print what they need.  It's a slim book, about 60 pages, but well worth it in my opinion.

Sorry for the delay, been busy!

I have the book too, never tried any dishes out 'though!

I CAN recommend AlI Hador's book, that someone on this site put me on to.  I use his method of pre-cooking lamb, and also his bombay potato, 'top shout'!

I use dried methi leaf in Madras.  Like Secret Santa I grind the dried leaves in a spice grinder, although I add it (1/4 lev tps to 450 ml base) with the spices at the frying stage.  I cant say whether the taste would be stronger if added later, but I suspect it would!  I can say 'though, if I forget to use it, the result is obvious when it comes to eating.

For Bhuna and Bombay Spud, I tend to use the unground dried leaf a few seconds after the base has gone in.