whats the lasan recipe like? cheers

This forum excellarates the addiction. it needs a health warning !!  i am a slave to the base ! a one man base generator 

Hi domi, i was a fan of safron base for 2 year, then moved to kd base for a few months, which was quick to make and quite good for madras, and good for general experimenting. Now i am in limbo, and going to try a new base with much more green pepper, much less onion, and a bit of carrot/tomato with minimal spicing. I endlessly experiment with new recipies and bases, and make a small amount of progress each year. It can be depressingly slow at times. 

Hi Ray, no info on the 4 bases. maybe next visit i can ask some more . The curries all tasted very different though.

sounds fun Panpot, I always assumed you were living near glasgow !  And here you are, practically on my door step lol  ;D   

Hi panpot, i often buy good curries from the bir restaurant in rye nearest the train station, on my way through rye back to hastings. I like their bhuna, and rogan josh. Some days are better than others, but when the head chef is on form, they are very good. Try the madras also, and jalfrezzi or balti . They do what i call above average south east curry, with the taste !   Nothing like the london curries I sampled recently. Cheers DD

Hi Panpot, i have made the ashoka korai bhuna over 50 times !! so i need no pursuading on its quality. In fact i am making some new ashoka base as we speak ! In london i find many good bir that dont have any special smell, and are similar to ashoka and the glasgow type taste. its strong tasting, concentrated, and dark, and rich. However in the south of england they do it very differently. Its very light, sweet , and lightly spiced gravy sauce. It has a certain aroma.  The ashoka kit is spot on at reproducing the london and glasgow curries. hopefully one day we will gain more insight into replicating the south east taste. I know this is the taste the forum is most concerned with. Maybe its just a different style of preparation we are not privy too. I doubt its a missing ingredient, but a missing process.  Hey its a shame the southern bir chefs are not so open as the ashoka chefs !  cheers DD

there is only one test for me. does it release the strong odour of real bir curry. If not then it does not pass the acid test. the real bir flavour i am after smells like nothing I know. The car stinks of takeaway. if i put my curry in my car in a silver container it would not smell anything like this.  (not that i tried lol  ;D )  Down the south of england they reprodue this taste in 1 of 3 curry houses. less so in london, where i can match the typical takeaway taste.

the main points were...

1) add black cumin (not the standard cumin ) to garam masalla

2) to really make different dishes taste distinct, a separate base gravy should be used. They use 4 different base gravies, not one

3) He did not use much paprika , but favoured cumin and coriander. This i noticed in all the dishes i purchased. The other bir chef i know favours tumeric  (DD spice mix). Both restaurants produce very different tasting dishes. both superb though.

4) he commented that the base gravy is what distingushes one restaurant taste to another. its a chefs individual mark, and closely guarded ! Nothing new there then !

5) For madras style base, he felt ratio of onion to peppers should be about 5 onions to about half a red or green pepper, and a small amount of carrot.  The spicing for his madras gravy was currry powder and salt.

what a joyful uplifting image to see on a drab monday morning ! tee hee  ;D  sterling work mr fish

so, I am not the only one who clangs