That's a good job T63.  I've never tried a dhansak so this might be a good excuse to give it a go.  The ingredient list appears quite daunting at first glance and would certainly deter lot of people immediately, but when you really examine what is there, and considering that this version is a restaurant dish, I think you'll find that it will come together fairly easily for anyone who can cook already.  It will take a bit of time and preparation, but I think you'll end up with a good result.  It looks like a fun project for a few people.

The only ingredient I was unfamiliar with was the Colocasia, but then when I looked it up, I find that it is just the Elephants Ear or Taro plant. These are everywhere and as luck would have it, we have one that has grown out of a truck load of landfill we had dropped down in our back paddock by a friend who is a landscaper.  He had obviously dug it up from a client's property and transplanted it to ours.  We have a large mint plant down there as well that he has given us. This means there is nothing on the list that I don't have easy access to.  I might just give it a go as we are in for a few days of poor outdoor weather, and I have a good supply of lamb.

Important Safety Note: Raw or under-cooked Taro (colocasia) is poisonous and can cause skin irritation when handled.  Ingesting raw or under-cooked taro (leaves, stems or tubers) can lead to severe symptoms of stinging, burning of lips tongue and throat, causing swelling and breathing difficulty, as well as severe intestinal irritation, nausea and diarrhoea.

I'll be leaving it in the paddock anyway as it turns out the plant I have is not edible.  The lobes at the top of the leaf must be joined together above the point where the stem attaches to the underside of the leaf.  The leaves of our plant stay apart all the way down to the stem.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GI-ScXs8ljI

Quote from: Robbo141 on August 02, 2023, 04:42 PM
Order me that tee-shirt. It may be years old, but for me this is the closest to BIR I have come across and makes a delicious curry.

I can't vouch for it being true BIR, but I'd imagine it has to be.  All I can say is that it makes darn fine curry.  I've now made the basic chicken curry, Mango Chicken (the test in my household), pseudo Butter Chicken, Lamb Curry and a Coconut Seafood Curry (Prawns and Pink Ling).  All 5 dishes were delicious and easily as good as I've had served anywhere.  There was no missing 5% to even think about.

Quote from: Robbo141 on August 02, 2023, 04:42 PM
This is so good, I'm defrosting another portion of base and cooking another tonight.

Luckily for me I was wrong in thinking I needed to make more for my wife's dishes.  I now have another week of curry to get through the additional gravy I made anyway.  I will need to freeze some portions.

Quote from: Kashmiri Bob on August 02, 2023, 12:38 PM
Seriously?  This Brucey recipe is a bog-standard (generic) Bangladeshi base gravy from years ago.  Blank canvas ilk. Dutch class II onion style.  Been there, done it, got the tee shirt too. 

Rob

PS mutton for BIR curry, save the lamb for tikka/kebabs.

Yes, seriously KB!  That must be why the staff at my wife's work asked her if I would take orders, and after eating curry for dinner on Tuesday night and lunch at work yesterday, Mrs L happily ate it for dinner again last night and an hour later heated up another serving.  At the school word spread quickly and luckily I'd cooked plenty, as they soon had the Campus Principal pay a lunchtime visit to the faculty.  The faculty staff then requested the leftovers be kept in the fridge at work so it can be eaten again for lunch today.

When I was recently making Brum Balti, with the 3 pot, ahkni stock gravy using wheelbarrows full of cassia, and other methods, she turned her nose up at it.  While this Brucey gravy may well be bog standard Bangla recipe from 15 - 20 or more years ago, I'm glad I found it here and the proof is in the pudding, so they say.  Some of the best curries I've cooked have been this last week using this base gravy.

As for mutton, it is not something we see over here unless you travel to the city and go to speciality butchers.  I can remember mutton being available when I was a child, but it was always spoken of as a poorer quality and cheap cut.  I'd have to ask a local butchery if they can obtain it, but unless it's cost effective I'll keep using lamb.

 

I've just decided that I don't have enough to make Mrs L's curry dishes for tomorrow so I'm about to put another batch on.  This time I'll do it under pressure in 20 minutes to half hour.  The thing I like about it Robbo is that it is so easy, and it really does make a good curry.  Make sure you let us know how the vindaloo works out.

I've never had a dog get food poisoning that required veterinary treatment. Dogs are quite good at making themselves regurgitate things they've eaten which are bothering them.

George, I simply would not even consider eating chicken meat that has been cooked and allowed to sit at 20'C for 9 hours and I don't understand why anyone would even do that.  Robbo mentions rotisserie chicken.  Out here the recommendations are to consume them within 24 hours of purchase or discard, and they should be kept refrigerated if not being consumed straight away.  Alternatively, they can be kept warm / hot for several hours by placing in an oven.  Most people, myself included, will keep these chickens in the fridge for several days.

The only problem I see in putting warm turkey in the fridge is the increased energy bill to cool it down from hot.

I'm buying them and using the lamb meat for curries and souvlaki skewers Phil. I also buy whole legs and have to debone them myself. Buying easy carve just saves me some time and effort. I can buy lamb rump or other portions without bones, like rolled shoulder for example, but the legs work better for me.  In saying that though, I have seasoned and roasted these legs, as well as those on the bone, and I find no real discernable difference in flavour.  I've never needed to spit it out.

Boneless chickens, seasoned and cooked well, are absolutely delicious.  Do you never buy and use breast or thigh fillets?  I believe there would be a more significant flavour difference between birds that are free range or corn fed compared to factory grown meat birds.  I once taught myself to debone whole chickens but only did it once.  Aren't turduckens assembled using boneless birds?

Back on topic.  I've pre-cooked 3.5 kg of mixed chicken breast and thighs as well as 1 lamb leg which was just under 2 kg of diced meat. I again used Misty Ricardo's pre-cook recipes and today I'll make some dishes using this Bruce Edwards base gravy.  For both my own and my wife's convenience I've purchased a pack of 16 Haldirams frozen naan.

9 hours at 20'C would be in the bin or dog food for me.

An easy carve leg of lamb is one that has been almost completely deboned.  Only the shank (shin) bone remains which gives the ability to easily carve the majority of the cut as it is mostly boneless. The upper (thigh) part of the leg has had the bone removed and is usually tied with 3 wraps of butchers twine to hold shape.

I always buy all that I find when reduced for quick sale. I usually cut the shanks (with bone) off and freeze them seperately for lamb shank dishes and keep the boned out section to either roast or make curry or souvlaki. The last 3 I bought were frozen whole.

I also buy boneless chickens whenever I see them. Gary Larson drew a Far Side cartoon of the boneless chicken ranch.  It's very hard to find the eggs though as they're quite rare.

As I'm hoping for a better grow season this year, I've just started by planting seeds for my SuperHots. I've put in over 200 so I hope I get some good germination rates.  They are Naga Viper, 7 Pod Yellow, Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, Purple Naga Jolokia and a hybrid from previous years which is the Purple Naga Jolokia but with white flowers instead of purple.  The fruit are still purple but hey aren't really quite as hot.  I don't particularly like the really hot ones, but they are popular with others.

Tomorrow I'll do my Thai Birdseyes. As these are just so good for all round use and they are a really hardy plant, I'll do a full tray of 144 seeds.  After that I'll do another tray of Indian varieties and then another of Mezcla Americana.  The Americana are mixed seed varieties but some of them are really tasty, and some grow really large pods, some are really long and curly.  Some of the Indian ones grew well last time around so I've got a good variety of seeds to play with.  Very interesting and a lot of fun to grow.

Unfortunately, my Carolina Reaper didn't fruit last year but it has survived the winter so I'm going to try pruning it, feeding it and hopefully it will kick on this year.

My nose is currently stinging a bit from touching my face after removing the seeds of the last 7 Pod Yellow which was still a ripe fruit.  I always forget to take care with the really hot ones.