hi phil was it fresh garden mint by colemans or just fresh mint, most restaurants i have been to use colemans in their marinade as it is also used to make the lamb tikka therefore only having to mix 1 marinade. just a thought. btw mate i'm in biddenden so not too far away. made my vindaloo lastnight just after i froze my n**s walking the dogs it was -7 by the time i went 2 bed it was 0 degrees, how much chilli powder lol
enjoy the rest of your weekend
regards
gary

hi jerry have you tried using kashmiri chilli powder in your madras as this would give the red colour without the heat of just normal chilli powder which would be a blend of different chillies and normally hotter. if you watch the episode of "in search of perfection" hestons' perfect chicken tikka masala. he visited the moti mahal in new delhi on his quest to find the origins of the above dish ( he gave up his search with confusion) but went into the kitchen to see how they made it. first was a garlic and ginger paste then sprinkled heavily a mild bright red chilli powder he said this gives it its colour, the yoghurt marinade was added after marinating for 24 hours.
hope this helps
kind regards
gary

hi phil have you seen heston blumenthals series in "search of perfection" chicken tikka masala? he took  2 pieces of chicken marinading 1 in g&g paste and the other g&g and yoghurt to a scientist mate who has an MRI scanner for food and then scanned the for 5 hours. as you saw the film of the scan the yoghurt based marinade had penetrated much more than the other! the yoghurt also protects the chicken when cooking leaving the meat moistier

hope you enjoy your meal , will be doing chicken vindaloo later still trying to shake a cold and its bloody freezing down here in kent -6.5 deg C snow and frezing fog now
regards
gary

hi phil they are probably adonised pans try the jamie oliver range by tefal you can use metal utensils. hope this helps
regards
gary

hi jerry been thinking about this 1 quite a bit. if i am correct petes madras demo recipe from 2005 had very few ingredients to make the madras and had the taste, but whether it fits the bill of the 70's and 80's taste my curries started in the 90's. imo i believe curryhouse cookery base to be more of what a base would have been like in those decades but i think the ajwain seeds which needs to be balanced out. and the inclusion of spiced oil maybe apart of the this jigsaw. and possibly adding the sauce from the precooking of the chicken( if anyone has tried it) tried it at final dish stage and does give it another dimension ie savouriness.

regards
gary

hi jamie sorry for the delay in answering your request for the above recipe.
i have enjoyed making the chicken chilli masala from bruce edwards curryhouse cookery with great results a good alternative to a vindaloo. i would say though add more base sauce than in the recipe as it only calls for 7fl oz which is about 160ml of base sauce i normally go for 300 ml reduding to approx 200ml as finished dish.
kind regards
gary

hi jerry have not posted in this very interesting thread but thinking what dish i would include.
posted for a recipe for it about 4 years ago on cr0 but to no avail
it used to be served in the Maharaja in biddenden  in the 90's now called "gram spice" after being Rajver for years my first kitchen demo and where i cooked my own Phall!
any way the dish was called a "Balti garlic chilli chicken tikka masala" it was hot not too sweet flavoured and aromatic with reddy brown sauce/gravy savoury and very moreish. have tried to recreate it but never got close, so now its vindaloo or hotter all the way, and chicken tikka as a treat chicken tikka vindaloo is probably our favourite but it only works with my own tikka.
any way would love to put this on the list.
regards
gary ;D

hi tarith welcome to cr0! you won't be disappointed. what base and curry did you make? if you have any questions the there is always someone that can point you in the right direction.

kind regards
gary

hi gordy welcome to cr0, you will find everything you need to make BIR curries here. if you have any questions there is always someone that point you in the right direction!

regards
gary

hi jerry my mouchak mixed powder is listed below

6 parts curry powder (rajah)
4 parts turmeric
2 parts coriander
1 part cummin
1 part chilli powder
if possible use rajah in all the spices but you can use trs or another brand if you don't have them.
regards
gary