Veggie day today. Hummus on toast for lunch, and falafel, hummus and fries for dinner. All hail the mighty chickpea!

Tasty food and cheap as channa..

I've definately found little tiny black specs floating to the surface in my rice-washing water and on closer inspection realised they were some kind of tiny insects. Never really bothered me though, I'm sure we ingest all sorts of insect life and haven't some futurologists speculated that the only way an ever growing human population will feed itself in future is to rely on insect protein for food?

Maybe too much water, but possibly also under kneaded, as I've seen sticky dough like that become quite soft and pliable with further kneading.  Guess you should follow the technique you've observed in the TA though, perhaps they don't knead much?

Thanks for sharing your recipe - better to start a new thread than to reply to an existing one, if you're contributing a new recipe. That way people will find it more easily in the future.

I suppose it depends if you're serving it up along side other side dishes such as Bombay aloo, Chana masala, naan, etc.. Then you'd be looking for smaller portion size I'm sure. In my case I'm usually just eating the curry with rice these days so those numbers work well for me.

You can spot plenty of Lardy lads and lasses in Florida, many of them trundling around the theme parks on their "strollers" (electric wheelchairs for people too lazy to walk).

What about dripping? Or is that still filed under A for avoid?

150g of precooked meat per curry, plus 300g sauce. I freeze these in 500ml takeaway containers and find the quantities provide a good size meal for my appetite.

Thanks Mike, I'll google those names and get an idea what to look for. The forest is adjoining my garden, so not far to walk!

In recent years I've drifted away from the "classic" approach of cooking single portions from a base sauce, reduced in a pan. Mainly as I find it more convenient and time efficient to cook a big pot of curry and portion out for the freezer, so I only cook and clear up once.

I wrote the below out for a friend who wanted to have a go and thought it's worth sharing here. Because the amount of liquid is limited, I do think an electric pressure cooker is necessary for this recipe. A normal pan or conventional pressure cooker would lose too much in evaporation and burning would be an issue I think. The intention is that the receipe finishes up at the correct consistency of a finished curry as there is no final reduction stage.

I must give nods in the direction of Chewytikka, ifindforu and JB, all of whom I have referred to as sourceS of inspiration over the years. Who among us can say a recipe is entirely our own creation after all?

First make a mixed curry powder with the following proportions:
5 parts turmeric powder
5 parts mild madras curry powder
3 parts cumin powder
3 parts coriander powder
2 parts paprika
1 part garam masala
The "part" can be any size you like.  I usually use 1 part = 1 level tbsp which would give you more mixed powder than these recipes require.

For the main curry sauce, an electric pressure cooker is essential, as there is not enough liquid for it to cook sufficiently without burning in a normal saucepan, plus the evaporation from a normal pan would throw off the proportions.

Main sauce (stage 1): Ingredients

2kg roughly sliced onions (weight after peeling and slicing)
60g green pepper
1 small potato sliced 50g, no more
50g carrot
500ml chicken stock
1.75 lvl tsp salt
40g coriander stalks
20g coconut cream block
125g veg oil
1.5 heaped dessertspoonful turmeric

Add the above ingredients to the electric pressure cooker and cook at pressure for 30 mins, then release pressure and stir. Now cook again at pressure for 40 mins. Depressurise.

Thinly slice two cloves of garlic and fry in 2 tbsp oil until mid brown in colour. Add the garlic and oil to the cooked sauce and blend well with a stick blender until completely smooth.

stage 2 for chicken madras
400ml/320g oil
200g/7 heaped tbsp garlic&ginger paste
20g/ 3 level tbsp chilli powder
12g salt
50g/ 7 level tablespoon mix powder
3 level tablespoon kasoori methi leaves (dried fenugreek leaves)
100g / 4 heaped tbsp Pataks madras kebab paste
100g Tom pur