I dont know why the food isnt as popular, but the Indian population is treated no different from the other immigrant populations of the Far East and Asia, just there hasnt been the amount of immigration that there has been in the UK and thats to do with history. I guess the food just isnt as well known, 15 years ago Chinese food was very popular, Thai food is major, Sweden hasnt got anywhere near the amount of curry places Britain has and so popping out for a quick takeaway isnt the same.

Wasnt such a long time ago swedes were popping out to the chemist to buy garlic, work that one out! Although i dont remember growing up with much garlic myself, no wonder when i discovered it i was addicted for life.
But Britain is very unique in that the Indian food and takeaways you get in restaurants were developed by Indians for the English, and is still even being exported back to the mother land. England can lay claim to Indian restaurant curries  being as British as fish and chips, potatoes werent here (UK) until the 1600?s and by then England had reached India and was exporting exotic spices back to the UK, the Portuguese were taking the chilli over to India and we in Europe were exporting fenugreek and coriander (both go back to the roman times i think).

Curry powder and paste are a British invention(although you could argue that a curry powder is just a premade masala), as well as the word "curry" (as we know it now), so the Indian food you're eating at your take away is as much British as it is Indian (sort of .

Hi Woodpecker! i also read that story in the "star of india" book,(great book if you want to read about BIR) the only problems with the story i have, are what is a chef doing with tomato soup in the cupboard, was the curry base made with that(once upon a time?) as well and the other problem is, why bother going to the hassle of tomato soup when he probably has a big pot of base sauce on the stove. Its more likey he had a jar of tandoori marinade lying around and threw that in with the base sauce, a lick of cream, bit of tomato paste and voila CTM. But its a good story, the other story i like is that CTM is the favourite food in the UK, actually i think it ranked somewhere 6th, well behind fish and chips and probably McDonuts. It was the late Robin Cook who anounced that, but it just goes to show that we want to believe, the truth is out there somewhere!

Indian food is no where near as popular in Sweden as it is in the U.K, but neither is the Indian population. Although compared to when i arrived here 15 yrs ago, the curry scene has really taken off in Stockholm., but we are a long way behind, and sadly so, as id love to see more BIR curries here. Another intersting piece of information i read this week was that one third of the adults aged between 18-24 have served up food at home to guests and passed it off as their own cooking (in the UK). Two thirds of those were women, Im glad to see people on this site can produce a restaurant meal and proudly own up to cooking it themselves. Long live homemade food! Keep the faith!!

Would you say it had "the taste" Gary? Couldnt that sharp taste be some kind of curry paste? All curry pastes I know of, use vinegar as a preservative. Which is one of the reasons I dont like using them. Picalilli uses those small onions (what they called?) and some kind of cabbage, although not sure about that, havent tasted it in years.

Good work!!

Looks great Mark!
Has anyone had any sucess with pizza stones? Im tempted to buy one as Ii lose so much heat as soon as the oven door is opened.

Bread making machines and dough mixers are excellent way to make dough for nan bread, otherwise the dough needs to be slightly drier if you kneed it by hand. A good tip ive learnt is to use fresh yeast and cold water, this gives a slightly delayed start to dough and the longer the dough rests before it starts to yeast, the better the results, Ive heard of alot of bakers who use this technique as it improves flavour, but they add slighly more sugar to sustain the yeast if the dough needs to rest over night.

Also has anyone used an indian rollingpin(I presume they are Indian)? Ive seen these sold in Indian shops, they look like thin rounded sticks, id imagine this helps you roll out dough which is slightly stickier without the dough riding up the pin.

Not really with you on that one George?

I have ordered my copy from Amazon and as its still an "open" order
but Im still going to buy it! So yeah.

Darth if you carry on at this rate you?ll produce Clone Vindaloo 101%

Yes, i make the parathas flakey, i have tried different methods to achieve results.

It seems alot of restaurants Ive been to make Parathas differently. The tradition method
and Hari Kristna?s methos is to use brown flour roll the dough out (round) until it is quite thin
brush with ghee or butter on the top side fold to produce a half moon shape brush again
and fold to produce a triangular shape, brush the side you are heating on you tava with more
ghee or butter, Viola, a trad paratha.

The other method is slightly more complicated; roll out your dough to a squarish shape
brush on the oil,ghee,butter on the top side and gentley roll it into a snake shape.

one you have your sausage/snake shaped dough, curl it around like a Catherine Wheel
press it together and and gently roll it out to a flat pancake again.

Brush with butter/ghee and fry on your tava. Tip, if the dough id done too fast
then then the bread will take doughy, to finish it off you can keep in warm in
the oven on a very low heat (50 - 100 degrees C) for 5-10 minutes.

I can?t honestly say i know of any Indians who make Nans at home,
but i suppose as its an Indian dish that originated in India and not at the restaurant.
So someone somewhere must have been making them, although as we agreed on
people dont usually have a tandoor in their home.

One of the best and smallest Parathas Ive eaten was at the http://www.shanti.se/
It was brown triangular and crispy. Brush with lots of ghee, was fantastic (I allowed my myself 1 only )

Sounds great Ray!

Similar to Kd?s recipe, Nans usually take the most effort and time in my curry endeavors, I was a firm supporter of tava cooking them, but because the oven gives better results if you get it hot enough, I save time now by only using the oven.
Although, if I had pete tandoor ;D I?d spend more time, I really admire petes dedication!!
In India, the average household hasn?t got a tandoor although I?ve heard that some villages use a communal one, sounds like some countries in northern Africa, where you bake your bread and pop off to the local baker for him to bake it in his clay oven, for a small price. In Indian families, I think if they are entertaining, the wife stays in the kitchen and produces hot Nans as needed. If i was a guest, I don?t think she?d see much daylight, as Nans and Chappattis, Rotis and Parathras are for me as important as the main dish. I love em!!
BTW, my Chappattis are done on a tava (actually they are done on a thick flat iron frying pan made for pancakes, but its the same principle). Has anyone checked out Madur Jaffrey?s Flavours of India, there is a great explaination of how communities produce bread for the workers in the village, with a great picture of some old men and women sitting around a flat metal pan placed on hot coals or wood. The size of the pan must be several meters across. Impressive!

lol, thats why i try to avoid saturday night posting. :-X No harm done mate!

The best results I have had making Nan's is from the KD book, there are two recipes there, cant remember which was the best, I use strong bread white flour with fresh instead of dried yeast, yogurt, egg and a little water, salt and sugar. I use a bread making machine to knead the dough but if you own a  Kenwood thats even better. Give it plenty of time to rise and then some more time, infact as long as the dough doesn't dry out, the longer the better. The longer it stands the less sweet it will be because the yeast use the sugar energy (if you like sweet nans add a little extra sugar). Once the bread is made into Nan shapes I leave them a little longer and let them rise slightly (covered).
Shove them in on the hottest oven setting (I put them directly onto the grill rack)and watch them balloon up, almost like puris, whip them out  and brush them with melted butter or ghee, cover them in a teatowel to keep them warm. Viola!