I mince my garlic, add a little lemon juice and bag it in vacuum seal bags. It lasts for around 10 days in the fridge.

Hi Jerry,

I guess you can use any hot sauce you like really, but I have to admit having used the tabasco and a few others as well, the louisiana has that edge. I guess its a bit like everyone having their own favourite version of a Madras, everyone likes their own ingredients.......

With the flour, its not litterally dredged in it, I just simply put that flour mixture into a bowl and roll the chicken in it, then just tap the chicken on the edge of the bowl when I have finished. It gets rid of excess flour, but just leaves a fine coating on the chicken.

Putting it in the fridge makes the fine coating of flour adhere to the chicken and when cooking, gives a nice crisp finish thats all....

What is a cube of Ginger?

If you're going to use sugar to sweeten things up a little, try getting hold of some Deshi Gor, which is crushed sugar cane. It's better than normal sugar which has been bleached and gives a nicer flavour.

Quite a lot of large Asian stores normally stock this.

Let us know how it turns out

I only asked because many years ago when I started eating Indian food, and we're talking back in the late 70's now, the BIR's seemed to be so different to now. I do remember having a dish way back then with Banana in it, and it was fabulous, but I cannot remember the name of it now. But I do remember it being a creamy chicken dish like I cooked last night. But last nights dish had a lot more heat to it than way back then....

I also remember cutting my teeth so to speak on Lamb Korma which I adored and I might add bought me out in a sweat when I ate it as I was not used to spiced food before that lol. But even then, the BIR food of that era was quite different from what we find today on our menu's........

I then ventured onto Lamb Bhoona, which is still my favourite dish today, and thats why I asked many months ago if anyone had a Lamb Bhoona recipe, as out of probably over 30 restaurants in my area, there is only one I would consider that makes a Bhoona that tastes like it did when I first tried it. The rest seem to be a concoction of different ideas all thrown in together.

So time has moved on in the BIR world and I bet that if I did ever order another lamb Korma, it probably would taste of something quite different these days........

Hi Jerry,

Your Kashmiri Chicken Masala has banana in it?

Is finding a resident BIR chef really the answer? I've travelled all over the UK with my work and have eaten in BIR restaurants from Cornwall to Inverness over many years and to be honest they all differ so much in each region.

So my question is, if we found a BIR chef say from Manchester, is he going to produce the same results as the BIR chef from my local down near Sandhurst?

We all have our own tastes and desires, so are we all ever going to achieve that BIR taste that we all have in our heads by putting our variations on paper so to speak on here? Whats to say your version of a Madras is going to be the same as mine? How do we compare who's is the best just by writing about it on here?

What I suggest is, and this would take some setting up by us all, is to hold a BIR Fare somewhere. A venue where all members and non members could attend, curries can be cooked by individuals if they want, all BIR restaurants could be written to inviting their chefs to come along and give demonstrations, advice, etc......

A bit like the Ideal Home Exhibition but on a much smaller scale. Members could finally meet up and discuss their ideas. You could even invite suppliers of spices, cooking equipment etc to attend where they could give some of their proceeds to the fare to help fund it. An entrance fee, also catering to bring in funding too?

Just a thought..........

Hi Jerry,

My son came home last night with his girlfriend and said they were both starving so could I knock them up a curry?

I had no base sauce out of the freezer, so I thought I would put together a curry from scratch based on ingredients I use for BIR curries but without the base sauce.

Hence I called it a Kashmiri curry because of the Pataks Kashmiri Masala paste I used as the base instead of a curry gravy. After frying the onions, garlic, ginger and spices, I added a little water to mix in the paste, then added some coconut milk, as it all started blending well together it also started thickening up quite quickly, so I added more coconut milk and continued to add that until around 3/4 tin.I then reduced the sauce down to a thickish consistency like that of a korma.

This gave a wonderful consistency, but it needed more. So I added the chopped coriander and then I drew the pan aside and added 1/2 carton of a small pot of fresh double cream. The taste was incredible for a curry which was made from scratch without a base sauce. My son actually said it was one of the best curries I have ever made.

I wish I hadn't had salad last night now and joined them!! lol

I'll be making this again at the weekend and will experiment with it a bit more too.

Here Here Domi!!!