Hi

Here is my dinner from last night starters of onion bhajis and veg samosas and a mint sauce dip, and mains of a chicken tikka masala and a chicken tikka madras with a couple of peshwari naans.

Hi

Yes it was chicken tikka madras to be honest the only reason i made tikka was that i had some yoghurt in the fridge that was coming to the end of its use by date.
Gaz ill try your  of leaving the methi until later when do you add yours same time as the lemon or right near the end?

Jamie

Hi

Having made enough of razors base last night to feed an army i thought i better use some up for tea tonight so before i went to work this morning i put some chicken tikka in the fridge to marinade ( Ca's recipe ). I had razors spice mix made up already so i usually use Ca's recipe but as rays mix already contains curry powder i changed it so i used 1tbsp of rays spice mix.

I started by heating a pan then adding cold oil waiting about 10 secs then added garlic/ginger puree i find it doesn't spit as much that way' after about 30secs i added about 6 chillies split in half cooked that for about another min or 2, then took the pan off the heat and added the spice mix dried methi leaves and salt returned the pan to the heat and cooked the spices stirring continuously then added tom puree to make a nice paste then in with a couple of chefs spoon of base and really boiled it down until it was almost dry this is what i think made the curry the flavour it was then in with more base before adding a squirt of lemon dressing  and a pinch of sugar then in with the tikka and cooked until chicken was ready and its the most flavoursum curry i have cooked so far it had that after taste that u get in a BIR a real depth of flavour will be making again at the weekend cheers ray the base and spice mix really go well together

Jamie

Hi

just made a batch of rays base and i must say it smells great hope it tastes as good, i decided to 1 1/2 times the amount his recipe says and I've ended up with loads of the stuff not portioned it up yet waiting for it to cool down but i reckon I've got at least 15 plastic takeaway tray full. I'll be knocking a curry up with it tomorrow for dinner if i can wait that long its calling me now ;D

Jamie

Hi lads

My mate works for a catering supplier and to be honest most of the stuff we get from a chinese is frozen or comes in packets and they just cook it they don't make there own anymore like you say it comes down to time and cost so i would say most restaurants would be the same

Jamie

Hi

Just a thing about cheapness if you pick up a bag of own brand flower from the supermarket what is it about 49p a bag? as apposed to frozen filo/samosa skins not sure what they cost but i would think the flower version would actually work out cheaper? i suppose its all about what time you have on your hands, I think when ray made his pastry he actually froze half to use at a later date.

Jamie

Hi ray

I used ca's base its what i had left in the freezer but when i did ca's base this time i had cooked out the spices 1st like you do with your base as for method it was a mixture of ca's recipe and my own having used lemon dressing instead of juice and i also add some dried fenurgreek leaves to mine because i like the flavour

Jamie

Hi ray

made your spice mix up yesterday and did a chicken madras with it tonight must say one of the tastiest i've done

jamie

Hi all

I was in west brom the other day and popped in an asian shop and they had lemon dressing something i have not seen in my regular asian shop, is this used in curries or is it regular lemon juice some of the bottles i have seen and in dips vids look like dressing bottles any ideas?

Jamie

Hi emin-j

I work around around walsall quite allot and have to go into the houses in mainly Asian based areas and i walk in and get the aroma that you are talking about its usually the wife in the kitchen cooking but I've never had the guts to ask what they were cooking but i think next time you have inspired me to ask. I have noticed that most of the houses keep allot of lentils so i thought maybe they were mainly vegetarian dishes slow cooked but i shall now ask whenever i go into a house and they are cooking.

Jamie