Quote from: Axe on May 16, 2013, 12:10 PM
what is on the plate is a take-away from the Shanaz that I have never experienced before anywhere and one that surprised me quite alot. Infact, it surprised alot of the restaurant staff too who all sampled a tasting plate prior to me ordering it.

Well personally I love meat with a slightly burnt crunchy outside as long as the inside is still juicy and tender. I take it you asked the takeaway to make this for you, what on earth did you ask for, did you make the recipe yourself? I'd definitely order it.

In fact if you live within 200 miles of me I'll pop down now and you can serve me up that dish exactly as pictured...I'll buy the beers. 

Where do you lot keep buying these fancy chillies you keep talking about, the only ones I can get near me are scotch bonnets, bullet chillies and the little green ones from the local asian supermarket, I know I'm lucky having that nearby but the other chillies I've read about in peoples posts sound interesting and I'd like to try them.

Quote from: goncalo on May 16, 2013, 10:32 AM
How about this chilli infused oil recipe?

https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,11913.0.html

20 seconds in...."I only make half a bottle at a time...there's a possibility of botulism"...err, you don't like newbies then Goncalo, well at least it was subtle.

Actually I've got a few bottles of hot oil in the pantry Ive never used, I think I'll try that tonight in the chilli...ok I take it back, chilli oil is a good idea. 

Cheers.

Cheers for the answers chaps.

Thanks for the replies folks, for me personally I like the kick a hot curry gives you, apparently hot chilli's make your body release endorphins, that's why  people need a weekly fix. Nothing to do with Bravado, I eat them hot even when I'm on my own.

After eating bland food like pie and chips, scampi, chicken in a basket etc for my first 20 odd years a chicken madras was a revelation and I've been hooked ever since. If I have a kebab I have to put my own chilli sauce on because the shops stuff is not hot enough if I have a pizza I have to put tabasco (not my favourite, I don't like vinegar based sauces) or dried chilli flakes on the top.

I have had hot curry's with plenty of flavour but not from near where I live hence me being on here trying to learn how to make a decent curry.

Because I like it hot and many people don't like it as hot as me, I like to jazz it up a bit at the end, in the past I've chucked chilli powder in at the end but I can taste the graininess in it but now it seems that's because there wasn't much oil in my curry.

I've tried plenty of traditional curry recipes and they've always said to fry the spices either first or with the onion right at the beginning, so it seems totally alien to me to add it into the gravy, which is why I'm asking so many questions about it all.

I do like green chillis added at the end of cooking spiceyokooko but find them too raw, maybe I'm adding them too near the end and ought to cook them longer, or maybe you like the rawness.

I've not thought of putting dried chilli flakes on the table Chonk, well not for a curry anyway, I'll try that myself, how do you make homemade chilli flakes?

Thanks for taking the time to reply everyone. 

I've had a dig round and all the recipes seem to say chuck cooked meat into the curry sauce.

If I've got a few hours to spare can I add raw meat into the base sauce and let it cook slowly like that, or does the thickness of the gravy stop the meat from becoming tender, I've always wondered about that, even with stews, I've always thickened at the end but wondered if I could save the gravy and add more meat and veg later or would the thickened sauce somehow not penetrate the food.

Anyone know the answer to this?

Thanks.

Quote from: randomxchef on May 15, 2013, 08:49 PM
If you went to a resturant, and while eating your side salad you found the dressing to be made of water and vinegar, you wouldnt be too happy!
Oil is good for "suspending" ingredients, and provides a thicker, more luxurious mouth feel.

Well that's a good way of putting it random chef, it makes sense, never thought of it like that. 

There was a company I used to buy from (I'll not mention the name 'cos I'm new and you'll think I'm spamming) and they used to do a range of chilli sauces and the base they used was made from carrot juice, this gave it a really sweet flavour, then the heat hit you afterwards, which was delightful and much better than the harsh vinegar bases every other company seems to use. I think they've gone out of business now and I can't find anyone else who makes chilli sauce with a base of carrot juice so I'm going to have a crack at my own 'cos I've got a juicer, it can't be that hard.

But if you know of anyone please let me know.

How do you spice up a curry near the end of cooking, lets say you either made it for yourself or you cooked it for friends and they all wanted different heat, do you just chuck in some chilli powder to the curry? Fry the chilli powder first to release the flavour then add the curry or add an evil nasty, kick your ass chilli sauce like Marks and spencer 100% pain  (now that is hot!) or just add fresh chilli's?

What method do you prefer?

I gave a mate who eats Phalls (too hot for me) just a touch on the end of a teaspoon and he cried like a baby. 

I use about half a teaspoon in my chillis to liven things up and I normally eat Madras/vindaloo strength depending on the chef who cooks it and that makes me sweat....good stuff. 

Quote from: natterjak on May 15, 2013, 08:04 PM

Quote from: hezzie on May 15, 2013, 06:58 PM

The one thing I can't seem to sort out is the watery residue that comes out of the gravy, I've attempted uk restaurant curry's before and had the same problem, although this time it was much better and only had a very small amount of water leaching out of the gravy but you don't get that with restaurant/takeaway curry's.

I've had this in the past, in my early days before I knew how to cook base properly. It's down to the base not being blended well enough and either means you didn't blend it for long enough, or more likely, you didn't cook the base long enough at the first stage to make the onions soften up sufficiently to allow them to mush down properly when blended. Before you blend your onions should be so soft you can stick a spoon handle through them, if they're tougher than this you haven't boiled them long enough and they will not blend properly, resulting in a slightly fibrous mush which doesn't hold water when reduced.

Well the onions weren't very soft natterjak, I mistakenly thought that the blending would all mush together anyway as long as the carrots were soft, does it matter it the onions are softened at the frying stage or can you boil them to soften them?

Thanks, Wayne.