Quote from: Cory Ander on January 22, 2007, 11:30 AM
...adds a slight tartiness (to the taste and aroma) to what otherwise is a mild, sweet, creamy, coconutty and almondy dish.

Umm, yes that was my point. 

CTM is by definition a sweet, mild - i.e. no chilli, creamy coconutty dish. If you add lemon or chilli (CK) you are no longer in CTM land, you've sailed away on a different boat. I'm not saying your version wouldn't be palatable, just that it isn't a standard BIR CTM and I thought that was what this forum was about.

YF

It's been a while since I bought some, but it's real enough. I think I bought mine in my asian corner shop, so you might need to try one of those instead of the supermarkets.

YF

Quote from: Cory Ander on January 22, 2007, 03:55 AM

• 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice (or bottled, if you prefer)

I haven't tried your particular recipe CA, but lemon juice in a tikka masala!? The ones I've had in restaurants are universally mild, sweet and coconutty and not a hint of lemon juice. To me this goes against the whole ethos of the CTM. Is this a local thing?

YF

Vinda try using pureed green chilli instead of, or in combination with, chilli powder. That should make a difference.

YF

I can! Eight cans of special brew and a naga phall!   

Mark, was there any hint of the taste and smell in the base alone?

A tarka is a (usually) very fast frying of spices/garlic/chillis and other ingredients in various combinations. The oil and fried spices are then added to the curry at the very end of cooking to preserve their freshness, and mixed through. This is also called tempering.
So a tarka daal, for example, is a lentil curry (the daal) which has had the tarka added at the end and mixed in for extra flavour.

YF

Hey Jeera

I just made these for lunch and mmm, mmm, mmmmmm! They were delish.

I had to scale things down a bit because I was only using one piece of chicken. I wasn't patient enough to leave them for long, they only got about four hours in the marinade. I can't say I've ever had this type of pakora at a restaurant, but I'll be looking out for them in future. Only one negative point, they didn't come out as crispy as I would have liked and I must have fried them for eight minutes or more.

I didn't add any extra colouring because the pataks paste was coulour enough for my liking. I wish I had a camera, I would have liked to have posted a pic, they looked superb.

I squeezed a little bit of lemon juice over them and I made the sauce as well. I have to say I was dubious about this one, but it turned out nice. I didn't add any extra water as it seemed thin enough and just the right consistency without. Again I had to severely reduce the overall quantity and so had to guess at the reduced quantities. I really think it complemented the pakoras nicely. My impression is that this sauce is a cheapskate way to produce a tamarind like sauce. But, what ever, it was just great.

Thanks for finding this one and thanks to the unknown original author, wherever you may be.

YF

I think layne used cha0006's recipe which is here:  https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1121.10

My report on it is here:  https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1121.20

For me it was far too salty, but it may be to your taste. I suggest you try to use salt free stock.

YF

Stew thanks for reminding me of that one. It's topical for me because I want to concentrate on bases that are very light in colour, assuming of course that a bright yellow base is allowed by the cr0-curry-chromaticity-gestapo that is.

I've had several madrases which have been a bright orange colour and the sauce is almost see through. It intrigues me how they manage this and yet still produce a full flavour. It's so different from the regular brown curry. So, yes, I'm going to give this one and probably vinda looo's a go next.

Actually I feel guilty for not trying it before now since pete made such efforts to get it posted.

YF