I've just finished a madras and a vindaloo, made using this base and his recipes.
This is REALLY good
I mean    REALLY    good
I tried the mark 1 recipe posted (was it last year?) and that was too oily and generally disapointed my whole family
So I didn't have high hopes for this version

What can I say?
I was absolutely knocked out, and everyone cleared their plates, then wiped them round with their fingers for the last drops of sauce!!!

I recommend everyone to try this

Quote from: Unclefrank on February 21, 2014, 11:03 AM
have you tried just the oil the poppadoms are cooked in, not a big fan of poppadoms and we don't fry them if we have them at home.

Yes I used oil from frying about 50 poppadoms
That was my last serious curry experiment
I couldn't eat most of the poppadoms, and ended up chucking them away
That's when I thought "this perfect curry search, has gone a bit too far"
I was spending about five hours preparing a curry that wasn't as good as a bought one costing a fiver
I also had a freezer full of various curry gravies that didn't produce what I wanted

These last few months I have got some of my old enthusiasm back and I bought the "The Glasgow Indian Takeaway Recipe Book"
The base requires 4 kg of onions
That's a lot of onions
So I'm making half measures
The author claims that the "secret" to takeaway flavour is the length of time you cook the onions
That theory is consistant with Julian's base recipe
But it rather flies in the face of the majority of others on this site (including one's posted by me)
If I could make a madras to curry house standard, I would be happy
Time will tell

I thought gram flour might be the "missing" ingredient
I tried it in several bases but couldn't really notice it
I also tried putting in old poppadoms, after I had ground them
To be honest I have all my hopes, of a breakthrough, with Chris's ebook
I want to know what that fried mystery ingredient is, that he adds to the base

I had been buying weekend takeaways, from a great place called Argee Bhajee
Then one Saturday all the dishes were awful
Really bland with uncooked spices
I was so upset that I went back to the place, on the following day
Apparently the proper chef had been called away, and my curries had been cooked by someone they hired for the night.
Anyhow the upshot was that they recooked my meal again for half price.
I'm not sure how good a deal that was, but this time the curries were back to their usual standard
Maybe you should try complaining, sometimes it's worth it

It has a special aroma and yummy taste, that my curries lack.
As soon as you open the bag or carton, a beautiful aroma fills the room

I just want one recipe:-
how to make a perfect madras
or tell me why it's not possible

I don't care about all the other fancy stuff

I made these naans today

The recipe posted on Youtube is this:-

Milk 200g
water 330g
Sugar 100g
Egg 50g
Baking powder 8g
Onion seeds 2g
S/R Flour 1kg

I thought these were very good but extra sweet
almost heading to a peshwari sugar content
I didn't feel it needed any extra salt though

Despite it's simplicity, it still needs a little practice
I found the naan needs a firm push onto the tava to make it stick
A couple of mine dropped off despite wetting the naans, and the tava being pretty hot

I also found an improved result holding the tava much higher over the gas ring, when cooking the "up" side
But I suppose this is just adjusting for whatever cooker you are using
I wonder what would happen using an electric cooker?

I haven't made better naans, using my tandoor
These are really tasty,well worth making
Thanks Chris

I used Asda strong white bread flour (just for the record)

I think it was expected ages ago
Maybe it's not happening

I've not heard anything about it for months

yuk
first bite is with the eye
no way am I opening mine for this

Happy Christmas Folks
We're not having curry tonight, but I can sense a boxing day curry, coming over the horizon