I bought a karahi from the brand sonnex (not their flat version, the more authentic one with lid) for 20eur and I second chewy's advice regarding the handles. It's probably the only reason why I haven't really used it much so far, as it's not very convenient to cook top on a normal cooker.

Looks good Naga.

I've done it to spec (without the addition of extra onions) and I have had decent results.

Velkommen anitaG! Have fun going through the amount of recipes on this site!

I'm more curious about his other recipe, aloo gosht, but this one looks very good too. I'm unfortunately defrosting chicken meat a bit too late, as I would otherwise have made both of these for dinner tonight.

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I think a jalfrezi is probably the easiest of the standard BIR dishes to make and get right, taste wise.

In my case though I haven't gotten to the standard I want too... but this is not surprising, dishes that are relatively easy to me (i.e korma, passanda, ctm) seem to be a struggle for more experienced members, like CA, so that obviously doesn't surprise me...

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Here, I pan fried the onions first, just to practice singeing red colour (via a paste) onto their edges;

What paste?

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If the naga pickle goes in later (after the first addition of base gravy) it can take over in the final dish.

Very good tip, although you used raja naga, I was thinking of Mr. Naga, which is the only one of this kind that I have tried. Your tip resonates well with the tip of "frying off chillies" early on (before baghar even). I learned some ways of getting the flavour from less milder chillies without the hiccups and stomach and mouth ulcers which the green chillies provide.

Yeah...fine... I'll have some of that.  ;D

Looks are excellent Bob. Jalfrezi is definitely my favorite BIR dish and yours is a very obvious thumbs up! I wouldn't generally use naga as I am not a huge fan of its flavour. How would you rate this recipe? I don't know how I missed it til today...

Quote from: Bengali Bob on July 06, 2013, 10:53 AM
Good stuff Goncalo.  Looks great; smooth and saucy.  I'm not big on kormas as the BIR versions I've tried invariably seem bland to my taste.  Which recipe are you using?

Thanks bob! It was very smooth indeed. The smoothest I've done to date! It's only a pitty the coloring from tikka tainted the color of the korma which was light yellow/creme colour before the chicken.

I'm using my own recipe, my most recent version of it that is and also using my new base recipe, in 4 dishes, none of them disappointed, 2 of them took me to nirvana! Here are the guidelines.

N.B: I generally taste this one as I go along, so sugar content is balanced to perfection. I like mine sweet but not overly sweet.

heat a pan, add 1 chef spoon of ground almond and mix the contents around with chef spoon for about 20 seconds. Add 1.5 ladles of base gravy and stir to pick up all the almond into the sauce. When it starts boiling, Add approx. 100 mil of coconut milk and 15-20 grams of coconut block and stir to help the coconut block melt and 1 level chef spoon of demerara once the heat starts boiling, add chicken and then lower the heat and just stir in the chicken. Once all the watery content of the milk has evaporated but the sauce is still runny, add 2-4 tsp of Carnation Milk, stir it in. If more sauce is required, add an extra ladle just before adding the carnation milk and let it come to boil.

Notes:
- I generally add cream, but I was short of, so I added the coconut milk and I am likely not going back. I only use cream for kormas and as my girlfriend is the person who gets to eat and she can't stand more than 2 meals every now and then, it's always a waste of cream.
- level chef spoon of demerara because I'm short of sugar, but I think this gets me closer to the korma I got from a few restaurants.

I felt the need for something sweet today!

Quote from: natterjak on July 05, 2013, 03:20 PM

Quote from: chewytikka on July 05, 2013, 01:15 PM
;D A bag of Tej Pat smells more like a scented TEA. ;D

I can't actually remember, when Bangladeshi Tej Pat, was first imported to the UK.
But It's not that long ago and some BIR still use common Bay Leaf grown in India.

Just to back that up, looks like in the early 90s this BIR was using European bay (judging from the single veined bay leaves visible at 3:13)

http://youtu.be/R6rpKbpup0I

I know that my favorite BIR use european bayleaf. I personally seem to be more inclined to used to the european ones, although I only currently have the asian ones. The asian one is very subtle in my opinion. In fairness, I probably need to do the pepsi challenge with/without asian bay leaf to see how do I prefer my pilau rice.

On this note, besides the staff and pilau rice, what other dishes do you add bay leaf to?

European bay leaves...but, as usual, the flavor will be slightly different. Not substantially though, so go ahead and use normal bay leaf if you must. If you send me your address by PM, I can post you a few bay asian leafs as I bought almost 1kg worth of it.