Quote from: livo on November 25, 2021, 10:31 PM
I didn't experience the gelatinous feel in my curries but I used only drumsticks in the preparation of the gravy so this may have been the contributing factor there. 

Did you leave the skin on them?

Quote from: jb on November 25, 2021, 04:35 PM
It's interesting to note how much emphasis in flavour terms Chef Din places on his gravy;almost to the point that you could just put some of his gravy in a pan with some chicken and you've already got yourself a chicken curry.The popular notion that the base gravy should be neutral, or even blandish is not something that Chef Din employs, totally the opposite in fact.

I think there are two broad schools of thought. One where the gravy is packed with flavour and the curry essentially is the base sauce with added meat, veg etc. And then there's the neutral base where the flavour is crafted at the curry making stage by using varied spicing etc. It seems to me the second option will provide a more varied taste experience whereas the former allows curries to be made quicker.

Quote from: jb on November 25, 2021, 04:35 PMAs far as the solitary potato in the vindaloo, I don't think this has much to do with the 'vin' (vinegar) and 'aloo' (potato), rather it was a device invented so that a busy waiter could work out what dishes were what on his trolly.I guess a madras and a vindaloo look pretty similar so a potato sitting in the dish would help him sort things out.

Exactly so. In some places I used to eat in the only way to tell the difference between the madras and vindaloo without tasting was to find the one with the potato in it.

Quote from: livo on November 25, 2021, 08:35 PM
You won't be disappointed in the gravy.  It isn't quite a curry by itself but it is more flavoured than others.

Well, yes and no.

Having today made the gravy and his vindaloo these are my thoughts.

The gravy, and we can indeed call this one an actual gravy as it has meat juices in it from the chicken, is very tasty. I shuddered at the amount of salt being added but it seems just about right in the finished article and of course he doesn't add salt to the curries. So just judging the gravy on its own merits it gets a definite thumbs up.

The vindaloo though had a definite gelatinous taste/feel to it from having the chicken cooked in the base with the skin on. And the chicken was very bland in the curry, almost tasteless. On its own the chicken tastes nice but I'd be putting it in a sandwich or, as Chef Din suggests, making fried chicken with it. I really think cooking the chicken in the base gravy like this is less about flavouring the gravy and more about cooking chicken in an easy way for use in the curries, but it doesn't work as curry meat.

For me the vindaloo was just ok and didn't seem to offer the quality the base sauce should have brought to it. The lemon added a hint of tartness but is not something I want in a vindaloo. And what are the tiny pieces of green pepper for? To make the sauce look more interesting?

If I were doing this again I'd skin the chicken before adding to the base gravy to cook to avoid the gelatinous effect. So, yes, it's an acceptable takeaway curry but nothing to write home about. And, ultimately, it's nothing we haven't seen before on the forum.

Quote from: Peripatetic Phil on October 18, 2021, 11:04 PM
He's about to admit that a chicken carcass was a standard ingredient in all bases, vegetarian and otherwise !

Ten years ago that might have been a revelation. Not so much now.

Quote from: Bengali Bob on October 18, 2021, 07:33 PMit looks like Chef Din will soon be lifting the lid on old school BIR methods and recipes. 

Isn't that what he already claims to be doing? Or is this a new level of "old school BIR methods and recipes"

Quote from: ligs on October 17, 2021, 02:19 PM
Hi has anybody got any ideas on this sauce, still not got it

Have you tried Havana Club Kebab House Chilli? I got it in Farmfoods. It's not like any kebab sauce I've ever had but it does sound like the description of the sauce you're looking for. I'm pretty sure it would have been a bought in sauce, maybe with a bit of added spice to make it more Indian perhaps. Gotta be worth a try if you've still not cracked it yet.

Unclefrank, yes that is the original recipe and confirms that I had indeed doubled the spices on my copy. Glad you posted that as I was sorely tempted to double which would have effectively quadrupled the original recipe quantities. Many thanks.

Maybe a mod could reinstate the original recipe now? And is there a history of edits that mods or the site owner can see to ascertain when it got changed?

That's very odd (if not worrying. What other posts may have been altered?). I see George "edited" it. Did he remove it for some strange reason? I also recall George being very negative about the recipe and that post also has disappeared. Unless I'm confuddling it with another post on Curryhell's samosas.

I've got what might be the original recipe but as I prefer it with double quantities of spices I'm not sure if I've amended the original to my tastes or not. I suppose I'll have to make some and find out.

What happened to the recipe in Curryhell's first post in this thread?