The red container top left is food colouring.

Robothrobo, CA didnt take these photos.

Quote from: George on January 07, 2008, 08:41 PM
I'm getting more interested in this melting base recipe if it's one of the best so far, even if it falls short of your ultimate idea for a curry. Also, how much do you have to pay for it? I gather there's some sort of charge to get access to the 'melting' section of RCR.

I was a member before the limited access & groups side of RCR and dont really know what the deal is. I'm pretty sure there's no charging involved though as i have heard no mention of it. I believe you've always had to register to see some of the recipe and maybe you have to wait a day or so for the registration to become active (to stop spammers). Try that and if it doesnt work someone can always PM you a printscreens of a few recipes inc the gravy one.

When by brother went to india last year he said it was v common for indian restaurants to serve chinese dishes. I got the impression they were cooked by the indian chefs but can not confirm that as he didnt see inside the kitchens. The quality was not great but he did eat quite a few so they cant have been too bad. I've got a menu from one of them in bangalore, it's indian on one side and chinese on the other but it all comes under the same establishment name.
This was pretty much all over india (as he travelled).

I've heard they buy boxes of pre-cubed frozen mixed cuts of lamb (and chicken) but i guess whatever's cheapest for them. I usually order chicken because lamb's too often overcooked. It's a real shame seeing as the range of meats is (usually) so narrow.

Quote from: Cory Ander on January 07, 2008, 01:20 PM
PS:  your last post seems to have lost some of its previous eloquence, Chinois, I must admit! 

Cheeky, but good call

Quote from: Cory Ander on January 07, 2008, 12:18 PM
And Chinois, The rest of your posts, whilst very eloquent and interesting (and, perhaps, somewhat patronising to some), really aren't relevant to this discussion, I'm afraid.  You second post almost seems to be an extract from a book?  I don't know?

Yeah i thought so too, i started writing and i couldnt stop. Suggesting i lifted it from a book is strange but a good example of the weird and childish hostility between our two curry sites. It's true that writing in full english without 'text-slang' or smilies isnt always the norm but we can all talk passionately without hysterics when we want to.
Maybe the post's not quite in the right thead so if a forum person wants to move it to the long thread about whether there is a secret ingredient they can do.
Patronization's always an issue when trying to explain something but i thought i'd done alright on that. Suggesting that not everyone might be an exceptional cook with a finely honed sense of taste is more obvious/realistic than patronizing i thought. I also pointed out that i was one of them and not an 'i'm on the internet so i'm going to exaggerate everything and think of myself as elite' character. We can refer to the still ongoing purpose of this site & RCR to see that hardly anyone has cracked this curry thing yet.

Quote from: mike travis on January 05, 2008, 10:23 PM
If you are talking about `Authentic`,rather than BIR curries, there is no need for a base sauce as the curry is left to simmer for maybe up to an hour. This would not be possible in a restaurant.

Indeed, authentic indian home cooked curries are v different to our takeaway ones (and probably different to their restaurants/fast food too). A lot of the rules/tips i first learnt (including that one) turned out to be for authentic indian and actually didnt apply to the BIR food i was trying to cook.

When you learn about classic cuisines you notice that the original recipes dont have amounts or much instruction in them. Ingredients may have been measured but they were not recorded in the recipes because the cook was expected to be able to understand and work it out for themselves.

A good example is a thai curry paste: each ingredient is added to the pestle & mortar separately until the aroma balances the previous ingredient (which are added in opposites, chilli then lemongrass for example). People started to write comprehensive recipes so we could shortcut the experience & learning needed for this task. Now we have standardized recipes but they dont take into account the differences occuring in nature. Ingredients vary dramatically and modern recipes have now forgotten to mention this. Then the food processor arrived (which shreads and doesnt pound like the pestle) and the result changes again. The difference is obvious when written out like this but in a recipe they would be identical.

This is an example of why you need to be discerning in who you learn from (i.e. dont just trust google to come up with a recipe) and how keenly you learn/get involved. Recipes should be like essays basically! With regard to BIR you need to understand the ingredients and how they work, which is no small feat. You need to be constantly smelling/tasting so you get used to the differences that occur each time you do something. I find i often have to do control experiments to work things out. When you taste you need to be discerning rather than accepting. You need to try and criticize every aspect of the food in your mouth. Check there is enough salt to bring out the flavours (and spices need salt as much as anything else, dont listen to the health experts), that the sweetness is correct and that the overall 'feel' in the mouth is correct. I'm sure most of you have tried making multiple base sauces and found shortcomings in all of them. All you need to do is keep tasting them to work out what is wrong with them. Be the critic. The presence of onions which havent been completely cooked is the most common IMO so you'll probably recognize that 'vegetable sharpness' already. If you keep on with the other ingredients, even smelling a piece of ginger between tastes of the sauce to help you notice a subtle spicy edge to the aroma which you previously thought was to do with the ground spices, you'll be on the right track.

This way you'll find that with most recipes you will actually do them slightly differently to how they are written down, and might need to make adjustments each time. Dont let this deter you or make you think the recipe isnt perfect as this is how the professionals do it. They taste each dish & each sauce before it is served.

I've downloaded the sample book and it doesnt really say a lot. I cant post it as i didnt try printscreening it but it didnt give much of an idea about whether the book will be worth the money.
The establishment is not named.

I post regularly on RCR and have had success with the recipes lately. The earlier mild base recipes didnt really do it for me but the new melting base ones are very good. They are also very similar to what i have seen in the 2 BIRs that i have visited. I'd suggest giving it a go as it's a simple base sauce and doesnt make too much. Personally i thin it down more so it's the consistency of milk.

I think the biggest and most constant source of our disapointment is the fact that a lot of us (on both sites) are not decent cooks already. This isnt an attack, it's just obvious from the way people talk about ingredients/techniques. We are attempting to perfect one of the most highly regarded cuisines in the world. You cant just give a recipe to someone and have them make the same dish as a decent chef, it's never going to happen.

Quote from: gilligan on October 25, 2007, 09:47 AM
I was thinking more of a techniques/FAQ type forum  - rather than recipes

Indeed, recipes dont tell you all you need to know, the technique's as important.
Also punjabi & gujerati cuisine's arent renown for quality apparantly. When my brother went to india he said punjabi food was known for being the worst pretty much.