Ok. Thanks. Pretty much what I thought. I have no affiliation with or allegiance to CA.

Why are some people here so sensitive about jibes referring to korma and chilli? I am a member of fishing forum where bait fishermen and those who prefer artificial lures engage in friendly and humorous teasing. Nothing nasty is intended or inferred. Just a bit of fun. I would think it is pretty similar to mild curry eaters as opposed to those who like it hot.

Did CA have a habit of pressing his views on hot or mild dishes? It seems to be a raw wound for some.

While I have been a member here for a little while I never did this introduction earlier as it is something that I don't normally do on any forum. For the sake of a few, allow me to introduce myself. I am a 53 yr old medically retired Technology and Applied Studies teacher from NSW Australia. I have always enjoyed Indian food among other cuisines and have generally been cooking for many many years but never commercially. Just for family and friends.

My wife was an exchange student to Sri Lanka when she was at the end of her school life, so we both share a fondness to food from there as well.

My other main interests are boating and fishing and my family all own and ride horses. I don't.

Now to clear up some matters. I do not like "hot" dishes. I don't mind a little chilli but my favourite dishes all fall in the mild to medium spiciness range. I love nuts and creamy things so naturally I love korma.  I have no knowledge of CA other than having read his posts in this forum and others. It would appear that there has been some issue with CA and other members here. I haven't a clue what it is about.

Perhaps somebody would care to explain this situation so that the newer members here are not so confused by the whole thing.  I have now seen several members being accused of being impostors and spies. It all comes across to me as a bit odd.

NO, I'm from Australia, and I'll say yet again that I have no connection to anybody and I'm assuming you are trying suggest I am a minion of CA. You could not be more wrong. Any similarity in our views is entirely and inarguably a coincidence.

George, I eat korma and dislike hot curry.  In my opinion the nicest curry dish I have ever eaten was white chicken korma. Personally I don't understand the need to burn ones face off. I doubt too many people would see my jest as anything even near serious.

If you find my post distasteful or offensive I apologise and you can remove it if you wish or I'll do it should you ask. No offence was intended and there is obviously something going on here that I know nothing about.

Crazy.  Sneak a bit into some poor fools Korma.

A different style of cooking I know, but if I'm doing a large qty of Fried Rice or Pad Thai noodles, the only way is to make multiple small batches.  If you try to overcrowd any style of cooking you get a different, and usually undesirable, result.

I can't comment on Europe but I am amazed that T/A's over here can sell the dishes they do for the prices they charge.  I know that cooking Indian at home is a bit of a luxury really.  I guess they must make enough profit selling the less costly items to cover the losses on heavy dishes.

Another interesting thing out here recently, re costs in general, was the sale of a basically new, commercial, gas fired tandoor oven which had only been used a couple of times before the management of the business decided it was too expensive to run.

I haven't cooked a curry in a couple of weeks as I've been eating from the freezer. I have been doing a lot of research on basics though and trying to get my head around the many and significant inconsistencies in the styles of cooking.  I would really like to understand the characteristic brought to a dish from each individual spice as well as how they interact.  A task I know.

I'm amazed by how many times I've come across somebody posting something like, "Well that dish can't be that dish because it doesn't have this ingredient".  For example the Madras is extremely controversial as to what should and should not be in it.

The big surprise in the above table is the large amount of spice and body in the Belting Balti base when compared to the CA BIR base sauce.  CA's has 2400ml of water and only 5 1/2 - 6 Teaspoons of spice where as the Belting Balti is only 600ml of water and 24 Teaspoons of spice, which equates to 16X the spice level plus it also has the whole spices cooked in as well.

No wonder Balti is different.

It was too late to do observations here last night so here is a list. Based on loose transcription to 1kg onion quantities.

Note: * in CA sauce spices means they are in the spice mix he used. 

I intend to do similar analysis of as many other sauce recipes as possible over the next fortnight as I'll be slowed down a fair bit from surgery this afternoon.

Balti sauces contain around 6 whole spices not found in the BIR.
The kushi balti has considerable vegetable in the form of capsicum and carrot.
Other spices in the balti are double and 4X that in BIR.
Balti sauce uses at least double the amount of tomato.

These observations do not take into account the preparation of actual dishes yet.

Quote from: parker21 on October 21, 2014, 02:51 PM
as cashews I would consider a luxury and I'm sure too expensive unless in one of Bir chefs special or a garnish at the end of cooking 

Out here there is little or no difference in the cost of cashews and almonds and often cashews are cheaper.  This says either we are getting our cashews very cheap or are being ripped on our almonds.