Yes, there are some others that feature cabbage, too, I was just saying what's "special" about it (in some way).

Having now read most of the book I guess I can comment on it - even if I'm nowhere near the expert as others on this forum.


Ok, here's my little mini-review:

You can tell that the book was written over a period of time because for some chapters the author will say something like "here are 4 recipes" but then there are 6 included. He also changes the story about how things (such as how Vindaloo) came to be multiple times - the story's a bit different if it's a Chicken Vindaloo, Lamb Vindaloo and so on. But those are just details. Too bad, though, because I usually enjoy the background stories the most and they seem inconsistent.

The recipes mostly appear to be proper BIR style, even though some ingredients may be more typical for traditional Indian cuisine (such as Asafoetida). In general I'd call the book a mix of Traditional and real BIR recipes - the author points out the same in the foreword, too.

I personally enjoyed reading the starters, pickles and fish curry recipes most - simply because I don't have many recipes for that sort of stuff yet. One chapter that did not seem very good (judging by the pictures) is the "Breads" one - none of them look very good except for the Dosas, which are most interesting to me, anyway. The recipes and the methods in the "rice" chapter also seem very familiar, but I guess there are only a certain amount of ways to do something.

There are some little tips hidden in between the recipes. For example, the author's kids loved the poppadom dip in one of their local restaurants very much and he couldn't figure out what it was. On a slow day, the chef invited him to the kitchen to make a Patia curry (which he hadn't had before) and it turns out that it's the Patia sauce his kids were having the whole time.

One of the things I picked up from the book is that Amchoor (mango powder) is often used as a souring agent (instead of lemon juice, for example) - I think this might be a good ingredient for Vindaloo then. Not sure how BIR that is, though ...

All in all - without trying any of the recipes yet - I find this book a pretty solid BIR collection, but I wouldn't say that there are any new "revelations" in it per se. So far, I'd rate along with C2G's or CBM's books (which are both pretty good!)

For what it's worth - here's the table of contents. If anyone's interested I can probably post a recipe or two as teasers but the book's cheap enough to just buy it, in my humble opinion.

Since I currently don't have any more curry base prepared and don't feel like shopping I will either make a channa or the tandoori aloo recipe from this (or another book) for dinner.

About This Book
Curry Essentials
   Purchasing Ingredients
   A Word About Spices
   Dry Spice Checklist
   Fresh Ingredients checklist
   Garlic, Ginger and Chili Pastes
   Curry Powder
   Tandoori Masala
   Garam Masala
   The Basic Curry Sauce
   Onion Sauce
   Pre-cooked chicken
   Pre-cooked meat
Essential Blends
   Garlic, Ginger and Fresh Chili Pastes
   Curry Powder (spice mix)
   Tandoori Masala (spice mix)
   Garam Masala
   How To Make My BIR Curry Sauce
   ONION SAUCE
   Pre-Cooked Chicken & Meat
Starters
   Homemade Poppadams
   Onion Bhajis
   Fish Pakora
   Lamb Samosas
   Crab Samosas
   Prawn Puris
   Seekh Kebabs
Dhals
   Moong Dhal
   Chana Dhal
   Tarka Dhal
   Black Lentil Dhal
Pickles and Chutneys
   Lime Pickle
   Mango Pickle
   Tamarind Chutney
   Coriander Chutney
   Onion Chutney
Tandoori Dishes
   Tandoori Chicken
   Tandoori Sea Bass
   Tandoori Cod
   Tandoori Salmon
   Tandoori Lamb Patties
   Tandoori Aloo (Potatoes)
CHICKEN CURRY RECIPES
   Chicken Chilli Garlic
   Chicken Dhansak
   Chicken Do Piazza
   Chicken Jalfrezi
   Chicken Korma
   Chicken Madras
   Chicken Patia
   Chicken Tikka Masala
   Chicken Saagwala
LAMB CURRY RECIPES
   Lamb Bhuna
   Lamb and Chickpea
   Lamb Do Piazza
   Lamb Madras
   Lamb Rogan Josh
   Lamb Saagwala
   Lamb Vindaloo
   Lamb Keema
   Mutton or Lamb Biryani
FISH AND SHELLFISH
   Monkfish Curry
   Prawn Bhuna
   Prawn Jalfrezi
   White Fish Jalfrezi
VEGETABLE DISHES
   Saag Paneer
   Saag Aloo
   Bombay Aloo
   Stuffed Brinjal Masala
BREAD RECIPES
   Chapati Breads
   Puris
   Pan Cooked Naans
   Baked Naans
   Dosas
RICE RECIPES
   Perfect White Rice
   Lemon and Saffron Rice
   Rice Pilau

Yes, there's a "Curry Base Sauce" in the book. It looks similar to most other base sauces (judging by the ingredients). Notable "oddities" would be the inclusion of some cabbage and red/green capsicum.

Thanks for the tip. I bought this and will let you know what I think of it personally once I get a chance to take a look at it (currently at work).

Finally got around to trying this on my electric stove. The chapattis blew up like ballons (that was fun!) but the outer edges were often not cooked through so I was left with a ridge and those bits were too chewy to eat.
I guess I'll need to work on the proper setting for heat, but your method does indeed work - I just think that it seemingly works better with a gas stove.

Excellent video again, many thanks! People should also comment directly on Youtube, as they will increase views.

Anyway, I also typed up some instructions from watching the video:

"Put yeast and sugar in the water and give it 5-10 minutes to get the yeast working.
After about 10 minutes you should have froth on top (yeast is working).
Add the remainig wet ingredients, then the flour, then lastly the salt (If you put in the salt earlier it will kill the yeast).
Mix it all up just a little bit, then let it rest for 20 minutes first to fully let the flour take on the moisture (results in less kneading needed afterwards).
Afterwards, knead the dough until it's smooth - but don't overknead it. Should take about 3 minutes in a mixer (no longer than 5 minutes). Results in a very soft and quite wet dough but not very sticky at all in the end.
Take the dough out of the mixer, flour your hands, divide the dough into 4 pieces (at the given amounts). Roll each piece into a ball with your hands.
Let the dough balls rest for about an hour and a half. They should just about double in size.
Flour your work surface, coarsely stretch the dough ball into a circle and then roll it out evenly with a rolling pin without using any pressure. Resulting thickness should be about 5mm.
Heat a flat pan on full power (no oil). Also pre-heat your grill on full power.
Drop the rolled out dough into the pan and use your hands to shape it a little bit, if needed. Some bubbles will form on the surface after a while. Check the underside of the naan - when the colour is right move the pan under the grill (about 5 inches away from the heat source). Move it a bit closer to the grill to get some brown spots on the bubbles that have formed. if you just get one BIG bubble then pop it because it would otherwise just burn.
Wrap the naans up in a single tin foil package as they finish. Give each naan at least a minute in the foil, then open it up again and add some "garlic/ginger/coriander-butter". Add a generous amount for the first naan and, as you progress, you can use a little less for the remaining naans as the tin foil will already be full of the butter. Then warp them all up again to let the steam from the hot naan make them soft. The naans will stay hot for about half an hour."

Personally, I love that it turned out quite thick. Looks marvellous!

Wow, I'm happy for you! All the best in your new job. Being hired as a sous-chef without any prior experience shows that you really must be good even under pressure. Well done!

Don't forget to teach US new stuff as youi learn it, though

Nice ! But where's the curry porn to go along with your findings ? :-)

Well, maybe the chef is reacting to people like me:
Whenever I see a pretty small shop offering hundreds of dishes (even worse: different types of cuisine) I'm immediately turned off because I just know that you cannot possibly have such a vast array at a high quality standard. The chances of convenience foods (ie. frozen, but delivered cooked chicken bits) being involved becomes much too large for me. This potential "diversity" in food may, in fact, have led to the wide adoption of Patak's (and other) pastes. On the other hand, what do I know ?!

Thanks for the picture, I haven't seen those but I'd expect they'd taste similar to the non-concentrated ones. Here I was thinking that Patak's came up with some sort of Garabi/Base Gravy concentrate ... I'd better not give Patak's any ideas .......