Phil  - thanks for checking it out. I think the bhuna is a special which appears only every few months and, yes, is in a different location. I've had some really tasty chicken saag chilled food dishes from supermarkets so looked forward to trying Aldi's saag sauce but it wasn't in the same league.

livo - so you have Aldi down under? I am recommending the specific jar in my photograph - not any of the others.

The first time I think I came across this dish was at a Sunday buffet in a small town BIR. The slow cooked lamb dish was delicious even though all the other dishes were mediocre. I asked the owner if it could be ordered off the menu mid-week and he said to ask for lamb bhuna. I never did get around to it and have never ordered 'lamb bhuna' because I very much doubt if a speedily cooked bhuna would provide the same depth of flavour. The next time was at a lunch buffet in the middle of Glasgow. The sauce was devine.  Next, I came across Aldi's bhuna (as in my photo) and, when cooked with lamb, it's something like 75% as good as the buffet offerings. This makes it worthy of recommendation in my opinion. Aldi and Lidl offer a range of curry sauces in jars, topped with curry powder in a compartment on top. None of the others which I have tried are anything special.

Quote from: pap rika on March 12, 2020, 03:55 PM
I use misty Ricardo's recipe

Thanks. I'll give it a try with my newly resurrected interest in chicken korma.

Quote from: pap rika on March 12, 2020, 02:54 PM
Hi Garp. Don't see coconut powder in you list of ingredients, do you feel it's not needed, or is it just a personal preference.

The recipe is using coconut cream instead of coconut powder. I agree the powder is probably what most BIRs use.

Quote from: Garp on March 12, 2020, 01:45 PM
- 200ml fresh single cream

Every time I have seen a BIR kitchen, the cream they use is not fresh but St Ivel UHT in a carton. This would give a distinctive edge which must be relevant for anyone trying to recreate a BIR type korma.

Some time ago, I looked in Costco and elsewhere to try and find St Ivel UHT cream. Elusive is not the word. But if you can obtain it, that's almost certainly the type of cream to use.

Livo - I am sorry if I am being unfair. But couldn't you have tried to save what you made by adding some extra spice if that's what it appeared to need?  It's good to hear that, like myself, you are interested in fine tasting kormas. Back in the 1980s I recall that local curry houses produced kormas which were quite like Ghanna's recipe. But when I went to restaurants in the West End of London and paid more, their kormas had a finer flavour. One of the most flavourless and bland I ever tasted was at a top hotel in North India. I may try making kormas again, to see if I can produce 'fine flavours'.

Quote from: livo on March 10, 2020, 08:25 PM
George, I've never been to the UK. The only knowledge of BIR food is what I make following the recipes and methods on this site and other resources.  I've had plenty of different Korma dishes over the years and one in particular was among the best Indian dishes I've ever eaten. I've never been able to get close to making it.
I've seen Korma recipes that are ridiculously complex and include ingredients like rose water and kewra water, gold leaf, etc. Some I've made tasted like eating flower petals and were not good at all.  I have also made some successful Korma that have been tasty and enjoyable.
I'm not prone to harsh criticism but this one was truly dull. The base gravy was fine and as you described quite acceptable on its own. The unspiced combination of this gravy with pre-cooked chicken (roast), evaporated milk, coconut and nuts (almonds and cashews) was just nothing. The remaining portion is going in the bin today.
MA, if you are basing your assessment of Korma on dishes similar to this, I understand your view. A Korma can be a delicious dish. This wasn't.

Quoted above is one of the few remaining frequenters of this forum's damning assessment of a perfectly good korma recipe, designed to replicate the type of dish served in British Indian restaurants. The recipe was strongly hinted at by Ghanna in 2005 and I provided suggested quantites around the same time. I haven't made the recipe for at least 10 years but I know from my comments back then, that it's certainly half decent.

What can have gone wrong with Livo's attempt? Plenty. I'm quite sure that if I had been there watching, he would have made big mistakes. But some people will be pleased that Livo has now joined the cult of korma haters.

I suggest it is seriously misguided. I never order korma these days but the fact remains it is one of the top sellers in both restaurants and supermarkets. Many people must arrive here in search of a korma recipe but be deterred by a hostile attitude. It's so sad and hardly in the interest of the forum owner who must be seeking to develop the number of active members.

Quote from: mickyp on March 10, 2020, 04:18 PM
George you can get Curry leaf trees from "The Citrus Centre" keep them out of the frost and don't overwater, they are quite a resilient
plant.
Waiting for spring to arrive for new growth

You make it sound easy. I bought small plants similar to those sold by the Citrus Centre and found them the most impossible plant to grow EVER. I kept them at around 25C so it wasn't frost damage. Give slightly too much water - they die. Give slightly too little water - they die. Touch the ultra fragile roots and they fall off. It was an expensive experiment which failed. I am very envious of your success.

Quote from: Peripatetic Phil on March 10, 2020, 10:01 AM
Do you grow Indian bay (Cinnamomum tamala) or European (Laurus nobilis), George ?  I find the flavours very different, and actually dislike European bay while loving Indian ...

I grow European (Laurus nobilis) and it helps improve the flavour of the base sauce for my taste. There's no accounting for anyone else's tastes! I doubt if the Indian tree misnamed 'bay' would grow in an English garden. I recently tried growing curry tree plants and it was a total failure.