Welcome to the forum, Comedycow. You can look forward to discovering a wealth of information and watching your spare time get sucked into the digital void! (Time well spent, though...)

(Oh, and according to Julian's book, his surname is Voigt. Apologies if someone has already mentioned it.)

I'm not sure, but being a blues nut I own just about everything Freddy King, Robert Johnson, T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters, et al, recorded. I also have most of Clapton's works in my collection - including the seminal 'From The Cradle', in which he pays a worthy tribute to the greats.

To be honest, I'd be happy (or been happy - many of the greats have moved on) to take a lesson from any of them, and even though I'm not a huge fan of Gary Moore, I'd kill for a session with him.

Everyone has something unique to give...

BIR voyeurism of the highest quality, CT!

Can't get enough of these behind the scenes vids, so many thanks to you and CBM and all who make the effort to get backstage.

I've not tried the Raj brand, but I will now.

In the meantime may I thoroughly recommend Laziza tandoori paste, which has become my favourite by a long way:



Worth a try if you spot it when you're next in your friendly local Asian supermarket...

Do it? I'm pretty sure I invented it!

Not only do I not remember why my fridge contains many of the items it contains or their intended purpose, but I long since stopped counting the number of times during the day in which I find myself standing in the kitchen, fridge door open, gazing in at said mysterious contents, and thinking "What THE F**K am I doing here? I'm supposed to be in the garage looking for a screwdriver..." (Or similar.)

Mind you, my genetics don't help. Even at my age my old man had a notoriously bad memory, and I have yet to eclipse his finest moment, when he called the RAC about his car.

RAC man: "What seems to be the problem sir?"

My old man: "It's my car."

RAC man (emitting audible sigh): "Yes sir... But what seems to be the problem with your car?"

My old man: "I can't find it".

Turns out that he'd parked his car somewhere different to his usual spot near the railway station and returned from a hard day's graft in town having completely forgotten where he'd left it.

I can only imagine the RAC man's reaction upon hearing my old man's ranting when he explained that there wasn't much the RAC could do about it without recourse to a Vulcan mind meld...  ;D

(I made the mind meld bit up, but the rest is true...)

Time to check on the fridge, I reckon...

To celebrate daughter No. 2's 30th, last night I decided to take a break from the kitchen and ordered in a takeaway from one of my favourite local BIRs.

They were busy so said it would take an hour to deliver, so daughter No. 1  said: "Why don't you knock up one of yours and see how it compares, dad?"

"What a splendid idea!" said I, silently cursing her for ruining my night off... 

Out came all the gubbins, and not long after there was a Chewy Tikka chicken Madras steaming away in a recently buffed serving dish.

The takeaway arrived, and the blind tasting commenced (I was, understandably, excluded).

Now, had I not been there to witness the event I would have suspected a fix to massage dad's ego, but it was a proper blind taste test and all 5 participants voted for the CT Madras hands down.

"Much more flavoursome", was the general consensus. "Not as aniseedy", was another comment. And indeed, when I was finally allowed to have a go myself, the star anise used in the BIR Madras was clearly apparent.

That's not a criticism as I quite like a bit of star anise - just an observation.

Personally, I liked both dishes, but was really chuffed that my effort went down so well, and it's further testimony to the winning qualities of CT's recipe.

It's also testimony to the fact that many of us do ourselves down a bit too much (for far too many already discussed reasons to mention here). Whatever the reason, I can thoroughly recommend that the next time you order a takeaway you conduct a similar (dish for dish, like for like) taste test.

If nothing else it allows you to pick out different nuances in flavour between your local BIR's dishes and your own.

Quote from: curryhell on April 26, 2012, 07:08 AM
Keep us posted on your findings Natterjak.  See if you can find out anything about the lessons they offer, although i couldn't find anything on the website itself Maybe i was missing something

It gets a mention on their Facebook page, CH: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Zaman-of-Datchet/196328850385542?ref=ts

"Join real Hell's kitchen cook your own curry !
Learn technique from our head chef..
Then cook a curry to your own recipe

I've been through similar trials over the years with onion pastes, but to date the best I've come across, and the one I use as the default bunjarra these days is from Mick Crawford's (CBMs) book (though I tend to cut back on the tandoori masala a bit).

Once you've got your cooking technique dialled and can get those onions nice and caramelised (takes about an hour), it's a winner.

Add a tablespoon or so about half-way through cooking the curry, then if you have the patience leave overnight for flavours to develop.

The result is one of the most intensely flavoured curries ever - and the closest I've ever got to that 'Glasgow taste' I've been chasing for the last three million years.

Great work again, CBM, and as others have said it's great to see a base cooked from scratch by a BIR chef.

As has been pointed out many times before, each chef will have his own tweaks and tricks, but it's especially refreshing to see that in terms of method and technique there are no surprises (by that I mean nothing that hasn't been covered on this forum, in your book and others, etc). Discussions about slow-cooked vs fast boiled onions and the bhagaring stage will no doubt continue! 

In terms of ingredients, the moong dhal was new to me, and I was surprised that he revealed the much guarded 'secret' though, and shall be stocking up on Carnation condensed milk today! 

Keep up the great work - I've really enjoyed these Little India videos.