Interesting vid, Chris. Many thanks for posting.

My best guess on the 'mystery ingredient' is that it's a bhagar comprising tomato, garlic/ginger paste, and the usual spice suspects (a la Zaal, Little India, etc. See: https://curry-recipes.co.uk/imagehost/#3e6b0bf1da120db7d8e5bd18a0265c48.jpg).

Or something very much like it?

Quote from: chelters1 on June 09, 2013, 11:04 AM
Don't see anything in here in how to make a Lemon dressing .
Any help there please

That's because the lemon dressing used in BIRs comes from a bottle, like this: http://www.shopspicy.com/products/1098-PRIDE-LEMON-DRESSING-400ML/

But any bottled lemon juice will do (Jif or a supermarket own brand) - or even better, a squeeze of fresh lemon.

Quote from: curryhell on May 29, 2013, 10:16 PM
Thought i'd add to BB's thread as it contains some lovely looking dishes and one almost identical to that i cooked just before he posted the original thread.  The extrahot vindi (you could easily call it phall) recipe is simply a winner.  One and a quarter chef's spoon of extra hot chilli, tsp mix powder, g/g, diluted tomato paste, salt, fresh coriander, 10 roughly chopped chillis and a tsp of balti paste to see what it  would bring to the party.  Second time i've cooked this and enjoyed it both times as a nice change.  A really thick sauce, just thicker than thick with virtually all the liquid removed, not quite paste like but close.  Went down really well again tonight but not for the non chilli lover. 

Some SERIOUSLY good looking dishes from both BB and CH here. That is just the way I like my vindaloos to look.

I'm butting in here purely because I noted that CH mentioned that he added "a tsp of balti paste to see what it would bring to the party", and wanted to suggest an alternative to try.

As I've mentioned somewhere in another thread, I've been addicted to Laziza Karahi Fry paste for many years now, and find that a tablespoon or so added to the likes of a Madras / Vindaloo / Phal really racks up the intensity levels. (I also add a tablespoon or so to my bunjarra as well. Mind you, I also add it to my scrambled eggs, left over mashed potato to make spicy tattie cakes, and many other things...)

Anyway, if you fancy checking it out and can't find it in your local Asian store, I get mine from here: http://www.mullaco.com/Sauces-and-Pastes/Laziza-Paste-Karahi-Fry/W003739.html

(P.S. Their Tandoori paste is seriously good as well, by the way. No need to mess around with mixing three different Patak's pastes to achieve that BIR taste.)

With such a small amount of oil you'd probably be better off using it to cook your next curry. (I often reclaim oil from the curries I cook for this very purpose.)

Do bear in mind though that if your BIR is already using reclaimed oil (from cooking bhajis, etc), then by the time you get round to using it it's going to be third-hand and perhaps a little past its best.

Quote from: vindapoo on May 31, 2013, 03:02 PM
apoligies for bumping an old thread but I am going to make this and wanted to check a couple things.

Everything I have read/seen says curry cooking process is oil > garlic ginger > methi > mix powder > the rest

This recipe kind of does it in reverse order, does it give a boiled rather than fryed taste ?

I find that you don't get a 'boiled' taste with the Taz base because there's so much oil in the base itself that gets released as you reduce it that it fries everything nicely.

The key to this base is that crucial first reduction. You're looking to reduce the first ladle of base right down to almost a paste before adding any more. (It's tempting to stop before the reduction has got to the right stage. I know the first time I tried it I pulled back a little too early, but you soon get the hang of it.)

Do let us know how you get on with it.

As a self-confessed camera nut since the age of 15 (albeit a Nikon man. Currently a D700 and D300s) I fully appreciate your dilemma, Phil.

But after years of taking pictures, I've learnt that the most important thing a photographer needs on a trip (or, in fact, anywhere), is a camera of some sort. It really doesn't matter what it is.

Interesting article on the subject here:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm

Worth a browse around this guy's site, as he's got a wealth of information and kit reviews on there.

Quote from: Phil [Chaa006] on May 23, 2013, 03:04 PM
Sh1t :  that is who I bought mine from --

Seller: bigbagprosto ( 129 )
Seller information:      Creative Kitchen   
   szymon slebioda   
   29 equity chambers   
   bradford, West Yorkshire bd1 3nn UK

** Phil.

Bottom line is that ALL the cheapo 'AnySharp' knife sharpeners on eBay are fake, Phil. (I ended up getting my fake one from another of the many sellers: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/130900763276?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649)

I guess alarm bells should have rung after I saw that the cheapest price on Amazon is around

Quote from: h4ppy-chris on November 11, 2012, 01:42 PM
i use one of theses to put the edge on the knife, then a diamond coated steel just to re- fresh when needed.
these are sold on ebay about a fiver, when you drag your knife across the V do it very lite it puts a razor sharp edge on.
i have Global knife sharpener (35 quid) not been used for 2 year  :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Worlds-Best-Selling-Global-Knife-Sharpener-Brand-New-2-Blade-/181008552931?pt=UK_Kitchen_Accessories&hash=item2a24f353e3

Beware, as I've just bought one from the above eBay seller and it's a fake. See: https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,11970.0.html

After reading about the AnySharp Global knife sharpener in other threads in this fine forum, while I wouldn't use anything like this on my quality knives, I decided to click on the eBay link provided and buy one to sharpen my cheap knives. As someone else pointed out, for

Quote from: h4ppy-chris on May 22, 2013, 12:33 AM
Why do TA's pre-cook chicken then add it to sauce? Why add a sauce? why not just the chicken?
I know WHY do you?
Is it to add flavor to a curry???
Now the big GUNs on here should be able to answer this?

I'm not a big gun or anything, but I've been at this lark since 1981 and I always thought that the reasons BIRs precooked their chicken/lamb/mutton in what is, essentially, a thin curry stock containing whole spices, were:

1. To facilitate speed of service
2. To ensure that the meat is tender
3. To ensure that the meat's natural water content doesn't dilute the sauce and compromise its intensity.
4. To ensure that the meat has flavour that not only complements the sauce, but adds to it. (Should some of the stock also make it into the curry pan, along with the odd whole cardamom or petal of star anise, etc., all to the good.)

As to why they would not just serve the meat without the sauce, I don't fully understand the thinking behind this, Chris, as surely the whole raison d'etre - the one central element around which the BIR concept pivots - is the curry sauce.

Without the curry sauce you do not have BIR. You don't actually need to add meat to it to create a BIR curry (in fact, I quite often knock up a batch of Chewy's Madras sauce after the pub to dip a chapati into when I'm out of precooked meat).

I may have misunderstood you though.

Anyway, that's my stab at it!