Chicken Jalfrezi

Method

1. Heat 4 table spoons of oil

2. Then add 5 green split chilies (I used green pickled birds eye) fry for about 30 seconds.

3. Add half a chopped onion (I sprinkled some salt to the onion while it was waiting to be cooked) and about 5 pieces of green pepper. Then when the onion and pepper had taken some heat away I added two cloves of garlic puree with some salt (this was added when pureeing the garlic) so not to burn the garlic.

4. Keep an eye on the heat to make sure it doesn?t catch and burn; keep stirring for about 2 minutes.

5. Add 1 teaspoon of special spice mix and 1 teaspoon of chili powder. (I mix the special spice mix and chili together before I start and place this on some folded paper. At this stage I have it to hand so I can through it straight in)

Special Spice mix (I found this inside a PDF on this forum)

4 Tablespoons ground coriander.
3 ? tablespoons of turmeric.
2 ? tablespoons of ground cumin.
1 Tablespoon of Paprika.
2 Tablespoons of curry powder. It said eastern star (I used what I had and it is labeled mild curry powder.

Special spice mixture, I made this up on Saturday however I only made half of the quantity. (Shown above)

6. Bring the base sauce to a boil.

7. When boiling turn down heat to simmer and add the following.

2 desert spoon of paprika.
2 desert spoon garam-massala.
1 tea spoon of ground black pepper.

Stir and simmer for 20 minutes and switch off heat. (Shown below after the 20 minutes) I left this until Sunday night.

Stage 2

1. Blend half a can of tomatoes till smooth (or use a small can)

2. Add blended tomatoes to blended onion and vegetable mix.

3. Add 62.5 ml of oil.
4. Begin to heat and add 2 table spoons of tomato puree.

5. Add 1 to 2 table spoon of turmeric. I think I added two? (Shown below)

4. Bring to the boil then simmer for a total of 1 hour 20 minutes stirring occasionally.

5. Cool then blend to smooth liquid/puree. (Shown below)

Base Sauce

Many thanks to Darth, Ray Graham and all who post on this web site. This base is cross between Darth?s base and the ?Balti kitchen? base.

I have documented my curry cooking events from Saturday the 11th February until Monday the 13th.
I made this base on Saturday afternoon. I cooked a korma and Jalfrezi on Sunday night; I was very hung-over on Sunday! I froze the rest bar enough base sauce for one portion. Both curries on Sunday tasted very good but both did not have the taste or smell. I did not add any fenugreek to Sundays Jalfrezi.

Monday lunchtime. I made Chicken Jalfrezi. Wow! Fantastic, it had the taste, the smell everything. I wish I had used tikka but couldn?t be bothered to make any on Saturday or Sunday.

I am so thankful to everyone on this site, without your ideas and knowledge I don?t think I could have created what I would class as a true restaurant curry in my own home. (I could make a curry but never attempted restaurant curries until November 05)

I have been a keen cook for a number of years. Over this time I have realized that control of the stove is perhaps one of the key factors whilst cooking. For example knowing exactly when to increase or to decrease the heat. When to move pans away from the heat all together and when to return. When you add spices the pan is very hot. I would quickly take the pan away from the heat stir them in and then return. I guess we all do this? Trying to document exactly what we do is difficult however I have tried my very best.   
The question I must ask myself is will it work again? On the following pages I have documented my efforts.

Base sauce Stage 1

2 ? pound?s of onion peeled and roughly chopped.
1 Bulb of garlic.
2 Ounces of ginger.
2 Green Peppers de-seeded and roughly chopped.
2 Carrots roughly chopped.
3 sticks of celery
125ml of vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon of salt.
1 Bunch of fresh coriander. Save some for final curry.
2 litres of water (Next time I will only use 1.5 litres of water) I blended all the mix however felt there was too much liquid left so chucked about a pint.

1. Blend garlic and ginger together with some of the water.

2. Add chopped onion, carrot and celery to a large pan.

3. Add blended garlic & ginger mixture, oil salt and remainder of water to pan. (Shown below)

Sorry mate, I have cooked my curries over the weekend see the results!!! Cheers Darth and Ray!

Thanks very much for all of your help. I am going to try darths base sauce... see how I go.. I am tempeted to add more oil.... we will see. I will post results and pictures on tuesday...  Have a good weekend. Cheers Darth and Ray!

Cheers mate, got a long weekend ahead ie... no work! Going to have a shot at one of your base's tomorrow and cook it up on Monday... Do you think the flavour improves if I leave it for a couple of days?
Regarding the corriander, when you say stalks... might sound daft.... you use the wole thing leave and all?]

Well since my 1st curry post I have realised that cooking curry....? it is not the curry powder, this is an art form. I was na?ve, young and foolish.. It did make a bloody good curry mind.

I wish I could crack it I so want to make Indian curry?s at home. I woke up the other morning and thought I need to get a job in a restraunt work for free and learn.

I have tried the KD base now, and made an ok balti, not like a take away though. I?ve tried a korma a few times and it?s getting there.

Anyone live in Bristol and want to help teach me make good curry? I had a take away last night.... my god; it was so good in comparison. Does anyone want to post a recipe that shows from scratch, best base sauce they use and how to create curry from that base? Yes maybe lazy but trawling through this site? I?ve been on for ages, its difficult putting the best ideas into practice there all so good.

Im thinking Pete! Darth! Mark J Ray? Anyone want to create a really a nice document ;o)

Ray I was reading the post about the balti kitchen; I have yet to try the base but will do this weekend. I was thinking about adding about 100ml of oil at the beginning.

One thing I have noticed is that when I have made the base and I create the curry, I never seem to get any oil floating on the surface, any one else have these problems? Maybe I should add more oil?

Curry Kings and Queens, please do keep up the good work, this is one of the best sites I have ever come across, I have been pickled with paprika and need more and more chilli,,,, so help me god if this is the last thing I do,,,, I will create a curry with the taste at home!!!!

Hi,

I have tried 3 recipes for korma now and still can?t nail it as a take away. The 1st I tried was the Kris Dhillon method and it was ok.

The 2nd I tried was the one on this forum with sweetened condensed milk but added spices from Dhillons book and the cinnamon and this tasted much better, I also added a golf ball size piece of cream coconut. Really it was very nice, but still not the same as a take away.

Last night I tried Ghana?s method but again added the spices as in Dhillons method. None have worked. But did not add any cream.

George, you seem to be the one who has the best result, could you advise of the exact base and links and how exactly you achieved the korma you got.? I.e. method quantities, I really would like to crack this one, I do really like spicy food but I just want to create this for the mrs....

I also added crushed cashews and 1 tsp of ground almonds to each of the above currys. I did try a separate curry with descicated coconut but it seemed to bitty? Maybe coconut powder?

I would greatly appreciate your help!

Kind regards,

James