these are from a different plant
No idea what variety they are
I get these seed packs, start them off in January
some seeds don't grow and one way or another they all get muddled up
I keep the plants in the greenhouse until it gets too hot
then keep them outside until it gets too cold
Last year though, I got nothing but leaves on all my plants

well, I can't compete with that
That's brilliant
here's mine anyhow
I've got quite a few plants growing, but I don't seem to get more than maybe 10 chillies per plant.
They all seemed to get this odd leaf disease though
Might be a bug?
there are little pinholes in the leaves
but the the chillies are still fine

are those king prawns?
how much did you pay for them?
Looks very good

I notice that prawns are marketed in a different way these days
They all seem to have got smaller
Downsized
What most supermarkets now  call King Prawns, I used to buy as ordinary sized prawns

The book says you can freeze. As you might imagine, I have frozen quite a bit!!
There is so much information about cooking curries
All you need is one part of the instructions to be wrong, and you've totally changed the flavour
Obviously, Dave's recipes are just one way of doing it
But exactly following what he says, from start to finish, really has delivered a quality result
Some of the information flies in the face of other recipes
For instance cooking the base on a low heat & no roasting of the spices
But I trusted and did it anyhow
and very glad I did
If nothing else,, the onion bhajees are well worth a try
Recipes for these have always bit a bit vague for the quantity of gram flour required
Dave specifies
weight of onion : weight of gram flour
4:1
and that works perfectly
The salting of the onions makes them keep a good shape
not overspiced, so the flavour of the onion comes through
But for all the curries, the paramount thing is to use his gravy
I was initially very dissapointed with the general flavour of the gravy, but it really worked so well with the curry

large pot of gravy

close up of gray

after maybe 8 years I thought I would revisit this book and recipes
apart from the recipes, the book has an entertaining dialogue
There is no doubt in my mind that the book is written from genuine observations in a takeaway/restaurant

When I made this before, I made the scaled down gravy which is not recommended by the author, although supplied
He understands that probably not many people want to go the whole hog!

My cooking pot wasn't quite large enough to quite make the full amount, but I could go 3/4

I learnt more, this time around,  than when I made it before
Very important to
Cook on extra low gas
Let the vegetables cool right down before blending
Water down blended curry gravy by 50%
Boil until ALL the oil comes out from emulsification
You really need to get the full red oil slick on top of the gravy
Totally covering it
When cooking the curry
Don't overcook the garlic ginger or spices
So NO ROASTING
Don''t overboil the gravy
Add a little pataks tandoori paste
I prepared this and cooked this over a 3 day period
I made a prawn madras
Absolutely brilliant
His onion bhajees are fantastic
I mean as good as shop bought
and even better than a lot I have bought
the peshwari naan I'm not totally sold over
It's rolled just prior to cooking in the oven
It tasted lovely, but didn't rise
No pictures in the book, so maybe that was correct
I believe that Julian's book is very much "influenced" by this book

in my cooking lesson with Adey Payne, it was used for the tarka added to the blended onion mixture for curry gravy.To be honest it wasn't detrimental to the overall flavour, but I don't think it really added much. There is a lot of talk about mustard oil being dangerous to eat. I'm not bothered but wouldn't recommend anyone else to do it. Maybe it IS  bad stuff

thank you. So did this have anything like a BIR taste or was it totally different?

I dug this book out again, it's been a while since I used it!
I tried the mint raita recipe
Really excellent
The addition of ginger really does something

and I also made the Pillau Rice
I finished it off in a pot, in the oven
and wow!
terrific aroma and flavour very nice
A different kind of recipe, using fenugreek seeds and star anise

I'll have to try a few more things
I've got so many curry cook books and not enough time!!