I find your photograph fascinating, Rob, because it is the very antithesis of what I want in a doner. For me, a pitta bread, a good filling of doner meat, and a sprinkling of Greek (flat leaf) parsley if available is all I want or need — anything more detracts from the very "donerness" that I seek. But each to his own, of course, and as that is clearly how you prefer it, enjoy !
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#32
Pictures of Your Curries / Re: Chicken Ceylon
February 06, 2025, 04:44 PMQuote from: Kashmiri Bob on February 06, 2025, 01:41 PM
Chicken Ceylon. Very hot. Coconut milk powder (976bar) is best, imo.
Now that is interesting, Rob — way back in my 20's, Chicken Ceylon was one of my favourite curries, until I discovered that it had coconut in it, at which point I lost all interest (I loathe coconut, as indeed I loathe nuts in general). But until I discovered that it contained coconut, I could not (or did not) detect its presence at all. But once I knew that chicken Ceylon contained coconut, it leapt out at me. Until today, when I now learn that it may have contained nothing more than coconut milk, of which I have no dislike whatsoever. Ah well, only 50 years of potential chicken-Ceylon-eating wasted

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** Phil.
#33
Lets Talk Curry / Re: How do you stop your curries all tasting too similar?
February 06, 2025, 11:01 AM
I don't know, PWN, because I have experienced the same phenomenon myself, but once again it is good to see questions last asked a decade ago being asked again today — such questions, more than anything else, will help to keep this forum alive and vibrant. One thing you might like to try, however, is to use Bassar curry masala where a recipe calls for hot chilli powder — that should clearly differentiate your new version from your old.
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** Phil.
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** Phil.
#34
Lets Talk Curry / Re: Anyone consistently making restaurant-quality dishes w. "the taste"? If so, how?
February 01, 2025, 11:25 PMQuote from: livo on February 01, 2025, 08:39 PM
I've just searched for 12 recipes from the list Phil provided. Only 1 of these had the recipe. The Bulk North Indian Chicken Special - with Taz's Base.
Oh. Bum.
#35
Lets Talk Curry / Re: Anyone consistently making restaurant-quality dishes w. "the taste"? If so, how?
January 31, 2025, 10:32 AM
No hyperlinks in the following, nor have I followed any, but the search engine throws up the following :
P.S. Isn't it good to see the forum coming back to life ?!
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** Phil.
- House Specialities / Lamb Keema with Taz Base
- House Specialities / Chicken Chettinad with Taz Base
- House Specialities / Chicken Achari with Taz Base
- House Specialities / Chicken Bengali with Taz Base
- Korma / Chikcen Korma with Taz Base
- House Specialities / Chicken Sharabi with Taz Base
- Dansak / Chicken Dhansak with Taz Base
- House Specialities / Chicken Punjabi Masala with Taz Base
- Pathia / Chicken Pathia with Taz Base
- House Specialities / Murgh Makhani (Butter Chicken) with Taz Base
- Lets Talk Curry / BULK - North Indian Chicken Special - with Taz's Base
- Jalfrezi / Chicken Jalfrezi with Taz Base
- Bhuna / Chicken Bhuna with Taz Base
- House Specialities / Goan Coconut Chicken with Taz Base
- House Specialities / Chicken Methi Palak with Taz Base
- House Specialities / Chicken Kerala with Taz Base
- Vindaloo / Chicken Vindaloo with Taz Base
- House Specialities / Garlic Chilli Chicken with Taz Base
- House Specialities / Chicken Shakuti with Taz Base
- House Specialities / Chicken Bangla Garlic with Taz Base
- Ceylon / Chicken Ceylon with Taz Base
- Madras / Chicken Madras with Taz base
- House Specialities / North Indian Special with Taz Base
- House Specialities / Chicken Chasni with Taz Base
P.S. Isn't it good to see the forum coming back to life ?!
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** Phil.
#36
Lets Talk Curry / Re: Old School BIR recommendations - outside of London! (updated)
January 31, 2025, 10:16 AMQuote from: joshallen2k on January 31, 2025, 03:07 AMRaja of Kent in Tenterden I could swing. Thank you for the recommendation. When was the last time you were there?Any other recommendations?I get back to Kent at most twice per year, and try to visit the Raja on at least one of those occasion, so "some time in 2024" (and definitely in 2023) would be the most accurate I can manage. As to other recommendations, I'm afraid not — I have now been exiled to Cornwall since 2017, so my recollection of dining inside and just outside the M25 are now virtually non-existent. As I mentioned in my earlier post, Ashford houses a large ex-Ghurka population, and the reviews of the Nepalese restaurants there are definitely positive :
QuoteGurkha VillaI used to make a point of eating in one particular BIR whenever I shopped in Ashford, but sadly I can no longer remember which ...
4.4(179) · £10–20 · Nepalese
30 Bank St
Closed ⋅ Opens 11 am
"The food is authentic, and we particularly enjoy the pure Nepalese flavours."
Everest Inn Ashford
4.5(666) · £30–40 · Nepalese
Saturn House, 113 Station Rd
Closed ⋅ Opens 12 pm
"The Himalayan goat curry was the best goat curry I've had in the UK."
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** Phil.
#37
Lets Talk Curry / Re: Old School BIR recommendations - outside of London! (updated)
January 29, 2025, 09:27 AM
I would agree with that, J2K — even when curry was my be-all-and-end-all, a four-hour journey for what I hoped could turn out to be the perfect curry would seem somewhat excessive. Let me cast my mind back to my halceon days in Kent and see if I can remember somewhere to recommend that might meet your expectations ...
Well, it's not old-school BIR as I remember it from the 60s and 70s, but it was still my preferred location for BIR when I lived in Kent — the Raja of Kent in Tenterden. Otherwise take yourself off to Ashford, which has a large ex-Ghurka population, and sample the offerings there.
Well, it's not old-school BIR as I remember it from the 60s and 70s, but it was still my preferred location for BIR when I lived in Kent — the Raja of Kent in Tenterden. Otherwise take yourself off to Ashford, which has a large ex-Ghurka population, and sample the offerings there.
#38
Lets Talk Curry / Re: Anyone consistently making restaurant-quality dishes w. "the taste"? If so, how?
January 26, 2025, 10:12 PMQuote from: livo on January 26, 2025, 10:05 PM
I'm interested to know how frequently you do include the ground fenugreek, as I think this is a highly influential contributor to the restaurant style curry aroma and flavour. I learnt 30 years ago that it adds a character to a dish that I thoroughly enjoy.
Absolutely. If I include ground fenugreek, my wife complains "the house smells just like an Indian restaurant". No ground fenugreek, barely a whinge ...
#39
Lets Talk Curry / Re: Anyone consistently making restaurant-quality dishes w. "the taste"? If so, how?
January 26, 2025, 02:43 PM
One question, if I may Stephen ? Why have you decided to "make all [your] curries with Chicken Tikka" ? I ask because as someone who started eating BIR curries in Chislehurst, Kent, in the mid 60's, chicken tikka in a curry is complete anathema for me. It seems to me that the idea of using chicken tikka in a curry (other than in a CTM, of course) is a relatively recent conception, and one that does absolutely nothing to improve the quality (especially the mouth-feel) of the dish. Tandoori chicken jhoul, on the other hand, I do rather like — see https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=9003.msg80799#msg80799.
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** Phil.
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** Phil.
#40
Lets Talk Curry / More on handwritten recipes
January 21, 2025, 10:11 AMQuoteOur own handwriting can be a surprisingly effective prompt to memory. When American chef and cookbook author Deborah Madison stumbled upon some old handwritten recipes from the 1970s, she was transported back in time. Jotted down in brown notebooks along with notes and doodles and food stains and lists of suppliers that she used for the restaurant Greens in San Francisco, the recipes were "a record of time spent fitting new thoughts together", she wrote. "At times it looks careful and deliberate. Other times my hand gets distracted and strays, looks sloppy and tired. But mostly it conveys such a deep sense of discovery that reading through these notebooks, I am reinfected with the obsessive excitement I felt then". She doesn't think the same feeling would emerge from a list written on a computer: "There's much to be said for the mark of the hand".
From https://www.theguardian.com/news/2025/jan/21/signature-moves-are-we-losing-the-ability-to-write-by-hand?CMP=share_btn_url
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** Phil.