I agree CA.
Looking at pictures and recipes is one thing. Seeing a video is another. Actually tasting someone else's efforts is the corker isn't it.

I wish I were nearer some of you. It would be fun to get together and hammer out what each of us like and work on the math to get it done. Oh well.  ;D

Quote from: Cory Ander on December 15, 2009, 11:37 PM
It is also consistent with EminJ's original question about whether anyone can achieve that "taste".  Alas, few of us are really able to adequately verify what others claim...unless we sit down and eat what they produce!

So where's the problem? 

Sad...........

It's about food.

I'm not interested in who thinks who is the best? I'm interested in who wants to talk about Indian food cooking and how it could get better!?

Sad to say this but this is my experience too. I know we all see the flashing of pans and instant additions but it is after all basically a stew. 7 MINUTE DINNER!

Green pepper yet again rings bells as does the high content in chillies. Someone on here said "Simple". Yeah it is............. very simple. Things are relative aren't they? Add less cook for longer, add more cook for less. But by an large the end result in this case is largely the same.

I consider myself a good general cook. At least I've had no complaints but then they would say that wouldn't they. 
Loved this post PP. Makes absolute sense to me, thank you.

Quote from: PaulP on November 30, 2009, 07:01 PM
Hi JerryM,

To be honest I discovered this by chance. The guy called Curry Barking Mad (Mick) posted something interesting on the "other forum" which caught my attention.

He was lucky enough to get a Pakistani chef from a reputedly good TA into his curry shed for a full-on base, spice mix and curry session. The chef was called Taz.

The base recipe was quite simple - just onions, some green pepper, some tinned toms, fresh garlic, fresh ginger, turmeric powder, whole cumin seeds and whole corriander seeds. Nothing else, so quite a simple base. Taz's technique is to make the base quite oil-heavy and at the cooking stage he doesn't add any extra oil, just the oil in the base is sufficient to cook with.

His spice mix is similar to the BE one but with 8% more turmeric and 8% less corriander but otherwise remarkably similar.

I made the base and spice mix and followed the recipe with some scepticism as I thought the base was too simple. But like others who tried (including CBM himself) I was very pleasantly surprised by the results.

Anyway, I wondered if it would work with a more complex base and I still had quite a lot of SnS 2008 base in the freezer.

I knew I would need more oil as the Taz base has 100% more oil than the SnS one but by using the 3 tablespoons of oil I cooked the onions in I reckon it balanced out the oil to match the Taz method.

The results of cooking 2 curries using the SnS 2008 base but with the Taz mix-it-all-up and reduce technique have produced my best curries to date.

I'm not saying this is the way to go for everybody and every curry as I think Taz has a unique approach but it does work and works well.

Another thing I have learned: In the past I was wary of too much turmeric and of cumin dominating the taste. The Taz base did taste quite strong with cumin and both his base and spice mix contain a fair proportion of turmeric, more than I would normally expect to use but the taste was spot on.

I still need to decide which produces the best results for me i.e. the Taz approach with SnS base or with the Taz base - they are both good, very good in fact.

This Taz thing is a bit of a distraction as I was going to try the CA base and spice mix but I will try that one next as I'm running out of base now.

12 Chillies sounds about correct to me too CA.
Why would you think this was a bad recipe?

I made a soup some years ago with over 17 in it. Lovely stuff.

I just want to add that I've tried a lot of recipes and probably 80% of them are in fact really good.  From here in particular there have been a few but two of note.

I liked CA's Vindaloo and Bruces base, Which I prefer at the moment because it allows for movement in spices. There are others too which I cannot recall at the moment? I like my own food tremendously and I think I pull it off so far as I can tell but there is still something not right with the final product.

It's not that I am not cooking it properly. A minute here or there doesn't matter so long as you don't burn anything or overcook your meat produce, it's something I am not adding now. That's all there is to it. Something simple, something that I know but I cannot nail it. For my final personal Vindaloo to be correct I have to find what it is that I'm not adding?

I cooked what I thought was a stormer last week. Heck it was good!  ;D
But placed next to theirs... Well you get where I am coming from on it? The wrong vinegar? Perhaps.... Hot Mango Chutney defo delivers a punch. I'm looking for something small now but very big by comparison. Next week could see me cracking it having thought a little about it.

Anyway long and short. YES there are some DAMNED FINE curries on here that should be recommended to people, and personal choice will always be prickly.

Ok I found it twice. Thanks for doing this CA.

I notice this uses Cassia powder. That is one thing I've not seen around here at all, ever unless they name it in Hindi? It's the second thing I've seen included that I cannot find here so far. (The other being coconut block). Which again suggests its a BIR thing.

I'll look better next time. The only reason I've not searched prolifically is that I heard from various sources there is a slime associated with using Cassia as opposed to cinnamon? Can anyone confirm or deny please?

Ouch Jerry many apologies and well spotted.
Care to share that please? Looks a nice dish really.
Thanks again.  ;D

Quote from: JerryM on December 15, 2009, 07:13 AM
Mikka,

the link is to Kosha Mangsho. i think u must have intended us to get to the fish begum http://www.bardhaman.com/recipe/fish_bb.htm and to swop the fish with lamb.

the version i have does not have potato in - the rest looks good. onion paste as well. i'd add in tom puree and swop the garam masala for mix powder (or even bassar). it has the sliced green chilli rings (which are visible in the restaurant dish). the vinegar looks too much and i'd add slowly on the 1st go. i would use base too.

sounds a real good starting point for a BIR version - many thanks for your effort - appreciated

On the contrary I think Josh pointed out some good things and I agree with them too. I think I did ask some time what dishes were said to be as good as or as good as can get so newcomers could be forwarded to them straight away, even me too. (I know this is a gray area).

So could we? I have a preference for bases from what I can tell at the moment, so only a quick look through will tell me these days if I should try  it but its not so easy for new people. I'm just trying to cook damned good Indian food regardless of heritage frankly so my thought process on it changes which makes it a little more difficult, I don't have a BIR for instance...

Hmmm Having thought about that I'm wasting my time here then  ;D
No worries but as above I think it would help new people.

Quote from: Cory Ander on December 15, 2009, 11:13 AM
That seems to me to be a bit of a strange comment/interpretation Mikka?  I don't think Josh is suggesting that and neither am I! 
What I was trying to suggest is that, for me personally, I feel that I need to work AND LEARN from BIR chefs to further develop my BIR cooking skills.

If I may? :

Just because a recipe is posted it doesn't mean that particular recipe will be liked by everyone. Are we there yet? I'm not, I want absolute perfection, absolute, nothing less.

I trust most people think they could walk into a job at a restaurant judging from replies? I couldn't. But I will perfect 7 dishes this year to my tastes.

I found a couple of recipes for this but had to look deeper since I couldn't find much on it, so I did some odd searches.

Begum as I understand it could mean a Muslim Lady of high ranking. Bahar could be a bastardisation of the Persian word bahaar meaning "Springing of new life"?

Most involve curd (Yogurt).

A version is here: (Note the "Heat Oil until smoking in a handi")
http://www.bardhaman.com/recipe/ksa_man.htm

Sounds yummy scrummy.