Hi Peeps
Todays effort, Pillau Rice & Chicken Korma, made with the new base.

Hi Peeps
A picture of KD base plus a few tips from the Chef I met on holidays, which I recently posted.

Hi CK
It's from Pat Chapmans "The New Curry Bible" if you haven't got it I will post the recipe.

Hi Peeps
Couple of pictures of a Tandoori Chicken I recently made, it was Nice and white on the inside and really succulent hope you like them.
Cheers?

Like I said you can make better, because you have pride in your cooking, look no more, just cook it and enjoy. :

The chef was of Indian extraction, Punjabi infact, although we didn't have a madras infact it was a balti and it did taste quite good but I will be honest with you I bet you could cook as good, I think we all can, lets be fair we put an enormous amount of effort into them.

An intersting part of the meal was the starter, usual things, except he said be careful with this one its very hot. I tried it as you do, wow! very hot we asked what it was and he told me carrot, CARROT I said, yes carrot done in a chili sauce, we are the only restaurant on the Costa Del Sol to do it, certainly not for the faint hearted.

We are going out there again in a few weeks and I will certainly ask him for a few more tips.

As far as the mustard seeds go I haven't tried them yet, I was thinking about fine crushing them in a pestal & mortar, like you, I haven't visually seen mustard seeds in a madras.

The sauce I cooked and the dopiaza certainly had what I can only describe had an extra richness about them, I will make another batch and post the pictures.

I, like the rest of you always use lemon juice, I am only passing on information, whether its right or wrong I don't know maybe it just has to be tried. 

Hi People
Recently went for a holiday to Spain, came back Christmas Eve, whilst out there as you do we went went for a curry. During the course of the evening I got quite chatty with the waiter, complimenting him on the food etc.

Well to the point, after the meal we sat there having a drink when the owner showed his face we got chatting and I explained my interest in Indian cuisine and showed him a copy of CTM recipe that I recently posted on this site, and asked him his thoughts on the recipe. He said that the CTM would probably be OK but there is no way that he would put in cumin seeds, Lemon juice, Fresh Mint or Fresh Chillies, in fact he said no Indian dish (BIR Style) uses lemon juice, and during the conversation he said no way does he ever use vinegar in any of his recipes.

On we go, I asked him outright "is there a secret to the base sauce" he said no, "one base I make 35 different dishes" OK we can all do that I thought, he agreed that the base sauce will vary slightly from chef to chef so I wrote out the KD basic sauce recipe, which he looked over and said not enough tomato puree so I said how much? at least half a kilo he said, and twice as much onions, I explained that this is only for home cooking purposes and he said OK but you still need about 200 - 300 grams of tomato puree, he couldn't be specific but obviously we are not adding enough.

He then said "where is your seasoning?" its there I said (salt), no he said garam masala, without garam masala you got no base it will be too bland, how much I said for the amount I am making, 2 heaped tsp, added when you are boiling the onions, garlic & ginger.

Well I am not saying that this is that elusive secret, its too obvious for it to be a secret, but give it a try,? and as he said there is no secret, he also said during the evening you have to put mustard seeds into a madras dish and to obtain the redness of a vindaloo dish he uses the big long red sweet chillies dried.

I am not looking to start a debate I am just passing on the information I was given, I have made the base and cooked a chicken dopiaza and there was a difference, and in my opinion, for the better.

Happy cooking peeps ;D

Happy New year to you all, may the spice be nice and the balti not too salty