There's certainly a lot of unusual stuff going on there blade!

I'm confused about your 'chef's spoon', the ones I have seen are pretty big, I would guess that they would hold about 4tbsp and this would make some of your measurements seem a bit on the large side?

Quote11. 1 chefs spoon of white solid/liquid emulsion stuff (possibly MSG/Salt/Sugar/Water combo ?? - not all dissolved )

What in God's name!? ? I don't think this has ever been seen before. Yet another avenue of investigation opens up.

I don't know about anyone else but this sort of post just makes me wonder if there's any consistency in making curries in restaurants. Did the curry have the taste you were expecting?

What colour was the curry?

QuotePS. The texture of the final dish was very similar if you were to make a curry from say the MarkJ base, but add very little to the final dish. I've now cut this down to 1 tbl in my final dishes and prefer the result

Are you saying you only use 1TBSP of base in your curries?

Quote2 desertspoons precooked veg (very dry mix)

Pete, what was in this mix and how do you think it was prepared?

Quote from: pete on June 21, 2005, 10:04 PM
I got a sample and it’s very nice but it doesn’t have the taste
Neither did the curry (although it was really excellent)
I have had curries from this place and they have had the taste, so I guess it must just be a flavour of kitchen circumstances.

Pete, forgive me if I'm a bit stupid, but it's late and I'm a tad sozzled. Where did this demo come from..did I miss a thread?

And, you made the curry but it didn't have the taste, but when you eat there usually it does?

Doesn't this mean there is some 'secret' ingredient or technique they are hiding from you?

QuoteAnd finally he emphasised you must cook the curry till it is really hot to kill off the bacteria.

Now that makes sense. Leave the curry gravy around for a day, you need to cook it up.

QuoteThe poppadoms were being cooked and I couldn’t believe what I saw.
They use a 4 inch deep frying pan full of oil (nearly to the top) and cook them two at a time.
The man was stacking them and the pile was about 14 inches high.

pretty standard for a busy currry house i would have thought?


if any of the foregoing caused offence, it was totally unintentional.

Quote from: DARTHPHALL on June 19, 2005, 09:22 PM
If you want Yellow use a little Turmeric, guaranteed to stain the insides of a Concrete Elephant !!! ;D ;D ;D

Now you know why I called myself Yellow Fingers.? ?

Quote from: Blondie on June 19, 2005, 06:20 PM
I've already had an invite to go and meet the men concerned

Nice one!? How did that come about then?

Make sure you find out who will be giving the lessons please as I suspect it might be that Andy chap, though I hope I'm wrong.

I'd be a definite maybe. I'm an ex brummie and I hate the place (Brum that is not the curry house) so it's not the first place I would choose to go to.? ?:-[

What concerns me more though is the reply to grimmo:

QuoteAt the moment, much of my time is being devoted to putting the finishing touches to the book, but I will look into the possibility of such a course once it's finished.? If I do hold a cookery course, I will of course, get in touch and let you know.

It sounds like it would be the author doing the lessons and not the chef. The author is a freelance journalist and I want the lessons from the horses mouth, the chef, and not his co-author. But if I'm wrong then so much the better.

Hi curryqueen,

If your biryani recipe is restaurant style I would definitely be interested. I'm not looking for a traditional Biryani where you layer the meat with the rice and bake it in the oven, I am looking for the restaurant style quick stir fry with pilau rice and curry gravy. If you have the vegetable curry recipe I would like that though. Thanks.

Quote from: Mark J on June 15, 2005, 11:37 PM
For the biryani he used 2 cooks spoons of oil not 1, he started with a TBSP of pre cooked onions and the chicken tikka, fry this lot for a few mins and then add fresh coriander and fry for a few minutes more, while this is going on he microwaved precooked pilau rice. He added a load of this to the pan and stir fryed for a few minutes more.

He added in a chopped raw tomato and wedge of lemon to the rice in the container.

Hi again Mark J

It was really bugging me as to why this should be so different to the Biryani I am used to, so I stopped thinking about Biryani and just looked at the recipe ingredients and method and it hit me. This is a recipe for fried rice or perhaps special fried rice, indian restaurant style. I think perhaps you were not given the right thing and as you don't normally have Biryani, how were you to know?? What do you think?? ?

I'll be really disappointed if this is the case as I was eagerly anticipating this recipe from you? ? :-[

Quote from: Curry King on June 16, 2005, 10:45 AM
Was there no garlic or garlic ginger paste used at all?

Quote from: Mark J on June 16, 2005, 01:30 PM
There wasnt and I was very suprised by that

As I posted elsewhere, if you look at some of the online menus the vindaloo is sometimes described as having extra garlic, ginger and black pepper, so perhaps it's not so unusual.

hey mark thanks for the recipes, a few questions

Quote from: Mark J on June 15, 2005, 11:37 PM
For the biryani he used 2 cooks spoons of oil not 1

Was that for one portion of Biryani rice? It seems like an awful lot! Also was it ordinary oil or was it ghee?

Weren't there any sultanas or nuts or coconut in some form added?

QuoteHe added in a chopped raw tomato and wedge of lemon to the rice in the container.

The lemon wedge is a new one to me. Usually I get some mixture of egg, cucumber and tomato.

It just looks too basic. Did it meet the standards of biryani rice that you have had elsewhere?

The Biryanis that i have had have definitely been coated in what i took to be base sauce, well dried out of course.