Hi Stew.

No, I used deggi mirch as per the recipe. Like I say this is hot stuff in the quantity used, well over the top. Now if I had used ordinary paprika well, that might have been an improvement. Too late now though.

Quote from: Woks Up on January 09, 2008, 08:41 AM

I downloaded this sample ebook and it really adds nothing but two names - G Zilanee and A Roberts - presumably as the authors of the esteemed publication

Really? So where has the mystical curry-guru named Ali got to then? It was always made clear that everything on RCR had to be OK'd with Ali before it could be put on the site. Surely the head chef and owner of the restaurant (Ali), after whom these recipes are supposed to originate, would want his name up there in lights too, wouldn't he?

I know I'm a mug for trying this but I have just run out of my last base so I thought I'd give it a go. Everything seemed fine until I measured out the spices, I couldn't believe how much there was. To me this is far too much spice for what is supposed to be a general all-purpose base. And when I tasted the finished product the chilli caught the back of my throat. In my opinion the base shouldn't have any chilli in it at all and the deggi mirch is pretty strong. You couldn't use this in a korma as most people who eat kormas wouldn't be able to take the heat.

Other than that this base has a very unpleasant smell as if I could always smell raw spices and on its own it doesn't have a pleasant taste, although I did leave out the carrot as I didn't have one and I've never found that they do much other than provide some sweetness, but it might have helped in this case.

So, judging just by the base I'm not too impressed but, I don't judge only on the base but on the finished curry and I'm going to do a chicken madras as per the recipe and see if that can't change my mind.

BTW, all this namby-pamby spooning off of the froth, what's that all that about? Taste it, it isn't in any way unpleasant. I just mix it back into the base and it makes no difference.

My oil didn't separate either and I know from experience that this is caused by the use of too much powdered spice. So knowing that, I spooned as much of the oil off as I could just before I blended it.

Quote from: smokenspices on January 08, 2008, 10:03 PM
the real question should be - what is the BEST type of pan for cooking (including things like curry)?

And presumably the answer is that if you want to make BIR style curries you should use what 99% of BIRs use, which is cheap-as-chips high sided aluminium frying pans.

Quote from: chinois on January 07, 2008, 09:55 PM
Are you saying the problem is that there are a lot of bad BIRs and people are comparing their results to these establishments rather than to the best BIRs?

A qualified yes to that. But also that the "best" BIRs no longer exist. I know I'm repeating myself but I can't find a restaurant or takeaway that cooks curries in the old style, I feel foolish saying that but it's true.

It's tedious even to me, and I'm the one making the point, but there is (was) a whole different flavour and smell to a real good BIR curry. It wasn't anything unique to any place geographically, but I swear it has just gone, disappeared. It is totally soul destroying to me.

Yes it used to be neck, leg, and shoulder but it now seems to be whatever the local frozen food centre can supply. You can't blame them though, BIR is a tough and cut throat business (literally for the lambs!).

Just when you thought diabetes was a no win...who'd a thunk it?

This sounds like a local tandoori style dish but it's too generic for a recipe. Perhaps you can elaborate more on the look, taste, smell of the meat? The veg is pretty easy to replicate I think.

Smokenspices, a great report on a absolutely standard base recipe and follow up prawn madras.

I don't need to make this to know it will not produce what I need from a BIR curry. So where the heck am I going wrong?

Quote from: chinois on January 06, 2008, 01:58 PM
I think the biggest and most constant source of our disapointment is the fact that a lot of us (on both sites) are not decent cooks already.

No it's not. The biggest source of disappointment is the people on RCR who claim that not only are the RCR curries BIR standard, but that they are even better than BIR. And the truth is that some of them are. The biggest source of disappointment then is that there are so many ill-educated palates out there (through no fault of their own).