A quote from a page on their site:

"The masterminds behind the Group, Charan Gill MBE and Gurmail Dhillon opened their first Indian restaurant, the Ashoka West End"

Dhillon? Now where have I heard that surname before, hmmmm!

Quote from: pete on May 29, 2005, 08:32 PM
I also made two different vindaloo recipes, I have from chefs.
One was definitely better than the other.

Which was the better one?

QuoteI tried an experiment adding a bought liquid chicken stock for the curries.

Which one? I saw a Gordon Ramsay review and he gave Knorr stock cubes the best mark

QuoteIt improved them but doesn't have the same flavour as the chicken jelly

The chicken jelly being better I presume?

QuoteWhenever you had a spoonfull,which included the pepper, the "taste" seemed to be almost there.

So is this a nudge toward using more green pepper in the base or perhaps pureed fried peppers in either the base or the final curry perhaps?

You might be talking it Pete, but I've been eating it. Breakfast at 8 this morning was 2 poppadoms with chutney, cold tandoori chicken and some chicken dhansak!

And the blue/green question. Well garlic contains compounds called anthocyanins which are plant pigments. They act as pH indicators, i.e. they change colour depending on the degree of alkalinity or acidity of the surrounding medium. This is why some people get bright green base sauce and some do not, it depends on the type and amount of onions and salt and even the nature of your local water amongst other things.

Also garlic is high in sulphur compounds which react with copper from the pan or the water to form copper sulphate which is blue.

As far as I know these compounds are totally safe in the quantities in which they occur in curry cooking.

Quote from: Blondie on May 29, 2005, 10:05 AM
I think if this moth thing was true we would be able to buy packets of moths in the asian supermarkets!

Can't say I've ever seen them in packets but I've often seen them flying around freely in my asian grocer's shop. I thought it was just poor hygiene management, who'd have guessed that they were just providing the freshest ingredients. Catch your own.?

Actually in Ghanna's last post she/he was about to have a local chef to dinner and was going to grill him for the taste secret. Obviously she/he succeeded but the local indian restaurant mafia must have got wind of it and silenced him/her. What's the Bangladeshi equivalent of wearing concrete boots?? ?

Where did Hopey go? I was looking forward to the detailed recipe.? ?

Hmm, I hope she didn't post it to my e-mail address as I used one of my throw away ones and I can't remember which one now? ?

Quote from: pete on May 27, 2005, 12:54 PM
The bulk is definitely paprika (which keeps being called tomato powder by the chefs)

Is it possible that it actually is tomato powder? I haven't seen such a thing but I have no doubt that it's available. I just tasted some raw paprika which was admittedly past its best and I would describe it as sour with a small amount of chilli heat and the vaguest hint of tomato flavour. Hardly worthy of being labelled tomato powder. I just wonder why they would call it tomato powder?

Quote from: DARTHPHALL on May 26, 2005, 10:39 PM
So we`ll cut of his head, hollow it out & give it to his mother as a Vase then !!? ;D ;D ;D

I think you'll find it's hollowed out already!

Quote from: blade1212 on May 26, 2005, 09:42 PM
It makes perfect sense to me............. I think I need to go out more

Don't do it blade. It'll start innocently enough, you'll casually sneak a peek at menus in the windows of indian restaurants for clues to vital ingredients, but this won't be enough to satisfy your craving, oh no. Within a few days you'll be skipping work to make sure you can be outside the curry house when the spice delivery man calls so you can furtively scan his wares. Then, all too soon, you'll be skulking at the back of self same restaurants till the wee small hours hoping to glimpse a cooking technique as Ahmed comes out to dispose of the old oil. Eventually you'll be found half in and half out of an indian restaurant waste bin gibbering about little white bits and chicken stock inbetween nibbling the contents! Noooo, stay in it's safer.


Hmm, perhaps I should go out more? ? ?Gibber twitch

Quote from: George on May 26, 2005, 01:49 PM
Good luck to you if this is what you really want to do. I suggest, however, that the "R&D payback" is likely to be a lot greater by cooking 15 batches of basic sauce

I'd have to agree, a 30 onion batch is one hell of a big one to waste if there's only perhaps one or two key ingredients missing. Mind you that's probably only a week's worth of vindaloos for Darth?

Quote from: DARTHPHALL on May 26, 2005, 10:15 AM
One more thing i will be cooking the 30 onion recipe next week so wish me luck people(all that peeling I'm not looking forward to !!)

Darth you could top and tail the onions, wash them and bung them whole into boiling water for several minutes to soften the skins, they're easily peeled and chopped then (thanks to Ghanna for the original idea)