I had used butter ghee a long time ago but didn't find that it was leading me in the direction I wanted to go, i.e. achieving the taste. I thought I would try veg ghee as an alternative but given the feedback perhaps not! I think i'm going to try butter ghee again in Biryani though when I've got a usable recipe.

I'm about to procure some veg ghee as I've never used it before and was wondering if those that have used it feel that it makes a significant difference to any of their curries?

Quote from: Mark J on May 26, 2005, 06:54 AM
Youve got to bear in mind these books are old now (80's) and there werent too many people trying to do what Pat was doing

Mark, 20(ish) years ago when I first bought two of Pat's books I was quite pleased with them. They introduced the restaurant method, but not one of the curries was close to what I was eating in restaurants. They had the texture but not the smell or the taste.

That was 20 years ago and despite having all that time to get it right and access to many restaurant kitchens, the mongrel is still rehashing the same books with the same recipes that still don't match anything I eat in restaurants. I think we'll have to differ on this, If he changes the titles to 'close approximation of restaurant curries' then I'll stop whinging? ?

Quote from: Mark J on May 25, 2005, 11:33 PM
He adds only 1 heaped cooks spoon of tomato paste to the base, I was amazed it was this little so double checked this twice but this is what he said. I asked if he added any other form of tomato and he said no, just this.

I always thought that the base recipes that added a lot of tomato were wrong because people who have seen the restaurant base sauce have generally said that they are yellow or bright yellow and the more tomato you add the more orange/brown the base becomes, so this seems to confirm what I thought.

Quote from: Mark J on May 25, 2005, 11:33 PM
YF - I will see how he makes a biryani next time I am there (I will have to order it to watch him cook it)

Thanks Mark, I look forward to it.

Quote from: DARTHPHALL on May 23, 2005, 10:42 AM
I do believe they use the water from the cooked diced Chicken in the base

But won't they also then be in the veg curries? Little extra pieces of chicken are nice if that's what you've ordered but can you imagine a vegetarian finding them in their veg curry, they wouldn't be best pleased would they? I know what you mean though, I made a new batch of pre cooked chicken yesterday and there were a good number of tiny chunks in there at the end. I then put this into my base sauce so I get the little chicken bits you describe in my final curry.

Quote from: Mark J on May 24, 2005, 11:19 PM
George thats excellent news, tomorrow I visit the man again and will find out the following:

How much tomato paste, fresh corainder in his quantity of base and will also ask him about chicken stock/jelly in the base

Mark, if you get the chance can you ask him how he makes chicken biryani please? I'm particularly interested in the spices used.

Quote from: George on May 24, 2005, 03:36 PM
My no.2 target dish is the BIR vegetable curry which normally comes with a chicken biryani.

George was it you who was looking for a recipe for chicken biryani? What recipe are you using?

Quote from: DARTHPHALL on May 24, 2005, 10:19 AM
Black mustard seeds visible.(half a Teaspoon worth) ;D.

Or were they poppy seeds?? ?

Quote from: George on May 24, 2005, 10:42 AM
I attribute the vastly superior taste of this sauce to the carrot, celery, green pepper

George, I totally agree, infact the addition of these vegetables to my usual base sauce has been about the only advance I've made in the many years I've been trying to replicate the restaurant flavour and that's thanks to this forum.

Oops, forgot to say, if you have any more photos of the cooking process or finished curries please post them here. We like that sort of thing.