Quote from: beachbum on March 17, 2012, 10:11 AM

Quote from: ELW on March 16, 2012, 07:23 PM

Quote from: jb on March 16, 2012, 07:11 PM

Quote from: natterjak on March 16, 2012, 06:24 PM
2 new videos today including behind the scenes at Karachi restaurant, Bradford 

Notice the big pan of real chicken stock,wonder what that's for???  base gravy??

I remember him briefly mentioning stock in an earlier video, although he never went into detail on it's use. Should be covered in the book/s. I've often wondered what happens to cooking liquor & stock in bir.

Being a profit making business I doubt they would chuck it away 

It's been mentoned on cr0 from a kitchen observation, that they did just that, now why would anyone want to do a thing like that?  I've seen ghee buckets being used as step ladders  Lamb karahi & chicken karahi for example are 2 completely different dishes in one of my fav t/a, both in colour & taste. I suspect its down to addition of stock or cooking liquour. It's a dish I'm looking to recreate properly, Julian's version looks different, the addition of milk & yoghurt is also new. My local has green peppers(very soft), whole cumin seed(soft, not overly crunchy) & I'm pretty sure there is black pepper in it

Regards
ELW

Quote from: jb on March 16, 2012, 07:11 PM

Quote from: natterjak on March 16, 2012, 06:24 PM
2 new videos today including behind the scenes at Karachi restaurant, Bradford 

Notice the big pan of real chicken stock,wonder what that's for???  base gravy??

I remember him briefly mentioning stock in an earlier video, although he never went into detail on it's use. Should be covered in the book/s. I've often wondered what happens to cooking liquor & stock in bir.

Quote from: PaulP on March 12, 2012, 08:25 PM
Totally agree about the sieving of your base. It makes a big difference IMHO and is worth the messing about. I would say it improves the taste as well as the silky smoothness.

I think whole spices are probably used by my fave local TA but can't tell which ones and whether they are in the base or added to my karahi lamb at cooking time.

Cheers,

Paul

Same here PaulP, whole cumin in the lamb Karahi, not crunchy at all though. It's one of my favourite dishes & of note is completely different in colour & taste to chicken karahi, meat cooking liquor maybe???
I've been sieving the base gravy for a while after KD pointed out that the base should be skimmed while cooking. The amount of fibrous crud stuck in the sieve is unreal

some of the names of those sauces are brilliant:

Blair's Possible Side Effects
Dave's Insanity Private Reserve (Dave who?)
Blairs 6am, (that must be what time it wears off or is just about to begin)

& my favourite;
Spontaneous Combustion Powder

I'd love to serve the North Indian up on Masterchef 

Sounds to me like your already cooking your curries properly emin-j. As you said you'd need to match your t/a's ingredients exactly to match their food. Its almost impossible for me not to compare my efforts to my favourites, but the underlying taste I can get now is there right across the board in any t/a I use. Whole spices certainly add to the complexity, I use spiced water & it's as easy as it gets to make & add it, but I have it down as another layer, rather than what gives a dish it's bir character. I'm also finding some of the pastes work in a completely different way, when my cooking is spot on, whereas before they were being overpowered by undercooked spices & tasting like s**t

ELW

4 tbsp chilli powder (or more to taste) &  5 fresh 

am I reading that right? 

QuoteShe did say this time she would wait in the car because I embarrass her with my cheek asking all the questions

love it!


Hi emin-j, I can now produce the type of taste that the restaurants here in Glasgow dish up. Veg ghee may add something as it's used heavily here & may fry better but it doesn't produce the flavour I've been after. A commercial cooker on low is probably still hotter than a domestic on high, so in the past when I've been following the cooking times on video's etc, they have been wrong for me. Try re doing the curry again the pan if it's not up to scratch 1st time aroun, which seems to make up the cooking shortfall. I'm finding it a foolproof method

ELW

looks great SL

Bought a 23cm Casio ali non stick pan yesterday from a local Asian supermarket (

Quote from: Hilly on March 11, 2012, 05:27 PM
To be honest I'm just talking Sainsburys own chilli powder that comes in a spice jar.

I'll be using it for a base sauce but depending on the other currys I make from it - I suppose i might need it again e.g. Korma, Madras, Ceylon etc...

Hi Hilly, any chilli powder you can get your hands on will do. I'd steer clear of extra hot as you'll be limited to what you can make with a hot base. I use Eastern Kashmiri Chilli powder, great colour & flavour. I can put a fair amount in & get plenty of chilli flavour while controlling the heat. Another idea as has been mentioned many times on here is not to use chilli in your base at all, only adding it at the dish stage

ELW