Quote from: Terramamba on March 05, 2012, 08:15 PM

Yes SD, that is much better, thank you for the liberty taking, I do not mind at all  ;D

Cheers  ;D

As a recovering former lover of Special Brew, it was the least I could do... 

Quote from: Terramamba on March 05, 2012, 07:47 PM
The colour in the photo is not showing a rich red, which it was to my eye, this is the colour I want to achieve and I am pleased to say I was very happy with it. 

There's definitely a yellow/green colour cast on that pic, Terramamba. I've taken the liberty of removing the cast - does this look more like it?

Get all that water squeezed out of the spinach and get the salt level just so and you really can't go wrong.

In common with my other restaurant side dish staple, tarka dhal, it's so delightfully simple that little can go awry.

I'd love to know how you both get on.

Cheers

Gary

Quote from: Razor on March 05, 2012, 12:20 PM
Hi BB, and welcome to cr0,

That Madras looks the business, with a nice amount of oil.

QuoteI've been following "The Curry Guy" on his blog and he's good value.

Who's that BB, do you mean Julian from the curry2go thread?

Ray

It could be this chap: http://www.greatcurryrecipes.net/

He's known as 'The Curry Guy' on his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TheCurryGuy

There are plenty of traditional style recipes, and his base gravy recipe has all the usual suspects in there, but there's no way I'm putting mango chutney in my BIR Madras! Each to their own, and all that though.

I've tried his masala mash recipe before and enjoyed it.

Quote from: ELW on March 04, 2012, 05:44 PM

@SD, burning, singeing, they don't sound great at all  ;D, and agreed even on my cooker, the tomato paste loses it's water very quickly (1/4 ratio) The best results I have had so far were to fry the mix powder for while on full heat before adding the tomato. I think a slightly smaller pan than the 26cm we've have, would make this whole melarky a bit easier, although 9 quid for that piece ali was a snip 

ELW

I too am an advocate of frying spices before adding the tomato paste (also a 1:4 dilute), though for some dishes, such as Madras, it's become a habit over the years to bung the paste in first and give it a thorough seeing to. (It may, or may not, contribute a little to that classic Madras 'tang'?)

Although not 'BIR', interestingly, according to various sources more informed than I, in Bangladesh the style of cooking is to fry the spices hard on an initial high heat for 15-30 seconds, after which the heat is turned down and the spices cooked until the oil separates. Then the garlic/ginger/onions (if being used) are added and slowly cooked to reduce out the water and convert the starch to sugar over 15 mins or so.

As one author notes, once the rawness has been cooked out of the spices it can't be put back in, so liquid can be added at any time after this point to stop them burning.

As it's the way it's apparently been done for centuries, I'm not going to argue!

As for pans, I have smaller sizes but I cook a lot of doubles and absolutely love that Ipac Grandi Cuochi 26cm. In fact it's changed my life.

And I note it's now almost 15 quid on Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0052WSA08/ref=oh_o02_s00_i00_details), and will be unlikely to drop down to 9 quid anytime soon, so thanks to you and Martinvic for the tip-off...   

Quote from: martinvic on March 05, 2012, 02:06 AM
Talking of dry roasting the spices, which I always do (but in a fry pan), I found this article interesting.

http://www.azeliaskitchen.net/blog/dont-dry-roast-spices/

Martin

An excellent article, Martin.

It fascinates me to discover how things begin. (It's still a mystery to me, for instance, how, after tasting the foul bitterness of raw olives from the tree, someone thought "Brilliant. These will make fantastic oil when crushed".)

It hadn't occurred to me that dry roasting spices was born not necessarily for reasons of taste, but out of practicality to counter the damp of monsoon periods. (And I wasn't aware of the differences between Indian and European coriander seed, either.)

It's only 09:46, but already I've learnt something...

Quote from: George on March 04, 2012, 04:05 PM

Quote from: ELW on March 04, 2012, 03:28 PM
KD, on the face of it was roasting individual spices in gravy rather than tomato, why shouldnt that work, if you got the pan hot enough? She never mentioned about about heat or any importance of initial cooking either.

I'm not persuaded that high heat under tomato (especially tomato mixed with water) and spices or base sauce and spices is anything other than a rapid boil. How can it be called roasting or singeing with so much water present? The video I was most interested in from the Fleet lessons was the Roshney Chicken. Unless I'm mistaken, the spices went in with diluted tomato, quickly followed by base sauce. They didn't get a chance to burn, the way I saw it.  Books based on centuries of cooking experience in India all say to avoid burning spices.

I agree it's deceptive when watching the videos, George, as we viewers simply can't detect the level of heat being chucked out from those burners, but if my 8.8kw burner is anything to go by, any water present is almost instantly evaporated when it hits the (very hot) pan. From there it's down to the chef to control the fusing process to avoid burning the spices, which we see being done via regular quenchings with gravy.

I've often heard the singeing process referred to as 'caramelising' the spices (in fact I first came across the description in Pat Chapman's 'Favourite Restaurant Curries' back in 1988).

It sounds better than 'burning', anyway...  ;D

Quote from: curryhell on March 04, 2012, 11:28 AM
That looks the business SD.   Mmmm, i suppose depending on where you get it you could call it a madras.  In some areas it would be well into the phall category ;D.  Using those chilli powders in your curries guarantees a nice vibrant colour.  I used deghi mirch in one of my phall attemps when i got back from Fleet and it definitely was "red for danger"  ;D. I've made CT's excellent 3 hour base but i've yet to make the madras, not normally being my curry of choice.  Unfortunately for me, it does seem to be the "yardstick" everybody uses to measure the rate of success.  Maybe i'll do this one evening during the week with my Zaal base :

I should add that I only use this quantity of chilli when cooking for my own phal pulverised palate. When making it for my loved ones it's made to spec with the one tablespoon. (I know, I know - considerate and 'Mr Nice Guy' just doesn't begin to cut it...

I don't know about others, but I find big (sometimes massive) variations in heat levels from different restaurants (as well as variations from the same restaurant). I've had Madras curries that wouldn't trouble a toddler and others that require a drip tray to catch your sweat and the laying in of extra supplies of post event Velvet Moist.

I suspect that on occasions a busy chef with four dishes on the burners may find his spoon picking up less/more chilli powder than is called for, hence the variation.

Quote from: Ramirez on March 04, 2012, 10:49 AM
That does look wonderful - lovely colour! 

Thanks - but the star of the colour show is a 50-50 combo of Kashmiri and deggi mirch, which I find delivers good heat levels and great colour (in this case I used around a tablespoon of each, but each to their own taste).

I mentioned on another thread that this has been my default Madras recipe for some time, and never fails to deliver. Follow Chewy's excellent instructions and you can't go wrong.

Here's the sauce I knocked up the other day, with the only slight tweak being the addition of extra chilli powder: