Quote from: Stephen Lindsay on March 07, 2012, 06:57 PM
CH I've also a bucket load of traditional books and what I didn't realise at the time I bought them (i.e. 25-30 years ago) was that there was difference between home and restaurant cooking. Therefore I cooked some of the recipes and was disappointed that they didn't taste remotely like anything I'd eaten from a curry house. Yes PC and KD were pioneers. As for a definitive text I don't know - there's a few that have taken us much further, e.g. Bruce Edwards. More recently there have been really good posts on this forum - Panpot's Ashoka, Abudulmohed and more recently the Fleet 5. Maybe the next definitive text will come from someone who is a member of this forum?

Julian from c2g has an opportunity to put this right, unless he completed the 1st part before the Zaal visit. I'm sure he does a bit of market research on here. I suppose the ebook format has it's plusses when needing a quick update. I still find it very odd why hardly anyone focused on cooking technique. The chances of success using the type of heat & frying we are accustomed to at home has a high rate of failure in creating the bir taste

Edit - thats a great run through of the Pat Chapman stuff, I went straight for the kd book as soon as I saw it.
Of note - "The Takeaway Secret "by Kenny McGovern  did instruct the reader to increase the heat at the stages we now know to be important, among a few others

QuoteALWAYS remember you get what you pay for

That statement was never meant to be taken literally, not by the seller anyway

Butter ghee tastes great but i've been avoiding it due to my human herd behaviour disorder flaring up now & again. I think a large part of the death stats are the lag from smoking, but one area of Glasgow recorded average life expectancy of 63, probably meaning people in their 30's & 40's were snuffin it due to their lifestyle.

I'd never used as much salt in my life until I saw the 'tv chef' battering handfuls into everthing they made 

Would the Pat Chapman stuff worth picking up even second hand in 2012? or is it old hat?

Quote from: Salvador Dhali on March 07, 2012, 11:07 AM

Quote from: Les on March 07, 2012, 11:00 AM

Quote from: Salvador Dhali on March 07, 2012, 10:25 AM
But next time you go in why not ask them? I've found most restaurant / TA owners more than happy to chat about their dishes, and if it's not too busy some will even usher you behind the TA counter into the kitchen for a shufty.

Worth a try, anyway...

Already tried that SD, but the chef is not very forthcoming, No customers are allowed in the kitchen either.
So maybe I just got a miserable chef (Or the kitchen is in shite state :)

As long as the food's good, Les - that's the main thing.

Some of the best Indian food I've had has come from kitchens where you really wouldn't want to spend much time. I remember one place near Wapping where the kitchen was in the basement - as was the toilet.

Needing to take a post meal leak, I was somewhat taken aback to find the toilet pan surrounded by 25 kilo sacks of onions.

I never returned to that particular establishment, but not because of the food, which was brilliant...

Regularly see rolls of donner kebab 'meat', being delivered from hired transit vans with no refridgeration on a particular southside street

Those photo's have sold this to me also, will be giving it a go soon.

check out vachef drinking bitter gourd juice video when you've a spare minute  ;D

QuoteThe Rajah Gold has a less harsh, more rounded, balanced and 'sweeter' taste. In fact I found it quite moreish, and went in for a fair few finger dabs.

Hi SD, I'd imagine that less turmeric provides a less bitter flavour.I had toyed with the idea of getting a 10kg. They are around

Quote from: mr.mojorisin on March 06, 2012, 08:55 PM
may need to ramp up the heat a little with some scotch bonnets
definitely gonna try this out this weekend.
will post results here.
If it fails I can always return to Chewys excellent madras or Abduls excellent Dynamite Chicken
can't really beat a good Glasgow curry IMO.
i gotta say that coz I stay there.lol
I've tried Indian curries in London, Leeds, Manchester,Bournemouth, Poole,Birmingham, Kent, Belfast and Corfu among various places but the Glasgow ones to me are the best.
maybe it's just what you're used to.
I've seen various debates on here about regional variations and the same is said for Glasgow.
You can have a Madras in the East end and it will vary tremendously from one in Drumchapel in the West.
cheers

I'm finding the Ashoka recipe's to work really well now my cooking bir skills have improved. I don't think the Ashoka taste defines the curries we're used to in Glasgow, they're nothing like Shish Mahal, M India, or recently tried Rasoi(formerly called millenium platter) or any of my locals, but they do give me something good to aim at. Loads of garlic ends up in the dish, from the base/banjarra & dish itself. It's the first thing I can smell when i'm in any of their places.

QuoteThe bunjara is very strongly flavoured (if you've never made it up).  It has notes that I would describe as Moorish (from the cinnamon), sweet and has a beautiful warmth to it.  This flavoured addition to the base sauce does 'elevate' the flavour to a more complex dish that you just quite can't put your finger on if I'm honest

That quote from the op, which I've only just read, is similar to what I posted recently after getting the stuff to work. It tasted no better than a Pataks paste until I learned the initial technique. It really comes alive in a dish, with no special cooking technique involved(just stir it in). It's use & creation really is the work of someone who understands flavours. I could never have came up with this of my own back. How it works in a  madras I'm not sure, but I think I'll give this a bash to find out
The Ashoka bir method  is definitely different to alot of methods on here.

@ mrmojorisin - My experience of curries down south is too limited to warrant a mention. I don't know why a curry produced in Glasgow would be any different say NE England? In Glasgow I often detect methi & what I think now may be singed garam masala(essentially a mix powder), which fly's in the face of things. There is a definite underlying hint of something strong, which I've seen descibed as intense.  If I was to  cut the GG content from the Ashoka stuff, I may have  a foundation for some kind of 'Glasgow taste'....or I could be well wide  of the mark............again  , but I'll keep at it

QuoteSFQ (singe-fuse-quench) technique

Thats the only way I've had any success. but here's still some unsinged spice getting through far too often

Those photos would be great ccl

Quote from: mr.mojorisin on March 06, 2012, 08:16 PM
this looks as if it is creeping into contention for my next curry adventure on the stove this weekend
i've made a couple of curries recently with onion paste and to me they had a certain something that I like
anyone tried this recently and if so......how good/bad was it ??

thanks

I'd pencilled this in a while ago, I can't see it making a madras as I know it, but should be pretty good. The Ashoka stuff is fairly unique bir imho

ELW

Quote from: Stephen Lindsay on March 06, 2012, 06:20 PM
I suppose one little thing I've learned over the last couple of years is that there's chilli powder and chilli powder. Different brands taste differently and have different strengths regardless of being labelled hot, extra hot, very hot etc. It was so obvious when I read someone on here who said something about testing each batch of chilli powder for hotness - something I hadn't done until then but something I now do all the time.

I find trs can sometimes be a bit unpredictable heatwise sometimes, curry powder & chilli. I've got Eastern Kashmiri Powder at the moment. What I like about it is you can get loads of chilli flavour in without killing it with heat only

ELW