Quote from: Unclefrank on March 03, 2012, 07:03 PM
Hi Salvador i haven't tried anything from this book for a long time so cant really remember, there are 12 recipes in the book, http://www.patchapman.co.uk/catalogue/product/909/5719

The ISBN 0-297-82280-2
Don't know whether this would you out http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?st=xl&ac=qr&src=dir&isbn=0297822802&ref=bf_uu_fac_1

Its only 1.99 GBP (thats what on the back of the book) so might be able to pick up at car-boot sale or second-hand shops.
That's where i got it from for pennies.

Many thanks for those links, Unclefrank, Very kind of you to take the time and trouble.

Cheers

Gary

Quote from: curryhell on March 03, 2012, 02:38 PM

Quote from: ELW on March 03, 2012, 02:32 PM
Just made a 5 ltr version minus the ghee as i had none. gave the spices the treatment before adding the blended tomatoes. Similar to Kushi base method, but I prefer this due to the higher GG. 3rd time using the same batch of whole spices, (new bay as I have plenty), with little or no loss in flavour. House smells great for a change  ;D

ELW

Nice one ELW.  Looking forward to using this later with a nice phall.  Will be interesting to see how it compares to what i cooked at Az's since everything is as close as i can get it to spec, no exceptions other than having the master here supervising proceedings ;D.  Hopefully, it'll be nearly as good  if not the same .  And that little pot is creating such a lovely smell in the kitchen and i'm sure it will add a lovely fragrance to the gravy when added.

Be interesting to hear how you chaps get on with it. Having cooked with it solidly for the last 10 days or so I now rank it among my favourite bases. So much so that I've just made another batch (albeit a slightly scaled down version).

With this one when it came to stage two I made sure there was some nice colour to the garlic, then essentially replicated the singe process used when making a curry (though not quite as hard) with the spices and blended tomato, followed by a good 10 minute simmer before adding to the pan and blending the whole.

I've just had a taste, and even though I say so myself it's bloody gorgeous. I could cheerfully eat a bowl of it on its own as a soup.

 

ELW: It's still an unknown for me about ghee. I remember reading that it takes longer to break down, ie smoke, which is when carcinogens are released. Or was it traditional or cheap. Might get some today actually ....mmmmmm ghee

Do you mean vegetable or butter ghee, ELW? I mention it because it's a well known fact that vegetable ghee will kill you almost instantly, whereas butter ghee will do so more slowly, and with a better flavour. 

Seriously though, it's true that there's no shortage of horror stories surrounding the oils and fats we use to cook or food, but I try not to worry about it too much.

Having made it to the age of 54 in surprisingly good (some may say rude) health despite existing on an almost exclusively curry based diet I reckon I'm either extremely lucky, or the human body is remarkably good at dealing with the crap we throw at it.

It may get me in the end (something has to), but I'm not ready to order the yurt and embrace fruitarianism just yet...

Just found this thread, which inspired me to hook out all my PC books. (I thought I had them all, but haven't got North Indian Curries, Unclefrank. Any good?)

I'm not sure why there should be any hostility towards the man. While it's true that his books didn't help me to attain the holy grail of BIR, I found them interesting and full of information about my favourite food.

Flicking through 'Bangladeshi Restaurant Curries', I was intrigued to read, under the section entitled 'Bangladeshi Curry Processes', that the most important process is the bhoona (or bhuna), in which the essential or volatile oils from whole or ground spices are released by frying in ghee or oil. Okay, nothing new there, but he goes on to explain that "an initial high temperature is required".

Could this be an early reference to 'singeing'?

He goes on to say that for this process ghee is better than oil. "This is because ghee, being very clarified, reaches a higher temperature before it burns and therefore allows the spices to be taken to a higher temperature before they burn."

I must admit I tend to use oil most of the time, but shall be getting the ghee out for a bit of singeing when I make tonight's vindaloo to test the theory out...

I remember asking one of my more scientifically minded buddies why this blue/green colouration sometimess occurs... And he said he didn't have a clue, but would find out.

Which he did, and apparently, it's all down to something called isoallin, a compound found in garlic, which breaks down and reacts with amino acids to produce a blue-green color. (He assured me that it's harmless, and doesn't affect the taste.)

Not sure where the amino acids come from (maybe the ginger?), but as Ian says above just chug in a glug of oil when you make your GG paste up and you'll have no such issues.

My last batch has been going for a week now and looks (and tastes) as good as it did the day I made it...


[EDIT]

Sorry Paul - we must have been composing posts synchronously...

Quote from: Whandsy on March 01, 2012, 06:15 PM
Maybe I should have rephrased the way I put it, I like to buy my steak from a "good" butchers as opposed to supermarkets. I usually also go for the rib eye, but if money was no object I'd sacrifice the taste for a nice "melt in the mouth" piece of fillet.

Sound advice, Whandsy.

I stopped buying my steak from supermarkets about 8 years ago, and have been using local butchers and farmers ever since.

The best I've had to date comes from a rare breed farmer a few miles from me. He has some interesting breeds, such as Belgian Blue and Belted Galloway, and it's extremely well hung. None of this bright red/white fat rubbish you get from supermarkets - this meat is so dark purple it's almost black, and striated with unctuous yellow fat. Bloody gorgeous - and cheaper than any of the 'Taste F**k All Difference' ranges from the supermarkets.

He sells it from the farmhouse and you can see all the animals, the living conditions they enjoy, the food they eat, etc., and he likes nothing better than a good chat, so it's a completely different experience to the soulless Saturday supermarket shop.

Well worth having a look for something similar in your neck of the woods, folks, but if not then there are plenty of farms that sell via the web. I'm thinking of checking out some meat from Jodie Schekter's place sometime, although it looks to be at the high end of the price scale:

http://www.laverstokepark.co.uk/info/about.aspx

Superb!

Just watched the whole thing and despite having curry for lunch I'm now salivating and could cheerfully kill for another...

Some of you are no doubt aware, but for those of you who aren't, chilli plants are in fact quite long lived*, and even in the UK they can be over-wintered (with a bit of care), and can go on to give years of sterling service. In fact, some varieties actually crop more heavily in the second years and beyond.

There's a wee article about it here that may be of interest:

http://www.chilefoundry.co.uk/2011/10/12/matt-simpson%E2%80%99s-guide-to-over-wintering-chillies-repost/



*Some varieties more so than others...

Quote from: DalPuri on February 29, 2012, 01:52 PM

Quote from: Les on February 29, 2012, 11:08 AM

I think what puts a lot of people off is the making of the Base,

Les

Its for this reason why i think all newbies should be put onto CA's simple base

https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=7645.0

For me, it tasted like any other good base and being only 2 onions is a quick no hassle introduction into BIR cooking. None of this "you what!?, i need a sack of onions, an armfull of garlic and ginger, giant pots. nahhh, i dont think i'll bother."

Frank. 

I'll second that, Frank, and that's exactly what I do when any friends or family show an interest (though I've been using small versions of my favourite bases, as I hadn't seen CA's until you posted that link. Will give that one a try for def though, as I'm a huge fan of simplicity.)

It's all about getting them hooked and witnessing how simple it all really is, and means that you can say, "Of course, if you want to make up a big quantity you have the option", rather than the other way round and putting them off before they've started.

As for who will continue to carry the curry flame after I've shuffled, well, I'm lucky that everyone in my family is curry crazy. (This is entirely down to my parents, who were early converts to the cause when the first restaurants started opening up in London in the late 50s / early 60s.)

My brother is an excellent exponent of the BIR art, and my two daughters wield a pretty mean chef's spoon, too (insert proud dad smiley)...

That is indeed a curry man's dream. Apart from the variety and the prices, everything looks to be amazing quality, too.

But what really got me was....

PEELED ONION and PEELED GARLIC!!!

Fantastic!

It's enough to reduce a grown man to tears (of joy...)