Quote from: Cory Ander on October 25, 2011, 01:13 AMIt could well be that they used loads of garlic powder rather than (or in addition to) fresh garlic.

Heya Cory

It was always my understanding (and I may be wrong here, as I can't remember where I read or heard this) that, that garlic pong people get, and you smell on the train when standing next to someone, comes from powdered garlic and that eating fresh garlic doesn't have the same effect ie it doesn't make you pong of garlic after eating it.

I think it's also true that eating food with powdered garlic in dehydrates you and makes you thirsty. Ever woken up in the middle of the night after a BIR blowout with a raging thirst? Mind you it could have been the 10 pints of lager that went with it!

Cheers and good Karma.

Quote from: natterjak on November 02, 2011, 06:54 PM
I've never seen beef on an indian restaurant or takeaway menu here "dahn sarf" in Berkshire or indeed Kent.  I'd love to try it though, anything to break the monotony of chicken and lamb (probably mutton in fact).

natterjak

That's cos cows are sacred to most hindu's and therefore doesn't form part of their culinary repertoire, same as pork really for other religious reasons, but I hear goan pork vindaloo can be a belter!

I've been using up some madras base I recently made and made a beef madras from some reduced sirloin steak I bought - it wasn't as good as the lamb madras made from the same sauce batch in my opinion, for some reason beef just doesn't carry the flavour as well as lamb does.

Cheers and good Karma!

Tonight's dinner before I snarfed the lot down!

Quote from: PaulP on November 03, 2011, 01:55 PM
Thanks for posting this and the final madras recipe. Is this from the book you mentioned? I've already ordered that book.

Paul

It is indeed a virtual direct pull from the book I mentioned in the Introduction thread, sadly I cannot claim originality for this, except that it works and tastes great. In fact I'd go as far to say I've never produced a bad dish from that book, on the contrary - all the dishes in it are excellent.

There's another dish I make from it called simply 'Masala Chicken' not to be confused with Chicken Tikka Masala, which is in my opinion one of the nicest Indian dishes I've had whether cooked at home or in a BIR.

When you get the book and try some of the recipes from it, you'll see that it's moving in a different path to trying to replicate BIR's to producing good tasty Indian food.

I gave up buying pre-made Indian food from supermarkets a long time ago preferring my own cooking, so I don't think it will taste anything like a Sainsburys Madras!

I'm looking forward to hearing peoples views when they get a chance to try it.

Cheers!

Quote from: PaulP on November 03, 2011, 12:23 PMIf the madras has stuff like coconut and curry leaves I would say traditional recipes.

Paul

That's helpful, the dish does include coconut and curry leaves, so I put the base sauce into base sauces -

https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=6236.0

And the recipe into Traditional Indian Recipes -

https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=6237.0

I'm  making a batch of this later so I'll try and get a photo done.

Cheers.

Lamb/Beef/Chicken Madras



About 500g of uncooked meat cubed into approximately 1 inch cubes.

This can be lamb, beef or chicken, the main difference will be in how long you cook it for. You can also use more up to about 650g or you can use less down to about 300g, the difference will be how much sauce you end up with. Personally I use about 300-500g depending on what I've got.

1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp of lemon juice

4 Tbsp of vegetable or sunflower oil
1 largish onion, peeled and finely chopped

55g (2 oz) creamed coconut block, grated
1/2 pint of Madras base sauce

Handful of freshly chopped Coriander leaves and stalks.
1/2 tsp garam masala



Rub the salt and lemon juice into the meat and put to one side.

Heat the oil in a saucepan, casserole dish or whatever you use over a low to medium heat. When hot add the chopped onion and fry regularly for about 8-10 minutes until a pale golden colour. **

Add the chicken, lamb or beef and stir fry over a medium heat for about 3-4 minutes or until the meat changes colour and is sealed. Stir in the Madras base sauce and grated coconut until it begins to bubble then reduce the heat, cover and simmer. Simmer on a very low heat for about 15-20 minutes for chicken or until its until tender, and anything from 2-3 hours for lamb and beef.

Stir in the garam masala and chopped coriander and cook for a further minute or so and remove from the heat and serve.

** At this stage I also sometimes add some finely chopped green pepper and/or green finger chilli's with the onion and/or extra chilli powder when the onions are done if I want a hotter dish. Just cook out the chilli powder for a few minutes before adding the meat.

Madras Base Sauce

Okay here's the base sauce I use for Madras style dishes.

Makes 2 1/2 pints (1.4 litres) which I put into 5 x 1/2 pint storage containers. So this makes enough for 5 dishes.

5 Tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil (any oil really apart from olive oil)
55g (2 oz) fresh root ginger coarsely chopped (take the skin off this first)
About 16 plump fresh garlic cloves coarsely chopped (take the skin off first)
8-10 shallots (I use the round ones rather than the long ones with a bulge in the middle) roughly chopped
2 Tbsp of fresh curry leaves or 3 tablespoons of dried (I always use the dried type)

1 1/2 Tbsp ground cumin (you can dry roast whole seeds first then grind or pound in a pestle and mortar, personally I haven't found a lot of difference, but I don't use pre-ground cumin, I always freshly grind whole seeds)
2-3 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp ground turmeric
85g (3oz) tomato puree
1.2 litres (2 pints) warm water (I boil a kettle and let it cool)
2 1/2 tsp salt or to taste (I used smoked salt)
1 1/2 tsp sugar
15g (1/2 oz) fresh coriander leaves and stalks, chopped
3 Tbsp lemon juice


Heat oil over a medium heat and when hot fry the ginger, garlic and shallots for about 3-4 minutes, stir frying continuously. Add the curry leaves, cumin, chilli powder and turmeric and fry gently for about 2-3 minutes (don't burn the spices! Turn the heat down if necessary) then stir in the tomato puree and cook for a further 1-2 minutes and then add the warm water. Stir in the salt and sugar and bring to a boil, reduce heat to a low simmer, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Add the chopped coriander leaves and stalks and lemon juice and simmer for a further couple of minutes and remove from the heat and allow to cool. When cool process the whole lot in a blender until smooth and fill 5 x 1/2 pint containers and freeze.

Quote from: PaulP on November 03, 2011, 11:23 AMLooking forward to your recipes.

Paul

Thanks for the heads up on this, but now I have a quandry. It is made with a base sauce, but I think it's more traditional than BIR, shall I simply put the base sauce in Base sauces and the Madras recipe in traditional?

Cheers

Quote from: natterjak on November 02, 2011, 07:30 PMIn particular it would be great to get your slow cooked lamb Madras recipe - am I right in assuming it's cooked in a slow cooker?

Hi there natterjack

It's s'ok if you call me Sok and thanks for the welcome! It'll be interesting to see if anyone figures out my username!

My 'slow cooked' lamb madras is simply simmered in a saucepan over a low flame for 2-3 hours until the meat becomes tender and like your beef brisket, starts to fall apart. I'm going to try cooking this slowly in a clay casserole in the oven at some point and see what affect that has on the flavour.

What was the problem with the flavour of the beef brisket using the yoghurt?

I think you get sniping and wum's in all forums of this type really - wherever you get differences of opinion. A you rightly point out, it's wise to simply pick and choose which discussions to engage in, but thanks for the heads up.

I'll try and write up the recipe for this lamb madras once I've figured out the right place to put it.

Cheers!

Quote from: PaulP on November 02, 2011, 06:53 PM
Actually you can make a very wide range of dishes, from korma to vindaloo just using one base sauce, and most TAs and restaurants probably only do use one sauce. I suspect some more upmarket joints may use more than one.

Hi there Paul

If that's true - it's probably why most Indian Restaurants have a 'house' flavour and the reason why in my opinion so many of the various dishes they produce pretty much taste the same! I guess I've started moving in a different direction - more towards what ordinary Indians might want cook at home rather than merely trying to replicate exactly the BIR dishes we're all so used to eating in the restaurants.

I'm looking forward to trying some of the one base sauce dishes given on this site and comparing them with what I can produce using my three base sauce system! I'd like to see if any of the recipes here make me change they way I'm doing things.

Cheers.