Just to update what I posted earlier, sorry I was in a bit of a hurry.
I'm firstly looking to avoid undermining all the information on bir@home prior to the Zaal gig. It was being offered up to eveyone all along, from Bruce Edwards to Chewytikka. The ambiguous nature of the taste is difficult to convey, although I knew when i read somewhere "my curries at home don't taste like the restaurant ones", we were all looking at 1 process/technique/ingredient, "not f***in rocket science"...puts this 1 pot stir fry cooking into perspective.
I still stand by my observation that this simple technique of has been
ignored in favour of ingredients
That said, it's magic stuff to the Western palate, when done properly
Today I used the Kushi base, with the Zaal mixed powder, salkim tomato paste, (no meat/onions/peppers), Flora sunflower oil! - bog standard gas cooker on the biggest burner(can easily be done on one of the smaller rings, probably better for home use in fact as you cantake a bit more time , unless you have 30 ticket orders queing up!) -26cm ali pan
2 x tbs oil
medium heat-full heat will burn it (7secs in my case!!)
1 x tsp GINGER/garlic paste - if using a wider pan make sure its frying in the oil & keep it moving -30-40 secs & its's done, not brown but heading that way
turn gas up full
1 tsp Zaal mix powder(curry powder trs madras)& 1 tbls roughly 3-4 water in 1 tomato paste at the same time, a hot fry & 1 x ladle hot gravy - reduce & add more gravy to make up the portion size - result-starting to cut the sharpness of the spices, that catch the top of your mouth & say "not bir". The aroma is there, but not the taste
Another attempt at above ~ same results
3rd go,(noting the small amount of ingredients used)/ 1tsp mix powder in when ginger garlic cooks out(15-20 sec on full heat moving quickly)then tomato paste to quench it keeping it moving, then gravy - the transformation is as magical as MSG i
s., it's BIR all over! The aroma becomes the taste! The burning risk is higher, but the further you can take it the better
4th go - off piste/experimental as i was running out of thawed base - same as 3rd go, but added methi leaves . Then added a touch of water to bulk up to nearly a portion, I then recooked it in the in the pan, fried in my last heaped TBLSP Ashoka Banjarra - result total Ashoka taste(Ashoka has a fairly unique taste due to the heavy garlic G&G /Banjarra/Base), it may not be to eveyone's taste but definite bir. The Banjarra paste really does show a chef at work here, it seemed like nothing more than a Pataks paste to me before today.
Once again thanks to Az at Zaal in Fleet for telling the handful of curry nuts what he knows & to them for sharing this, without it I would still be running bizarre theories through my head
ELW
I'm firstly looking to avoid undermining all the information on bir@home prior to the Zaal gig. It was being offered up to eveyone all along, from Bruce Edwards to Chewytikka. The ambiguous nature of the taste is difficult to convey, although I knew when i read somewhere "my curries at home don't taste like the restaurant ones", we were all looking at 1 process/technique/ingredient, "not f***in rocket science"...puts this 1 pot stir fry cooking into perspective.
I still stand by my observation that this simple technique of has been
ignored in favour of ingredients
That said, it's magic stuff to the Western palate, when done properly
Today I used the Kushi base, with the Zaal mixed powder, salkim tomato paste, (no meat/onions/peppers), Flora sunflower oil! - bog standard gas cooker on the biggest burner(can easily be done on one of the smaller rings, probably better for home use in fact as you cantake a bit more time , unless you have 30 ticket orders queing up!) -26cm ali pan
2 x tbs oil
medium heat-full heat will burn it (7secs in my case!!)
1 x tsp GINGER/garlic paste - if using a wider pan make sure its frying in the oil & keep it moving -30-40 secs & its's done, not brown but heading that way
turn gas up full
1 tsp Zaal mix powder(curry powder trs madras)& 1 tbls roughly 3-4 water in 1 tomato paste at the same time, a hot fry & 1 x ladle hot gravy - reduce & add more gravy to make up the portion size - result-starting to cut the sharpness of the spices, that catch the top of your mouth & say "not bir". The aroma is there, but not the taste
Another attempt at above ~ same results
3rd go,(noting the small amount of ingredients used)/ 1tsp mix powder in when ginger garlic cooks out(15-20 sec on full heat moving quickly)then tomato paste to quench it keeping it moving, then gravy - the transformation is as magical as MSG i
s., it's BIR all over! The aroma becomes the taste! The burning risk is higher, but the further you can take it the better
4th go - off piste/experimental as i was running out of thawed base - same as 3rd go, but added methi leaves . Then added a touch of water to bulk up to nearly a portion, I then recooked it in the in the pan, fried in my last heaped TBLSP Ashoka Banjarra - result total Ashoka taste(Ashoka has a fairly unique taste due to the heavy garlic G&G /Banjarra/Base), it may not be to eveyone's taste but definite bir. The Banjarra paste really does show a chef at work here, it seemed like nothing more than a Pataks paste to me before today.
Once again thanks to Az at Zaal in Fleet for telling the handful of curry nuts what he knows & to them for sharing this, without it I would still be running bizarre theories through my head
ELW
C&C's have all the brands associated with asian foods, Natco/WT/East End, versions of puree's & pastes, but they are trade only..I've been using the Italian branded stuff 
, Is this anyway different?
it was meant in general. Your stuff is up with the best I've seen. The tip on leaving the sweetners out of the masala paste is something I'll be doing, rather than waiting to make a ctm's, which doesn't happen very often. 
