Hi

sweet-ish, Darn Sarf

By using only Spanish Onions in my tweaked CA base I get an underlying sweetness in the finished base.

Originally I decided to try Spanish onions after seeing deliveries to 3 different BIR's / TA's within a few weeks and saw only massive sacks of Spanish Onions being taken into the establishments. This is however totally inconclusive and based on only a passing observation - probably just what was on offer at the time?

Cheers all

Quote from: formulate on January 16, 2011, 01:17 PM
As I live very close to North Aldershot I decided to try out India Raj, I ordered a vindaloo, jalfrezi, biriyani and tandoori chicken.

The biriyani vegetable curry just tasted like any one of the good bases from this website+vegetables, no additional flavour really.

I thought the jalfrezi and vindaloo were a bit similar to CA's recipes with Razor base+spice mix.

And I know this sounds strange but the really funny thing was that their vindaloo smells exactly like Thai Massaman curry!

Hi formulate

Thank you for taking the time to try the TA and report back! - did you enjoy your meal from the TA. Must admits I only usually ever have their Jalfrezi and Vindaloo and when the chef is on form I personally really enjoy them.

Sounds like you have been cooking curry's for quite a while then? how do you feel your efforts fair so far?

I would love to be able to replicate the India Raj's Vindaloo, but something still eludes me - do you feel you have some knowledge that could replicate it or get close then?

Regards

Hi

The viscosity of warm motor oil is too thick in my humble opinion. A suggestion from my colleague is Heinz cream of tomato soup as a likeness to correct consistency 

Cheers

Hi Jerry

Just saw your post, and just my two-penneth.

Quote from: JerryM on January 09, 2011, 11:16 AM
i guess my 1st question is are these pastes useful in main dishes or do BIR's only use them for tikka and tandoori. is anyone using them a lot.

Personally use the Kashmiri paste frequently in things like kebabs and bhajis, not so far in main dishes made from a base.

Also frequently use Tikka paste now in tikka dishes. Have ditched the tandoori paste specified in the recipes as have decided that it is actually rather nasty.

Dip seems to be the biggest advocate of these pastes in his videos on this site, an example being the balti video (https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4520.0) where you seem to be having quite some success? have you found this to be the only main where you have had good results with additional pastes?

Quote from: JerryM on January 09, 2011, 11:16 AM
2nd question and low priority really for me. are they needed to make top notch tikka.

I don't think they are a necessity to make a top notch tikka, CA's for example proves this. But if a recipe includes a paste as an ingredient such as this one, where I made my tikka / tandoori paste discovery (https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=874.msg52375#msg52375) actually works, then I don't think its worth stressing over. These things are just time savers.

My personal opinion is that it is not a requirement to use a paste to produce a 100% BIR result. We all know that some BIRs use them. However one rather splendid restaurant near me does not use them and their tikka is truly excellent.

Cheers

Great efforts

Hopefully you enjoyed the judging part too

cheers

Quote from: PaulP on January 13, 2011, 05:44 PM
Hi Phil,

This is the Taz base link:

https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=4163.0

You can't get much simpler than that. I think some cr0 members were put off because the Taz cooking method is too simple. I've returned to it after a few months and it does for me for now. You don't need to cook the curries as Taz suggested. I always fry garlic first when making curries with it.

Paul

Hi Paul

Never tried that base. Looks like (well not a blank canvas) but at least a fairly neutral one with which to start the project!

Cheers

Hi

Good point DD

BTW Phil - If you ever make JB's spice mix, I recommend that you make a quarter portion - otherwise you will have a MASSIVE portion of spice mix!

Must try the stock pots too. Did intent to, but the local supermarket did not have them

Cheers

Quote from: Phil (Chaa006) on January 13, 2011, 01:22 PM

Could you post your "sodding close" variant in this thread so we can assess its complexity ?

** Phil.

Hi Phil

Here is summary of my variant:

Spanish onions only.
Bruce Edwards or JB spice mix (Simple to produce, quite similar and hard to tell apart in base)
Add 1tsp chilli powder
Add some potato
1/2 the coriander
Nearly double the oil
Add 2 x Knorr chicken stock cubes

I have precise measurements for all additions, perhaps should post the whole variation somewhere if that is permitted as it is basically CA's recipe?

Cheers all

Quote from: Phil (Chaa006) on January 13, 2011, 12:49 PM

Quote from: Cory Ander on January 13, 2011, 12:41 PM
[snip]I think it's all too difficult to reach any sort of consensus.

There is no way we will get universal consensus, even among the currently active members, but it may be that a sufficient number are both willing and sufficiently flexible to make the idea viable, even if the test group is relatively small (say, six people).

** Phil.

Agreed, I go along with these sentiments. I know there are going to be things personally that I would not 100% agree with, but am happy to compromise and go with the flow.

Edit:

Although it will almost certainly necessary to start with an unmodified base, I would still like to point out that with a few simple modifications, I am able to get CA's base to be sodding close to that of my local TA which does some great curry, so that is the reason why I maintain that CA's base would be a good candidate.

Cheers

Quote from: luke465 on January 12, 2011, 07:20 PM
Hi all,

Today I decided to take part the group test.  I have emailed my results to Chris who will post them when ready.  I took photos along the way and posting a couple for you to see.  Very interesting seeing how the different recipes really do alter the final taste. ;D

Hi Luke

Excellent work completing the test!

Am I the only one who cannot see your image? - even if I download it every image viewer installed claims the file format is invalid?

Cheers