Quote from: goncalo on March 15, 2013, 02:57 PM
Thanks Salvador!

One question that I've been meaning to ask is, how many of these chillies would it take for the dish to be unedible, heat-wise? or perhaps asking it differently: would a kashmiri chilli be as hot as a bell pepper (which I wouldn't even consider to be hot)

Difficult one to answer, Goncalo, as one man's (or woman's) Madras is another one's Phal, and as with any fresh chilli it depends if you retain the seeds and pith (the white membrane to which the seeds are attached).

However, if it helps, I would place the heat level of a fresh Kashmiri somewhere around the level of an Ancho or a Poblano chilli pepper, which register between 1,000 - 2,000 on the Scoville scale. They really are pretty mild. (It's difficult to compare them to a standard red bell pepper as the register zero on that scale!)

Having said all that, I reserve the right to immunity from  prosecution should you manage to blow your head off with them!

Quote from: Davecraft on March 14, 2013, 07:19 PM
Thanks for the suggestions guys.

I was in the shops today and I spotted some coriander seeds by Schwartz so I bought them and now I'm attempting to germinate them to see if it will actually work (I've seen someone use Schwartz chilli flakes which germinated).

Will this work? I've made sure to use the seeds which are not cracked or damaged.

I've put them in both soil and damp kitchen roll to see if they will spring to life!

Sowing coriander seeds from a packet has always worked for me, so no reason why it won't work for you, Dave. (I just sow them in a big pots and let nature do the rest.)

The Schwartz brand is pretty expensive though. The supermarkets charge around

Goncalo, as markh3565 says, it's really hard to tell. With so many varieties and varieties of varieties around, chilli identification is tricky at best. I'm no expert, but looking at your picture I'm not 100% sure that yours are Kashmiris, as they don't have the characteristic thick stem, bulbous top, gnarly, bobbly bits and thin tail.

Here's a comparison shot:



BUT.... That doesn't mean to say that they aren't, either, as there are no doubt many different varieties of Kashmiri chilli around, each with different characteristics (indeed, markh3565's Kashmiris grown from seed look a little different to the ones I grew from seed). Then there's the effect of different growing conditions, etc, etc...

If, however, the flesh is thick, and they start to turn what looks initially black in places and then a deep red on the window sill within a week, then they probably are.

The flesh of fresh ripe (fully red) Kashmiris also has a distinctive taste, which is mild and sweet.

Quote from: spiceyokooko on March 12, 2013, 01:46 PM

Quote from: Derek Dansak on March 12, 2013, 09:54 AMwhat do you think ?

I think you've just confirmed again what I've come to believe - that it's not about ingredients, but about what you do with those ingredients - the technique of cooking them.

This is a theme I've seen repeated on here many times - the perpetual search for that missing secret ingredient, the constant twiddling of spice combinations and base sauce ingredients etc.

BIR base sauces are a closely guarded secret? How so? Many restaurants have given a precise breakdown of not only the ingredients used within them, but how they're cooked and not only that have shown a video showing those ingredients and how they're cooked. So how exactly are they a closely guarded secret? In any case what's so special about the base sauce? Almost all the myriad of different base sauces on here use the same ingredients - onions, water, oil, garlic/ginger, some savoury vegetables to balance the sweetness of the onions - green capiscum, carrots, cabbage, potatoes etc. Then the tomato paste or pureed tomatoes and spices. They all follow that basic ingredient list. Why do they all follow it? Because that's what nearly all BIR's use in their base sauce. Where's the secret?

The secret is down to the cooking technique - it's no more complicated than that. This is precisely why so many people get such different results even when using the same basic set of ingredients, because how they cook those ingredients varies so much.

Bruce Edwards once said in his opinion he could probably produce an acceptable curry dish by just using a spice mix of ground turmeric and salt and pepper, I think he's probably right too. You can produce a pretty good saag bhaji by using just turmeric, salt and pepper, fried onions, garlic, chopped green chilli's and some base sauce.

I think we over-complicate things unnecessarily.

Couldn't agree more. In fact (taking the saag bhaji example), you can make an excellent dish with even fewer ingredients by using just turmeric, a little mix powder, salt, onions and garlic (this is for a dry dish, so no base sauce required, chillies as always are an optional extra. You can also omit the mix powder, too. I've seen BIR chefs using just turmeric as the main spice for this dish.)

The success of the dish, as you say above, is 100% in the cooking technique. Get it wrong and your left with sloppy, soggy bowl of blandness. Get it right and you have a delicious dish of flavoursome, smokey, salty, subtly spiced spinach laced with the sweetness/savouriness of perfectly caramelised onions and garlic.

It's a cliched phrase, but so often in this game less is definitely more...

Apparently most distributors of halal meat to the restaurants / takeaways supply what we call mutton, and they call sheep, which has a stronger flavour than lamb. (Certainly, that's the case in my local wholesalers, which supplies some of the local restaurants with meat. I occasionally go halves with my brother on a whole animal, and when I initially asked if it's lamb or mutton I get a quizzical look and the same answer: "Is sheep".)

But while you should be able to taste the difference between beef and mutton/lamb, even in a hot curry, if the beef has been cooked in a rich lamb or mutton stock then it's definitely going to be more difficult - especially if you're not looking for it.

Quote from: curryhell on March 09, 2013, 10:13 PM
Looks exactly the same as my pan (and many of those in use by other forum members) which i bought for

Quote from: haldi on March 10, 2013, 08:26 AM

Quote from: JamesJeffery on March 10, 2013, 12:16 AM
Are these "hangovers" more common as we get older? They've only started happening recently. Or are there any tips for reducing them?

It's how the curry has been cooked
Change your local
If you have a really hot curry there will always be a bit of "reaction", but it doesn't have to be that bad

Couldn't agree more, Haldi. I've been enjoying vindaloo/phal curries for well over 30 years, and not once has one of my own caused me to make multiple (and urgent) trips to the lav the next morning.

Sadly, I've lost count of the number of times this has happened after a takeaway/restaurant curry (even with Madras). It really is a horrible feeling too. One of my worst was driving back home after a night in London... But I'd probably best not go into details.

Trouble is, it's a game of Russian Roulette, as I've had this happen after eating at my favourite BIRs. You go in one week, have your Madras/Vindaloo/Phal, and everything is fine, but the next time you get the evil 'morning after'.

I'm not sure if it's down to your curry being cooked by a different chef that night, or not cooked long enough due to the establishment being too busy, but whatever the reason, one thing is for sure, and that is it's best avoided!

And the best way to do that is to make your own.

A most comprehensive collection, DP - I didn't realise there were so many. It's obvious that my naga journey is far from over!

Of the ones pictured I have tried three: the ubiquitous and addictive Mr Naga, the extremely fiery but tasty Mr Vikki's Queen Naga, and the Kitchen Magic Bengali Naga, which to be honest doesn't score highly as a flavoursome pickle but is great for adding to dishes during cooking. (Unfortunately no longer available in any of my favourite Asian stores.) 

Of the three, it's Mr Naga to which I constantly return, as it's so versatile. It's not too hot to enjoy as a pickle in its own right, tastes great, and works well when added to dishes. It's also the easiest to get hold of.

I shall try to get hold of some of the others to carry on the quest to discover the perfect naga pickle!

Quote from: gagomes on March 04, 2013, 05:05 PM

Quote from: fridgedoc on March 29, 2010, 10:50 PM
Hi Tempest

I have grown chilli plants from dried chillies so pop along o your local Indian shop and buy some dried chillies......simples tskkkkk!!!!

regards

fridgedoc

Could you please clarify?

I too would like to grow kashmiri chillies, but I can't seem to source fresh or dried ones locally... I've picked something that looked like, but I can't tell for sure -- it was the chinese emporium. Color-wise and shape-wise they are similar. Is there anything you can do to differentiate?

Kashmiri chillies are very distinctive in both dry and fresh form (though I've never seen them for sale fresh). When dried they have a particulalry gnarly appearance:



Thy're dead easy to grow from seed harvested from dried Kashmiris, and you can get hold of them from most Asian supermarkets/shops or online at various places: http://www.spicesofindia.co.uk/acatalog/Fudco-Kashmiri-Chilli-Peppers-Whole.html

Here's what they look like fresh (the Kashmiris are the long green ones in the middle and edge, and they're green as they were the last of my harvest last year before the cold weather set in. A few days on the window sill and they ripen nicely to a gorgeous deep red):

Quote from: Phil [Chaa006] on March 01, 2013, 03:10 PM
None of the images I have been able to find on the web really match my memories of a Chicken Bhuna from the late 60's/early 70's, and Chris's more heavily reduced version is still miles away.  The nearest I can find is this one :



where what is clear is that there is virtually no sauce clinging to the chicken (because no base sauce is involved; it is chicken cooked in spices and oil), and it  is as close as I can find to the look of the dish I most miss in today's BIRs . . .

** Phil.

Yep - that looks much closer to the mark (though I found that most places used to use a little base gravy just to keep things moist in the early stages, but this was reduced down to virtually nothing). I was always a Lamb Bhuna Gosht man, and this is the closest image I can find to the best I ever tasted, which, sadly, my favourite local restaurant can no longer replicate: