Quote from: Secret Santa
If it takes another 6 months or even 6 years it will be worth it.
/quote]

That was my thought exactly, but about ten years ago! I'm still searching.  : 

TEN YEARS    surely you've come close a time or two?
Mind you- I thought I had come close until I went for a curry at Bengal Delights in Cov a few weeks back.
Apparently some bloke had driven up from London especially for one of their currys! They've got one of those fancy menus but I stuck to a bog standard chicken madrass + pilau + nan.....and the very first thing I tasted was "The Taste" and then I knew I still had a long way to go. It did make me think that there must be a missing ingredient.
Has anyone started a thread to try to evaluate what ingredients werent widely available 20 - 30 years ago? From what I remember then, most veg were seasonal - the big supermarkets didnt fly in beans from Kenya etc

to be honest I never thought to remove it at the end. I added some coriander just prior to serving and stirred in the excess oil. It was'nt until after I dished it up that the oil began to separate. Supose I should have drained it off then but at that stage my kitchen already resembled a post nuclear wasteland

Well I tried the same method last night and it was complete  rubbish.
I did use too much oil though. Should have measured it instead of just pouring in a decent "glug" (technical term).
I have noticed that the amount of oil used drastically changes the overall taste of the final dish.
The thing was, I decided to make some keema https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=1525.0 to slap on the barby today. So I shallow fried some of it to make a kofta balti.
Bit of a strange combination I know but I was keen to see if my initial Lucky Result could be repeated.
I expected the keema balls to absorb some of the oil - but they didnt.
In fact they probably added to the oil content from the fat in the lamb.
I then used that oil to cook the final curry.
With hindsight I should have removed some of it first.
The final dish also had a bit of a funny aftertaste to it which has always been a recurring problem which I have put down to under cooking either the tomato or g&g pastes Im not sure which.
My summary is that if  I use probably half the amount of oil i.e half a "glug" (or approx one to one and a half tbs) to fry the spices I might be able to reproduce the amazing balti I created the other night.
The main advantage of frying the spices first is that it is far easier to judge when the spices are properly cooked.
The spices really foam up in the hot oil and it is easier to see when the foaming begins to diminish which as Bruce Edwards says is the time to stop the spices cooking otherwise you'll end up with a lovely smelling kitchen but a very bland curry. https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=2815.0 
Makes me realise that I have still got a hell of a lot to learn and although I am disappointed with last nights effort, I am now more determined than ever to crack it.
I will give this technique one more try tho before I revert back to the "standard procedure".
I do now consider that the ratio of oil to spice is vital but the crux of the biscuit imo is the timing of the frying of the spices.
But we all probably knew that anyway? :
I hope this all makes some sense to someone, or am I just stating the obvious?
I must also add that CA's keema recipe is excellent. The only change I made was to use  a handful of fresh mint out of the garden because I didnt have any mint jelly
Oh well.......back to the drawing board 

Quote from: Domi on April 22, 2010, 08:01 PM
...it's alchemy! ;D

Alchemy. You hit the nail on the head I couldn't agree with you more

Thanks Mick, although it's pretty slow going by some posters' standards!
[/quote]
;D

Quote from: Secret Santa on April 21, 2010, 08:18 PM

Quote from: mickdabass on April 21, 2010, 06:12 PM
Havent really checked out Dipuraja. Wheres their restuarant? Have any members checked out their cuisine?

Hi Mick

It's one of those imponderables to me as to why no one ever tries out the various BIRs that get mentioned on this forum. There are after all several thousand members (supposedly) so just by chance there should be a handful of people within easy reach of any of them. 

I know that if one were by me I'd be round there sharpish!

Oh yeah congrats SS on reaching your 1000th posting (probably 1001 by now) 

Interesting point Axe about the "slowboat" cooking technique.
I personally think that the use of high output gas burners in birs is to speed up the final reduction process and all these photos you see of flaming pans is just showmanship. Its just a hunch tho 
It was Bobby Bhuna who once pointed out that the lower the hygiene scores were on the scores on the doors website http://www.scoresonthedoors.org.uk/ the better the bir 
I cook in a cast iron wok and have tried the "grubby approach" by not using any soap or detergent to clean the wok (hoping to build up a layer of debris? in the wok), but concluded that it didnt make a big difference to the final product. What I have noticed though, is that if I cook several curries consecutively, the last curry always seems better than the first. The inevitable re-frying of the former currys remains imo seems to enhance the flavour of its successor!
Perhaps thats why it was once said that it would be impossible to reproduce a bir curry at home?
I dont know  :

No problems Axe. I didnt think for a minute you were being too critical. If you dont ask-you dont find out!
But at the end of the day we are all critics - thats what this forum is all about  ;D

And yes SS i cant understand why anyone hasn't been round one of these birs either! Im sure Jerry or someone else could work out
from the stats exactly how many people on average live within say ten miles radius of any of these restaurants!
Anyhow I digress. If I can replicate that Balti "Style" Dish again; I will consider it a major breakthrough for me. I will post my results as and when 

My usual technique is to fry tom puree and g&g paste first for a minute or two depending on the oil temp - mainly to cook out the rawness of the garlic. I then add the spices usually chilie powder first, quickly followed by the mixed spice. As soon as I think that is cooked enough to release the essential oils etc, I then add some base to stop the spices from burning. Pretty standard practice as far as I can gather from reading loads of stuff on this forum over the last few years. What about you? Which bases/spice mixes do you recommend?
Havent really checked out Dipuraja. Wheres their restuarant? Have any members checked out their cuisine?
Regards
Mick

Recently I have been gradually reducing the spice mix of late to try and reproduce that more subtle Balti taste I get from my local bir.
I was making a curry last night using CA?s Base and BE?s spice mix and mistakenly  added the ingredients in the wrong order to usual.
Normally I will add tomato puree and g&g paste to the hot oil but for some reason I added the spice mix first!
At first I didn?t realise the error of my ways...but thought that something didn?t quite smell right!
The spice mix foamed up in the oil, but in no time at all (15-20 secs) the foaming was reducing (see https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=2815.0).
I suddenly realised my mistake and quickly added the tom puree and g&g.
I quickly stirred them in - worrying about burning the spices, I immediately added a good ladle of base.
After that I continued to cook the curry as normal.
The finished dish was much more golden in colour (probably due to the reduction in spices) and the taste was by far the closest I have ever got to reproducing a balti at home
I am not sure why this is but I will be definitely be trying this method next time.
Has  anyone else had a lucky result from getting things wrong?