Cheers Podmore.
Very nicely written.
I was utterly engrossed reading of the knife edge struggle between your culinary preparations and the need for social intercourse. ;D

Thanks for the excellent post Natterjack.
Really well laid out with photo's as well, so thank you for putting that together

Hi George. Sorry for that. I just assumed that it would be more easily spotted by Skronk, as it was directly aimed at him.

Other forums I'm on change the subject heading depending on the specifics of that post, so I again assumed that was the same format here.

Lesson learned.

Have you posted the base sauce recipe from your takeaway?
If not is there any chance of putting it online, so we can see how it works?

Thank you.

Hi Natterjak, are your methods for frying the spices and creating the Spiced oil on the forum at all? If not could you elaborate?
Thank you.

I found this site a few months ago and have stuck mainly with Madras so far, trying to get it right, while using various bases and spice mixes and a combination of the Pilau rice recipes on here.

My first attempts gave me the wow factor, as they were obviously closer than I had ever got before, but since then I've also felt there was something significant missing

Last month I treated myself and bought two madras's and Pilau rices (which I don't usually buy) from each of my two favourite take away restaurants and used them as a baseline to judge my attempts.

I was pretty disappointed. Both the pilau rices were bland and flavourless, while one of the Madras's was sort of okay, the other was completely different and had an interesting sourness to it...

My attempts in comparison were certainly no worse, though slightly less strong tasting and were similar in smell and texture, but I still feel there is that one missing piece which is possibly based on technique rather than ingredients.

I do occasionally get a fleeting whiff of that aroma, but I can't identify whether I need more heat, more spice mix, more singeing of the spices or

Thanks for the recipe Phil. I've tried a couple of others and they weren't what I hoped for, so I will be giving yours a go next weekend.
I only have Pataks hot mango chutney though, but I hope that won't ruin it too much.

I've been feeling that my attempts recently have been quite bland, which is undoubtedly down to my skills rather than the recipes.
Last night I was set to make another madras with my SNS base and the associated madras recipe, only to find I was out of tomato puree.
As there was tomato sauce in the fridge, I thought I'd give that a go.

I knocked up and cooked some chunks of pork tikka using blades recipe but with half the lemon.

Also knocked up some rice, cooked with 2 Bay leaves, 3 Green Cardomom, 2 Cloves, Cumin seeds and Fennel seeds.

I fried up some onion and green pepper and set it one side then mixed up 1-ish Tbsp tomato sauce with equal water, 2 Tsp GG paste and 2 Tbsp base.

Using a drop more oil I fried up the paste, then added a mix of
1Tsp Kashmiri mirch
0.5 Tsp Deggi mirch
1 Tsp Methi leaves
0.5 Tsp salt
2 Tsp BE mix

Continued cooking on a high heat, adding the remainder of the base until I had reduced it a little and then added the onion and pepper, along with the pork.
I then covered it and left it to simmer for 20 mins while I faffed about with other things.

The final dish was wonderfuly tasty, with a slight sharpness from the tomato sauce, though I would forgo the additional salt.

Certainly something I will try using again.

Well done Bob.

I hope the job goes well and more importantly, that you also enjoy the experience.

Keep us posted.

Agree completely. Coldplay aren't my thing either and I would have liked to have seen other bands represented, but still an amazing spectacle to finish the games.

We went to the games this week and saw the swimming, basketball and a bit of the wheelchair rugby.
It was utterly fantastic and also, as you say, very humbling.

I hope the entire event will result in a noticeable change in attitudes towards the disabled and an increase in the facilities available to both the disabled and able bodied potential athletes.