I've started using it - about 1/2 to 1 teapsoon in a curry for one. It definately imprvoves the dish I find. When Mark J saw curries being cooked at his local, they used about this amount, and it is the method he describes that I've been using to cook with over the last week - easily the best curries I've ever made.

Quote from: Blondie on May 03, 2005, 11:59 AM
Hi thomashenry,

I have a copy of the New Curry Bible and it has a recipe that has in it Red Wine and Red wine vinegar it is called Traditional Goan Pork Vindaloo. If you think this is the one I will post it up for you when I have a little more time probably later on today.
Blondie

Aha! That is probably the same one, assuming the new curry bible is a re-hash of the original Curry Bible. If you could post it up, tat would be fabulous, thanks.

Incidentially, I looked for The Curry Bible on amazon just now, and people are selling it second hadn for ?50+ !?!? what the hell???

Hi. Many moons ago, I used to own a Pat Chapman book, 'The Curry Bible'. On the wholre, I thought it was useless, but it had one recipie I liked, for a kind of Pork Vindaloo, involving red wine, and red wine vinegar. I don't know how authentic this was but it tasted fantastic. I can't find the Curry Bible anywhere at the moment, and don't really want to buy it again just for this one recipie.... is there anyone who has it, and would be willing to put it up?

Thanks
Tom

I've come across an easy way to come reasonably close to the texture, appearance and flavour of tandoor cooked chicken tikka, and thought I'd share it with you. Here is what I do:

(for one)
Chop a chicken breat into tikka sized chunks. Put them in a bowl, and drizzle with a small amount of oil. Squirt in a teaspoon of garlic purre, 1/2 a teaspoon of turmeric, and 1/2 a teaspoon of paprika, plus a pinch of chilli and red food colouring. Mix well with your hands to evenly coat, and leave for about 30 mins.

To cook, take a nice thick cast iron wok/karahi, and heat a tiny amount of oil to a very high tempertaure. Chuck in the chicken. Proceeed to stir fry. Stir very quickly, else the chicken quickly sticks after a few minutes, the chicken will be sealed, and you can relax a bit. Keep stirring at a slower rate, and keep the heat nice and high. After 5 minutes, or so, you should be getting a hint of charring on a few of the pieces, at this point remove from the heat. If the heat was high enough, the chicken should have JUST turned from pink to cooked. It will be incredibly tender and juicy, and look just like chicken tikka. If you've gotten it to char a bit, it will taste quite like it as well. It is then ideal to chuck into a curry as 'pre cooked' chicken, and serve up. However, you can't cool and re heat it, otherwise you lose the tenderness and juicyness.

Also, dont use more than  pinch of chilli powder, or you'll do your throat in when frying it.

Ok, just had another attempt.

Followed the Balti recipie, but omitted the pataks, used a heaped teaspoon of curry blend instead (equal parts paprika, turmeric, Rajah curry power, cumin and coriander). Blown away! That meal *had* the taste, no doubt about it. If I were a resturanter, I spose I;d be selling it as a Bhuna. To recap then:

Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in yuor pan. Squirt in a teaspoon or so of garlic puree, spread and stir. After 20 secs, add in a ladle of pre fried, finely chopped onions, and a lug of blended tomatoes. Fry for 30 seconds. Add a ladle of Dhillon base, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, heaped teaspoon of spice mix, heaped teaspoon of dried fenugreek leaves, 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar, and a teaspoon of chilli powder. Also, half a chopped tomato, and I also put in a choopped green chilli. Mixed it all round, then added the meat and aladle of pre fried onion and green pepper chunks. Fried for 30 sseconds or so, then added a good handful of chopped coriander. 20 seconds later I added two further ladles of Dhillon base, and simmered for a few more minutes. Added a another generous pinch of coriander, stirred through, transferred to servinf dish. sprinked with more coriander.

It was magic. It felt like every ingredient was doing a job, and contributing to the flavour.

The pre fried onions are obviously important, as they lend a natural sweetness other wise missing. The fenugreek adds body in a subtle way - the kind of thing that you notice in its absence. The stregnth of spicing was spot on, and the heat was just right for a medium dish.

It looked fantastic, and smelt great too.

One thing I advise is to use a nice looking Balti serving dish, and to leave it a few minutes after cooking, to allow it to cool a bit - when it is piping hot, you can taste as much.

As you can probably tell, I'm rather excited. Big thanks to MarkJ for posting his observations! For the first time ever, I got 'the taste'. Now I need to be able to repeat it.

Quote from: CurryCanuck on April 28, 2005, 01:37 AM
I think thomashenry needs either to " chill a little " or get a life ! Don't take all the commentary to heart sunshine

I'm just pointing out that, as a forum dedicated to mimmicking BIR food, questions such as this are not really on topic or appropriate.

Ok, tongiht I cooked the Balti, as described by Mark in the first post of the thread. The gravy used was Dhillon gravy. My impressions:

- Generous portion!
- Looks the *business*
- Texture/consistency spot on
- Taste: I think I over did it a bit on flavourings. It was over spiced. I shall try again tomorrow, and halve the amount of Pataks, redue the amount of salt, and reduce the amount of Curry power used. Maybe I heaped my teaspoons a bit too much!

I like very much the onion/tomato technique to get the dish going. I'm gonna stick with this methodology for a few nights, and try varying the spices a bit to see what I can get.

Quote from: CurryCanuck on March 24, 2005, 08:03 PM
Scanning the various forums , I find it rather amusing that people are constanly in search of that illusive , authentic restaurant taste and in doing so , are quite willing to sacrifice the original recipe flavour of a dish by adding either obscure or off the wall ingredients .? Time to get back to basics and perhaps read books such as those by Charmaine Solomon ( The Complete Asian Cookbook ) .

Are you trolling?

This is a rather patronising and OT post IMHO. The purpose of this forum, the reason it exists, is purely to try and re-create BIR food at home, and to be able to do it reliably. Whether or not any of us are into authentic Indian food is beside the point. There are plenty of resources and user groups to futher the awareness of real asian food - this is the only communuity I've ever come across that is specifally aimed at BIR food.

I happen to love 'real' Indian food, and overall I'd say I prefer it to BIR food - but that does not stop me wanting to know how to do BIR food. That is what this forum is for!

Quote from: CurryCanuck on April 27, 2005, 03:15 AM
QUESTION - Why do people take an authentic recipe , omit key taste ingredients ,then consider it to be the same dish i.e. vindaloo ? It's like putting a Ford engine into a Mini and still calling it a Mini !

This is beyond the remit of this forum! We are trying to recreate BIR style Vindaloo, not postualte on why it is so named!

Vindaloo:

https://curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=250.0

I think any light base would do here. Key thigns for me are the tom ketchup, sugar, and shake of lemon juice.